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November 2014 Vol. 29 No. 10
N A T I O N A L
C O V E R A G E
R E G I O N A L
F O C U S
Beyond
DUCASSE PARTNERS WITH GEORGE BROWN
RESTAURANTS RAISE FUNDS FOR THE CFCC
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FEATURE: How chefs are plucking poultry back into the spotlight.
Canada Post Publications Mail Agreement No. 40010152
Buca
From left: Ryan Campbell and Rob Gentile.
By Leslie Wu, editorial director
TORONTO—King Street Food Company is extending its portfolio with another Buca concept in Yorkville and a partnership with British chef Jamie Oliver that will take the company across the country and transform its business plan. Helmed by partners Peter Tsebelis, Gus Giazitzidis and chef Rob Gentile, the company’s burgeoning empire—which includes Jacobs & Co. Steakhouse, Buca Osteria & Enoteca, The Saint Tavern, Bar Buca and the recently opened Buca Osteria & Bar Yorkville—is launching a 200-seat, 7,500-square-foot Jamie’s Italian in Yorkdale Shopping Centre in spring 2015. Eight to 10 more locations of Parry sound, ontarIo
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the Jamie’s Italian concept, which currently has restaurants in the U.K. and eight other international destinations including Hong Kong, Sydney and Singapore, will roll out across the country within the next five to six years. The Yorkdale site will be deliberately larger to accommodate more customers and serve as a flagship for the Jamie’s Italian brand in Canada, the team will be looking at a footprint between 5,000 and 8,000 square feet, with 120 to 200 seats depending on the market and available location, said Giazitzidis. “Each location is very unique: the design is unique and menu offerings are different, depending on the community and the market there,” he said.
“It’s not a cookie-cutter concept.” Giazitzidis spent three months going through the Jamie’s Italian operations to get an understanding of its infrastructure. “They grew from one to 36 locations in six years in the U.K. alone. It was great to see what they’re putting into place, and the checks and balances to make sure that the product and food quality is consistent,” he told ORN. “We’re going to mimic essentially that kind of setup here in Canada.” Tsebelis said the team saw the partnership as an opportunity to learn a different model from their own. “Jamie’s out there talking about fresh ingredients and sourcing and traceability and so on, and they had
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some very empirical examples of how they manage it and consistently maintain it on a daily basis,” he said. “That was very attractive to us to be able to bring that, not only to Jamie’s Italian Canada, but to our own business as well.” The existing in-house butchering and local sourcing, overseen by Gentile, will carry on at Buca and the other King Street Food Company restaurants, using the new model to formalize standards with purveyors. The process will take between five to six months from start to finish. “As we change territories and markets, and move out of the southern Ontario market, we’ll be doing this over again,” said Giazitzidis. “We’re already working with local purveyors and we do a lot of the preparation in house with raw materials,” said Tsebelis. “Jamie is doing the exact same thing, and they put it into a business model which is incredible, such as how to maintain and track that traceability down to knowing exactly what boat a fish came from.” The focus on seasonality and traceability is the ethos behind the 3,400-square-foot, 85-seat Yorkville Buca Osteria & Bar, the latest entry into the King Street empire which opened in October. “We flipped the nose-to-tail concept from the King Street location of Buca—being the meat-focused restaurant that it is—to a fish concept using the same menu format and philosophy,” Gentile told ORN. He drew inspiration from the approach to fishing in Italy. “Certain types of fish aren’t even fished when they’re out of season because the Italians don’t think that they’re good enough to eat at that time, not because it’s there,” he said. “What a great idea to apply to Canadian fish and ingredients, because our country has amazing ingredients.” Continued on page 6
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