Cory Vitiello doesn’t fit in. He’s not a tight-lipped member of the old guard of chefs that treats his kitchen like a military regiment. Nor is he a tattoo-clad member of the new guard of self-taught chef-owners à la Grant van Gameren. And a reality television–minted, over-the-top character he certainly isn’t. He doesn’t sport frosted tips, or spew catchphrases (thank God). And yet, this Brantford, Ont., native has somehow become one of Toronto’s most eligible chefs about town.
Whether it’s T.O.’s gossip godfather Shinan Govani gushing about Vitiello’s star-studded love life in the Star, or Toronto Life crowning him one of the city’s best dressed, this young chef is turning heads.
You’re almost as likely to dig up a blog article drooling about the chef’s cloud-light doughnuts as you are a Sunday feature rhapsodizing over the chef’s red carpet–calibre looks.
When pressed about whether he enjoys that aspect of the limelight, Vitiello becomes uneasy. He slouches his shoulders and averts his eyes.After a moment, Vitiello spits out an answer: “That stuff is fun to be a part of, and that’s what that is. You have to take it with a grain of salt. My mom probably enjoys it more than I do.”
He then regains his composure.
“I don’t take it too seriously. At the heart I’m a cook.”
During high school, Vitiello was far more taken with cooking than more scholarly or athletic pursuits (he happily admits to being unco-ordinated, comparing himself to an “unfolding lawn chair walking down the street!”). The Harbord Room co-owner became infatuated with cooking at a young age. At seven, his Christmas wish list included an Easy-Bake Oven.
With three boys and two working parents, the Vitiello family ate meals that were mostly “utilitarian.” Once a month, however, the family would trek out to Fort Erie to visit the paternal grandparents.
“Like typical Italian grandparents, they made their own wine, their own salami; well, basically, they made everything from scratch,” says Vitiello, a nostalgic smile spreading across his face. “I always had a huge interest in what they were doing.”
Most Grade 10 students are more focused on getting the girl or learning their lines for the spring production of Hamlet. Not so for Vitiello. At 15 he started a catering company out of his parents’ kitchen. The menu included pastas, salads and cakes at rock-bottom prices, which he sold to “neighbours, parents’ friends, basically anyone who wanted to exploit a 15-year-old child worker.”
A year in, the endeavour became too stressful. “I think I decided to quit after someone asked me to cater a wedding,” says Vitiello, who then readily cops to forgetting the order. “She showed up to pickup her order, and I tried to replace everything with Loblaws-bought stuff, and she called me out on it. But really, who asks a 15-year-old to cater a wedding? It’s economical, I guess.”
Vitiello’s CV is particularly impressive for a 35-year-old. The Stratford Chefs School grad has already hosted a soap opera season’s worth of talk show segments and has opened three massively successful restaurants (the Harbord Room, THR & Co. and Flock). The most venerated of which is the chef’s very first restaurant, the Harbord Room.
“This is always going to be home base, the baby. On nights I don’t have to be here, I find myself here more and more,” says Vitiello.
When the 60-seat room opened seven years ago, it quickly became a Toronto favourite. Not only was the food one step in front of the trends (seasonally driven plates featuring global influences with nose-to-tail elements), but the neighbourhood bistro quickly garnered an aura of star appeal.
If you ask Vitiello about the many celebs that have noshed on his grub, he’s quick to dismiss the hype.
“Look,” says Vitiello with a pinch of pique, “Jake Gyllenhaal was once here for half an hour three years ago, and you’ll never see him here again, ever. I think we often get mocked up as a celebrity hot spot, but I don’t think that is at all the case. I think of us more as a neighbourhood restaurant. We don’t have flash.”
Soon, however, Vitiello himself might become the celebrity attraction. The young chef is in the throes of filming a new cooking show called Chef in Your Ear. He — along with five other chefs (Rob Rossi (Bestellen), Craig Harding (Campagnolo), Devin Connell (Delica Kitchen) and Jordan Andino (Harlow Sag Harbor) — will be coaching initiate cooks through complicated recipes. The catch? They can only communicate to their proteges via an earpiece.
“I use my hands a lot, even though they can’t see me, so that didn’t work too well,” says Vitiello with a laugh.
Although there’s no money at stake on Chef in Your Ear, pride is on the line — not the typical, chef bravado pride. On this show, the loser is subject to whatever humiliating fate the winning chef wishes to bestow upon him. Today, in between running three restaurants, Vitiello has had to grout an opponent’s floors.
“It’s not that I mind grouting floors, but if I’m doing it, they better be my floors!”
Chef in Your Ear debuts Aug. 31 at 10 p.m. on Food Network Canada.
