Kitchen Diaries: The five most-snooped-in chef’s fridges of 2017

Kitchen Diaries: The five most-snooped-in chef’s fridges of 2017

Over the past year, we raided the fridges and pantries of a whole bunch of Toronto chefs, restaurateurs and notable foodies. These were the most-popular kitchens

Sylvain Assié

5 Working for the Four Seasons has taken Café Boulud chef Sylvain Assié around the globe. His most recent hotel tenure brought him to Toronto in 2010 with his wife, Charline Leroy, and daughter, Chloé. He does most of the family’s grocery shopping in their East York neighbourhood. For meat, he’ll hit up Stock in Trade; the owner is friendly and makes some fabulous sausages, including a good merguez, and whole roast chickens for easy weeknight meals. For produce, eggs and milk, Rowe Farms is his go-to, and Petite Thuet is the family’s bread destination—a Thuet baguette usually disappears shortly after purchase. For everything else, they’ll go to the nearby Loblaws.

Here’s a peek in his fridge:

See what’s in the rest of his kitchen

 

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Chris Nuttall-Smith

4 After years of anonymity, restaurant critic Chris Nuttall-Smith’s face was blown up on billboards all over town. The ex-Globe and Mail reviewer (and former Toronto Life editor and restaurant critic) joined Mark McEwan at the judge’s table for Top Chef Canada. We visited his High Park home that he shares with his wife, Carol Toller, and their son, Cormac, to check out his kitchen. Nuttall-Smith does a lot of grocery shopping in his neighbourhood. He’ll pop into Stasis for cheese, vinegar and cured anchovies. For fish, he’ll bike up to Honest Weight, and he grabs sourdough baguettes from Mabel’s. He buys produce and other staples from No Frills, but when it comes to meat, Nuttall-Smith has specific destinations for particular cuts: Sanagan’s for pork chops, Cumbrae’s for beef and Fiesta Farms for sausages.

Here’s a peek in his fridge:

See what’s in the rest of his kitchen

 

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Tommy McHugh

3

When Tommy McHugh isn’t helming the kitchen at STK, Yorkville’s swanky steakhouse, he can be found at home, with his wife, Emily, and one-year-old son, Archer, cooking his family’s wintertime favourite: French onion soup. It’s a crowd pleaser: Just last week he served the soup to his brother Morgan and sister-in-law, Nadège Nourian, of Toronto’s Nadège Pâtisserie. The couple moved into their 85-year-old red brick semi in Corso Italia a few months before Archer was born. “We used to live so close to the Cheese Boutique, that with a good arm, you could hit it with a stone,” says McHugh who admits he spends far too much money at the foodie destination.

Here’s a peek in his fridge:

See what’s in the rest of his kitchen

 

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Franco Stalteri

2

Back in 2009, Franco Stalteri, the founder of Charlie’s Burgers, began hosting elaborate secret feasts with top chefs in unexpected locations—like an underground movie theatre in Chinatown. His Charlie’s Burger dinners have been headed by international culinary heavyweights (Fergus Henderson) and local heroes (Mark McEwan). When it comes to cooking for himself and his wife, Priya Shah, Stalteri tends to keep it pretty simple. “We don’t have kids, so we don’t stock more than we need. When my nephews come over and ask for juice I tell them they can have wine or water,” says Stalteri. When he does make time for shopping, he’ll hit up Fiesta Farms for veggies, and he trades CB wine for meat with The Butcher Shoppe’s Stacey Weisberg.

Here’s a peek in his fridge:

See what’s in the rest of his kitchen

 

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Grant van Gameren

1

Between managing his current collection of restaurants and having a brand-new baby boy, Grant van Gameren doesn’t have time for breakfast. “My first meal is generally around 6 p.m.—it’s cigarettes and coffee before that,” says van Gameren, who claims to only eat one meal a day. “No matter how much I cook for dinner, he’ll always order pizza at midnight,” says Sunny Stone, van Gameren’s wife. For groceries, the two take regular field trips to the burbs to buy specialty items for menu research: recent pilgrimages have included Starsky Foods in Mississauga and Yummy Market in North York. When it comes to regular grocery shopping, though, they hit up Kensington Market for protein (Hooked for fish, Sanagan’s for meat and eggs) and Fiesta Farms for other staples. Stone prefers PAT Central for Korean sauces and condiments.

Here’s a peek in their fridge:

See what’s in the rest of his kitchen