You may not know it — or even like it — but Jen Agg has changed the way Toronto eats. She is the matriarch of the Black Hoof empire, which has shaken Toronto’s culinary foundations and spawned some of the city’s hippest and hottest chefs.
Alongside Grant van Gameren, who co-founded The Black Hoof and is now at Enoteca Sociale, the list of chefs that have passed through the Hoof’s kitchens includes Geoff Hopgood of Hopgood’s Foodliner, Guy Rawlings of Bellwoods Brewery and Colin Tooke of Grand Electric.
Agg had her start bartending around town after escaping Scarborough’s clutches. By age 21, she was calling the shots, opening Cobalt, her own cocktail bar in Little Italy. After both her marriage and business with her then husband ran their respective courses, Agg was on the hunt for something new.
With the help of her boyfriend (now husband), artist Roland Jean, Agg spent two years being “blissfully unemployed,” cooking every day, throwing dinner parties and planning her next move. She stayed abreast of the culinary scene worldwide and was particularly taken with what was happening in Spain.
“Charcuterie was always something I was eating and serving,” she notes. It was decided: Hogtown needed a charcuterie restaurant.
Seeking out a culinary partner in crime in a way few could, Agg advertised on Craigslist. When Grant van Gameren answered her advert for a charcuterie chef, the pair set up camp on the then dingy strip of Dundas West. The Black Hoof was born, and its sight was set on putting charcuterie on the map.
At the original eatery, Agg and van Gameren offered up dishes with a creativity previously reserved for diners with more than a fistful of pennies in their pockets.
Agg’s plan was carefully crafted from the get-go. “I’d been holding on to this vision for at least six months and had a solid idea of what I wanted,” she says.
Replacing table linens and chef’s garb with indie-rock and jeans, the idea was to serve “really delicious food but have it be a super-casual atmosphere.”
Known for her blunt manner and staunch opinions, Agg is not one to beat around the bush. Noting that the biggest misconception about her is “that I’m a bitch,” she agrees that her gender has played a role in this.
“It’s a man’s world; it’s a man’s industry,” she explains. “I’m an opinionated woman, a strong leader and I’m good at business — if a man were in that position, he’d be heralded for that.”
In Geoff Hopgood’s words, “Jen has been leader of the pack in Toronto for quite some time now — with her angle on restaurants and what she does. She is quite a visionary — what she sees, she does, and she does it very well.”
When van Gameren departed from the Hoof last summer, Agg declared that his move had been brewing for some time and firmly asserted that there was no story to be told.
Boldness aside, Agg has a wry sense of humour and an easy laugh. When paired with her complex, phrase–filled vernacular that’s peppered with profanity, it’s easy to see how others are both drawn to — and intimidated by — her presence.
Fiercely loyal, Agg places a great deal of trust in her staff and has a real knack for nurturing talent.
“I’m not a qualified chef, but I’m certainly a qualified critic,” Agg says.
“We [Agg and van Gameren] made the Hoof together, and quality chefs lead to more quality chefs. Brandon Olsen is the current creative force behind the menu. I trust him implicitly. We sit down and talk about ideas at least once a week, but the menu ideas are his.”
Van Gameren says Agg is unmatched in her attention to detail and is “stimulated by the people around her, and constantly on the search for something new.”
He goes on to say, “Setting trends, as well as elevating old ones, is the key to the Hoof’s success. Not only has she changed the cocktail scene in Toronto, but she has maintained an almost unattainable success rate as a restaurant owner.”
Many of those who have stepped out from under the Hoof’s umbrella have made their impact felt around town. The most widely trumpeted departures were those of chef Colin Tooke and front-of-house manager Ian McGrenaghan, who left to open Grand Electric in Parkdale to great fanfare.
The buzz surrounding the spot, helped by the restaurant landing on numerous “best of” lists, has yet to die down.
Agg was with them every step of the way: “I couldn’t be more proud of them and what they’ve done. It’s so delicious and perfect; it has the same heart as the Hoof.”
McGrenaghan says, “For myself and Colin [Tooke], she has been one of the most supportive people I’ve ever met.”
“She’s incredibly driven, intelligent and caring — as well as being inspirational. She taught me that running a restaurant could be done in a way that wasn’t cookie cutter.”
Meanwhile, Agg has done nothing to slow the pace back at “Hoofland.” After van Gameren’s departure, some speculated the end was near. Instead, Agg opened Cocktail Bar, doing away with the much-ballyhooed-but-never-arrived Black Hoof and Company.
Most recently, she added Hoof Raw Bar to her roster, moving Jonathan Pong over from the Hoof to head the kitchen.
Serving seafood charcuterie, which has been pinpointed as a 2012 food trend, Agg has proved once again that she has her finger on the city’s culinary pulse.
“I didn’t know it was necessarily a thing. I just thought it was a great complement to the Hoof,” she says. “In some ways, the restaurants are mirror images of each other. It’s the anti-Hoof: it’s bright and light and calming — despite the fact that we’re playing punk and garage.”
So, what’s in Agg’s future?
“I love opening restaurants. It’s intense, it’s horrifically stressful — but you forget how much it hurts,” Agg says. “I think that the Hoof forged a certain kind of path in Toronto — not necessarily in the world, but in Toronto.”
“It’s an industry I really want to do another way: it’s about the diner relinquishing a bit of control. I can’t understand when people fumble with that incredibly generous lob.”
