Jamie Oliver is opening a restaurant at Yorkdale (and nine more across Canada)

Jamie Oliver is opening a restaurant at Yorkdale (and nine more across Canada)

(Image: Jamie’s Italian UK/Facebook)

Instead of flitting straight to New York or Los Angeles like every other celebrity chef, Jamie Oliver—the floppy-haired healthy-eating evangelist who once compared the CN Tower to a donair kebab—appears to be making Yorkdale Mall the site of his first North American expansion. The Globe reports that Oliver is set to announce a partnership with King Street Food Company, the culinary corporation behind Buca and Bar Buca, that could see 10 outlets of his fast-casual chain Jamie’s Italian opening across Canada over the next five years. Jamie’s Italian is already a well-tested culinary concept: it’s got 35 outlets in the UK, Australia, Ireland, Hong Kong and Singapore. The first Canadian edition—a 200-seat eatery at Yorkdale Mall helmed by Buca chef Rob Gentile—is set to open by spring 2015. Sometimes it pays to be part of the Commonwealth.