Pair of accomplished Toronto chefs moving into the gelato game this summer
Six years after their highly esteemed Toronto restaurant Canis closed its doors, chefs Jeff Kang and Tosh Agassiz are making the somewhat unexpected leap to open a gelato shop, but it's an idea that's been churning for more than a decade.
While a large part of their partnership has taken place on Toronto turf, Kang and Agassiz first met while working at Vancouver's Diva at the Met. A couple of years later, Kang moved to Toronto to work at the Shangri-La, poaching Agassiz to join him in the kitchen at Bosk.
Together, the pair opened Canis in 2016. The ever-evolving concept, which moved from a la carte to its lauded tasting menus during its four-year tenure, earned ample acclaim, like spots on En Route's best restaurants list and Canada's 100 Best, before the Covid-19 pandemic forced it to close in 2020.
Agassiz returned to Vancouver, while Kang stayed here, opening Oroshi Fish Co. and Takja BBQ. Throughout their entire time working together, they held the same dream: to open a gelato shop.
"I think we both always enjoyed [working with desserts]. For Canis, for example, we didn't have a pastry chef. We always enjoyed that side of the kitchen as well, which is maybe not super common for savoury chefs," Agassiz tells blogTO.
"I think, quite simply, we both have a sweet tooth, just like kind of a guilty pleasure. It's always just one of those things that's nostalgic. It's like, who doesn't like ice cream?"
When Agassiz fell in love with a girl from Toronto and moved back, taking a gig at The Fare Food Co., it felt like all the stars aligned. The two decided it was time to finally take a stab at the small-batch gelato shop of their dreams and, later this summer, Cono Gelato will finally arrive.
The shop will expand on the flavours — and rapport — Kang and Agassiz developed during their time at Canis, churning out ultra-small batches of gelato crafted with the same precision you'd expect of a fine dining establishment.
"The flavours will be a little bit more unique — not crazy — and then a lot of the flavours we've done at Canis, the kind of stuff that we really like, we're gonna probably put that on the menu, in flavours that are not so common; it's not just chocolate," Kang explains, though he's quick to add that they will have chocolate, too.
"I think the techniques behind it, you know, the flavour, texture, temperature stuff, that I think we're going very geeky on it, you know? I'm sure other gelato places are too; it's more chef-driven, I have to say. We've put a lot of thought into it," Kang says.
An extensive lineup of flavours has already been locked in, with a never-ending list of other ones in the works, but Kang and Agassiz tell blogTO that you can expect everything from sweet corn and blueberry to sourdough prailene. Due to the size of the batches, the flavours will switch up regularly.
While the gelato shop is a departure from both chefs' experience in the savoury realm, Agassiz and Kang have reached a sense of synergy, fostered by shared mentors and a near-telepathic understanding of the other in the kitchen, that makes anything, even the pivot from fine dining to a gelato shop, possible.
Cono will be located at 932 College St., and is expected to open in mid-July.
Jesse Milns at Canis
