Holy mackerel! Drift catches top chef

Anthony Walsh coming to Halifax in fall

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Chef Anthony Walsh has opened restaurants across Canada, but never in Atlantic Canada.

That's about to change. Walsh, who rose to prominence as the executive chef of Canoe in Toronto, one of the country's top restaurants, has also hosted at James Beard House in New York.

In Halifax, he'll be the creative culinary lead at Drift, a new restaurant opening this fall in the Queen's Marque complex on the waterfront.

Walsh was born and raised in Montreal but has mostly worked in Toronto, where he's developed the supply chains necessary to feed his need to serve seafood.

The restaurant collective he runs is one of the biggest oyster buyers in Canada.

“As a cook, I am always so jealous of these culinary worlds on coasts and what they're blessed with,” he said. “Down there, it is so much better. West Coast oysters are better on the West Coast, East Coast oysters are better on the East Coast, putting it simply.”

Walsh's mother, who died three weeks ago, lived in Halifax for the last four or five years of her life, and he also has a brother and a sister in the city.

He visited the area often as a kid and has a long list of products he's looking forward to working with.

“Where do I start? In the fish game, mackerel. I know at one point it was bait, but mackerel, herring, sardines, obviously the more luxe guys, halibut, some of the tuna,” he said.

“Simply put, I'm a fish fanatic, but absolutely my favourite fish from a versatility context, for whatever reason, I would say it's mackerel. It's got to be beautiful, fatty. There's great mackerel and some that's more like cat food. It can get a bad rap, when in reality it's ethereal.”

Walsh intends to develop sources so Drift gets “the best of the best” seafood.

Walsh lists his favourite Nova Scotia chefs as Craig Flinn, Michael Howell, Annie Brace-lavoie and Renee Lavallee, and said he has four sous chefs in Toronto who want to move, in some cases move back to Halifax, to work at Drift.

“The quality of life, the vibe, it's a great, great city.”

Queen's Marque is a project of the Armour Group and will include 11 food and beverage establishments, from coffee shops to fine dining, with half a dozen large-scale restaurants.

Armour CEO Scott Mccrea said he's excited about Drift and about bringing Walsh on board, whom he's known about for decades.

“I do have a culinary interest and I think chef Anthony Walsh has really redefined Canadian cuisine in different ways,” Mccrea said.

“I think with his connection to the Maritimes and understanding of our place, and working with other local providers, I think we'll do the same here, letting Drift create a modern Maritime cuisine.”

Despite having a “culinary interest,” Mccrea laughed at the notion that he might offer Walsh some tips.

“We share the vision of what's possible here,” he said.

“Many Maritimers grew up with certain traditional dishes that we know, that our grandmother might have made and you have a visceral connection to. What he's proven with places like Canoe is the ability to modernize and transform those while still providing that kind of connection.”

Walsh won't be moving to Halifax full time, but Mccrea said he expects to work with him on future projects.

The goal for Drift, he said, is to write a culinary love letter to Nova Scotia and the Maritimes.

“To give you a sense of, ‘Hey, this fiddlehead soup is kind of like I used to have, but there's something different about it and it's fantastic.'”