My interview with Chef Brad Macdonald of Jazz Bistro

Every chef remembers his or her first job, and for Chef Brad Macdonald it was standing on a milk crate making milkshakes at his mom’s diner in rural Ontario. As he grew up he had different jobs at different restaurants but it was only after meeting his Swiss trained mentor, Alois Ming, that he finally realized the kitchen is where he wanted to be.

He worked at various restaurants around the Golden Horseshoe and eventually landed at the famed Toronto restaurant, Centro, “So many great chefs came through the Centro system, that it was a great honour to be part of the history of that instituation.” After Centro, he moved onto Sassafraz, where after just a couple of months of him being there, the restaurant suffered a devastating fire. He stayed on and was instrumental in redesigning the kitchen and helped relaunch the restaurant.

Chef Brad Macdonald

You mentioned that you were making milkshakes at a very young age, is that your earliest food related memory?

My earliest food related memory would have to be my mom’s cabbage rolls. That was the special every Wednesday at her diner and I absolutely loved them.  They were all hand made and they’d always sell out. So me being the youngest of four usually meant that I would get some and then I would tell my brothers and sister how good they were.

That’s funny.  Being the youngest meant you just had to rub it in.  Are your siblings also in the food industry?

No, they have very boring jobs, two lawyers and an accountant.  It’s sort of ironic because my brother was the one who would go buy these pots and utensils and he did a lot of cooking, but now he’s a senior partner at a law firm in Baltimore. I think he has always been a little jealous of what I ended up doing but he does well enough for himself.

When we were chatting earlier you mentioned that you come in early to do a lot of prep, bake your bread, etc. Do you have a lot of spare time?  What do you do when you’re not at the restaurant?

I have two wonderful little kids and they just love helping in the kitchen so we spend a lot of time cooking and then I make them clean. They’re really talented. Last year, when my son was seven, there was a talent show at his school. I was curious about what he was going to do because he doesn’t sing, dance or do magic. I asked him what he was going to do and he said, “I’m going to make sushi.” He put on his little chef jacket, went out there, made two types of rolls and had the time of his life. I had it in my head that you have to sing, dance or do magic for a talent show, but I didn’t realize that there’s something like the theatre of cooking that he sees everyday, he thinks I have a real talent and I put on a good show when I make sushi at home. I take it for granted but he thinks that it’s something people would like to see. It was inspirational for me.

That’s a great story, and I’m sure you must be proud to know that he was inspired by you. Who has been the biggest influence in your career?

It would have to be Chef Alois Ming. Here’s a little quirky fact, his father designed the can that Guinness comes in with the little widget inside. He was one of the head engineers for Guinness when they lived in the U.K. so Alois went to hotel school in Lausanne. He had this little family style restaurant but he did everything just proper and perfect and made fabulous fondue.  He inspired me to see food as something more, and that you could do food in a very civilized way.  He had a little kitchen and treated people well.

I’ve spoken to a few chefs and each has had their own unique definition of food, what does food mean to you?

To me it means everything.  It’s sustenance, it’s experiences, it’s memories, it’s such a huge part of our lives. When you work with it all the time, you live, you drink, you sleep, you dream of food. When I get home from work my wife asks me how can I turn on the Food Network, well I don’t know, it’s what I’m interested in. I think it’s a living memory, something that is constantly alive that you can pull from the past and think about for the future.

What ethnic food in Toronto is underrated right now?

I would say lesser known Latin American food such as Argentinian or foods from Costa Rica and Ecuador. I don’t know how they can express themselves, but I think its one of the few foods that isn’t really well pronounced within the city but I think will appeal to the city, especially Argentinian food like their bar-be-cue and their down to earth flavours.

We all have ingredients that we like to cook with and those that we can’t seem to master, what ingredient has troubled you the most?

Rice. If you want to put fear into a kitchen, tell them you need five litres of rice pilaf. People will run around not knowing what to do. I hate it. To do a simple rice pilaf it’s so difficult to get that texture, to get that taste from scratch. If you have a good rice cooker it’s easy but if you have rice, stock or even water and a pot, it’s tough.  It has ruined many a dish for chefs.

What are your thoughts on food trucks?

I think they’re fabulous. The people running the trucks are well trained and are passionate about food. If we want to be a world class city, we need better street food. We’re the most cosmopolitan city in the world, yet we offer sausage on the street corner. I don’t know why and I don’t know the politics behind it, but I think it’s silly. Toronto finally recognized this, but it’s just so slow in doing something about it to make a change. I think Toronto needs to be more confident in itself and say that our restaurants are good enough and we can withstand the competition from a food truck. Everybody thinks that it’s just going to destroy businesses but it ends up making it better, it ends up making it more exciting, more vibrant. It draws more people out because they know they’re going to end up with something great.

You’ve worked in quite a few kitchens and with many other chefs, in your opinion, who is the best chef that Toronto has produced?

That’s a tough one because there are so many talented chefs that come from Toronto. But for having it all, and for being able to make it work on so many different levels, I would have to say Mark McEwan. A lot of people only see the TV personna now but this is a guy who started out with not much when he opened up North 44 and went on to build an empire.  He’s still running great restaurants, he’s still relevant and he ensures that people have a great experience when they go to his restaurants. Definitely it’s Mark.

Rooftop patio

What are your plans for Jazz Bistro?

We want to stay dynamic, we want to stay exciting. This year we opened up our third floor and we’re feeling around trying to figure out what direction that”s going to go and what we can do with food up there. Beginning in September we’re going to really work on our catering and putting together a great party menu.  We’re going to continue having fun and giving our guests a great experience.

Third floor bar

Steinway at Jazz Bistro