TV chef goes to museum

TV chef Corbin Tomaszeski is in a museum.

TORONTO—When he’s not busy shooting Dinner Party Wars, Restaurant Makeover and Crash My Kitchen for the Food Network and HGTV Canada, Corbin Tomaszeski does take time to head a working kitchen.

Tomaszeski’s 20 years experience in restaurant kitchens includes the position of executive chef with Holt Renfrew in Toronto, which he left earlier this year.

Last week he took over as the executive chef at the Royal Ontario Museum. In this post he oversees the kitchen brigades for the 120-seat fine dining restaurant c5, now open seven days a week on level five of the Michael Lee-Chin Crystal, and the 325-seat Food Studio Café, a family restaurant on level B1 of the Philosopher’s Walk building. He is also responsible for the ROM’s catering service.

C5’s former executive chef, Ted Corrado, has been promoted to regional executive chef for Compass Croups Canada’s Compass Leisure subsidiary, overseeing the foodservice provided by Compass at leisure properties across Canada.

Ted Corrado is in charge of food for leisure properties.

Tomaszeski’s new job makes him an employee of  Restaurants Associates, a New York-based division of Compass Associates which has the foodservice contract for the ROM. Restaurant associates handles the feeding services for museums, performing arts centres, aquariums, corporations, education facilities and catered events in New York, Boston, Hartford, Atlanta, Washington D.C., Philadelphia and Toronto.

Tomaszeski describes his cooking style as “simple but classic,” creating dishes that are “uncomplicated, asccessible and appealing to everyone.”

His offerings at the ROM include truffle potato chips with fleur de sel and fresh herbs, appetizers such as fresh-baked flatbread with seasonal toppings and mains such as a lobster BLT salad or a chicken pot pie.