Where and when did your career in food begin?
My first cooking job was in Toronto. I had just started culinary school and was looking to learn through work, and also to make a little extra cash. A friend of mine introduced me to a group of young industry professionals who had just opened a 35-seat bistro in the heart of Kensington market, a very artsy area of Toronto full of cafes, food shops, green markets, social activists, artists and restaurants. They needed help and so I found myself washing dishes and peeling potatoes a couple of nights a week. I loved it, and the more time I spent there, the more it became apparent that this is what I wanted--and in some way was meant to do. I worked my way up and moved away from the dish pit, where for the first four months, I washed everything by hand since we didn't have a machine. Good thing my nineteen-year-old self could handle that, or I might not be typing this story right now. I prepped, cooked, learned and cooked some more. After a year, I was promoted to junior sous chef. I spent a total of two years there and these are still two of the best years of my life.

If you didn't become a chef, what would you be?
I think that if I didn't become a chef, I would be a musician. I have been playing music since I was a kid and I still play numerous instruments. Food is my passion and love, but music comes a very close second.

How would you describe your cuisine?
French/American bistro with a very seasonal flair as well as an emphasis on pork and seafood.

What is your favorite secret ingredient?
Lemon confit, like they use in Moroccan cooking. It adds a beautiful salty, bitter and fruity undertone to anything from a simple vinaigrette to a pasta dish to a roasted chicken.

What qualities do you look for when hiring cooks for your restaurant?
It's all about attitude. If you express a genuine interest, a passion and a love for this industry, then it doesn't matter where you come from, how much you've learned and whom you've worked for. Because this job takes heart, and if you don't have heart, you will never make it.

If I'm trying to watch my weight and I'm eating at your restaurant, what am I ordering to eat?
Definitely do not order the baby Boston lettuce and hearts of palm salad! We serve a beautiful salmon dish that is very vegetable forward: peas, sugar snaps, corn, radishes and my house-made salmon candy. A brown sugar and maple syrup cured salmon that is then smoked for hours till it takes on a jerky like texture. There is a little bit of a cream sauce involved, but the amount is minimal.

What was the most challenging meal you had to make? Why?
I think my most challenging meal is still to come. Not sure what that means, but there it is.

What was your worst restaurant disaster?
When I was cooking lunch at Gramercy Tavern a couple of years back, we used to make honeyed onion petals. They were onions cooked in honey till glazed and then dried till soft and sticky. Like onion/honey jerky, if you will. Well, the process of making these involved reducing a gallon of honey by about two thirds. I had done this many times without incident until one fateful day, when I guess the heat was a little higher than usual, and all the honey boiled over onto the unimaginably hot flat-top. Thick yellow/green smoke filled the entire kitchen within seconds, no flames, just endless amounts of dense, acrid smoke so thick I couldn't see the rest of the cooks around me. Through the smoke came the voices of the chef and the general manager: "What happened? Are you okay?" "Sorry chef, sorry chef," came my pathetic and useless response. Twenty minutes later, there were still clouds of smoke hanging onto the corners of the kitchen. I didn't live that one down for a while. Pretty sure you could still smell it in the dining room once dinner service rolled around.

What is your least favorite food?
Green peppers

What is your beverage of choice?
Beer, especially hoppy beer.

When you are not eating at your own restaurant, where are you eating?
I've been to Ippudo here in New York a couple times now, and I must say that I am blown away each and every time. Absolutely phenomenal.

Which foreign country inspires your style most?
I am very much rooted in my French/American bistro style, but I do find inspiration from the simplicity and purity of Japanese cooking. I try to keep my food as clean and simple as I can, allowing the ingredients to shine for themselves and by not masking them or manipulating them into something else. Japanese chefs exude this concept.

What was the most spectacular meal you have ever had?
A couple of years ago, I took some time off to travel. I went to Southeast Asia and China. I traveled to the Yunnan province for its food and its geography; I really wanted to do a hike I read about through the "Tiger Leading Gorge." So I did. It's a long hike that takes two days through relatively rough terrain along sheer walls, hundreds of feet tall. There were points where I had to walk through waterfalls, fearing I would slip and fall to my death. Anyway, I digress. On the first leg of the hike I ended up at a local farmhouse that allowed tourists and hikers like myself to stay overnight for a very modest fee. There were six or seven other travelers there when I arrived and plans for dinner were underway. As none of us spoke Mandarin, and none of the family at the farm spoke English, we let them take care of everything. And let me tell you, they did. Plate after plate, bowl after bowl, platter after platter, cauldron after--well, you get the picture--arrived on the table. There were vegetable stir fries, house-made flat breads, preserved meats, vegetables, fish head stews and an amazing array of condiments and sauces. There was so much that I am having a hard time remembering it all. Maybe it was the hunger from hiking all day, maybe it was the fresh air, or maybe it was the incredible generosity of this family of farmers, but northing has ever tasted so good or satisfied me as much as this meal. It was ethereal, beautiful, humbling and delicious.

What is your best cooking tip for a home enthusiast?
Don't be scared. Experiment, try new ideas, read and eat.

What do you eat when you are home?
The last thing I cooked at home, which actually doesn't occur all that often these days, was a New York steak from Ottomenelli's. I ate it simply with a salad of local cucumbers and wax beans, all dressed in a warm green peppercorn mustard and balsamic vinaigrette, with lots of coarse salt and fresh black pepper on the steak. Ate it with a St. Bernadus abbey ale, delish!