Justin Champagne-Lagarde

Bar Lupulus

“Perceptions of fine dining have been changing since the days of Escoffier. Different markets adopt different aspects. While white-linen service never largely caught on in Canada, many of the world’s best restaurants still offer that kind of experience. People will always want it. My view on what fine dining means today is fantastic ingredients from great sources, treated respectfully and taken seriously. Service should be fluid but not stuffy. It’s difficult to guess what true fine-dining service will look like after the pandemic. I’d like to think we’ll regain some semblance of normality.

“Takeout is not something I expected to focus so much on in my career. You need to make sure that the food being offered for takeout travels well and our customers get a similar experience as if they were sitting in the restaurant. Right now that means offering a more comforting menu. I really miss putting together more refined dishes for dine-in but have gotten similar satisfaction from all the R&D in our deepdish pizza. There’s been some concern that with all the restaurants focusing more on takeout that menus may all end up looking too similar. But again, that’s just one of our tasks as chefs, to overcome the problems and use our individual creativity to make our food stand out.”