C5
100 Queen’s Park (in the ROM)
416-586-7928

Though C5’s reception hinges more on James Chatto, Joanne Kates, and those old ladies on bus tours, Chef Ted Corrado is hurt by a recent review impugning the freshness of his fish. “Everyone’s entitled to their opinion, But the thing that really upsets me is when she mentioned the bass, that she can smell it two tables away. From Taro!” Taro is one of Toronto’s priciest purveyor of sushi-grade fish. “We’re having trouble keeping enough of everything. He’s flying everything in from Japan for us. And our fish is coming every day. Carlos is back there butchering the cod, butchering snapper again. And we’re so busy that we’re not even sitting on anything. Every day we’re selling out of something because we didn’t order enough. For her to say that (the bass failed her freshness test) is impossible. There’s no chance. So that pissed me off.”

Corrado shrugs a bit. It’s his one tribute to Italian gesticulation. “We’re having the same problem. A lot of people hate the building. So they already come kind of pissed off.” He’s talking about the Michael Lee-Chin Crystal, Toronto’s own lil’ Roe V. Wade, the new addition to the ROM, sparking polarized opinions from this town.

The dining room of C5 takes super villain chic to a new level. It’s lined with tall, jagged windows and filled with sleek, modern tableware. In no way is it cozy like a friend’s den or a charming little hole in the wall bistro. It looks like Darth Vader’s fuck-room. I like the crystal. Looking out at Toronto my posture lengthens and I clasp my hands behind my back. It makes me feel like a big shot. Unlike the doorman, who didn’t seem to want to let me up until I repeated Corrado’s name. “Customer’s aren’t getting directed properly. At the door they give people wrong information all the time, like that we’re closed. The door right now looks like you’re walking into a back hallway. It’s not very inviting. I’ve actually heard a few tables talk about how pissed off they are.”

For the last five years Corrado’s been working in the shadows of Lorenzo Loseto (George, Zoom) and the Rubinos (Zoom, Rain, Luce). His new employers Restaurant Associates are grooming him to be Toronto’s next celebrity chef. “When you’re on your own you’re… naked. You’re so exposed. There aren’t any dishes on my menu that I did at Luce but a lot of the stuff that I was interested in I now get to do at the level that I want. I get to perfect them and make them my own so that there’s a distinction between the guys that I’ve worked for and what I’m doing now.” He speaks with a casual confidence belying the monumental investment of C5. “I got my two thermo-regulators, I got a cryovac machine, I got an awesome smoker, I got a thermomix. Guy never stopped me from doing anything I wanted. When I wanted to try the sous vide thing, granted I couldn’t go and buy a proper thermo-regulator or a proper cryovac machine, but I got a thermometer and a pot.”

Down in the subterranean prep kitchen he still has that Xmas morning excitement showing off his toys. An arsenal of food prep gadgets surrounds silent figures in white quickly scoring the ends of heirloom cherry tomatoes or butchering hens or cod. Every surface has that mint condition glisten. “I saw Fast Food Nation last night. It made me think about some of the crap that I eat. And it’s super important to know where your food comes from. I want to buy as local as possible. And when that’s not available I’m sourcing it from the best purveyors I can get it from: Cumbrae’s, Taro, Cheese Boutique.”

Only recently has Corrado begun to cut back on his seven-day work week. But there’s no Food Network illusion of the one-man chef-show. “I think of (sous-chefs) Mike (Smith) and Luigi (Carnation) as equals. I try to give them props but at the end of the day, it’s what I want. Smitty’s big on the chacuterie tip. So he’s making all our bresaola, guancale, he’s got sausages hanging. There’s prosciutto down here that’s actually curing properly. Luigi on the other hand is heavy into cheese. He’s sourcing all the cheeses we want to use, adding elements on to the cheese plate.” Corrado would like to host guest-chef nights to boost the profile of new talent. “We’ve been stuck with the same five or six chefs in this city for a long time. I want to invite Craig Alley, Scot Woods, Nathan Isberg, the next generation.”

Meanwhile, Corrado remains humble about his approach. “I’m still trying to figure out what’s gonna work. I don’t want it to be pretentious. I have a business crowd that comes in for lunch who’ll fork out a couple hundred bucks on wine, have a few courses. I also have people who come to the museum in t-shirts. I hope that it’s food that they can relate to. I want people to feel really welcome here and not have that stuffy, fine dining experience. I’ve been running a sandwich special. Calamari sandwich, but it’s still a sandwich. I want them to feel comfortable. We’re not at King and Bay serving a bunch of guys in suits. There are a lot of blue hairs. They have no problem ordering sea bream ceviche or scallop salad. They’re adventurous eaters. Do I need a 34 dollar striploin on my lunch menu? Building up to this, yeah, I thought I did. Maybe I don’t.”