Motonobu Udon is an udon restaurant in the Hastings-Sunrise area. We make handmade Japanese udon entirely from scratch, using locally sourced ingredients to create a unique noodle experience. The recipe is my Grandmother’s, she passed it on to me years ago back in Japan. I’ve worked with local suppliers to source the right kinds of dried fish to make the broth and the right kind of flour to make the udon noodles. We are proud that 99% of the food we serve to our guests, we make in-house, with very few ingredients. We also sell fresh noodles to take home, and frozen packaged meals.
Question: How are you supporting other local businesses?
Answer: I buy all my ingredients from local distributors. I’ve found local suppliers really great – when I started I was trying to source a 6-8% protein content, and Rogers Foods brought in a flour specially for me. Since they only sell through distributors, I worked with Snow Cap, and they helped get it from Rogers for me. I get the dried fish to make our dashi broth from Yamato Trading. They helped me out by bringing in the fish we needed, and storing it in the warehouse for us when our opening was delayed. Our vegetables come from Emerald Earth Produce Company, a new company based in Vancouver, and all of our proteins come from Chioffi’s in Burnaby. All our sauces are from Canadian companies.
We buy almost all our services from local companies – 95% of our purchases are from BC businesses. We buy our chemicals and linens, and our paper towels from ECOSAN Hygiene in Coquitlam, we use a local person for our accounting, our insurance is from John Ross Insurance, our repair and maintenance are local people.
Question: What social and environmental practices are you proud of?
Answer: We hire staff from the local area, I ask people we interview if they live close. Most of my staff live within walking distance, near to the restaurant. It’s more convenient, it reduces transportation, and it makes them more likely to stay on with us.
I’ve asked my suppliers to take back the cardboard they bring the suppliers in. We have to recycle what they can’t or won’t take. It’s a small thing but we reduce waste by asking our staff to bring their own container for their staff meal.
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