Fresh start

Sujo Bae at an open house for her Consecon restaurant Soup Opera.

A uniquely French dining experience emerges in Consecon

She describes herself as a Korean girl from Alberta serving French cuisine in PrinceEdwardCounty. In fact, Sujo Bae’s culinary interests are more focused than simply French cuisine, she is keen to bring an authentic Provençal dining experience to Consecon.

Her restaurant, the quixotically named Soup Opera, is located at the corner of Loyalist Parkway and Scoharie Road. The location has been a graveyard for more than a half dozen restaurants over the years. But Bae says she is in it for the long haul. She is content to let her business grow slowly. She insists it is about the food and the experience.

Bae is a wildly expressive and self-confident individual—though reluctant to describe her training and experience, or to promote a vision for the restaurant and the offering she has created. Instead she insist that your correspondent sample the array of food laid out on the long handcrafted harvest table.

She points to her menu—distinctly different than may be found elsewhere in the County. Unctuous duck leg. Crevettes Maisonettes—flambéed tiger prawns. Pissaladiere—described as a melange of caramelized onions, anchovies, garlic, herbes de Provence and Nicoise olives.

She keenly wants the restaurant to be about the food, not a troubled past she has travelled three provinces and thousands of miles to leave behind.

LEAVING ALBERTA
Bae once had a restaurant in Edmonton. La Table de Renoir was credited by somefor bringing a fresh Continental flair to the grey concrete canyons of downtown Edmonton. Bae had married the great grandson of the impressionist painter Pierre-Auguste Renoir and together they operated the fine French restaurant.

She says the break up of her marriage triggered tumultuous time in her life, but that those issues should remain a private matter

“Mr. Renoir and I went through a very nasty divorce. The only reason we were in the newspaper was because my ex-husband is the great grandson of the painter.”

She is looking to put that chapter of her life behind her.

“I’ve made mistakes,” Bae told the Times. “I would like a chance to start again.”

She would like that new beginning to happen in the County.

“I left Alberta to start my life again. I just want to cook good food. It has to be about the food.”

For many folks, the County has been a place to begin again. Perhaps it will be that place for Sujo Bae.