Building Block Associates

  • Home
  • Products & Solutions
    • View Supplies
    • What's In Season
    • Manage Mie Foodservice Manager
    • Foodservice Webinars
    • Become A Member
  • Online Store
  • Social Chat Blog
    • Foodservices News
  • Contact Us
  • Careers
  • Home
  • Products & Solutions
    • View Supplies
    • What's In Season
    • Manage Mie Foodservice Manager
    • Foodservice Webinars
    • Become A Member
  • Online Store
  • Social Chat Blog
    • Foodservices News
  • Contact Us
  • Careers

Jamie Oliver the latest celebrity chef to launch restaurant in Toronto

12/4/2015

0 Comments

 
Picture
Jamie Oliver is the latest international culinary icon to launch a restaurant in Toronto, with the opening of his first North American outpost of Jamie's Italian set for next week.Toronto previously hit the radar of New York's David Chang, who opened a Momofuku location in 2012, and French chef Daniel Boulud, who retooled the French brasserie Cafe Boulud at the tony Four Seasons Hotel earlier this year.

"Iron Chef" star Masaharu Morimoto is slated to open his first Canadian resto in Toronto in the spring. And culinary heavyweights Mario Batali, Joe Bastianich and Lidia Matticchio Bastianich are looking at opening the first Canadian location of their beloved Eataly in Toronto.

Why Toronto and why now?
Lidia Bastianich says the city is vibrant with different ethnicities and a keen interest in food. 

"You need a city that has all of those elements, then it's a great city to live and hence a great city to do business," the TV host and cookbook author said from New York, where she has four restaurants as well as one each in Pittsburgh and Kansas City, Mo.

Oliver has partnered with Toronto chef Rob Gentile and the King Street Food Company, which owns Italian eateries Buca and Bar Buca, for his new restaurant at the Yorkdale Shopping Centre. There are more than 60 Jamie's Italian locations worldwide and nine more are due in Canada over the next five years.

"I've worked in Canada for 15 years. Loved it. Get on really well with the people here," Oliver said while visiting Toronto in October to promote his new cookbook "Everyday Super Food" and TV show "Jamie's Super Food."

Of Jamie's Italian, Oliver said: "It's not trying to be flashy food. We're not waltzing in trying to be Billy Big Boy. It's just really good comfort food, freshly cooked, good price, high ethics, grass-fed, free-range, which is at the heart of all our restaurants. Trying to get it to the masses, really."
Restaurant critic Ruth Reichl says celebrity chefs have become their own brands and are increasingly looking to go global.

"They're opening all over the world and I think it's kind of irresistible to them," says the former editor-in-chief of Gourmet magazine.

"I think big companies come to them and say, 'Will you anchor our hotel, our shopping mall, our whatever?' It's big business."

But other international celeb chefs worry that expansion outside their home country means they won't be able to control their brand. It remains to be seen how international chefs will do in the Canadian market, which has its share of domestic celeb chefs like Michael Smith, Mark McEwan, Lynn Crawford, Chuck Hughes and Michael Stadtlander, says Donna Dooher, president and CEO of Restaurants Canada.

One high-profile American chef didn't fare well.

"I know that Wolfgang Puck tried several years ago to come into the Toronto marketplace. He's a huge name in the U.S., but it didn't translate into the Canadian marketplace," Dooher said.
But she added that it would maybe be a different story now.

Source Lois Abraham, The Canadian Press
0 Comments



Leave a Reply.

    Go to blog
    Advertisement

    RSS Feed

    News & Updates

    Stay informed with the latest news around foodservice, agriculture and other related food news.

    Do you Enjoy our E-news & Updates?
    Get our foodservice E-news, blogs and LTO's sent to your inbox, SUBSCRIBE HERE.

    Advertisement Opportunities 
    To get your foodservice business in our daily e-news, here.

    Archives

    March 2020
    January 2020
    December 2019
    November 2019
    October 2019
    September 2019
    August 2019
    July 2019
    June 2019
    May 2019
    April 2019
    March 2019
    February 2019
    January 2019
    December 2018
    November 2018
    October 2018
    September 2018
    August 2018
    July 2018
    June 2018
    May 2018
    April 2018
    March 2018
    February 2018
    January 2018
    December 2017
    November 2017
    October 2017
    September 2017
    August 2017
    July 2017
    June 2017
    May 2017
    April 2017
    March 2017
    February 2017
    January 2017
    December 2016
    November 2016
    October 2016
    September 2016
    August 2016
    July 2016
    June 2016
    May 2016
    April 2016
    March 2016
    February 2016
    January 2016
    December 2015
    November 2015
    October 2015

    Categories

    All
    Agriculture And Food Safety
    All Day Breakfast Menu
    Beans Benefits
    Beverage Company
    Building Construction
    Candy Company
    Carbonated Drinks
    Chicken Farm
    Dairy Production
    Fast Food
    Fast Food Chains
    Food Prices
    Generation Z
    Genetically Modified Organisms
    Gluten Free
    Grocery Retailer
    Healthy Meals For Kids
    Imported Foods
    Imported Foods From Other Countries
    Liquor Licence
    Milk Industry
    Milliennials
    National Food Holidays
    Nut Allergies
    Organic & Natural
    Processed Foods
    Produce Industry
    Restaurant
    Restaurant Management
    Restaurant Ordering System
    Restaurateurs
    Seafood
    Sustainable Resources
    Sweet Snacks
    Sweet Tasting Desserts
    Tree Nuts
    Value Menu Offering
    Ways To Reduce Food Waste

    Picture
    Advertisement
    Picture
Powered by Create your own unique website with customizable templates.