At The Pass is a weekly 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. 

🕒 4.5 min read

Jon Klip

Currently

Toronto Bento, Affinity Fish

Formerly

New York: Kajitsu, Onodera. Kyoto:  Arashiyama Kumahiko

Favourite dish to make right now

Dashimaki Tamago.

Last cookbook purchase

An 18 volume set of a Japanese cuisine encyclopedia from the ‘70s. There are only ten pages in colour in each volume, but the richness of the photos is amazing.  

Have you read it/tried any recipes

Not yet. Most are based on hyper-seasonal Japanese ingredients and present best on museum-caliber plateware. Great food for thought though.

One dish or ingredient you’d like to see gone from menu

Anything that flew in an airplane. If it can’t survive a boat/truck ride, just use something else locally.

And one dish or ingredient that you’re excited about right now and would like to see on more menus

The availability and variety of edible wilds in Ontario is steadily growing. I used to think that ramps were all we had, but they’re only the very tip of the iceberg - matsutake, knotweed, scarlet elf caps, burbot, brown trout, etc., are all classed as local, wild foods.

Biggest influences

Reductive simplicity from Kyoto - food and aesthetics can be sublimated. Often it’s not addition, but removal of the unnecessary that will make the most beautiful end result.

If you could eat at any restaurant in the world

Raymonds in Newfoundland, I’ve never been to the province but am planning a trip for next year.

Last thing you ate

Groundhog stew a farmer friend brought me last week. The meat has a wonderful ox-tail like texture with a subtle gamey flavour like old leather and cherries.

Three must-have ingredients always in your fridge

White miso, good butter, and a Nuka bed for making pickles.

Guilty pleasure 

I try not to eat too much meat, but every now and again I love a super old and raunchy rib eye.  

Top 3 favourite Toronto restaurants 

Edulis, Crosley’s, and Pompette.

Top 3 favourite Toronto bars

I’m not much a bar-goer - I’m usually only there to eat, so Bar Piquette, Sakai Bar, and Cry Baby Gallery.

Go-to drink  

Good Vermouth or a White Claw.

One habit you have in the kitchen that you should lose, but can’t seem to shake

Try as I might, I find myself constantly slouching. I’m always correcting myself, but even after over ten years, I still catch myself hunched over a stove or cutting board at least once a day.

And one habit you have in the kitchen that will inspire young chefs

There can be so much beauty in watching a cook work. For myself, my co-workers, and the guests, I try to move and work in a manner that is not only effective and efficient, but also presents well.  

Hidden talent

My tremor. For someone who prides himself in his intricate knife skills, I have the hands of a geriatric caffeine addict who just quit smoking.

Best career advice you ever received

You don’t have to make giant strides forward, just try and improve by one micron every day.

Worst career advice you ever received 

You can sleep when you’re dead.

Your advice for a young cook starting out in the business

The industry is too hard to be going flat out a hundred per cent of the time,  if you aren’t taking care of your body and mind, you won’t make it. Tenacity and grit only overcome lack of sleep and nutrition on a very short term scale.

In order to support chefs during this time, the monthly At The Pass series is now WEEKLY. Know someone in Toronto or GTA who should be featured? Submit their name for consideration. And yes, you can nominate yourself.     

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