“I didn’t know there was a one oyster, one chef policy,” quipped José Andrés.
Pass the mignonette. And the irony.
Certainly, the superstar Spaniard could not be stopped when it came to the P.E.I. mollusks found at the Raspberry Point Oysters station at the sprawling, high-energy Restaurants Canada show, held this week in Toronto.
Scooping oyster after oyster — mindlessly at times, faster and faster, with zero halt in chit-chat, his eyes in the distance — he moved, it seemed to me, like Lucy and Ethel in that infamous chocolate factory episode of “I Love Lucy.”
Me, I was just happy to see José getting his zinc intake while, yes, also keeping his virility in check.
But seriously: what a treat it was to meet the man who is not only a chef extraordinaire, but also “an extraordinary force of nature,” as Restaurants Canada CEO Kelly Higginson gushed at a tremendous “fireside chat” held just before a little get-together.
The founder of World Central Kitchen — not to mention Nobel Peace Prize nominee and Presidential Medal of Freedom honouree — Andrés was at the Enercare Centre to talk about his journey and his philosophy. And talk he did: passionately and garrulously. A bubbling paella pan of thoughts and takeaways and asides.
One minute he was talking about his parents, both of whom were nurses, and about the father who taught him the meaning of fire. (“The most important thing in life is controlling the fire. It is understanding the fire. It is mastering your fire and, once you do that, you can do anything you want with your life.”) The next he was musing about his mentor, Ferran Adrià (Andrés was only at the start of his career when he worked for the molecular cuisine revolutionary at the iconic El Bulli in Catalonia).
“Embrace the failure,” he veered off at one point, adding, “Just make sure your failure is not what brings you down, but what empowers you up.” At another, he circled the importance of immigrants in the restaurant biz (in Canada itself, over 50 per cent of restaurant owners are immigrants).
For José, it also marked a quick return visit to Canada after spending six weeks here over the winter shooting the new NBC show “Yes, Chef!” with Martha Stewart. Asked if he got around while in town, he matter-of-facted, “I’m on a diet.” Clearly, though, it did not stop him, given the number of places he got to with Martha.
“Sushi Masaki Saito … Shoushin … Quetzal,” he began, giving a long list of local shout-outs. “St. Lawrence Market, which is unbelievable,” he said. The Cheese Boutique. Oroshi Fish.
“I love Canada,” he rang out at one point, putting an of-the-moment emphasis on the overture.
Indeed, it wasn’t the only declaration of brotherly love from a boldface biggie in town over the last week. Swooping down at Pearson last Thursday for the return of Virgin Atlantic, swashbuckling mogul Richard Branson let his hockey jersey do the talking: a giant Maple Leaf across his chest.
He upped the ante further by throwing a rather lively party the next night on the rooftop of the Globe and Mail Centre, spanning the skyline of the city. Virgin being Virgin, it was awash in bolts of red, a “London Calling” phone booth, a cover band doing all the hits and food for days, including a “Spicy Rigatoni.” Properly piquant, baby.
“We’re back for good,” Branson beamed, taking the mic to the room at one point, and revelling in their new daily flights from Heathrow to the city. This, as a pithy sign loomed over the man, the lights of the city doing their thing.
“It’s our party. And we fly how we want to,” it read.
