Lunch at Silver Harbour Seniors' Activity Centre may be one of the North Shore's best kept secrets.
People come in twos or groups of three or four or more, perhaps before or after a class. Others come because the centre is a great place to meet for a meal. The full course menu, different every day, is always delicious, nutritious and gentle on the budget.
During this overheated summer, salads are popular at Silver Harbour. B.C. salmon and prawns might appear on the menu one day. On the next, an Indonesian dish with spices dialed down and flavours enhanced. Apply a little imagination and picture tucking into duck with wine sauce or roast beef with all the trimmings on a dark and rainy winter day. Producing a tasty, healthy, affordable meal is easily done. Doing so consistently and with variety five days a week, year in and year out, is a challenge. Ask anyone who has had the task of preparing three meals a day, every day for a year or even for a month.
The challenge of cooking in quantity for a specific group is also a factor. While everyone of every age is welcome to enjoy lunch at Silver Harbour, diners are primarily seniors, some with dietary restrictions, others with cultural preferences, and still others with eating habits developed over a lifetime. For head cook Zoltan Csapkay, who has been running the kitchen and designing the menu five days a week for 11 years, it's like cooking for a large family, a very large family. Last year the centre served approximately 70 people per
day and 17,000 meals over the year, reports executive director Annwen Loverin.
Csapkay was born in Hungary in 1946, just after German occupation and just in time to grow up under the communist regime.
Ten years old before he tasted butter for the first time, the future chef already knew that the heavy labour of soviet farm and factory life was not for him. "Only the kitchen attracted me," Csapkay recalls. "I don't even have any tools in my home today."
He entered the world of cooking and kitchens in Budapest at a four-star hotel where each type of food service required its own menu and style of cookery.
Training completed, Csapkay cooked his way around the world.
"I travelled with two suitcases," he explains. "One was for my clothes. The other was for work." That suitcase held Csapkay's knives and tools, including a spaetzle maker, a spare uniform and his copy of Larousse Gastronomique. Armed with these tools of his trade, he worked in all forms of cuisine and cookery, from high-end and bistro fare to hotel banquets and institutional food service. In his off hours, he is involved with family and with fitness, playing chess to exercise the brain and swimming to keep in shape. Running a large, productive kitchen requires mental and physical energy as well as skill with pots and pans - and people.
As Csapkay says, "nothing at Silver Harbour is a singular effort." He works alongside assistant cook, Don Do and the volunteer crew that prepares and serves food, makes change and ensures the coffee is always fresh. Holly Gagnier in the front office notes those annual holidays and events that can be celebrated by sharing a meal. With his considerable experience in cooking and knowledge of the cuisines of the world, Csapkay is the right man to run Silver Harbour's kitchen. When he signed on 11 years ago, "I remembered all the places I worked in my life that enabled me to meet every condition for the job."
One condition is perhaps the most important. Though it cannot be taught, a love of food and its preparation is the essential ingredient for a true cook. For Csapkay, "Everything to do with cooking, and making food tasty and nutritious, always meant fun to me. If I see people are enjoying my food, then that is my reward."
Lunch is served at Silver Harbour Seniors' Activity Centre, 144 East 22 St., North Vancouver, Monday through Friday from 11:45 a.m. to 1 p.m. For more information, call 604-980-2474.
Laura Anderson works with and for seniors on the North Shore. 778-279-2275 [email protected]
