It has been six months since restauranteur Tony Cappellano (the owner of breakfast chain Boom Breakfast) opened up the doors of Bywoods on trendy St. Clair West. Tony may be the owner of this new-‘ish’ Mediterranean restaurant, but it’s Chef Craig Dehne who’s responsible for creating the much talked about dishes that emerges from the kitchen of Bywoods on a daily basis.
Like many other chefs, Craig’s first job in the kitchen involved washing dishes when he was fourteen. Eventually he moved up the ranks through kitchens in Canada and then moved over to the U.K. where he spent over a decade working with chefs from other European countries in various restaurants. It was during this time that he was able to develop his own style of cooking.
Chef Craig Duhne putting the final touches on one of his dishes
Tell me about the decade you spent in England?
I started off learning and doing French cuisine. I also worked with people who were from the continent such as Spanish, Italians, some English and French. While I was in London I worked in high end restaurants in the Mayfair, Belgravia and Covent Garden areas. I also got the chance to work with a lot of fantastic fresh fish from the Mediterranean and up the English coast.
If you weren’t cooking what would you do?
No idea, I couldn’t even tell you. I’ve spent many, many hours in kitchens. I’ve been unemployed or between jobs for periods of time, but that’s the industry. It would be hard for me to consider any other profession because this is the only thing I’ve known.
What are some of the most interesting experiences you’ve had in your career thus far?
There has been too many, far too many. Ten years in England is ten years years of a lot of interesting experiences right there. During that time kitchens were extremely violent. Lots of hot pans being thrown, a lot of swearing, a lot of bullying and a lot of tempers but it has mellowed out, and thankfully, it’s not like that anymore.
You mentioned that you’re a vegetarian, so how do you know that your meat dishes are properly cooked and seasoned?
It was beaten into me when I was learning how to cook French style in London, but I do taste. I’m a vegetarian by choice. I used to trap furs when I was around twenty in northern Manitoba and I ate a lot of wild meat all year round, but when I came back, the taste just wasn’t there. The flavour wasn’t robust enough, and I thought it was just bland and boring so I just stopped eating it.
What’s your earliest food related memory?
My father’s shitty stew. I just couldn’t eat it but I had to stay at the table till it was done and we didn’t have a dog to feed it to. I think it was a matter of him under cooking it because there was something about the texture that felt like I was eating cotton, and it just couldn’t go down. My father is an excellent cook, I love his rabbit and his soups are brilliant, but I just didn’t like his stew.
Where do you see the food scene in Toronto heading?
Maybe you’ll have to look at New York and see what’s happening there now and that’ll come to us in about five to ten years. Actually it’s moving faster now, there are some really nice restaurants in Toronto and I have a lot of friends who work in some really good places. I’ve read articles about food and apparently it goes from New York to London and then comes over here. The food industry in New York is more diverse so they do a much better job there.
What pisses you off the most in the kitchen?
Uncleanliness. I don’t like filth. I don’t like sloppy. I worked with this chef at Scott’s in Mayfair, Head Chef Nigel. He was a vicious, little bastard but he was very good. We opened at 12:00 PM on the dot and at 11:30 he would come around to check all the stations and open up your fridge to look inside. Everything inside had to be labelled, dated and signed. If he saw something that he didn’t like, it ended up on the floor and we’d have to pick it up and do it properly. He was brutal, you had to listen when he called out the chits but you weren’t allowed to ask him to repeat. If he was hungover and feeling more vicious than usual that day he’d call it out in a cockney rhyming slang so nobody knew what was going on because the kitchen was filled with chefs who didn’t speak English properly. He was very good to learn with though.
What food trend would you like to see end?
I’d like to see the end of this poutine business. I understand it, the poutine shops are open late and its good for people who need some grease in their stomachs. I just don’t like everything poutine.
And finally, where do you see yourself in the future?
Wow, I don’t know. Hopefully we’ll still be on St. Clair banging it out.
** I want to thank Chef Duhne for taking the time to chat with me on the night that Bywoods hosted their media diner. The following photos are from that night and are just some of the dishes available on their menu. My meal was complimentary
