Vegan restaurant on Whistler Mountain: reportedly a North American first

Ski resort snack bars and restaurants were not, in the past, known to offer gourmet fare.  On the contrary.  Menus generally featured greasy fast food.

In many places, meals that can be downed quickly are still the norm — because hardcore skiers and snowboarders don’t want to spend any more time than they need to eating when there is fresh powder snow outside — but recent food trends have now also hit the slopes.

Fancy sandwiches have replaced the diner-style grilled cheese made with white bread and processed cheese slices.  And even hamburgers are healthier.

At the Whistler Blackcomb, in British Columbia, executive chef Wolfgang Sterr is taking things one step further at Raven’s Nest Mountain Deli, completely swapping the ingredients the kitchen used to work with.

Out goes the meat

The restaurant reopened earlier this month with a surprise for die-hard carnivores: while they may still, for now, order some ‘meaty’ items, they won’t find them on the menu.  And animal products are soon to disappear.

Executive chef Wolfgang Sterr explains that it was a natural fit.

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Whistler is a small municipality located more than 100 kilometres from any sizeable city.

There are no wholesalers in town to supply restaurants with vegetarian or vegan products.

And, inevitably, trucking food in is expensive.

To remain faithful to his philosophy, chef Wolfgang Sterr therefore faced a double challenge: finding a way to source ingredients both economically and sustainably.

The solution came in the form of a company founded in a Vancouver suburb in 2003 by a Quebec entrepreneur, the creator of the first ever vegan sausage.

The chef discusses the results of the partnership:

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