A brief history of “ “

 

On May 10, 2022, it was announced that the legendary Michelin guide, which bestows honour and fame upon restaurants worldwide, would be formally considering Toronto’s restaurants for the first time.

This news sparked renewed interest in the almost forgotten story of a small restaurant in Toronto that, in the fall of 2013, made international headlines in the culinary world, only to disappear just as quickly — a failure that, to many food lovers, lowered a dark curtain over Toronto fine dining that has only been lifted with this very recent news.

1998: French “nouvelle gastronomie” pioneer Pierre Dumal arrives in Toronto for a business meeting at the King Edward Hotel. He is personally served lunch by head chef Karl Etting. At the close of the meal Dumal slices off Etting’s apron with his steak knife and burns it to ash with a lighter. A lifelong friendship instantly begins.

2001: Etting meets with investors for the launch of a new concept eatery, inspired by Dumal’s controversial philosophie of “dégoût des clients’ (“customer disgust”) where patrons will remove clothing at each course until they are in their undergarments, at which point they will be photographed for the restaurant wall then paraded through the streets. “Mepris” (“Contempt”) raises eleven million dollars, but on the eve of its debut the restaurant’s corkscrew cannot be found, and the restaurant never opens.

2004: Dumal’s protege, a South Korean “chef de scandale” named Oe, opens an illegal restaurant in the New York subway that serves tunnel rat eaten by diners in abandoned shopping carts. The waiting list is seven years. Etting procures a table by producing his apron ashes. He and Oe begin a correspondence.

2009: Oe and Etting launch Ka, which involves meals being prepared and served in supercars driven at perilous speeds on Toronto highways. The ensuing deaths and lawsuits cripple the partnership and Oe goes home humiliated. Months later Oe is discovered in a remote Gyeongju monastery, where his total silence is characterized by the other monks with the ancient Korean phrase “saguyi,” which translates as, “We know we’re, like, super quiet, but he’s like, hello, anybody there?”

2012: Etting proposes a “nouveau concept déconstruit” where diners will consume minuscule portions with the assist of high-powered microscopes and precision surgical implements. “ ” (no word, only quotes) makes headlines worldwide when it opens on October 12, 2013, only to close forever six minutes later when a server accidentally opens a window and a gust of air blows the food particles off diners’ plates. It becomes Etting’s third and final strike. He leaves Canada forever.

 

*** You can buy Jim’s stunning, hilariously fantastic new book, Temporary Libraries here.