Local Ingredients, Global Flavours: ELEM Restaurant

When it comes to providing a sleek and sophisticated sustainable dining experience, ELEM is clearly in their element. Since they hit the Vancouver culinary scene just under a year ago, this top organic restaurant has taken our rainy city by storm.

A vibrant addition to Main Street’s world-class gastronomic line-up, ELEM is a testament to Chef and Owner Vish Mayekar’s innovative vision. Growing up in Mumbai, where food reutilization was the norm and there was very little waste in cooking, Chef Mayekar has carried this ethos with him on his food journey. In the kitchen, he takes inspiration from nature and the elements, combining these influences with memories of childhood and his travels around the world.

The result? Something strikingly similar to what happens in nature: a fusion of different elements coming together to form something new. In this case, ingredients from local farms combine with global spices and flavours on the plate to create truly stunning meals that you can’t find anywhere else.

Guests can expect a different dining experience every couple of weeks: one that reflects the changing availability of farm fresh ingredients alongside the changing of the seasons. This constantly evolving menu means that in their first eight months, ELEM has created over 90 unique dishes. And that’s not even including the trial items that never made it onto the menu!

It’s not just an aesthetic appreciation for earth, water, air, and fire that motivates this culinary dream team, though. A farm to table restaurant in the truest sense, ELEM partners with local farmers like Mark Cormier at Glorious Organics, one of the very first certified organic farms in all of BC. Working with local farms to make sure that the land’s stories make it to guests in each dish, you can literally taste the way these meals are rooted in the ground beneath your feet.

Let’s take a simple tomato as an example. Purchased at the Trout Lake Farmer’s Market from Milan Djordjevich of Stoney Paradise farm, of course. There’s a good reason Stoney Paradise always has a huge line-up in front of their stand. Their colourful, juicy tomatoes are mind-blowingly good, and Chef Mayekar always has dishes featuring their tomatoes on the menu at ELEM.

The stems of the tomato, usually discarded, are turned into a tomato-flavoured vinegar used in many of the restaurant’s dressings. This tomato vinegar is also used by Winnie Sun, Beverage Director and one of the partners at Elem, behind the bar to adjust her cocktails. Skins of tomatoes, especially sun golds, get blitzed into a powder that is used to garnish dishes and rim cocktail glasses behind the bar. Winnie Sun also uses the tomatoes themselves after they’ve been infused with gin as a garnish in the cocktails.

Want a taste for yourself? Be sure to order the Chef’s Negroni, a twist on a classic negroni featuring three of Chef Mayekar’s favourite flavours: tomato, mulberry, and chocolate.

Committed to minimizing their environmental footprint beyond the confines of the plate, ELEM’s design elements also contribute to the well-being of the community. Whether it’s the warmth of the “wood” room, the cool calm of the “water” room, or the breezy “air” room, lighting has been converted to LED, appliances prioritize water use reduction, and building materials have been sourced locally.

It’s no wonder this top organic restaurant is now Michelin recommended and has made it onto the Canada’s 100 Best list, just months after opening its doors. Stop by for their Yellowfin Tuna Bhel or a White Lotus S3 cocktail and you’ll see what we mean.