Fifteen months ago, Chef Mark Currier stared down his last drink. Now, after lots of soul searching and a little help from his friends, he’s finally finding his way back by rekindling his love of food and foraging.
When Mark Currier walks through Guindon Park, he is deliberate, intense and meditative. He is able to carry a conversation but it’s obvious he’s distracted. He is on scan mode, looking for nature’s prizes: mushrooms nuts, berries, roots, leaves, basically anything you can eat raw, cook up, or ingest safely in one form or another. Think ash boletes or chanterelle mushrooms, highland cranberries, hazelnuts, wild carrots or cattails.
All photos: Jason McNamara/Framed Photography.
Mark fell in love with wild food after being offered a cattail heart.
“When I bit into it, I couldn’t believe how delicious and nutritious it was,” he says. “And then I found out how abundant and sustainable it was. It blew my mind and changed how I cooked.”
He started his own adventures in foraging about five years ago while working as Executive Chef at Mariposa Farms in Plantagenet, a must-stop spot for locavores, foodies and chefs. He spent his all his free time walking in the woods searching for edibles and then paired these with the farm’s offerings for their famous Sunday lunches where he took his love of food to the next level. To wit: he was given the freedom to create menu items like foie gras with pickled honey mushrooms and crostini; squash-eucalyptus-peppercorn crème brulé; and wild boar striploin with hempseed arugula pesto. On the surface, this young chef had it all: quiet solitude, creative freedom in the kitchen, and the very best ingredients from the farm and forest.
Despite being at the top of his professional game, Mark was careening towards his bottom. The effects of an unrelenting 15-year drinking habit weighed heavy on him. When his best friend died tragically in 2012, the sorrow unhinged a faster pace of drinking and drugging. Fast forward to 2016 when he found himself on Highway 2 outside of Long Sault, carrying everything he owned in a small duffel bag, in February’s bitter cold, without a job, without money, without a place to stay and, in his mind, without hope.
A fateful call to a trusted friend led him to the hospital, counselling, a sponsor and Alcoholics Anonymous, where he unravelled the strings of his addiction and started piecing together a healthier life.
“I had to let everything go and that included all the fear, pain and shame that I felt for so many years,” he confesses. “And I had to trust that I could learn to live life like a normal person.”
Mark says he’s found his way by being faithful to his program, embracing self-forgiveness, enjoying long-distance runs and going back to his love of food. Today, you’ll find him quietly running Farm + Forest, offering small-batch, handcrafted foraged food preserves, and working downtown at Schnitzel’s, quietly creating culinary delights that make him and the customers happy.
Mark’s new life now churns at a markedly quieter pace than in previous years, but if you get the chance to watch him walk the forest in search for his treasures, you’ll see he is happy. And you’ll understand that he’s exactly where he needs to be.
