FEATURED CHEFS - AAKASH DHALL
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“Everything has to make sense on the plate,” he says. “The textures, the colours, the flavours should all have meaning, everything in contrast.”
JULY 31, 2022
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HOST: CHEF AAKASH DHALL
Rooted in his classic French training and forever inspired by the lessons he learned in his mother’s kitchen growing up in India, chef Aakash Dhall has brought his zeal for food to a truly international list of cuisine styles in buzzy kitchens around Toronto, including Nota Bene, Gusto, Reverie At The Park, Tutti Matti and private members club Clio. A recent winner of Food Network Canada’s Fire Masters, Dhall currently works as a research and development chef at 1Hotels. His alma mater, George Brown College, recently announced a scholarship in his honour, which will assist international students pursuing culinary studies at the prestigious school.
“I always tell people that I love cooking Italian food, because it is so similar to the way we eat in India,” he says as an example of how all these cultural throughlines meet in his work.
“It’s everyone gathered around a table, and we feast together, “he says. “There’s also that same focus on seasoning and adding layers of flavour.” When he began learning to cook professionally, he found that it was all familiar to him, because he’d watched his mother do it. “How do you maximize every ingredient? How do you use spices? All of those I already knew.”
“If I were to define it in one word, my food style is eclectic,” says Dhall, who has spent the last nine months immersing himself in the cuisine of Japan in his role as a chef at the 1Hotel’s rooftop spot Harriet’s. That’s not to say it’s not intentional - far from it. “Everything has to make sense on the plate,” he says. “The textures, the colours, the flavours should all have meaning, everything in contrast.”
Photography: Marissa Joan Ho
Editing: Sarah Laing
Art Direction / Styling / Design: Lune
