Mealtime Memories: At the table with Josh Drache
Mealtime Memories is where the industry gets personal. Beyond product launches and quarterly results, Canadian Grocer’s new series invites grocery and CPG leaders to share the stories behind the meals that shaped them—the traditions they keep, the dishes they return to and the moments that matter most around the table. Have a pitch? Email digital editor Jillian Morgan at [email protected].
For Josh Drache, food has always been about more than flavour. It is about memory, place, family and the small rituals that turn a meal into something lasting.
Drache joined Farm Boy in 2011 as executive chef and became vice-president, private label and product development in 2019. Before that, he spent 25 years as a chef, including time cooking for the household of the prime minister. Today, his work centres on developing the products and prepared foods that help bring Farm Boy’s sense of fresh discovery to shoppers across Ontario.
Informing that work are the meals that shaped him: Friday night dinners with his mother’s matzo ball soup, Sunday morning brunch with his family, lunches at a childhood friend’s family table, and the simple Spanish tortilla that made him fall for Madrid.
What’s a memorable meal that still stands out and why?
I’m Jewish and grew up with Sabbath dinner on Friday night. Every Sabbath dinner started with mom’s fresh bread, or challah, and matzo ball soup. So, matzo ball soup in a delicious chicken broth stands out, as that brings me back home. It brings me back to centre. And when I developed our chicken noodle soup recipe, I don’t know, 12 years ago, I had that in mind when I made it. That was the taste I was chasing. It all comes back to that moment of dipping my fresh challah in that rich chicken broth that my mom made.
What is a mealtime moment you didn’t want to end?
We have these hot bars with monthly themes and our development chef had just come back from Spain, and put together this really good Spanish (menu). It was delicious. It was patatas bravas and tortilla and all kinds of really neat things that I had never tried. Well, last September, my sweetheart and I went to Spain. It was the first time that I’d ever been to Spain, and we stayed in this very neighbourhood-y neighbourhood in Madrid. We developed a routine that started with a delicious coffee and getting a fresh Spanish tortilla, and bringing it back to sit with the window open, 12 feet up from the streets in Madrid. And just eating this phenomenal, oozy tortilla that I had first been introduced to in my own test kitchen by someone who had clearly had the same experience that I was having—someone’s taken these really simple ingredients and turned it into something ethereal—I was smitten.
Since you’ve worked in restaurants, is there a dish you created or executed perfectly that you are especially proud of?
The one that hits wasn’t from my restaurant days, it was from my days taking care of (former Prime Minister Paul Martin) and his guests at 24 Sussex. Kofi Annan, then Secretary General of the United Nations, came for a visit. And it was really a kind of “best of Canada” menu. On the main course, there was a juniper-crusted caribou tenderloin, with Yukon low bush-cranberry compote and Prairie barley risotto with Quebec chanterelles. I love that dish. I did it a few times afterwards. It pulled in all of Canada. I am very blessed that that’s what I still get to do.
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Who or what has most influenced the way that you cook?
I’ve had sensational mentors, I worked the embassy circuit in Ottawa, working for some stellar chefs. Now I’m well past that. And I was very, very lucky, that my mom was an awesome cook and her mom was a great cook, and my dad’s mom was a great cook. I learned a lot, and I saw a lot. But my mom was terrible on school lunches. All my life I had gone to a private Hebrew school. And so I only knew kids like me. My first year in public school was grade 8, and all of a sudden I was at an inner-city public school in downtown Ottawa, where we had all kinds of first-generation folks. It was really diverse. I made friends with Peter Falsetto. It was the first time I ever met someone who wasn’t Jewish. Peter would take me to his house at lunchtime, because I didn’t have lunch, mostly because I threw it out on the way to school. We’d have these multigenerational, incredible, lights-out flavours I’ve been chasing the rest of my life.
What’s the tradition you’ll never let go of?
On Sunday mornings, back when I was a kid, my father and I would drive to the ByWard market to a place called Bagel Bagel. We’d get our Sunday morning bagels and smoked salmon and cream cheese and drive back home. My brother and sister would be making scrambled eggs. We’d have a big brunch every Sunday morning. We’d all sit around before we took on the rest of the day. Yesterday morning, I took a short walk and then hopped in the car and drove over to our store a couple of minutes away, picked up fresh Kettlemans bagels, some cream cheese and our smoked sockeye salmon. And I do that every Sunday.
What’s your signature hosting move or must-serve dish?
Abundance is the signature move. Always have way more than you think you need. Cook for the weekend, not for the day. And more is more. But I will say, in the last few years, the work that I put into it is way less. And I go into our freezers in our stores way more often. I used to spend a lot of time and effort on these things, and as I get older, it’s more important who’s at the table, and that they’re taken care of. It’s a bit of a treat for people. I get to put stuff in front of people, and they say, “How’d you do that?” And I say, “I didn’t do it at all. It’s in the freezer. Go grab it.”
