You are... Chuck Currie, executive chef of White Spot Restaurants.
Describe your cooking: We are a premium family casual dining restaurant, cooking very fresh and healthy food. We sell a lot of burgers and “bowls.” Old fashioned, high quality comfort food along with bolder Asian and Italian dishes. Just bring 30 or 40 of your closest friends in several times a week to try us out!
Where did you train? I first started cooking after licking the icing off Mom’s hand-cranked mixer. First, I took over making the icing, then the cake. I think I was five. My Mom was an orphan, so she learned to cook after she got married, by reading Meta Given’s Modern Encyclopedia of Cooking (kind of a Joy of Cooking for the ’50s.) That cookbook was just about torn to shreds after 30 years of use before my sister found Mom a vintage copy in great condition for her birthday. I was fascinated with reading those recipes, and when I got a job in a local restaurant in my teens, I started rewriting their recipes. Finally, I went to George Brown College for formal training, after I was already the regional chef for a chain in Toronto. I worked nights and weekends and went to school during the day. I guess I was highly motivated and loved it, because I got the highest marks in the history of the college!
We might also find you dining out at... My favorite two restaurants in Â鶹´«Ã½Ó³»are around the corner from each other. Since I’m also a classical musician, I end up at the Orpheum a lot to see and hear my friends in the Symphony. La Bodega and Umberto’s Il Giardino are convenient… and as good as any restaurant anywhere else in the world, in my opinion. La Bodega is Spanish soul food and they are so consistent, warm and friendly (the food and the people) That’s where I go with my buddies. Umberto’s is just sheer class with no pretension. I totally admire the chef, Peter, and he is so great to his team. Bobby and the service staff just ooze hospitality and care. The room is wonderful and the music is mostly classic jazz-influenced standards — right up my alley.
Your dream dinner date (spouses and family don’t count): Eleanor Wachtel from “Writers and Company.” I stopped listening to CBC in protest when they cancelled her nightly arts program a couple of years ago, but still tune in for her interviews with writers. She is intelligent, warm, funny and deeply conversant with all the arts, and in my opinion, the best interviewer in the history of broadcasting. Her wonderful giggle turns my crank, too.
If you had a date with the electric chair, your last meal order would be... Chuck Currie’s Favorite Burger from our White Spot menu. You had to ask? It’s not your favorite, too?
You’d gag if you ate... I’ve eaten stuff you can’t imagine, like steamed barnacles! When I was a kid, there were a few foods I didn’t enjoy, but when you become a cook everything works… or you make it work. I don’t have a sweet tooth; I don’t usually eat sweet desserts. I always have to make sauces and dressings a little less acidic than I like them personally, and desserts a little sweeter.
You’d be happiest at Happy Hour with...
Glenrothes single malt. It is like caramel in texture with just a hint of smoke or Torres Mas La Plana Cabernet Sauvignon.
Secret treats: I can’t keep peanut butter in the house. I would just spoon it out of the jar until it was empty in one long decadent session of self-indulgence.
You’d take a long flight in economy class for that one meal in... Street food in Bangkok. I got that experience when we shot the White Spot Thai Promotion advertisement there. I got taken to the place where there are no westerners by my guide. The first stall was just a bunch of cut-up fruit that they would put over ice and in the heat it would make an instant slushy. The fruit looked like it was covered with seeds or something as we walked up to it but it was actually crawling with bees. They just brushed them off before they scooped up the fruit. When I actually ordered something the guide could not believe it. He said, “OK, Mr. Chuck, we keep going, no-one ever made it past this first booth before!” What a night — the best food experience of my life.
Culinary confessions: I made eggs benedict for my sax quartet after an early morning rehearsal and screwed up the Hollandaise. Had to go out for more eggs! I can’t believe I’m telling you this, but hey, the biscuits made with chives and five-year-old Balderson cheddar were great! Our family farm is about five minutes from their plant in Balderson, Ontario.
Five must-have ingredients in your kitchen: Five friends to cook for! A dinner party for six is one of the ultimate human experiences. Then we retire to my listening room where I have over 6,000 compact discs. MP3’s and iPods are for people who don’t really listen to music. Just my opinion!
