By Andrew Braithwaite | Photos by Rush Jagoe
Criss-crossing Canada this year to sneak a taste of the country’s newest restaurants felt a lot like time travel. Some chefs were channelling 1920s San Sebastián or 1830s Tokyo. Others dreamed up the sort of forward-looking wine bar whose new global tastes could easily belong in 2025 (spoiler alert: nori crumpets). For every renovation paying homage to a restaurant that had been a local favourite for decades, there was a worthy outlier replacing a Quiznos in a strip mall. Old-school dishes like creton en ploye leapt into the present, while modern flourishes like fir-tip emulsion tasted positively timeless.
In this back-to-the-future year, Canadian cooking was fresh, brilliant and very much ready to be enjoyed right now. Get it while it’s hot.
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