LCBO Food & Drink Winter 2017

FIVE qUESTIONS WITH…

BY CYNTHIA DAVID  •  PHOTOGRAPHY BY ROB FIOCCA

SUZANNE BARR, CHEF/OWNER, SATURDAY DINETTE, TORONTO, SATURDAYDINETTE.COM

T here’s never a dull moment at Saturday Dinette. While customers line up outside the casual diner for homespun food infused with culinary genius, chef Suzanne Barr grooves to old records in her cramped galley kitchen. It’s a far cry from her days as a private chef, jetting between Paris and The Hamptons, or her former life as a New York TV producer—yet happiness shines through every plate.

What made your opening night more eventful than most? On Sept 13, 2014, I’m picking up the napkins we ordered when my doctor calls. I tell him I’m still not feeling well and he says he knows why, I’m pregnant! I get to the restaurant and I’m crying and laughing. My hus- band, Johnnie, asks if I got the napkins and if I’m excited about tonight. And I say, “Yeah man, it’s crazy and I’m pregnant and here we go.” And he says, “Wait, what did you say?” Where does your inspiration come from? The Dinette menu is me pulling from everything I’ve ever seen, every place I’ve ever lived, every- thing I’ve ever smelled. I accept it and love it and embrace it and I just put it on the plate. Do you really lie awake at night creating new dishes? For four months, I dreamed of an all-white plate just floating past

me. I didn’t know where I was going with it—garlic sticky rice, a thick bechamel sauce, salted cod and enoki mushrooms with crispy, barely-tinted leeks on top. Served with white wine. I know it sounds crazy but it’s my favou- rite dish. Do you have a favourite cookbook? My go-to cookbook for its beauty is Eleven Madison Park: The Cookbook by Daniel Humm. If I feel like red velvet cupcakes I open up Brown Sugar Kitchen by chef Tanya Holland in Oakland, California. Some of the pages are stuck together. What’s your latest passion project? I want to create a space where women can come in and gain real experience in the front and back of the house. One young lady began working with me doing basic prep and she’s now my pastry chef.

When you work on the line in a restaurant, there’s the pace, the heat, the pressure, things most people could never deal with. Others, like me, thrive on it and if we don’t have it we feel there’s something missing.

100  FOOD & DRI NK WINTER 2017