Fine dining chefs behind new restaurants at Toronto airport

TORONTO—The people running services at Toronto Pearson International Airport are planning to kick up the quality of dining there several notches, with foodservice designed top Toronto chefs and restaurateurs.

The Greater Toronto Airports Authority has enlisted OTG Management, a New York-based company operating more than 150 restaurants in nine American airports, to run 13 foodservice operations in Terminals one and three, staring this year. Most will open next year.

Mark McEwan is the chef behind Fetta Panini Bar.

The restaurant menus will be designed by the chefs who will check the establishments regularly to make sure quality is being maintained.

The chefs involved include Claudio Aprile off Origin and Colborne Lane; Mark McEwan of North 44, Bymark and One; Rocco Agostino of Pizzeria Libretto and Enoteca Sociale; and Guy Rubino of the now closed Rain and Ame.

Also involved in the new restaurants are master sommelier John Szabo and Devin Connell, a baker with Ace Bakery, and Brock Shepherd, owner of Burger Bar and Kensington Brewing Co. in Kensington Market, and Hemant Bhagwani, owner of the expanding Amaya Indian restaurant chain.

Origin’s Claudio Aprile developed the menu for Trillium, a Global tapas restaurant.

“It’s not going to be a watered-down version of anything I’m doing,”  Aprile told the Globe and Mail. “I really want it to be some of my best work. That’s my goal here.”


“Our guests have told us they want more variety of dining options both in terms of pricing and ethnicity,” said Pamela Griffith-Jones, chief marketing and commercial officer for the GTAA, in a release yesterday. “Our OTG partnership is part of our commitment to deliver on that requirement and to enhance the guest experience.  The introduction of true culinary diversity will help differentiate Toronto Pearson from other North American airports.”