At The Pass with Chef Tara Lee
At The Pass is a monthly series showcasing Toronto’s best chefs. You won’t find any celebrity chefs featured here. Perhaps you already know these fine cooks, but maybe not. They’re not famous - yet. But it’s time these talented, passionate, hard-working chefs got a bit of the spotlight.
Currently
Eastbound Brewing Company, chef
Formerly
Cowbell, Skin & Bones, BarHop BrewCo
Favourite dish to make right now
We’re relaunching our brunch menu, so I’m playing around with our own steak sauce. Vinegar is my favourite ingredient.
Last cookbook purchase
Homegrown: Cooking from My New England Roots by Matt Jennings
Have you read it/tried any recipes
Not yet, still taking it all in.
Name one dish or ingredient you’d like to see gone from menus
Sliders.
And one dish or ingredient that you’re excited about right now and would like to see on more menus
Whole roasted everything!
Biggest influences
Chris Cosentino, Cortney Burns, Gabrielle Hamilton, April Bloomfield, Alida Solomon.
If you could eat at any restaurant in the world
The last thing you ate
Coffee...
Three must-have ingredients always in your fridge
Mayo, pickles, hot sauce.
Guilty pleasure
Peanut butter chocolate chip ice cream.
Top 3 favourite Toronto restaurants, in no particular order
Maple Leaf Tavern, Descendants Pizza, Terroni.
Top 3 favourite Toronto bars
BarHop, Bar Volo, Pinkerton’s Snack Bar.
Go-to drink
A beer! Or G+T. Or an Aperol Spritz.
One habit you have in the kitchen that you should lose, but can’t seem to shake
Definitely drinking too much coffee, not eating for 8-10 hours at a time. I’m going to pass out one of these days.
One habit you have in the kitchen that will inspire young chefs
Outside of the kitchen I try to keep an active lifestyle. I run 5-6 days a week. I want them to see that it’s not all late nights and too much beer.
Name one hidden talent
Somehow these past few months I’m managed to work about 70 hours a week and run between 50-60k a week as I train for my next half marathon!
The best career advice you ever received
You have to learn to be boring. It was from my first chef ever. He just meant you have to build a solid foundation, or you’ll just be stumbling through your career after that.
The worst career advice you ever received
None that I can think of, hopefully I haven’t followed any of it!
Your advice for a young cook starting out in the business
Be patient. Work hard. You’ll never learn anything if you aren’t in the kitchen, hands on. Travelling is great, but you also need to put in time in kitchens. Read. A lot. Taste everything.
———
At The Pass is a monthly series showcasing Toronto/GTA’s best chefs. You won’t find any celebrity chefs featured here. Perhaps you already know these fine cooks, but maybe not. They’re not famous - yet. But it’s time these talented, passionate, hard-working chefs got a bit of the spotlight.
Know someone in Toronto or GTA who should be featured? Submit their name for consideration.