Maritime Express Cider Co.
Chef Stephane Levac found his way back into the kitchen at Maritime Express after competing on Top Chef Canada Season 9 in 2021. Here’s what the self-taught chef has been up to for the past three years at the cidery’s taproom kitchen.
BY LAURA OAKLEY
PHOTOS MICHELLE DOUCETTE
“Everything's been about my intuition,” says Levac of his unconventional culinary career. The self-taught chef got into cooking after he and his partner started a catering company thirteen years ago. Feeling as though the catering grind wasn’t teaching him enough about the business side of the industry, and wanting to work beside more experienced chefs, he landed in various kitchens before being approached by Maritime Express Cider Co., as the owners planned to build a restaurant alongside the cidery and taproom. “I got on board with [Maritime Express], and it took about six months to get the kitchen built. Once we got going, it was super busy, and then Top Chef reached out,” says Levac. “Was I ready? No. But you just have to jump on opportunities.”
As an indigenous chef, Levac was excited to showcase foraged ingredients from the East Coast, but his time on the reality TV show was short-lived. He was eliminated in the first episode and returned home to Kentville. But even a fleeting appearance on Top Chef Canada can do a lot for an up-and-coming culinary professional. “Once the show aired, it presented all kinds of opportunities, and I kind of followed the money from there,” says Levac. He worked with another Top Chef alum, Nathan Guggenheimer, at Oak Island Resort, commuting from Kentville. Eventually, he left that post and found work back in the Annapolis Valley. Maritime Express came calling again, and he returned to head up the kitchen there about three years ago.
“My second time around [at Maritime Express] I tried to do what the clients were looking for,” says Levac of the menu.“In the beginning, I was trying to showcase things that I could do. But maybe it didn't really speak to the customers—and you gotta know your customers.” The cider-making facilities and restaurant in downtown Kentville took over a historic 1930s train station. The atmosphere is casual yet whimsical and train-themed, with high ceilings and stone walls.“We're very much like a pub. It's pretty much elevated pub food.” The food offering is varied in flavour inspirations—best-selling items range from a cold Thai noodle salad to a fried chicken sandwich.
When I stop by on a hot summer day, I first try the cold noodle salad, which features rice noodles, cucumber, carrot, green onion, Thai chilli, cilantro, pickled ginger, a skewer of grilled shrimp, and plenty of crushed peanuts. Mirin (rice wine) and saamjang (a spicy Korean chilli paste) make for an acidic and fiery dressing that is balanced by the rich peanuts and cooled by the cucumber and noodles. Today, there is crunchy foraged sea asparagus in the salad. “I like to throw in my indigenous background as much as I can, as well as foraging—that’s a big part of what I do, and who I am, so I try to sneak it in once in a while,” says Levac. Foraged ingredients are seasonal and vary with the availability of local produce. Levac recalls foraging eight pounds of chanterelle mushrooms just the week before and using them for the restaurant’s taco Tuesday feature, which sold out that day.
Levac also serves me his honey and harissa sausage dumplings. Filled with house-made sun-dried tomato and basil sausage, the dumplings—topped with chilli crisp oil, pickled red onion, and cilantro—sit atop a drizzle of honey-harissa yogurt. A traditional soy and rice vinegar dipping sauce sits in the middle. The sausage filling is rich and umami, complemented perfectly by the sweet, tangy yogurt, bright pickled onion, and crunchy, spicy chilli crisp. The perfect sharing plate is matched nicely with Maritime Express’s signature semi-sweet cider—The Dayliner—an award-winning, very food-friendly cider. “We like to think that everything on the menu pairs with The Dayliner,” says Levac.
Maritime Express has two signature ciders: The Dayliner, which is semi-sweet, and The Flying Bluenose, which is dry. You’ll also often see Train Hopper, an award-winning dry-hopped cider and Snowed In, which is a warm spiced cider. There are returning seasonal creations like the strawberry-basil cider called Lively Airs, and a rhubarb cider as well, plus sometimes fun one-off creations or experiments. I try a spicy pineapple (very summery) and sip one of my faves, Conductor Cranberry. I love the tart balance of the sweet apples. A new addition to the tap room this summer is cider slushies. There are two flavours available—cranberry and lemon-lime. I get a swirl of the two flavours together, which is delicious; again, the tart and sweet combination is supremely refreshing. The restaurant has always offered local craft beers on tap, alongside wine and cocktails. Recently, they’ve released Train Robber, an apple cider mule made with local ginger. Another new addition is a non-alcoholic cider.
Both the cider-making side of things, headed up by cider-maker and co-owner Jimi Doidge, and Levac work with local producers. “I try to work with everyone,” says Levac of the nearby farms. “I like to work closely with our farmers and producers. And keeping those friendships and connections is super important.” With changing produce, the menu changes about three times per year. “We're finally getting the proper veg for that hodge podge gnocchi, which people are loving,” says Levac of the clever spin on the classic Nova Scotia summer dish. Local green and yellow beans, carrots and peas, plus potato gnocchi, all cooked in heavy cream and butter, topped with a carrot top pesto. As someone who grew up on traditional, grandmother-made hodge podge (which uses new potatoes instead of gnocchi), the rich flavours in this dish stand out, and bring on the nostalgia in the best way. I can’t stop eating it.
My favourite dish of the day, though, is a simple, summery seafood pasta. The clam spaghettini in a white wine sauce made with shallots, garlic, olive oil, lemon, and chilli flakes is full of succulent, meaty baby clams in their shells. The dish is bright and lemony with plenty of garlic and a nice kick. It is very much my style, and also tastes great with The Dayliner.
Since his time on Top Chef Canada, Levac has been interested in more opportunities to shoot television. He was featured on Chefs de Bois with famous Quebec chef Martin Picard, and he does a fair share of food writing for local publications. Most recently, he filmed with Andy Hay of MasterChef Canada and Andy’s East Coast Kitchen fame, who is debuting a Food Network show called Andy’s East Coast Kitchen Crawl. “I filmed an episode with him and we focused on foraging and we're filming in the Bay of Fundy,” says Levac.
As for the future, Levac seems happy in the Annapolis Valley. At Maritime Express, they have started bottling their gochujang mayonnaise, available for retail purchase at the cidery as well as Noggins Farm Stores and Stirling Farm Market. They are looking to expand the retail offering with more products. You can find Maritime Express Cidery and Restaurant at 325 Main Street in Kentville.
Maritime Express Cider Co.
325 Main Street, Kentville
CIDERY & RESTAURANT $$ BR/L/D (GF/V)
maritimeexpress.ca
