We interviewed four MICHELIN-recognized Toronto restaurants and their purveyors to see how this honour has strengthened their relationships and reinforced the connection between the restaurants and the quality ingredients that define them.
Quality ingredients are integral to every delicious dish. For restaurants, access to exceptional ingredients is made possible from the network of artisans, farmers, and purveyors with whom they've cultivated lasting relationships that are rooted in trust, a shared commitment to quality, and often a mutual vision for sustainability and excellence.
Alma x Enright Cattle Company
Alma in Bloordale is known for its bold, comfort-focused cuisine shaped by chef-owner Anna Chen’s background, which combines her Hakka Chinese heritage and Indian upbringing with her training in Italian kitchens. The cozy neighbourhood space has earned a devoted local following for flavourful numbers like scallion bao with stracciatella cheese and pork wonton noodles dressed in black pepper-schmaltz sauce that all pair well with its thoughtful natural wine list.
Chen spent years sourcing quality local Ontario beef before partnering with Enright Cattle Company. She values their flexibility with specific requests and is glad to support a small family-run farm. “The entire flank steak plate is basically from them,” Chen says. “We even use their marrow bones for the beef bordelaise sauce.” With only a few cows processed weekly, availability is limited but Chen adapts her menu accordingly.
We spoke with Kara Enright, co-owner of Enright Cattle Company, a fourth-generation family farm in Tweed, Ontario about the naturally raised cattle she raises from birth to market weight, their ethical and sustainable practices, premium dry-aged beef and full-animal utilization.
I’ve had people literally sitting in a restaurant we supply, eating the beef, Googling “Enright Cattle Company,” and calling me from the dining room. It really helps local farmers when well-established restaurants promote your product – especially when they put the farm’s name on the menu or chalkboard.
Kara Enright, co-owner of Enright Cattle Company
Renée Suen: What distinguishes Enright from other producers?
Kara Enright: Our philosophy is to use as much of the animal as possible. As a small Ontario producer focused on sustainability and quality, we harvest about five animals weekly, so cuts are limited. We value restaurants that make non-prime cuts delicious. Tenderloins and strip loins are great, but there’s only so much per animal, so we need to ensure the rest is used just as well.
RS: Why do restaurants like Alma like working with you?
KE: I think they really value sourcing directly from the farmer. We’re in weekly contact via email, sharing what’s happening on the farm – how we raise the animals, what’s in season, and the challenges or opportunities we’re facing. It helps them understand how their food is raised and who’s raising it. They can easily ask questions or request custom cuts. That direct connection, consistent quality, and ability to customize are things they truly appreciate.
RS: Have you seen increased interest in your products from customers who have tried your beef at restaurants like Alma?
KE: I experience that quite a bit, both in the restaurant industry and with customers dining in. I’ve had people literally sitting in a restaurant we supply, eating the beef, Googling “Enright Cattle Company,” and calling me from the dining room. It really helps local farmers when well-established restaurants promote your product – especially when they put the farm’s name on the menu or chalkboard. That kind of visibility gives farmers brand recognition.
Chubby’s Jamaican Kitchen x Woodward Meats
A local favourite and celebrity haunt, Chubby’s Jamaican Kitchen is known for its lively atmosphere, warm hospitality, and serving the Island’s punchy flavours from curry goat to jerk chicken. According to General Manager Shannon Dempster: “When it was first announced that Chubby’s made the MICHELIN guide, it was a huge deal. A lot of places like Chubby’s – a Jamaican or Caribbean restaurant – don’t always get the spotlight. To know we’re one of the first, if not the only, Jamaican MICHELIN Recommended restaurant – three times over – is something we’re super, super proud of.”
To meet the growing demand, Chubby’s sources more ingredients, notably chicken from Woodward Meats, a trusted family-run Ontario wholesaler who has been supplying premium proteins to top restaurants for over four decades. We spoke with Dale McMenemy, the Toronto-based butcher shop’s Director of Sales about the MICHELIN effect.
More foodies are visiting, maybe even vacationing here, and while they’re hitting a few MICHELIN spots, they’re also exploring plenty of non-MICHELIN ones too.
