Chefs Without Restaurants

There was a time when a restaurant defined a chef — four walls, a door that locked, a name in cursive over the entrance. You built a menu, a team, a reputation. You stayed put. Now, the walls are gone. The new generation moves like weather — a dinner in one city,

The House Ferment

Once, fermentation was a necessity. Now it’s a signature. Every restaurant keeps a row of jars on a shelf — a small altar to time, bacteria, and self-regard. It began as rebellion. Chefs wanted to reject the speed of the industry, the sterile precision of sous vide, the artificial rhythms

Tannins and Time

There’s a certain kind of person who talks about aging as if it’s a craft. They swirl their years like wine in a glass — letting oxygen rewrite the story. They say they’ve “mellowed,” that the edges have softened. What they really mean is that the bitterness has

Zero Waste, Infinite Guilt

Somewhere between the compost bin and the tasting menu, virtue became another course. Chefs weigh scraps like sins, recite sustainability pledges between plating and press interviews. Diners nod, absolved. The food may be delicious, but the air is heavy with confession. Zero waste used to mean efficiency; now it means

The Fear of Silence

No one lets a dish speak for itself anymore. Every plate arrives with a sentence attached — an origin story, a flourish, a reason for existing. The quieter the food, the louder the explanation. It’s not really about education. It’s about control. The chef, the server, the brand — all

Your Server Tonight Is the Owner

The new language of fine dining is intimacy. No waiters, no uniforms, no hierarchy — just the chef, emerging from the kitchen with the dish they made “for you.” The gesture is framed as purity. Transparency. A kind of culinary honesty, unfiltered by service staff. But the truth is cheaper than

Night Shift Aesthetics

The city feels different when you walk through it after service. The air has cooled; the noise has thinned. You can still smell the night — fryer oil, exhaust, bread, cigarettes — but it’s all gentler now, softened by distance and fatigue. There’s a strange beauty to this hour, a

The Menu That Never Changes

There’s a certain comfort in a dish that never leaves. The one the servers describe like a reflex, the one diners return for as though it were a friend still working the same shift. But comfort, in restaurants, can be a kind of inertia. Ottawa has its share of

Why No One Knows Ottawa’s Sommeliers by Name

Ottawa knows its chefs. Knows the faces on the pass, the signatures on the plates, the names that get stitched into every awards shortlist. Chefs here are characters. Recognized, quoted, mythologized. But sommeliers? Ghosts. There are a handful in this city with encyclopedic palates, people who could dismantle a wine

Food Critics Without Critics

Ottawa doesn’t have critics anymore. It has cheerleaders. It has comped dinners written up as glowing Instagram reels. It has copy-and-paste “Top 10” lists with the same five restaurants shuffled like a deck of cards. But a critic? Someone who actually eats, judges, and risks saying something unpopular? Gone.

Table Manners 2.0

The modern dinner table has been colonized. Not by diners, but by their phones, their tripods, their followers. You’ve seen it: the table cleared not for food but for gear. Ring lights casting a ghostly glow over plates that are cooling by the second. The clatter of chairs as

The Twelve-Seat Fantasy

Every chef, at some point, dreams of the twelve-seat restaurant. A single counter, twelve stools, the music at exactly the right volume. The kitchen is right there, no swinging doors, no servers vanishing with your plates — just the chef, cooking and plating and watching it all land exactly as intended.

The Disappearing Chef

Once, chefs were everywhere. They were grinning from the covers of magazines, headlining food festivals, hosting shows, posting selfies from the pass. Their Instagram grids were tiled with tattoos, tweezers, and tattoos holding tweezers. For a while, it felt like being a chef meant being a brand. But something is

The Two Ottawas

There are two Ottawas, and they rarely eat together. One Ottawa wears suits. It books steakhouse tables for 6:00 p.m., orders the Bordeaux, signs the receipt with a government pen. It keeps the city running, or at least keeps it steady. Its restaurants are polished, dependable, calibrated to

Plating by Algorithm

Somewhere out there, an invisible hand is plating all our food. You can see it on Instagram: the smear at 8 o’clock, the quenelle balancing at 2, two dots mirroring each other like suspicious eyes. The plate might change, the protein might change, the restaurant might change — but the

A Love Letter to Domus

Ottawa’s restaurant that taught us what a restaurant could be. Domus was never just a place to eat. It was a little cathedral to Canadian food before we even knew we had any. Long before “farm-to-table” became a checkbox on every menu, Domus was quietly doing it — foraging before

Ottawa’s Spice Problem

Somewhere between Mild and Medium, Ottawa lost its nerve. Restaurants will proudly add a little chili icon to the menu, then serve you something with the heat level of an orange creamsicle. Chili oils get strained until they taste like sunset-colored olive oil. Curries are blunted for the Canadian palate

The Michelin Mirage

Ottawa has never seen a Michelin inspector — at least not officially. No red-bound book, no stars, no Bib Gourmands. And yet, the entire city seems to orbit an invisible Michelin sun. Chefs whisper about “star quality” in their sauces. Diners drop “if we had Michelin...” into conversations like they’re

The Mocktail Economy

There was a time when “not drinking tonight” meant a glass of sparkling water and a polite smile. Now it means a $14 “zero-proof cocktail” made with foraged spruce tips, fermented pineapple, and something called verjus cordial — served in a coupe glass with a dramatic garnish. Non-alcoholic drinks have gone

The Tuile Takeover

When every plate becomes a doily It started innocently enough — one delicate, lacy parmesan crisp on a plate, a wink to texture. Cute. Clever. Crunchy. But somewhere between 2022 and now, Ottawa chefs discovered the infinite universe of tuile moulds, and what used to be a dessert garnish is now

The Great Cocktail Cliché Hunt

Ottawa doesn’t just drink cocktails anymore. It performs them. You’ve seen the glass domes lifted with a flourish, the plumes of cedar smoke rolling out like a rock concert intro. You’ve Instagrammed the highball with a dehydrated orange wheel so dry it looks like it’s been

Canada’s Great Kitchen Party Returns, and Ottawa Knows This Stage Well

Two weeks from today, Canada’s Great Kitchen Party will be back. The name alone tells you what to expect: food, music, sport, and a splash of maple-scented nationalism stirred into one big night. For chefs, it’s a chance to prove themselves in front of peers, press, and sponsors.

The Quiet Rivalries

Ottawa’s restaurant scene likes to pretend it’s collegial — a friendly little village of chefs who all clap for each other when the accolades come in. And sometimes, sure, it is. But sit through a few staff beers after service, and the curtain drops. The rivalries don’t roar;

Ottawa’s Culinary Middle Children

Every city has them: the restaurants that aren’t shiny new openings with breathless press, and aren’t established legends with locked-in reputations. They’re the middle children. Ottawa’s middle children have been quietly serving for years, even decades. They’re not on every influencer’s feed. They don’

Ottawa’s Boys Club, On Parade (Again)

Yawn. Very recently, an upcoming, local event (that shall remain nameless) posted their final lineup of participants for "a multi-chef food & beverage experience celebrating Ottawa’s culinary community". Quick question: can Ottawa's culinary community be fully and authentically celebrated without even a whiff of gender