John Cantin thinks John's Place has made about half a million eggs benedict since the brunch diner opened 40 years ago.
Cantin started Victoria's first diner as a young chef with a penchant for travelling and adventure. The restaurant was one of the original brunch restaurants in what later came to be deemed North America's 'brunch capital'. Victoria first got this title in 2000 or so, when John Capucci visited John's Place for the show You Gotta Eat Here, thinks Cantin.
“We were at the centre of it at the start,” he recalls.
Today, the Pandora diner offers a cozy and eclectic atmosphere, the walls bursting with photos in wooden frames. But the lineups out the door are not just for the welcoming nostalgia; they're, of course, also due to the food, which is made from scratch.
With the diner's 40th anniversary coming up in October, Cantin is running monthly promotions. For a week in October, Cantin is planning 1984 prices, and asking that people stay tuned for more information on social media.
As a diner that makes everything from scratch, one of the best parts of the benedict at John's Place is the hollandaise sauce. Some places buy it in plastic tubs, some buy powder, but Cantin won't have any of that.
“They're not making it like it was supposed to and I'm not gonna rat on anybody, I'm just going to say this is the way we've done it and we haven't changed in 40 years,” said Cantin.
What makes it even better is it's supplied in loving heaps: “A lot of people put like a tablespoon but we take a full three ounces and pour that on.”
For those who want to know how to make it and what makes it so good, Cantin has offered up the sauce secrets.
Hollandaise Recipe
Cantin carefully separates six egg yolks into a stainless steel bowl. He adds a touch of lemon juice, tabasco and worcestershire sauce (tamari can also work if you want gluten-free).
Then Cantin places the metal bowl over a pot of boiling water. He whisks it over the heat until the mixture thickens, but it's important that the eggs don't cook.
“If the eggs curdle, you lose your sauce,” he said.
You can tell when it's time to stop whisking and remove the mixture from the heat when a little bit of curdling begins to happen at the bottom of the bowl.
When the mixture is done being whisked over the heat, it's put into a mixer and two pounds of clarified butter is added slowly.
Clarifying is when you bring the butter to a boil or heat it in the microwave, then remove the white milk curd foam that rises to the top. “And that's important to use in hollandaise, because if you don't, the white stuff is incredibly salty.”
The egg yolks are whipped at a slow speed while slowly pouring in the still-hot, clarified butter.
“At the beginning it has to go real slow,” said Cantin. The end result? A real-deal, delicious hollandaise sauce.
Now what to put it on?
The most popular benedict is the classic with ham, which Cantin said is also his favourite.
“We buy the best smoked ham … real smoked ham. And we've done it since the first day and I think the customer would kill me if I stopped doing it like that.”
While John's Place still makes eggs benedict the same thing as day one, the biggest change is they went from having one benedict to now having 10.
Some things are done right the first time, creating lineups out the door for decades, as Cantin can attest.
As he takes the first bites of the freshly made hollandaise, drizzled across a classic eggs benedict, his eyes light up.
“It still makes me smile.”
This article is from Black Press' 2024 edition of Best of the City.
