When I was seventeen, my family moved to Hong Kong. For the months that I lived there, I didn’t have to go to school. I found this to be quite liberating, but my father thought it might be beneficial for me to occupy myself. “Idle hands, yadda, yadda, yadda…” So occupy myself I did. With food. I discovered I had a love for food previously unbeknownst to me. I would cook everything in sight, and explore the food markets, filled with wonder. I brought this enthusiasm back to Canada, where I finished high school and plunged into restaurant life. I spent the next 15 years in some of Toronto’s best kitchens, including Auberge du Pommier and Mistura. And then I went north.

In 2008, I moved to Grey County to be the chef at The Falls Inn in Walter’s Falls. It was an easy cooking job, as the bounty of the region needed little help to reveal its beauty. I realized here that Toronto needed to discover the remarkable quality and variety of food produced by the small farmers who rarely have the means to  get their goods into big city shops. Especially the meat. That winter, I returned to Toronto to teach at George Brown College, while pondering how to express my love of the farmland in the city.

At the end of the summer of 2009, I figured it out. While walking
through Kensington Market one day, I noticed a “For Sale” sign on a historical butcher shop. Max and Son had been serving the community for over fifty years. Solly Stern was ready for a break. And I was ready for mine. Within a week the decision was made. I would open a small butcher shop in the heart of one of the world’s greatest markets. I would showcase the exceptional Ontario meat and poultry I have been fortunate to work with as a chef.

And I would thank my dad for making me put my idle hands to use.

Peter Sanagan