At The Pass with Felicia De Rose

🕒 4 min read

Currently

Regional Chef, Planta Restaurants.

Formerly

Chef de Cuisine The Chase Fish and Oyster, Executive Sous Chef Colette Grand Cafe, and CDC Origin North.

Favourite dish to make right now 

I'm obsessed with iceberg right now. I know boringggg. But there's something about the crunch and freshness of it that I just want to eat it with everything.  Been using it to make a lot of lettuce wraps with peanut sauce.

Last cookbook purchase

I usually don’t buy cookbooks for myself, as I always get them as gifts. But I did buy the Alison Roman book Nothing Fancy for a friend, that I now regret supporting her, lol. 

Have you read it/tried any recipes

NO.

One dish or ingredient you’d like to see gone from menus 

Truffle oil. 

And one dish or ingredient that you’re excited about right now and would like to see on more menus

Corn. Ontario corn season is coming up soon and I can’t wait.

Biggest influences

I can’t really pinpoint one person. I like old school and classic home cooking.

If you could eat at any restaurant in the world

I don’t think I could pick just one. I’d love to eat my way through Asian street markets though. Again, I’m not pretentious when it comes to restaurants.

Last thing you ate

Well, since I’m working takeout there isn’t much time to eat, so I dipped a toasted burger bun into leftover tomato sauce.

Three must-have ingredients always in your fridge

Eggs, Bread, Kraft Singles.

Guilty pleasure 

Kraft Singles.

Top 3 favourite Toronto restaurants

Union, Donna’s, and Banjara Indian Cuisine.

Top 3 favourite Toronto bars

I don’t really go to bars that much. I'm not a huge drinker. But since COVID all I’ve wanted to do is drink, at a bar, around other humans. *sigh*

Go-to drink 

Negroni Sbagliato.

One habit you have in the kitchen that you should lose, but can’t seem to shake

Yelling, talking loud.

One habit you have in the kitchen that will inspire young chefs

Keeping happy and upbeat. 

Hidden talent

I can cook. Is that not enough? Lol.

Best career advice you ever received

Speak up! If you strongly believe in something, don’t back down. If you stay quiet, your ideas will never be heard.

Worst career advice you ever received

“Just add truffle oil to it.”

Your advice for a young cook starting out in the business

It’s just cooking. You’re going to fuck up, you’re going to burn something - it’s not that big of a deal.  We’re just playing with food, not performing on someone's brain. AND To My Girls: Don’t let any man in this industry ever tell you that you don’t belong, that you're not strong enough, that you’re not good enough or that you’re acting like a bitch. You probably have more talent in your left pinky then they do in their entire body. :)

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In order to support chefs during this time, the monthly At The Pass series is now WEEKLY. Know someone in Toronto or GTA who should be featured? Submit their name for consideration.

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