When I first heard the news that David Lee and Yannick Bigourdan had sold Splendido restaurant to two of their employees, chef de cuisine Victor Barry and general manager Carlo Catallo, I didn't know whether to laugh or cry.
Despite Mr. Bigourdan's assertion that this was a "family deal," Mr. Barry and Mr. Catallo have made no bones about their plans to reinvent Splendido, starting with a month-long renovation in July. The change will likely usher in a new era of less formal, more accessible dining.
I've eaten some of my best meals at Splendido. Mr. Lee is one of the few chefs I know who treats an Ontario strawberry with as much reverence and respect as a white truffle, who can upend your idea of a perfectly cooked egg yolk by turning it - as if by alchemy - into something resembling an amber jujube.
But despite Splendido's Old World charm and impeccable service - it's the only dining room left in the city with both purse stools and a champagne trolley - the Harbord Street restaurant was beginning to feel like an elegant but aging spinster aunt. While the rest of the block was buzzing with bistros, Splendido studiously kept its own counsel. Dark windows and valets that once lent it an air of privacy and exclusivity were beginning to make it feel outdated and irrelevant.
Splendido's story is the story of a city coming of age - at least, culinarily speaking.
I can remember my first meal there in 1990, when the original owner, restaurant impresario Franco Prevedello, installed Arpi Magyar at the stoves. Toronto was at the crest of the Cal-Ital craze. Mr. Prevedello and Mr. Magyar seemed larger than life. My boyfriend and I had just graduated from high school. To celebrate, we splashed out at Splendido. It was the most money we had ever spent on a meal. It was there I savoured my first big Barolo poured into an etched glass decanter. There was an energy and a buzz in the air - as though Protestant Toronto was discovering, for the first time, the pleasures of dining out.
Adding to our excitement (and to the self-importance that only a teenager can muster), Garth Drabinsky sat at the table next to us.
How naive that era seemed when I settled back in Hogtown after years away at university and travelling. Splendido had become a shadow of its former self. Toronto had sailed away from the big, brash flavours of Cal-Ital and was languishing in the culinary doldrums of veal chops, sun-dried tomatoes and goat's cheese.
Then came the next generation of ambitious chefs, emboldened by Bay Street's booming economy and the growing sophistication of diners who travelled more, cooked more and were tuning into the Food Network. They wanted to be artists, and the tasting menu was their canvas.
When David Lee and Yannick Bigourdan got the keys to Splendido in 2001, they wanted to bring three-star Michelin food and service to the city. And they succeeded. Like Avalon restaurant before it, Splendido would stake its reputation on its tasting menu - a labour of carefully crafted dishes on Limoges china sent out into a hushed temple of gastronomy. Surely, Toronto had arrived.
Under Chef Lee's tutelage, I came to understand the pleasures of heirloom tomatoes, their essence eked out on a plate with sweet crab meat. I ate my first really good white truffle. And thanks to Mr. Bigourdan, I learned to appreciate the fine art of service.
But more often than not, the dining room was half empty. While Splendido consistently won accolades from critics, Toronto's diners were gravitating toward more casual dining scenes, and such chefs as Chris McDonald and Susur Lee were already giving them what they wanted: small plates on bare tables.
As a city - and as a culture - we have moved away from the Old World formality of tasting menus and linen tablecloths. We no longer need the trappings of fine dining to tell us we are eating a good meal, or a European pedigree to win our respect.
As dining out becomes more casual, it has been democratized: Once the privilege of the elite, good food is now just as much a middle-class pleasure.
Nota Bene, Mr. Lee and Mr. Yannick's one-year-old venture on Queen West, seems pitch perfect for the times: Though it has the benefit of excellent service, the plates are simpler, cheaper and the ambience is far more casual. And it's packed every night.
"Splendido was a labour of love," says Mr. Lee, "but it was hard work." Mr. Bigourdan and Mr. Lee began talking about refreshing the Splendido concept a year and a half ago, as tasting menus began to fall out of fashion. After the opening of Nota Bene, day-to-day operations at Splendido were left to Mr. Barry and Mr. Catallo. It soon became clear that the two of them were thriving.
"We could reinvent it ourselves, or we could give it to these talented young guys with passion and energy," says Mr. Lee. "In the end, we decided we were ready to let go."
Splendido's changing of the guard may be the last chapter in this decade of fine dining, but that's not necessarily a bad thing. We need to build up a tradition of excellent everyday dining - in places like Terroni - before we will be able to support a true culture of gastronomy. (Only then will we be able to support restaurants like Avalon and Splendido, which, it may one day be argued, came before their time.)
Interestingly, Mr. Barry and Mr. Catallo have hired Terroni's design firm, Giannone Petricone Associates, to renovate Splendido in July. They plan to make the restaurant more accessible to Harbord Street and to update and refresh the tone in the dining room.
"Being part of Harbord Street is fantastic. It's a happening place," says Mr. Catallo. "We don't want the new Splendido to feel private and exclusive. We want to invite people in."
So it's decided now: I'll be laughing all the way to the opening in August.
Retro tasting notes
Throughout May and June, chef David Lee will be offering a retrospective eight-course tasting menu for $125.
Each course will celebrate a top plate from a different year, from 2001's famous octopus and bacon salad to the incomparable sous-vide squab and boudin noir of 2007.
Sasha Chapman
Insatiable appears every other Saturday