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Each month we feature a Chef of Chef Works®. If you’re a fan of Chef Works gear and are interested in being featured, email marketing@chefworks.ca. Pictured above is our December Chef of Chef Works®, Chris Locke, photographed in his Uptown Cross-back Bib Apron.
Chef Works Canada: Give us your “a-ha” moment when you wanted to be a chef?
Chris Locke: I always had an interest in food from a young age and made my way into the kitchen when I was 16 years old as a commis chef and worked while I studied all the way through to my Master’s Degree where I studied business.
I loved working in the kitchen, but always thought it would be a passion that I could practice outside of my career in business. When I finished university and began working full time as a business manager, I longed to be back in the kitchen. The suit and tie were stifling, and the heat of the kitchen echoed in my head. It was soon after that I left my old life behind in the UK and moved to Australia to pursue my passion for food.
CWC: So the UK, to Australia and then to Canada? Anything in between?
CL: I first moved to Perth, Australia, and worked in fine dining for six months. That’s also where I met my wife. From there we moved to Tasmania and worked on a strawberry farm and set up a small restaurant on the property. Tasmania is a little self-sustaining economy with so many great ingredients and producers.
After leaving Australia we traveled through South America and extended our stay in Guatemala. The beauty of the Mayan culture runs thick through the veins of the people there and it comes through in the food and attitude towards eating.
Then it was off to a ski town in France before finally putting down roots in Toronto. We’re enamoured with the city. The food scene here is world-class and the celebration of multiculturalism is unparalleled. I am very happy and proud to call Toronto home.
CWC: What’s the most rewarding part about your job?
CL: The most rewarding part of the job is seeing your team develop. Having people around you who are as passionate about food as you are and watching them grow is immensely satisfying for me. We have an amazing team here at Marben and at The Cloak and I am hugely lucky to be able to see them all get better every day.
CWC: How would you describe your cooking style? Are you a technician? Or do you prefer to improvise?
CL: I like to challenge myself in my cooking by restricting the ingredients I allow myself and the team to use. The focus of the cuisine at Marben and at The Cloak is local and seasonal, using ingredients that are grown honestly by farmers and producers that genuinely care about what they do. This greatly reduces the availability of ingredients that we have in the winter months, but this restriction has pushed us to be even more creative with the things that we do have and learning to appreciate them to their full potential.
We work hard in the summer months to preserve as much as we can and use fermentation as much as possible to preserve and change flavours. We make our own misos, shoyu, kombucha, vinegars and fermented pickles to offset the lack of diversity in fresh produce and promote flavour range.
Roman Tufted Goose by Chef Chris Locke
CWC: What’s your best anecdote from the kitchen?
CL: Not exactly from the kitchen, but ingredient-sourcing. We went to visit one of our pig and chicken farmers, John Gerber of Tanjo Farm. After a tour around the property we came to a large enclosure full of water ducks. I asked what he did with them and he told me they were all sold as game birds for controlled shoots.
‘Why don’t you sell them to chefs?’ I wondered.
His reply: “Because nobody has ever asked.”
We committed to buying the whole flock that same day and had mallard on the menu all winter. In doing so we helped the farmer have guaranteed income on his hard work and secured a delicious duck on our menu that was unique to us.
CWC: What does it mean to be a chef in 2020 in the COVID era?
CL: 2020 is a unique time to be a chef. We are in an industry which is very familiar with change and ambiguity, but this year has been unprecedented. Learning how to change every single day has been physically, mentally and emotionally challenging. Being okay with ambiguity has been essential and navigating uncharted waters with your best estimations has been unnerving, but also greatly rewarding.
Being a chef regularly has always meant being a teacher, plumber, accountant, electrician, handyman, statistician, HR director, babysitter and the like. But this year has only increased the need for these traits in a chef.
CWC: What’s something about you that would surprise people?
CL: I never studied culinary arts or have any formal qualifications in cooking. I have always learned by watching, reading and failing. I think that there is an emphasis on getting formal qualifications which I don’t think is always the right choice for everybody.
Visit Chef Chris Locke’s social profile and his restaurants at:
Website: www.marben.ca and www.thecloakbar.com
Instagram: @marbenresto, @thecloakbar, @chrislockefood
Meet other Chefs of Chef Works:
Year 2020
Year 2019
- Chef Erik Mauke
- Chef Graham Smith
- Chef Marina Mellino, The Spice Chica
- Chef Roberto Bertozzi
- Chef Carlo Curto
- Chef Laura Maxwell
- Chef Pam Fanjoy
- Chef Renée Bellefeuille
- Chef Ned Bell – Ocean Wise Special
Year 2018