- Dale McMenemy, Director of Sales, Woodward Meats
RS: How has supplying to MICHELIN-recognized restaurants affected your business?
Dale McMenemy: When we’re onboarding a new client and they ask, “Who do you sell to?”, we’re very proud to say we sell to 71 of the MICHELIN-recognized spots. That correlates into more sales, and new clients. MICHELIN clients like Chubby’s saw an increase in need, and that uptick carries over to our existing clients too. While it’s hard to measure exactly how much more restaurants are buying – especially with inflation and some restaurants are operating more efficiently – it’s clear that order sizes are up, volume is higher, there’s more frequent orders, and things are busier.
RS: Has having the MICHELIN Guide in town impacted your other clients?
DM: I think MICHELIN has really helped put Toronto on the map. Some people didn’t realize what a food city it is, but now they do. More foodies are visiting, maybe even vacationing here, and while they’re hitting a few MICHELIN spots, they’re also exploring plenty of non-MICHELIN ones too. I feel MICHELIN recognition also pushes restaurants to step up their game. If you're not on that list, you start asking, “what’s on our menu, and who are our suppliers?” MICHELIN restaurants are picky; they want the best of the best. For us, it speaks volumes that we deliver the quality they’re looking for.
RS: Have you also seen this demand for quality trickle down to smaller local businesses?
DM: We started working with a small, local Ontario wagyu farmer (Rolling Hills Wagyu) who's incredibly passionate about what he does. He’s just getting the ball rolling but has had huge success with a few animals he’s processed. We bought some from him and sold them to MICHELIN Recommended Jacobs & Co. restaurant a few weeks ago and I took a picture of the menu and sent it to him. Seeing his farm name on the menu he was like a kid on Christmas morning. It was really nice.
Indian Street Food Co. x Augusta Fruit Market
Yatin Bhatia is the chef-director of Indian Street Food Co., a MICHELIN Guide Bib Gourmand restaurant serving regional Indian specialties with bold flavours in a cozy, mural-lined space that’s inspired by the coffee houses and street vendors of Delhi and Mumbai.
Bhatia attributes the restaurant’s distinction to its commitment to fresh, high-quality food made with premium, locally sourced, never-frozen meats, along with strong support for family-run producers. “When your intent is right and the food is good, people notice,” he explains. “[To uphold the] standards of a MICHELIN-recognized restaurant, our price point is justified.”
Building on that reputation, the restaurant expanded to a second location at downtown Toronto’s Waterworks Food Hall soon after receiving its MICHELIN recognition in 2022. This growth has also deepened relationships with local suppliers, including vendors like Augusta Fruit Market – a respected Toronto-based wholesaler that’s been operating since the 1930s. Known for delivering high-quality produce and specialty goods to leading restaurants and hotels, their consistency and on-time deliveries have fostered trust and loyalty.
We spoke with Jason Amaro, General Manager of Retail and Wholesale at Augusta Fruit Market about his perspective on the impact of MICHELIN recognition.
RS: Have you seen a change in the order quality or volumes since MICHELIN landed in Toronto?
JA: It definitely has a trickle-down effect in terms of quantity. I haven’t done any analysis or looked specifically at restaurants that won awards, but when restaurants get featured by written media or TV spots, we see a surge in volume. People in the area or tourists want to try the MICHELIN Guide spots and we probably see, on average, anywhere from 10 to 30-percent bumps in what they’re ordering in the first three weeks after the awards.
RS: Can you elaborate on this trickle-down effect?
JA: Volume helps in a lot of ways. When you're growing more of a particular thing, it makes it more economical, rather than focusing on three or four items or having lower volume. It also helps because the more of something you sell, the fresher it tends to be, because you’re not getting smaller quantities that might linger [before it’s consumed].
RS: Bhatia from Indian Street Food Co. mentioned that he can rely on Augusta to bring in the specific edible flowers he needs downtown, can you tell us more about that?
