With his soft-spoken demeanour and his winter tuque pulled all the way down to his eyebrows, Geoff Hopgood comes off as sort of a shy guy at first. But get him talking and you soon learn that the Halifax native who opened Hopgood's Foodliner in Toronto just over a year ago loves to have a good time. Most often, Hopgood's fun is had at the restaurant – "it's like a party every night," he says – or at the apartment that he and his wife Lucy share nearby, in the city's Roncesvalles neighbourhood. "My wife invites people over when she thinks I haven't seen enough of my friends," Hopgood says with a chuckle. The menu is often a mix of special and simple, such as these gorgeous butter-poached oysters as a starter and something basic and spot on, like a perfect roast chicken, to follow. He might pair it all with a Portuguese vinho verde to drink. "It's a beautiful thing," the chef says of the decadent oyster dish. "Usually when you butter-poach something you need an emulsification of butter and water, but in this case you can use the brine from the oysters."
Read original article
You are viewing an Accelerated Mobile Webpage Opens in a new window.