Jeremy Charles
Without question the hottest restaurant in the country is Raymond’s in St Johns, where Newfoundland native Jeremy Charles embraces the idea of terroir – place, climate, soil – as a mission statement. Fishing and foraging for the local bounty, Charles takes ingredients that were once seen as survival fuel and elevates them into something magical. Try a surf clam stuffed with lardo, or a house-made pasta dressed with moose. But keep room for one of Charles’ signature cod dishes, including the “Newfoundland nacho” – a fried fish bladder.
95 Water Street, St John’s, +1 709 579 5800, raymondsrestaurant.com
David McMillan
Chef David McMillan has pulled off a tricky balance at Montreal’s celebrated Joe Beef; a restaurant that manages to be unpretentious, fun, and serves killer food in the process. Named after a 19th-century working-class hero, Joe Beef is a homage to gluttony, where you’ll always find the best oysters, foie gras, and the signature spaghetti with lobster. It’s fine dining without the fuss.
2491 Notre-Dame, West Montreal, + 1 514 313 6049, joebeef.ca
Martin Picard
No visit to Montreal would be complete without walking on the wild side with celebrated chef Martin Picard, who has a number of eateries in the city. Whether you opt for the eponymous trotters and a side of foie gras poutine at his original brasserie Au Pied de Cochon, go for a rowdy family-style maple syrup-infused feast at Sugar Shack, or line up for a beigne cochon – three cuts of pork served on a doughnut – from the food truck Camion Pied De Cochon, you won’t eat a more unapologetically Quebecois meal.
Montreal, various locations, aupieddecochon.ca
Justin Cournoyer
The influence of Denmark’s locavore prodigy, spearheaded by Noma’s Rene Redzepi, is evident in Justin Cournoyer’s beautiful dishes. At Toronto’s Actinolite, he offers two tasting menus a day of four or seven courses, cooking from whatever is freshest in the local landscape. Foraged ingredients such as woodruff, spruce, lichen feature heavily, as do inventive vegetable dishes and game at this most innovative of Canadian restaurants.
971 Ossington Avenue, Toronto, +1 416 962 8943, actinoliterestaurant.com
Rob Gentile
Modern Italian doesn’t get much better than that produced by Rob Gentile. If the upscale Buca is considered by many to be the best Italian restaurant in Toronto, its baby sibling, Bar Buca, is the crowd-pleaser. Arrive for breakfast for the “tower of pastries”, or drop in for a porchetta-stuffed foccacia and a plate of salt-baked beets for lunch. Looking for a late bite? Bar Buca stays open until 2 am, when the tapas-style plates of arancini, burrata di buca and skewers of baby octopus are just the accompaniments a good glass of wine demands.
Toronto, various locations, buca.ca
Vikram Vij
Vikram Vij may be Canada’s best known chef. His elevated twist on Indian traditions infuses local ingredients with a dash of European technique and perfectly balanced layers of spice. Vij’s is not your usual curry house: the signature dish is lamb “popsicles”, French-trimmed wine-marinated lamb chops in fenugreek cream curry served on potatoes roasted in turmeric. Next door Rangoli is a more casual option, or seek out his insanely popular Railway Express food truck.
1480 West 11th Avenue, Vancouver, +1 604 736 6664, vijsrestaurant.ca
Justin Leboe
Housed in Calgary’s historic dairy building, Justin Leboe’s Model Milk offers diners a variety of ways to eat its modern, fusion-flecked fare. Try a small plate of Leboe’s take on a traditional Japanese goma-ae, with wild sesame and a tempura mussel, and a larger dish of Manitoba walleye fish, with white beans, ham hock and squid ink dashi. Sharing? Then plump for the Momofuko-influenced smoked brisket, with milk buns, roasted peanuts and kimchi, or the signature Nashville chicken and waffles. Sunday suppers are fixed-price four-course family style affairs.
308 17th Avenue, Calgary, +1 403 265 7343, modelmilk.ca
Melissa Craig
At Whistler’s Bearfoot Bistro, chef Melissa Craig borrows flavours from Asia, Spain and elsewhere, adds in a smattering of contemporary techniques and combines them with a pitch perfect palate to create dishes at once enticingly familiar and altogether new. Her raw plates are exquisite, her pasta the most decadent you will eat anywhere. Don’t pass up the rich, buttery black cod (sablefish), the prize of British Columbia waters.
4121 Village Green, Whistler, +1 604 932 3433, bearfootbistro.com
David Hawksworth
A Vancouver-born chef who worked his way through many of Europe’s Michelin-starred kitchens, David Hawksworth came back to create his own signature style of modern Canadian cuisine, influenced heavily by the flavours of Asia. At Hawksworth, his touch is precise and light, with vegetable-based dishes as prized as those featuring local sturgeon or venison. The bar snacks are also exemplary, the ‘KFC’ – Korean-fried cauliflower – is a must. Later in 2015, he will open a more casual, family-style restaurant downtown, with pizzas and charcuterie at the forefront. Still modern, he says, but with a twist.
801 West Georgia Street, Vancouver, +1 604 673 7000, hawksworthrestaurant.com
To find out more about Canada and book your visit, go to keepexploring.com.au