JA: We've been bringing in edible flowers and a lot of garnishes, like micro greens, garnish greens, flower petals, even stems like lavender and herbs, for a very long time. Indian Street Food uses a lot of edible flowers for garnish, and they're fairly particular about what they like that other restaurants might not necessarily choose.
I haven’t done any analysis or looked specifically at restaurants that won awards, but when restaurants get featured by written media or TV spots, we see a surge in volume.
- Jason Amaro, General Manager of Retail and Wholesale at Augusta Fruit Market
RS: Can you comment on the change in demand and the impact has on local farms?
JA: There’ve been instances – especially in the last year – where local producers have flourished, mainly because of the tariff talk. There’s been a lot more leaning toward local produce, like vertically or aeroponically grown lettuces, which people are much more open to when they’re coming from local sources rather than traditional California [grown] salad.
Osteria Giulia x Pastificio Marcelli
Osteria Giulia is a MICHELIN-starred Italian restaurant in Toronto that’s renowned for refined dishes inspired by the Ligurian coast. It’s here in a serene, candlelit dining room on Avenue Road that chef-owner Rob Rossi creates crowd-pleasing numbers like the stracchino-stuffed focaccia and grilled market seafood with lemon and olive oil. While the menu dazzles across the board, guests are most drawn to the handmade pastas. Rossi credits the success of the pasta program to the invaluable support of David Marcelli of Pastificio Marcelli.
“[Marcelli] makes a lot of pasta for us,” says Rossi. We do intricate pastas like Trofie and Lorighittas in-house, but they’re labour intensive and cannot be made by machine. So, he supports us in that way and helps bolster our program so we can serve at this volume.”
Though Marcelli doesn’t work exclusively for the restaurant (MICHELIN Recommended Azura is also a client), his craft has become essential to Osteria Giulia’s success and reputation. The Canadian-born pastaio has long been recognized in the industry having worked as the pasta maker for Zucca, Scarpetta and Buca. We spoke with him about how supporting the restaurant’s pasta program has allowed him to pursue pasta-making full-time.
RS: Can you share a little about your business Pastificio Marcelli and how you became involved with Osteria Giulia?
Toronto’s full of great restaurants, and the MICHELIN Guide really accentuates what the city has.
- David Marcelli, Pastificio Marcelli.
David Marcelli: My little company is just me, a workbench, a mixer, and a pasta roller. It all started during COVID. Like many other chefs, I wasn’t working. Rob [Rossi] was opening Osteria Giulia, and I went to eat there and really enjoyed it. I noticed some of the pastas on the menu, especially the Lorighittas, which is a Sardinian pasta that’s like a braided ring. It’s very time-consuming and particular. I don’t think any other restaurant in Toronto – or even the country – makes it. It’s a pasta I love and have made many times. Back then, they were dealing with labour issues around pasta-making, which is all about skill and know-how. So, I said, “I can make this for you, if you’d like.” And that’s how it started. I’ve been making that pasta for them for about three years now, along with a few others, but they’re the main one.
RS: How much do you make and how long does that normally take?
DM: Right now, I’m making around 10 kilos a week for [Osteria Giulia], and it takes about 20 to 25 hours, depending on the dough, to cut the pasta and then roll each of the pieces by hand. Sometimes it’s humid, which makes the dough harder to work with, so managing all those little things adds up.
RS: Has the amount you’re able to produce made it possible for you to turn this into a full-time livelihood?
DM: It’s not 100-percent full-time for me, but I do work quite a bit trying to get all these pastas made. I’ve got a family with two kids, so I’m always balancing work and family. Having my own business has made things a lot more flexible, and I can handle both at once. MICHELIN recognition, I assume, bumped up their reservations because I saw an increase in demand. The holiday season also gets kind of rough because they’re looking for a lot of pasta. That one-and-a-half-month stretch is a little crazy, but it’s part of the business.
RS: What are your thoughts about MICHELIN in Toronto?
DM: Toronto’s full of great restaurants, and the MICHELIN Guide really accentuates what the city has. I think recognition always helps. The creativity of chefs will be there regardless, and I’m happy we have that recognition in the city. It helps drive for that next level.
