Gordon Ramsay came to Toronto a few days ago, and he ate here. Apparently, he liked it. There should be nothing surprising about this fact, since we all know that Toronto has many great restaurants.
Ramsay’s visit, of course, has resulted in speculation that he might be looking to open a restaurant here. He even tweeted that he’s “looking into it.” This, too, should not be a surprise, since many world-renowned chefs have chosen to open restaurants in Toronto.
The thing is, nobody should care whether he is or isn’t coming to Toronto. Especially those of us who live here.
I used to get excited whenever a big international chef decided to open a restaurant in Toronto. I was wrong to do that. These restaurants are almost always disappointing. With few exceptions, superstar chefs choose Toronto at the precise moment they’ve hit overexpansion mode. And that’s when they start to suck.
Has Ramsay hit that point yet? Let’s see. Earlier this year, cockroaches were found at Maze in London. He opens a lot of restaurants everywhere, which is bad, and he also closes a lot of restaurants, which is even more bad. His foray into Montreal did not end well. And remember that show where he yells at people and ostensibly helps them fix their restaurants? Usually, those restaurants fail.
What have superstar chefs brought to Toronto? We got an unimpressive Scarpetta from New York chef Scott Conant. We got a mediocre Café Boulud, which soon closed and reopened as something marginally better only when Daniel Boulud realized that Toronto actually has taste. We got a totally unexciting fusion restaurant from Michelin-starred chef Alvin Leung. We got a big-box chain restaurant from Sobeys mascot Jamie Oliver.
It’s not all bad, of course. One notable exception here is David Chang’s Toronto edition of Momofuku, which is great, though I’d rather have ramen at Ramen Isshin than at Noodle Bar. Still, even Chang is toeing that overexpansion line (a recent review called his Momofuku Nishi “deeply flawed.”)
Here’s what we should get excited about more than celebrity chefs coming to Toronto. We should get excited when a chef like Patrick Kriss pours 100 per cent of his talent into one restaurant. We should get excited that we have a guy like Keith Froggett, who has spent around 30 years focusing on Scaramouche. How about Jen Agg, whose standards are perpetually high, opening a restaurant in Kensington Market?
So maybe Gordon Ramsay will open a restaurant here. Maybe it will be good. But I don’t care, and neither should you.