Ugly Duckling

The market’s fresh fish fuels an array of inspiring fare made by a kitchen team who clearly enjoys each other and their work.

By - Adrian Paradis

Photography - Jacqueline Downey

CHEF-OWNER CORBIN MATHANY FOCUSES on ambitious, technically driven food while uncovering the beauty in humble ingredients.

Everyone knows the story of the ugly duckling. This classic folktale reminds us that given proper time and effort, something beautiful can come from anything. This is the philosophy that chef and owner Corbin Mathany has taken in his approach to food in his new restaurant, Ugly Duckling Dining & Provisions. For Mathany, his calling was always clear. “I’ve wanted to be a chef since high school, for as long as I can remember,” he says. “My parents kind of made me go to university.” While in his undergrad at Brock University, Mathany says he went out to eat as often as he could afford. In his third year, he began working part-time at a fine dining restaurant. “I was just peeling potatoes and chopping onions, but I immediately fell in love with it. I finished university just to keep my parents happy.”

After he completed his degree in English Literature, Mathany went looking for a different kind of study at Stratford Chefs School in Stratford, Ontario. Then in 2012, he moved to BC and began working at Stage Wine Bar. “I was looking for an excuse to get out of Ontario, and I always had this idea in my head of what the West Coast was like,” he says. In addition to Stage, Mathany worked his way through a laundry list of renowned and quality restaurants in Victoria, including what was formerly Ulla and Relish. After working as the chef for a time at Hudson’s on First in Duncan, he worked as the sous chef at Wind Cries Mary for more than three years.

The team at Ugly Duckling: Arthur “Tito” Helip, Shane Jeffery, Christian Loewenstein, Corbin Mathany

During the pandemic shutdown, Mathany found the opportunity to plan the restaurant he had always dreamed about. “In culinary school, I would write business plans just as a fantasy,” he says. Ugly Duckling is designed as a love letter to Vancouver Island and the bounty it has to offer. Having a focus on tasting menus and terroir-driven food, much of their efforts go towards showcasing what the Saanich Peninsula has to offer through a blend of western and Chinese-influenced cooking styles. As a nod to the historic Chinatown they find themselves in, the first course of the tasting menu will feature a flight of snacks inspired by dim sum. “We want to serve ambitious, technically driven, and from-scratch food,” says Mathany.

Petits Fours: yuzu posset with freeze-dried raspberry; Earl Grey macaron; and white peach + jasmine tea pate de fruit

The warm brick and dim lights give the space an intimate and cozy feel, but the highlights of wood and tall exposed ceilings make for an elegant seating area. The design process was done by Edda Creative who has also produced familiar spaces such as Small Gods Brewing, Friends of Dorothy, and each iteration of Ulla and OLO.

“Snacks & Dumplings Inspired by Chinatown”: braised lamb bao, dungeness crab and sweet corn steamed custard, and Muddy Feet Farm heritage pork xiao long bao soup dumpling

Mathany says the name of his restaurant preceded the location, but the philosophy is clear. The Ugly Duckling embodies the rejection of traditional luxury ingredients in fine dining and instead focuses on putting in effort and love to uncover the beauty in more humble ingredients. At the time of writing, Ugly Duckling is not yet open, but it seems certain that this location will, like its namesake, grow and blossom.

Butter-Poached Halibut with white miso beurre blanc, kabocha squash, and puffed kimchi cracker