The Soupmeister likes to ‘play and have fun,’ drawing on 30 years of exec chef experience
Mia Stainsby
Sun
Ralf Dauns, the Soupmeister, has 100 varieties. Photograph by : Glenn Baglo, Vancouver Sun
I found out about The Soupmeister from a colleague who raves about the soup whenever she picks some up for lunch. Naturally, I needed to get to the bottom of it.
So the next time I was near Lonsdale Quay, I swung in to see what was exciting her. At Soupmeister, you can hop on the counter stool and eat right there or buy some from the cooler and heat at home.
Owner Ralf Dauns has been making these soups since 1995, summoning 30 years of cooking as exec chef at several international hotels. He was chef at Teahouse in Stanley Park (now Sequoia) from 1993 to 1994. (The Soupmeister was originally called The Stock Pot and later renamed.) He grew up on a winery/guesthouse in Germany.
Dauns has some 100 different soups and his offerings are always changing.
“I worked in the industry for 30 years. You pick up a few things here and there,” he muses. “Sometimes I play and have fun.”
The Westcoast seafood chowder with salmon, snapper, clams, shrimp, clam nectar and veggies is a good test of quality in every which way. The chunks of seafood were fresh, plentiful, and surprisingly not overcooked; flavours were quite interesting. The soup base contains lobster paste as well and chicken and tomato stock. The carrot ginger soup is creamy and rich, thanks to the cream.
His roster of soups include Irish stew, French onion, beef stew, many, many chicken soup varietals, chowders, corn and crab, Thai shrimp curry and lobster bisque, green pea with ham, German lentil with homemade spaeztle, pumpkin bisque, Hungarian cabbage, Mexican bean with chorizo, garlic mushroom.
Takeout soups come in 16- and 32-ounce sizes. The small costs $3.25 to $3.80, and the large, $6.30 to $7.20. If you eat there, a 12-ounce bowl of soup with focaccia costs $4.50 (tax included) and a 16-ounce portion is $5.25.
Yes, it’s summer and it’s hot, but if you’re at work, chances are, you’re kept nicely chilled in air-conditioned offices. And you, too, can get excited about lunch.
– – – THE SOUPMEISTER
Lonsdale Quay Market, 123 Carrie Cates Court, North Vancouver,
www.soupmeister.ca
© The Vancouver Sun 2007
