Meet Tara O’Brady, the Undercover Writer Behind Air Canada’s Best New Restaurants 2024

enRoute To keep your experience anonymous and special treatment off the table, you dined under an alias. Tell us about the name you chose.

Tara O’Brady It was Leela Malhotra. Leela is my dog, a silly little terrier, so it was amusing to walk into restaurants, ask for a reservation under her name, and imagine her on a big night out. I also had to tell my guests that our reservation was under Leela, and my friends who knew were like: “Your dog?” It was great.

ER At every stop, you dined with different dinner guests, from fellow panellists and judges from Wall of Bakers to your sons and husband. What was it like to have your sons join you as guests?

TO Because we were dining out in a more professional context, I loved seeing the aha moments my sons experienced as they were understanding and thinking about food differently. I don’t expect them to be great chefs or lovers of all things food – that’s not the path for either of them – but their growing interest in technique, provenance and tradition is important and empowering. Being able to discuss those things with them was very special, and also ridiculously fun. At one restaurant we were talking about the tang of lactic acid. That’s not a conversation we would usually have.

ER Let’s get into restaurant trends. What’s hot right now?

TO Eggs: The incredible edible egg is everywhere. There is a pickled egg at The Starlight, soft-boiled at Bar Henry, devilled at Juliette Plaza, oeuf mayonnaise at Parapluie, Scotch eggs at F&B Restaurant. I could go on…

Savoury pastry: I saw a lot of maritozzi (at Bar Henry and Osteria Elio Volpe, notably) and a chicken liver version with caviar at Bar Prima. There is also a scrumptious lobster éclair at Caméline.

Large-format vegetable dishes: Over the years, we’ve been seeing vegetables get the attention they deserve, and treated with as much care and nuance as meat. The roasted radishes at Little Wolf are brilliant. Bar Prima has a fantastic asparagus dish.

Creamy on the bottom, crunchy on top: There’s another trend toward having a creamy base on the plate, and something with a crumb on top, whether a nut mix, granola, dukkah or seed mix. Adding a vegetable to make it a triumvirate is very popular.

Finely shaved fennel is having a moment: I love how much brightness and hydration it brings to dishes. Sometimes you need that watery crunch, especially as a balm to rich sausage and meatier dishes.

We’re in our Italian era: We’ve moved from the French buvette toward the aperitivo bar, getting into regional and coastal Italian as well. Bar Henry is northern Italian. Bravo has a global coastal menu, but a lot of it is Italian. Then there’s Sicilian with Osteria Elio Volpe. Bar Prima’s Italian. We’re definitely having an Italian love affair right now.

ER Fill in the blank: It’s the year of the…

TO Couple: So many restaurants on this year’s longlist are run by couples and partners – in some cases romantic, in others simply business, but always in collaboration. It is really rather beautiful, these combinations of talents and perspectives, and the trend hopefully speaks to a larger, healthier movement of sharing workloads and responsibilities in restaurants.

ER What are some of the design trends you spotted?

TO Bright or dark vibes: In terms of ambience, we’re in a place of contrasts. Some rooms were really sunny, white and beachy, then we would swing over into deep and moody colours. There was not a lot of in-between.

Statement pieces: The mural at Bernadette’s, hand-painted by Kayla Bellerose, is so joyful, with a profusion of blooms and foraged foods that speak to heritage and sense of place. At Gary’s, a huge painting of a car by Dan Climan reflects the owners’ love of travel and road trips. There’s something unexpectedly calming about the flatness of his style.

Art collections: The art collection at Contrada felt like the curated viewpoint of a person I want to know. I kept thinking, “I want that in my house,” as my eyes flitted between a huge Fellini film poster and watercolour paintings.

Groovy oranges and textures: Orange was definitely the colour of the year. Orange patterned floors, orange banquettes, tied in with 1960s and 70s notes in decor. Those design eras also came across in penny round and patterned floors and entrancing counters.

A sense of humour: A place like Juliette Plaza is exceedingly fun. There were Asterix comic strips on the walls, Lego bouquets amid the real ones, bears branded into the tables, an upside-down boat hanging from the ceiling and a diorama in the front window with an octopus, robot and a chef with a kraken coming out of a pot. There’s also a portrait of Juliette Paquette Crête, chef-owner Charles-Antoine Crête’s mother, made from her ashes by painter and novelist Marc Séguin. I could get lost in the walls quite easily.

ER Your culinary marathon took you to more than 16 cities and communities across the country. Were any of them new to you?

TO I’d never been to Edmonton before, and I was really taken by the diversity there. I visited Bar Henry, Bernadette’s and Little Wolf, and each restaurant felt very individual. I’d never confuse one for the other. I am eager to explore more of the food scene.

The whole experience made me want to explore Canada more. That type of green you can find only in the Newfoundland landscape, the great stories from taxi drivers on Prince Edward Island and smaller town treasures like The Starlight in Stratford, and Fat Rabbit in St. Catharines dotting our maps… get me a plane ticket, a car and GPS and I’ll be happy.

No matter where I was, I found places that reminded me of the brilliance and bravery of this industry and community. Everywhere I went, I wanted to spend more time with the people I met.

ER How do you pack for a five-week, cross-country marathon like this?

TO I thrive on compartmentalization, thus I’m a big believer in packing cubes – not only for compacting, but also to know where things are so I can pull them out if I need to at security.

I also try to use multipurpose products and make sure I use a solid sunscreen stick and conditioner and shampoo bars. It’s great for waste and it also means I have less to worry about at security.

I like to walk and run as much as I can – and I covered a lot of kilometres on this trip. I make sure to have a variety of footwear and clothes for different environments. I packed one marshmallowy comfy outfit that felt like a warm hug because sometimes you need that when you have an early morning flight.

There are silly things I do, too, like pack my favourite chocolate bar, Soma’s Mint Bar, and a few protein bars. There’s something about the mint that feels invigorating. It’s all about finding a balance between paring things down and making sure you have those small luxuries.

ER What were your favourite souvenirs from the road?

TO Bison pepperoni from Tradish’s The Ancestor Café. Also, I thank the security at Winnipeg Richardson International Airport for not questioning why I was travelling with two crullers, a chocolate chip cookie and an entire loaf of sesame sourdough bread from Crumb Queen/Andy’s Lunch in my carry-on. I saved the postcard that came with the bill at Osteria Elio Volpe, and I also have a collection of all the business cards that I could snag along the way. With the devilled egg service at The Starlight, they give you a tiny Tabasco bottle that says, “Light it up.” The server said, “If it happens to go home with you… that’s fine.” It happened to go home with me.

ER Can you share a sneak peek of what we can expect from the Top 10?

TO Variety: The class of 2024 is as diverse as the country.