Chef John Sinopoli of Table 17

John Sinopoli worked in high-profile New York establishments before coming to Canada, including Craft, which was named Best Restaurant in America in its first year of operation, and La Caravelle, a traditional French restaurant (now closed). In Toronto, he worked at Splendido in a collaborative environment headed by David Lee before opening Izakaya.

This interview is one of five I did with Ontario chefs for an article that was bumped from a print publication for lack of space. Chef Sinopoli was then executive chef and partner at Izakaya, the high-end Asian-theme restaurant on Front that closed in 2008, to the disappointment of many. He has since returned to a European menu as executive chef and partner at Table 17 (782 Queen East, 416-519-1851). I'll publish all five as separate postings; they all share the same format.

• Food style: Really comfortable good food
• Oddest customer request? "I'm allergic to starch, soya sauce, sesame and dairy." If you're allergic to all these things, you're in the wrong restaurant!
• Scariest moment in the kitchen? It's got to be as an apprentice cooking a risotto for a tasting menu with the owner and the chef standing right beside me... and realizing that there wasn't enough risotto cooked to cover the menu. We actually managed to cook it. And I think that's where a chef's real creativity lies, not in their "creations", but how they end up executing when they're put into one of these situations.
• Greatest triumph? Well, I was pretty happy to cook at the James Beard House in New York last year with the crew from Splendido. We did a phenomenal menu with wine pairings. And getting through the first year here is a triumph. But the thing I'm most proud of is the whole team here [at Izakaya].
• Wisdom for Other Chefs? Be modest. There's a reason that the French and the Japanese have a system of apprenticing under someone who is your senior. I think everything I have now is a testament to some chef who cared at me enough to yell at me.
• What's Cooking: I'm particularly proud of the cucumber salad we do [at Izakaya]. It's very simple, but the reaction we get from it is pretty amazing. The cucumber is pickled Japanese-style. It's sliced, peeled, seeded and soaked for about six hours in salt water, and we add some kombu (japanese seaweed). After we remove it and squeeze it out, we dress it in a sweet rice wine vinegar and serve it with harusume noodle (ours are actually potato starch noodles). We pickle sliced daikon the same way, and it's served with some daikon radish seedlings. Just a few ingredients highlight the flavour. It's simple, and people can't get enough of that.

Also check out:

• Craig Paulger, J. Dee's Market Grill (London)
• Raymond Taylor, Ponte Vecchio (Niagara Falls)
• Stephen Vardy, Black Cat Bistro (Ottawa)