Black Hoof's charcuterie platterDarren Calabrese/The Globe and Mail
Over the past three years, partners Jen Agg and Grant van Gameren transformed the Black Hoof from an unknown hole in the wall to a wildly successful restaurant attracting hour-long lineups and serving some of the city's most exciting dishes. It's little wonder then that when Mr. van Gameren tweeted on Wednesday that he was leaving the Hoof, bloggers and foodies immediately went into a tizzy.
"Wow, so very sad," said one commenter on Chowhound, the popular online food forum. "NOOOOOooooooo," said another. Bloggers tried to dissect Mr. van Gameren's very short tweet, searching for possible reasons behind his sudden departure.
More than that, they wanted to know: Could the beloved restaurant, known for bringing charcuterie and nose-to-tail dining to the forefront of Toronto's food scene, sustain itself without its founding chef?
"I think that speculation has been answered for the last six months," said Ms. Agg, now the sole owner of both the Black Hoof and its sister space, Cocktail Bar. Prior to his departure, Mr. van Gameren had taken on an "executive" role outside the kitchen, she said, and guests had already been eating dishes under the direction of current head chef Brandon Olsen (and before that, chef Colin Tooke).
"The Hoof is going to be the same as it's always been," said Ms. Agg. "It's always constantly in motion going forward."
Mr. Olsen describes his cooking style as "along the lines of the hoof." And, at the young age of 28, his already-impressive resume shows he has the chops for the job – he was chef de partie at Thomas Keller's Ad Hoc for three years, and before that, an apprentice at French Laundry, another of Mr. Keller's top-rated restaurants.
He plans on staying close to the Black Hoof's roots and loves charcuterie, he says, but he'd like to experiment with not only Italian and French charcuterie, but also Asian varieties. He also plans on adding chocolates to the menu. He's learning how to make cheese, too, and can see it being added to the restaurant's menu in the future.
Ms. Agg described the split with Mr. van Gameren as "amicable," – not messy or ugly. "It's just done. We're happy, the staff is happy." She added that the timeline for Mr. van Gameren's departure was agreed upon together.
In June, Ms. Agg and Mr. van Gameren announced that they would delay their original plan of turning the space formerly used as the Hoof Cafe – the massively popular spinoff of the Black Hoof that they shut down in February – into a fine dining restaurant called BHCO. At the time, Ms. Agg said that they had put off their plans simply because they weren't ready.
Instead, the space became Cocktail Bar, meant as a stopgap until BHCO was ready to open. Though Ms. Agg says that she was supportive of the original BHCO concept, she acknowledges that it was a project mainly spearheaded by Mr. van Gameren. Now, Ms. Agg says the space will remain Cocktail Bar.
When asked what came first: the decision to keep the space as Cocktail Bar or Mr. van Gameren's decision to leave, Ms. Agg said "it's a real mystery. Not a mystery in my head, but it's hard to pinpoint the moment these things happen."
Mr. van Gameren was unavailable for comment after the announcement Wednesday. "No comment," he tweeted on Friday, followed by "Feeling the love. Thank you."
Chris Nuttall-Smith, a prominent Toronto food critic, said he's excited about the news not only for Mr. Olsen – someone he calls an "incredibly talented chef" – but also for Mr. van Gameren and the city's restaurant scene in general.
"For a long time, the Black Hoof really stood out because it was great, but also because there wasn't a lot else happening." Now, he says, "there are a number of guys on their own" – Black Hoof alum Geoff Hopgood, Mr. Tooke and, most recently, Mr. van Gameren.
"That's three great guys who have come out of that restaurant," he says. "I can't wait to see what they do next."
Ann Hui