That's a little surprising since you'd expect to find something more along the lines of Cabernet Beef with Mignonette Sauce, Medallions of Pork Loin with garlic jus or Padano Crusted Chicken Breast with Spatzle Noodles on his dinner table.
Those are all dishes that have been known to come out of his North Vancouver catering business and bistro, Louis Gervais Fine Foods and Catering.
But the one-time executive chef of the Sutton Place Hotel admits: "I love peanut butter. I could do peanut butter on a white baguette, just straight peanut butter."
After moving to Vancouver from Montreal about 35 years ago, Gervais worked in several restaurants, but left the hotel scene about 16 years ago. He did a bit of consulting for restaurants for a few years then decided to focus on catering. He says he always wanted to open a restaurant, but catering was not something he particularly enjoyed when he was working at hotels.
"Actually I hated it," he reports.
Along with catering for events in all the hotel ballrooms, one hotel he worked at opened an outside catering division and Gervais found the additional travel and set-up, including finding a water source, cooking, presenting, and managing clean-up, garbage, recycling, and a carbon footprint, among other tasks, was taxing.
"It's like opening a restaurant everywhere you go."
These days, however, as chef and owner of his own business, Gervais is loving the venture. He credits his team of staff and managers with helping to keep the operation a success. It's a team that includes his wife Kelly in the marketing division.
"She's the one that makes me look good," he says.
The first catering kitchen Gervais opened was a converted auto mechanic garage on East First Street between Lonsdale and St. Georges avenues. He was there for 10 years. About four years ago, he found his place among the growing Harbourside Drive foodie strip, where his new bistro and catering business is located. With an inside sitting area and an outdoor patio, the space is open to anyone and feeds a steady stream of local business professionals each day, offering a light breakfast and a lunch menu.
As a longtime caterer, Gervais has seen many food trends come and go, and says they're not unlike fashions, falling in and out of style. But one has remained a perennial favourite: "Pasta really stuck."
It's easy to make and popular with kids, students and people on a budget, says Gervais.
"Everybody likes Italian food."
These days, clients are more savvy and knowledgeable about food, he notes. They can't be tricked by a third-grade piece of beef with a really nice sauce on top, which was not an unknown occurrence decades ago in some old-style restaurants, he says.
"People are much more educated about healthy food now," he notes. "They want Ocean Wise fish and they want locally fed, organic meat, and they're ready to pay the price."
They're also ready to learn more about how to make their own culinary masterpieces.
When discussing the many general and team-building cooking classes offered at his bistro, Gervais says he enjoys working with clients, but he is quick to point out that his sous chef Bernard Deslaurier is really more of an instructor. Gervais prefers sharing a glass of wine and some sage advice with his visitors, and admits he is happy to pit couples against each other in amateur Iron Chef and mystery ingredient classes.
