Ben Staley never wants to get complacent. He has a penchant for tasting menus, he loves Canadian ingredients and he can’t write out a menu to save his life. That’s why he opened Alder Room. “I need to constantly be stimulated when I’m at work. So I created an environment so I could do that,” Ben says. “I’m not a planner by any means when it comes to food. But it comes very naturally.”
Alder Room is the first of its kind – an experiential dining experience in Edmonton. It’s a three-hour gastronomical commitment that includes dinner, face time with the chef and plenty of socialization. Each evening Ben sells four different types of "tickets" to dinner. Each dinner features tasting menus with anywhere from 12 to 20 different servings. But there’s a catch – there are only 12 seats available per seating and Ben only uses Canadian ingredients. “This is Canadian to the point where I don’t use olive oil, I don’t use black pepper or chocolate or citrus or anything like that,” Ben says. Instead, Ben relies on regional and seasonal ingredients from Canadian suppliers and his pantry of preserves including ferments, pickles, freeze-dried goods and dehydrated ingredients.
The restaurant’s summer menus spotlight ripe seasonal fruits and veggies while the winter months feature heartier protein dishes and plenty of fermentations. “We decided to work with a small handful of small producers because we wanted to have that connection and have a say in the products we use,” Ben says. “Since we don’t have a lot of availability through the winter we have to rely on preserves.”
