Trading snowboards in for cutting boards
“As long as they get me a ski pass, and a place to stay, I will do it for free.”
So Akira Back, the snowboarder-turned-world-renowned-chef with the comic book-sounding name, was telling me at his eponymous Toronto restaurant, when the subject of opening a place in Whistler, B.C., came up. I chuckled at the comment, which prompted an I’m-not-kidding look from the man.
Turning into an attraction ever since for both epicureans and expense-account types alike — it is the kind of place you imagine Damian Lewis’s character in Billions going gaga over — it got a profile boost this month when it earned a prestigious North America-wide prize from the Build 2018 Architecture Awards.
The award, specifically for design, singled out the look honed by homegrown Studio Munge, which errs here on the side of sleek-black and sexy, complete with full-length cove ceiling boasting a custom graphic.
“My mom,” the 44-year-old cook says, pointing upwards to the design, inspired by his mother’s paintings. Indeed, every one of his restaurants — there are new ones underway in San Francisco and Dallas — also feature flatware with designs from mom.
The culinary panache, though — evident from items on his menu such as the so-called Brother From Another Mother (unagi, anago tempura, foie gras, ponzu aioli)? Not so different from doing a theatrical kick on a snowboard, no?
As if that wasn’t a gluttonous enough joyride in Toronto over the last week, there was more than enough to chew off at the two-night affair held at the long-standing, just-under-the-radar-enough Italian restaurant Tutti Matti on Adelaide St. W. I couldn’t not tell you a little bit about that, too, right? Let’s pivot.
In a town where the eating events never seem to end these days — and in a time when food is pop culture — this one was arguably the bacchanal of the season: a double-header with Dario Cecchini, visiting from Panzano in Chianti, Italy. Often referred to as the “most famous butcher in the world,” the right-from-central-casting meat-man was lured to Canada via that roving supper club known as Charlie’s Burgers, at the behest of its intrepid founder, Franco Stalteri.
And what a spectacle! Arms sprung in the air, an index finger shooting up at various intervals, his torso leaning in and out as he flanked his cleaver, Cecchini seemed at times like Leonard Bernstein orchestrating Beethoven’s Fifth, and people looked on as if watching a live concert. From the bistecca to the porchetta, it was bellissimo.
Or, as catering king Sebastien Centner put it on Instagram afterwards: a “truly once-in-a-lifetime dinner party featuring 8 of the most unique and memorable wines I have ever tasted.”
Just how mythic were those two nights? Some people who were not present have started claiming they were, Woodstock-style.
Dine on, people.