Virtual chefs tables connect with diners at home
Pull up a seat at a sushi counter, beer tasting or Italian meal from home
At the high-end Japanese restaurant Shoushin, chef Jackie Lin is known for his interaction with customers seated at his sushi counter. While Lin and his team have been preparing food for takeout and delivery through the pandemic, he found himself missing these chats with his guests.
So he recreated the experience online through a virtual chef’s table. It’s something that Lin and other Toronto chefs have been experimenting with to keep customers engaged while their restaurants are closed to dine-in guests.
On Mother’s Day, Lin virtually led a group of customers, mostly Shoushin regulars, through an eight-course omakase meal. The meals were separated into two boxes — appetizer courses and mains. They were delivered to customers’ homes on the afternoon of the event and guests were instructed to remove boxes from the fridge about 45 minutes before the 7 pm start time.
“We don’t want to cool down the rice too much because it’s best to enjoy it at room temperature,” Lin explains “Otherwise, the rice gets hard.”
Once all the diners logged on, Lin’s virtual sushi counter experience began. Michelle and Aaron Brown are regulars at Shoushin and were two of 25 guests to participate in the online dining experience.
“The first box was almost like a tic tac toe board divided by palm leaves,” Michelle Brown explains. “There was a card and each item was numbered on the card with a description. So Jackie would say, ‘Okay, we’re going to do number one.’ And then he would talk about that particular dish and explain everything.”
While the Browns didn’t know any of the other guests at the virtual dinner, they enjoyed the opportunity to connect with new people and hear their impressions of the food.
“Given the circumstances, to be able to enjoy Shoushin food and to be able to talk to Jackie was amazing,” Aaron Brown says. “The food was incredible. It’s the COVID-19 experience. It’s the next best thing to having Jackie place a piece of sushi in front of you.”
While Lin was a little nervous hosting guests online for the first time, the evening went off without a hitch from his customers’ eyes. “Being able to see some of the guests that I usually see every other week or every month, it was great, even though it’s through a camera and a screen,” says Lin. “I really do miss the interaction with guests.” Shoushin has since hosted a second virtual event, a hand roll-making class led by Lin, on May 31.
When eateries are allowed to re-open to dine-in guests, reduced capacities will force restaurateurs to think creatively to keep their customers engaged during a pandemic. Virtual chefs tables are one way to do that.
The west end Italian restaurant Il Covo has also hopped on the virtual dining bandwagon, hosting four-course dinners led by Il Covo chef Ryan Campbell which included a radicchio salad, grilled strip loin steaks and tiramisu. Event planner Carmen Luk helped Il Covo and Shoushin execute the logistics, delivery and promotion of virtual dining events.
She’ll soon be hosting her first brewery event in mid-June. While Steam Whistle would normally throw a launch party to introduce a new product, the Toronto craft brewery is moving the celebrations online for June 18. Guests who purchase a ticket in advance will be guided through a tasting of the brewery’s new session lager paired with food from their Biergarten restaurant delivered to their homes.
For the west end catering company Urban Acorn, pivoting their monthly vegan supper club online has required some creative adaptations.
“Certain things don’t travel well,” explains co-owner Marie Fitrion who runs Urban Acorn alongside her husband, chef Daniel Holloway. When their March 28 supper club was cancelled, they had already purchased enough ingredients to host a six-course dinner for 45 people. So they adapted their existing menu to be deliveryfriendly. “Our dessert was supposed to be a crème brûlée, but we had to turn it into a flan since we couldn’t torch the sugar right before serving,” Fitrion says.
They’ve since developed supper club menu items that can be easily transported and enjoyed by their customers. Hosting their now-biweekly vegan supper clubs has been a way for Fitrion and Holloway to recoup lost income due to pandemic cancellations. Eighty percent of the couple’s business usually comes from weddings and large events. “Catering relies on future events, but everything’s kind of up in the air,” Fitrion explains. “Deliveries have been booming, but it still only makes up such a small fraction of our business.”
Since the pandemic, the couple has executed five virtual supper clubs. They deliver the meals themselves in the days leading up to the events and host the dinners from their home kitchen. During their last vegan supper club, an Eastern European-themed meal, one of Fitrion and Holloway’s kids even made an appearance on Zoom before their bedtime.
“I think it gives people an opportunity to feel connected again and talk to other people outside of our circles,” says Fitrion. “After the supper clubs, I’ve had people message me and say ‘I needed that connection with other people. I needed to feel like we’re all in this together.’ ”