On the Grill

 

With Chef Tobias Grignon - Bistro Pastis

“This man knows how to cook French food the way it should be cooked,” says Bistro Pastis owner John Blakeley of his Executive Chef. Inspired by the Iron Chef programs he watched while growing up on Gabriola Island, Tobias Grignon was cooking at home by age 11. A family vacation in Tuscany cemented the idea of a culinary career. Training at Malaspina College followed by more training at Vancouver Community College led him to the kitchens of the Fairmont Waterfront, the Fairmont Empress, Wedgewood Hotel, Le Gavroche and Senova before he found his true home in 2011- heading the brigade at Kitsilano’s Bistro Pastis.

Three words to describe your cuisine:
Refined, uncomplicated, flavourful

Your signature dish:
Scallops with fennel puree, black truffle and grapefruit

Best part of Vancouver’s Dine Out festival?
Having an opportunity to showcase my food to a whole new clientele

The dish customers must try During Dine Out?
Steak Bordelaise. It is simple, definitively French, and impossible to improve upon.

What is one thing in your kitchen you could not live without?
Since Bistro Pastis is a French restaurant, it has to be butter!

One ingredient you could not cook without?
Good quality salt. It’s often all you need to perfect a dish.

Favourite vegetable?
Three way tie between Brussels Sprouts, Artichokes and Fennel

Who is the unsung hero in your kitchen?
In almost every kitchen it’s the dishwasher. Without a good dishwasher your whole restaurant suffers

Who inspired you to become a chef?
No one person in particular. I started making my own meals at home when I was 11 and since then every great cook I meet or see inspires me in their own way.

If you could give just one cooking tip, what would it be?
Don’t fear salt

A talent you possess that many are unaware of?
I can whistle with my mouth closed (almost closed)

What is your all-time favourite dish?
I can’t - picking a favourite dish is like choosing which child you love more.

Who is your favourite local chef?
I don’t dine out that much. However, I’m very fond of what Angus An is doing at Maenam

Favourite Celebrity Chef?
I’m a fan of Jamie Oliver; not so much for his cooking but for his crusade to change the way people think about food. He is spreading a very important message.

Your biggest indulgence:
I have been known to eat freshly spun ice cream directly out of the machine

Favourite restaurant you like to visit?
Guu on Thurlow, and Dai Tung on Kingsway for dim sum – these two have definitely seen me more than any other restaurants in town

Best place for a pizza?
My house

Best date place?
Bistro Pastis of course!

If you could pick anyone, who would you’d like to sit down and have a meal with?
Anthony Bourdain maybe; I think he would have some good stories.

A restaurant you’d recommend to a tourist who only had one day in Vancouver?
Right now I would say Hawksworth. The food is excellent and its cuisine is definitely Vancouver.

Bistro Pastis
2153 West 4th Avenue, Vancouver, BC
604.731-5020
www.bistropastis.com