Inside the kitchen of Andrew Carter, chef and owner of the Oxley
Stocked with local cuts of meat, Spanish blood sausage and homemade mustard
Andrew Carter, the chef and owner of the Oxley, was born just outside of Manchester, the son and grandson of butchers. “I quite literally grew up on the butcher’s block,” says Carter. “I was doing all the gross jobs, like scraping and cleaning bones, by the time I was eight years old.” From a young age, Carter became accustomed to farm-to-table eating. “Everything we sold was local.”
After graduating from culinary school at 18, Carter worked in London under Nico Ladenis, the first British chef to be awarded three Michelin stars. Marco Pierre White, Gordon Ramsay and Jason Atherton all came up through Ladenis’s kitchens. Carter loved the rigorous training, but after three years of working day and night, the intensity got to him. “All the shouting and abuse you hear about happening in kitchens in the ’90s—it’s all true,” he says. “It was definitely formative: it taught me how not to run things.”
In 1995, Carter moved to Toronto, and after a brief detour—earning a bachelor’s degree in environmental science followed by a master’s in management at the University of Lancaster—he was hired to open his first gastropub, the Queen and Beaver. It was such a success that, in 2012, Carter opened the Oxley, also a gastropub, in Yorkville. Now, it’s his baby. “I’m the owner-operator of this restaurant,” he says. “I came up with the menu. I work the line every day. I make food here that I like to eat. If others don’t get it or if it’s not trendy, well, too bad for them.”
At their Leslieville home, Carter and his wife, Julie Garton (the wine director for Liberty Group), keep a kitchen that lives up to Carter’s proper English standards. “In large part, I eat at the restaurant,” he says. “When we entertain or I have time to cook, I prepare the same kind of food at home as I do at work. In my opinion, if it’s not meat, it’s not a meal.”
In the fridge, there’s a whole chicken Carter plans to season with salt and pepper before roasting in the oven. After it’s done, he’ll cook off the bones for stock. “We always have soups and stews in the winter,” says Garton.
A few enviable cuts of beef are also on display (unwrapped, to keep the meat dry). “I’m trying out these steaks for a grill section that I’m adding to the spring and summer menu at the restaurant,” Carter says. “I want to replace the heavier braises we’ve been doing for fall and winter.” He bought them from a family in Elora that runs a single-source farm (meaning the cattle they raise are fed with grain they grow). “I try to source my meat locally because I believe in putting money back into the Canadian economy”
“I’m also working out a recipe for a proper steak sauce right now,” Carter says. “I put HP on everything at home, but at the restaurant I’ll add my own chef magic.”
While Garton is a rib-eye girl, she could also happily make a meal out of vegetables. “When I get home from work, sometimes I just want to throw a bunch of vegetables in a pan and eat a simple late-night stir-fry,” she says. “Andrew wants no part of that, of course. When he’s home, he’ll make scalloped potatoes, vichyssoise carrots and roasted vegetables with Aleppo pepper.”
While the couple may disagree on stir-fries, they can both get on board with charcuterie for dinner. “We like to buy cured meats, like this Spanish blood sausage from St. Lawrence Market,” says Carter. “We always have people passing through the house, so we stay prepared with proper grazing food.”
They also buy a lot of cheese from Leslieville Cheese Market. “I feel personally responsible for keeping that business open through Covid,” says Garton. The selection rotates all the time, but currently they have Pacific Rock (a hard ripened cheese that gives off cheddar and Beemster vibes), rosemary-dipped Manchego and Château de Bourgogne, the house staple—a triple-cream brie from Burgundy.
The chef also keeps a selection of mustards and spreads on hand to spruce up snacks. Most of them appear on the menu at the Oxley, including the Branston pickle. “This Tewkesbury mustard is a bit hot, because I added horseradish, and a bit sweet, because I soaked the seeds in beer,” Carter says. “We use it in the restaurant for our Sunday roasts.”
The pantry is always stocked with crackers and nuts as well as dried porcini for pastas and risotto.
Another frequent snack for Carter is jam or sardines on toast, so he keeps a wide range of supplies on hand for easy assembly.
When Carter and Garton don’t feel like doing their own cooking, they fall back on delivery from some of their favourite neighbourhood restaurants. They like the Thai food from Isaan Der and the Chinese dishes from Wok Roast. On the rare occasions they order in from farther afield, they tend to go for Indian food from Host. “I think it’s one of the best in the city,” says Garton. As far as dining out goes, Carter says he’s the worst person to do it with. “Julie can’t stand going out with me because my standards are so high. I’m always complaining. But she knows I’ll behave at places like Grey Gardens, Wynona, Ascari, White Lily Diner, Parquet or 20 Victoria because there’s nothing to gripe about.”
Carter has a knife collection, but he’s not fussy about them. “I don’t think of knives as anything other than tools,” he says. “They each have a purpose, but they should never be treated too preciously.”
The couple also has an enviable liquor and wine collection. Carter prefers brown spirits, but he doesn’t have any specific favourite. “I’ll drink whiskey or scotch, peaty or not—it just depends what I’m in the mood for. Sometimes I like something sweeter; other times I want to be kicked in the teeth.”
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