Characters

As we celebrate 20 years of Chambar's existence, we were compelled to tell the stories of the people who have contributed to the success of this restaurant. After all, it's about the people!

// Writing by Michael Ziff

Like many of us who landed in this business, there is a story of a happy accident.
The kind that finds you suddenly surrounded by a tribe you didn’t know existed, and it
feels like home. And when Alex Ploughman moved to Whistler with 10 other friends for
a summer break from university in St. John’s, Newfoundland, the only job he could find
was in a kitchen. When summer break was over, he returned home to continue his
studies but missed the mountains and, to his surprise, cooking was calling to him more
than higher education. He had found his new family and back to Whistler he went and
landed at Trattoria Di Umberto where he cut his teeth for the next few years. It was now
clear to him that this was now his career path. And once the afterglow of the Winter
Olympics and the good time bubble of a resort town wore off, he decided to make the
move to Vancouver.

After a bus ride from Whistler, he cold-called three restaurants: West, Blue Water
Café and Chambar. Nico happened to be at Chambar that day and sat with Alex and
must have seen something in Alex because he offered him a ‘stage’. One week later he
showed up for his ‘stage’ and began what would be a 15-year career in the Vancouver
restaurant scene and beyond. The Whistler chapter now behind him.

Alex loves to say that he should have been fired from Chambar at least a dozen
times but somehow, he managed to remain employed. The younger Alex would have
told you that he survived because he was always one notch above the worst. Not the
best way to improve your self-esteem but when your heart is in it and you know the
kitchen is where you want to be, you push through doubt, you push through fear,
essentially, you just push through. And Karri and Nico fostered that desire in people.
They let you fail because they knew you’d succeed. They had the confidence in people
that lacked it so that you could step into your role every day knowing you could do it.
And when the staff sat around enjoying a post-shift beer, it all made sense. They were
in this together. And Alex could succeed in the kitchen knowing Nico had his back.
Inspired by Nico and Karri’s stories of experience gained through travel, Alex
realized that after two years at Chambar, it was time to create a new path for himself
and gain more knowledge and skills while enjoying new adventures. For five years, Alex
went from Australia to London and Copenhagen. He worked in several Michelin starred
and Australian Chef Hat restaurants.

Alex then returned to Canada with the goal of paying off his debts by working the
summer at a fishing lodge and then return to Copenhagen but after hearing from Nico
and Karri about their plans of expanding Chambar into a new venue, and the offer of a
leadership role, Alex knew he’d be staying in Canada.
If you speak to anyone about their experience of working at Chambar in 2014
when Chambar 1.0 was moved into the new 2.0 space, you will hear an infinite number of ways to describe one of the most challenging and memorable moments in their
restaurant career life. How does one explain that the most fucked-up time in your life was also the most
exhilarating? Let’s begin: very little sleep, physically challenging, educational, hilarious,
aggravating, ready to throw in the towel, frustrating, nail-biting, drunken… the list goes
on. But here’s the thing, when two people like Karri and Nico are working harder than
anyone in the room to achieve their vision, all the sweat, blood and tears (not figurative,
quite literally all three!) are worth it. Because everyone bought in and felt a sense of
ownership in its success. And Alex was at the tip of the spear of the kitchen team and
was committed to work as hard as he could for the definitive brand that was now
Chambar.

After two years of culinary leadership at Chambar 2.0, it was time for Alex to
move on again and as a private Chef split his time between the family’s private island
and their super yacht. He then began consulting and menu development at Joey / Local
before becoming an entrepreneur as partner and operator of Legends Haul Supply Co.
and now supplies over 2000 restaurants, grocers, and retailers in BC. But Chambar, like so many who have worked there, never leaves you. For Alex,
it was one of the most instrumental and important places in his life. Nico is still a close
friend and mentor, and so many of the people that worked with Alex are not only still
friends but are now some of the longest in his adult life. Relationships forged in the heat
of a busy Chambar night. And let’s be clear about one thing, a busy Chambar night was
different than any other busy night in a restaurant.

Alex knows that he will never experience anything like Chambar again. It was a
singular time in his life and the people that joined the Chambar family in those heady
days. Within those walls, Alex was transformed from a “dumb, lost kid” to a professional
Chef, and leader. Even today as an owner/operator, the lessons he learned at Chambar
inform leadership style; to listen to his employees’ stories, understand them, recognize
their skills, and engage them in the process. Alex didn’t realize it at the time, but
Chambar taught him to be a better version of himself.