The Lucknow Sentinel, 1985-08-07, Page 7Food shop doing well
Editor'•s Note: Donna Huston, the former
Donna Conin of Ludmow and her husband,
Stan have opened a take out gourmet food
shop in Waterloo. The Turtle Shop offers,
another choice' for people where bothcooks
work out of the home and they like to order in
hot food or buy prepared foods to heat and
serve.
The following article appeared in the
Flebruary 7 issue of the Kitchener -Waterloo
Record and is reprinted here for the interest
of our readers. •
The Turtle Soup .
By Henry Koch
Plenty, of people still eat at home, despite
the local restaurant explosion.
But a growing number are no longer
slaving over a hot stove seven days a week.
To save time and effort after a busy day at the
office or factory, more and more are either
ordering hot foods on the phone or buying
prepared foods at the supermarket. •
• All they have to do is boil or heat and serve.
And now the hot stovers have another
choice. They can pick up freshly prepared.
gourmet dishes fnom marinated pork chops
breaded with walnuts to • boned and skinned
• Chicken with rosemaly, wine, garlic and
parsley flavouring. .
I. discovered these culinary delights only.
this week at the Turtle Soup, an 800 square
foot antiseptically cleanfine food shop tucked
away on the. Dupont Street side of the old
Waterloo post office at King and Dupont
Streets.
Turtle Soup was. aunched in mid December
by 'Stan and Donna Huston of Waterloo in
response to what they believe is a growing
local need: • • • .
Take out gourmet food shops; they point
out, are nothing new. Europe has •had them
for centuries and the United. States for more
than 30 years. Then they spread to Tpmnto,
which Stan calls the culinary capital of
Canada, and finally to Waterloo.
The success of the Toronto' gourmet food
shops prompted the Hustons to take the
plunge in Waterloo. They felt this community
was ready for something different.
It's the fust known business of its kind in
this area (the Hustons know of no others) and
, different. it. is. "We try to , come up with
preparedfoods that you can't buy else-
where," Stan' said. •
The Turtle Soup menu includes.
-more than
17 soups, a dozen salads, 14 hot and .cold
Hors d'oeuvres, seven seafoods, 13 entrees,
seven vegetable entrees, seven pastas, 10
dressings, dips, sauces and butters,, nine
`sweets and an assortment of coffees, teas,.
jams, jellies, condiments and mustards, all
without •artificial flavourings or preservatives.
The soups range from apple -onion bisque.
and spiced, pumpkin to Prince,Edward Island
• mussel and seam of potato with safron. The
• seafoods include smoked salmon cheesecake
and miniature crab quiche.
The entrees range .from rabbit with fresh
garden herbs to ham .and pear casserole.
SPECIAL
P
. Hamburgers at the Turtle Soup are
flavoured with red wine and a variety of
spices and fresh herbs.
Strangely enough, the only soup not avail-
able at the Turtle Soup Is real turtle soup.
"You can't legally buy .turtle in this country
because they're on the endangered•_ species
list," Stan said. "The last time I tasted real
' turtle soup was at a restaurant in Toronto in
1972."
Turtle Soup is still made in the. Cayman
Islands where turtles are cultivated. "but
they're not allowed to export them to North ,
America". The shop stocks 'a few cans of
imitation turtle soup made partly of beef.
All the work ,from ordering the . basic
ingredients to food preparation and selling
over the counter is performed by the Hustons.
The shop is open Tuesdays to Saturdays.
Donna is president of a newly .formed
company that owns the business. and Stan has
no title. He spends Mondays scheduling the
week's production. ' •
The food is prepared in 'small quantities
and most of it is sold the same day. Anything
unsold is frozen or taken home and consumed
by the Huston. family.
• The Hustons, both 35, have two daughters
and a son ranging in age from three to 10.
Their family "eats everything we prepare"..
In 'addition to filling individual orders, the
shop prepares food for dinner parties, makes
up picric, baskets and' gift hampers.
• At the nwment, the Hustons are 'unable to
flavour food with basil because this herb' is
unattainable: And, they have no cucumber
salads to offer because English cucumbers
are too expensive and the ,quality is poor. •
' A native of Montreal and bilingual, 'Stan
graduated • from Ryerson Fblytedniical Insti-
tute's hotel, restaurant - and institutional .
management school in Toronto in 1973 and
has been in. the food business ever since: •
He was general manager of the Great West
•Beef restaurants . in London, Ontario, and in
'Waterloo for 41/2 ,years and then was involved
in running Hotel Waterloo with a partner
until May; 1983. He also started Stanley's.
Hamburgers on King Street North, Waterloo
and sold the business last year. •
With only a wooden sign on ,the Dupont
Street side of the former post office and word
of mouth advertising, Turtle Soup 'is "doing
quite well. It's growing every week since we
opened and I fully expect it will continue to
grow".
• The Turtle tle Soup name, by the way, was
coined by DonnaVa native of Ludmow. "I. felt
it was appropriate since we offer a large
variety of • food itenzs.'..like soups to nuts". •
Stan agrees "it's 'kind of catchy". •
Airforce planning reunion
To the Editor: .
For the fast 39 years Royal Canadian
Airforce personnel who were stationed at
No. 6 S.F.T.S. ,during the war have
gathered in Dunnville to celebrate their
station reunion. This year marks their 40th
get together which will take place Sept-
ember 20, 21, and 22.
The event kitks off with a reception on
the Friday evening and a golf tournament
Will be held on Saturday morning.
Our grand patron, Air Chief Sir ‘David
Evans, former Vice Chief of the defence
staff for the United Kingdom, will be our
guest of honour arid will take the salute at
the memorial service on Saturday after-
noon, September 21, conducted in memory
of the 47 Commonwelath, , American and
Canadian personnel who made the sup-
reme sacrifice while serving at Dunnville
from 1940 to 1944.
The parade will be led by the band of 150
Hamilton Squadron, R.C.A,F. and the
memorial service will be preceeded by a
formation fly-past of ' wartime harvard
aircraft led by Norm Beckham of W ood-
stock, Ontario. A dinner and dance 'will
follow at the high school on the Saturday
evening.
The weekend winds down on Sunday
motning with an . outdoor "Flapper and
Banger" brealcfast'at the Riverview Motel.
All veterans of No. 6 and their spouses
are invited. If not on the mailinglist please
contact Frank Scholfield, 646 Alder St. W .,
Dunnville, Ontario. N1A 1S5, Telephone
(416) 774-5480. •
Your co-operation will again be apprec-
iated and will help to make our reunion
another great successt '
Yours very Truly,
Frank Scholfield
Adjutant -General.
Luclmow Sentinel, Wednesday, August 7, 1985 --Page, 7,,
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