Tamara Mercandelli, Caitlin Berkhiem and Christel Hagn, co-owners of Soulfood in Cranbrook, began their entrepreneurial journey with a simple dream, born from a shared love of local, organic and healing food, as well as a sense of community, family and wellness.

And now that dream reaches new heights with the addition of culinary mastermind Chef Ronny Belkin, who took over the Soulfood kitchen January 6.

“I don’t know how we got him – bugged him a lot, I guess,” laughed Hagn. “He is incredibly talented and we’re so excited to have Chef Ronny here with us. Soulfood offers such a creative challenge – the menu changes every week depending on what local, fresh and organic produce and meat is available.”

Belkin, a Red Seal chef trained at George Brown College in Toronto, comes to Soulfood from St. Eugene Mission Resort and Casino. He said he’s looking forward to building upon the love and effort that’s made Soulfood successful. He describes his culinary style as classically trained French with a love of Italian, but rooted in Canadian. He wants to help redefine Canadian cooking using local, seasonal ingredients to do it – a perfect fit for Soulfood.

“I’m looking forward to being extremely creative, cooking, and working within the vision and values of Tamara, Caitlin and Christel,” said Belkin. “I’m excited to show people that healthy food can have meat, flavour and substance and can offer ultimate satisfaction to the body and pallet. My goal is to help build the culinary scene in Cranbrook. We’ve got great chefs here – there’s lots of room for us all – and together we can do something special.”

Belkin is Mercandelli’s brother-in-law, which is fitting, as Soulfood has truly been a family affair.

“From the chairs to the table tops to the barn wood we took from Caitlin’s property, we have poured our heart and soul into everything,” said Mercandelli. “Our family and partners all helped. This is a labour of love. The reason we started Soulfood is because we wanted access to good food for ourselves, our children, family and community. We also wanted a place that had a peaceful, welcoming and beautiful atmosphere. Sometimes you get caught up in the daily grind and forget what a special place it is; but then you step back and realize you’re eating an organic cheesecake made from scratch from local milk producers, and you’re like, ‘whoa’.

“People can trust what we offer is real. All our dairy comes from Kootenay Meadows. Our meat is purchased from local farmers following holistic farming practices, such as Cutter Ranch. We make and bake everything on site.”

That includes the ketchup and hollandaise sauce. It even includes the butter that makes the hollandaise sauce.

“We actually had a customer come in the other day at 3:30 p.m. wanting breakfast,” said Berkhiem. “No problem. But because it was late in the day, I had to tell the customer it would be a few extra minutes, not only because we had to prepare the hollandaise sauce from scratch, but we also had to make the butter that made the hollandaise sauce.”

Soulfood, which opened in October, was created not only to be a place of good food and soul, but to make a greater community impact. The philosophy behind it is just as much a social enterprise as it is a business plan.

“Offering quality, healthy, local food to customers is what we do, but why we do it goes beyond our doors,” said Hagn. “From the very beginning one of our goals was to help local farmers be successful in Cranbrook. We want locally produced food to be available. We want to pay our employees a living wage, so they can live well here. We want to bring together people who care about food and their community and create a symbiotic relationship benefiting everyone involved. We want to see a vibrant downtown Cranbrook. That’s the dream.”

The three partners, who between them have five kids age four and under, are thrilled with the warm welcome Soulfood has received over the last few months. They divide the credit amongst one another, as well as their amazing and patient staff, and value the unique skills each partner brings to the table. Mercandelli, Berkhiem and Hagn enthusiastically agree, this is only the beginning for Soulfood. They are looking forward to taking their business, and social enterprise, to the next level.

“Now that Chef Ronny is here, we’ll be able to focus on other aspects of Soulfood while Chef brings his experience and creativity to our kitchen,” said Berkhiem. “We hope to have a patio in the summer. We would love to see an organic grocery store or co-op in our town. There’s more to come from us and from Soulfood, that’s for sure.”

Lead image: Chef Ronny Belkin, Tamara Mercandelli and Caitlin Berkhiem. Missing from photo Christel Hagn.

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