Maria Morena's menu is as diverse as her background in cooking.
Chef Morena and husband Surinder Deo operate Fork Seasons, the restaurant located at Salmon Arm's Hilltop In.
Specializing in, but not limited to South East Asian cuisine, the restaurant's menu offers a wide variety of dishes that incorporate Morena's love of cooking, her Filipino culture and her experiences working in restaurants of various ethnic influences 鈥� Chinese, Japanese, Spanish, Swiss, Indian, Singaporian, Thai and others.
Morena said she was encouraged by Deo to take her love of food and cooking to the next level with professional training.
Prior to moving Salmon Arm three years ago, Morena, Deo and their kids lived in Singapore, where she worked at the five-star Shangri-La Hotel. The move to Canada was prompted by a job offer Morena received that gave the family the option to move to either Smithers, Cranbrook or Salmon Arm.
With work permits, the two moved to Salmon Arm and worked towards receiving permanent residency.
Deo had been employed at the Hilltop Inn where the restaurant had been without a full-time operator.
"The hotel hired someone to do the complementary breakfasts and I kind of joked with Maria, I said hey, maybe it鈥檚 sitting empty waiting for you to take over, which is exactly what happened," said Deo. "The owners spoke to us, they knew she was working as a chef and that鈥檚 when we had a discussion with the owners. We met up with them and everything turned out fine and that鈥檚 when we decided to go ahead and take over the restaurant."
The couple began at the hotel restaurant last May, initially just doing breakfast, but with the goal of opening for lunch and dinner as well. That began in January, with the restaurant becoming Fork Seasons.
The restaurant's menu offers western dishes, particularly for breakfast: French toast, avocado bruschetta with cheese, a smoked salmon or ham and cheese omelette with hashbrowns and bread and prosciutto eggs Benedict with hashbrowns and more.
Under the main dishes, diners have a multicultural mix of sweet and savoury options, from chicken teppanyaki to prawn curry with cheese and naan bread; Thai green curry chicken with rice to sweet and sour fish to seafood okonomiyaki 鈥� the latter being a savoury Japanese pancake, often called "Japanese pizza."
The menu also offers an array of soups, including wakame (miso) with tofu, appetizers such as steamed pork gyoza or pork bao bun with fries, and much more.
One dish not yet on the menu is mutton curry, which is a favourite of Morena's.
Asked if Deo does any of the cooking at home, Morena is quick to reply with a laugh: "never!" Deo does, however, receive points from Morena for bringing home doughnuts from Sutherland's Bakery in Enderby.
In addition to staffing, a challenge the couple has come across operating in the region has to do with Morena's commitment to keeping her dishes authentic.
"One of the challenges is getting ingredients in a place like this especially for dishes like this," said Deo. "Even if you drive to Kamloops or 琉璃神社, you still can鈥檛 get it, so once in a while we just drive to Calgary, load everything up over there and come back."
Between raising their kids and running the restaurant, the couple said they've had little time to connect with others in the community. With the opening of Fork Seasons, though, that's starting to change.
"Once we took over the restaurant, I feel like some of our customers they have become like family鈥�," said Deo. "It鈥檚 been a completely different experience. People are so welcoming over here, we鈥檝e not had anything negative. I鈥檝e had really good experiences with the locals 鈥�
"They鈥檝e been thanking us for opening in Salmon Arm Arm which is really sweet. They鈥檝e been thanking us for bringing something different. That kind of humbles you and warms you up.
"Everyone has made us feel welcomed and we are glad that we chose Salmon Arm as our new home."
Fork Seasons is open Wednesday to Saturday between 8 a.m. and 2 p.m. and then from 4:30 to 8 p.m., and is open Sundays from 8 a.m. to 2 p.m. For more information, visit
