Tausi Insider

The chef Matty Matheson, who plays a handyman on 'The Bear,' at home in Fort Erie, Ontario, Canada, Aug. 24, 2022. Brandon Watson/The New York Times News Service If you’re not watching The Bear , you should be. The series follows a top chef who takes over at his late brother’s failing restaurant in Chicago. And one of the show’s breakout stars isn’t even a professional actor—it’s 40-year-old Canadian celebrity chef Matty Matheson, who rose to foodie fame as the executive chef at Toronto’s Parts & Labour. His empire now includes restaurants, cookbooks, a YouTube channel, cooking tools and a line of workwear. Defy expectations Matheson became a top chef because he was good at it. He became a celebrity chef because he didn’t fit the mould. He’s from New Brunswick. He’s covered in tattoos. He used to work as a death-metal roadie. And he partied hard, which, to be fair, is what most people expect from chefs—except that Matheson gave up both booze and drugs after having a heart...

Restaurant Brands International Inc. QSR-T is expanding two of its biggest fast-food brands in Eastern Europe through an affiliate of restaurant operator McWin. The company says McWin’s newly launched Rex Concepts CEE platform has acquired master franchise and development rights to expand Burger King in Czech Republic, Poland and Romania and to introduce Popeyes to Czech Republic and Poland. Restaurant Brands says McWin plans to open 600 restaurants in the three countries over the next 10 years. David Shear, president international of Restaurant Brands, says the company is confident McWin’s strong experience developing businesses will lead to the successful expansion of the two brands in Eastern Europe. Henry McGovern, co-founder of private investment firm McWin, says the company sees significant growth opportunities for the brands in the region. He says following the company’s acquisition of BK SEE Poland S.A. in August, the master franchise and development agreement with Restaurant...

A delivery person for DoorDash, on Nov. 13, 2020. CARLO ALLEGRI/Reuters DoorDash DASH-N is changing the way it charges commission to Canadian restaurants with a new, tiered model. The San Francisco-based food delivery service announced the switch Tuesday, saying it will offer restaurants more “flexibility” and help them take advantage of digital growth opportunities. “Part of the thinking … was to give them that transparency of the available value proposition that we have to offer,” said Shilpa Arora, DoorDash Canada’s general manager. The model resembles one launched in the U.S. last year and has three tiers starting with the basic plan, which charges a 20 per cent commission on deliveries and 10 per cent on orders picked up by diners and comes with the smallest delivery radius. Beyond that, restaurants can choose plans with additional features. One step above the basic plan is DoorDash Plus, which involves a 25 per cent commission on deliveries and eight per cent on pickups. This p...

An Indigenous Elder, residential school survivor and 60's scoop survivor who identifies as "Redstone woman that walks with fire", left, is removed from a sacred fire area by police during an eviction process at a homeless encampment in Toronto on June 22, 2021. Chris Young/The Canadian Press There’s a restaurant I pass often that is as expensive as it is mediocre. It closed recently, and a man experiencing homelessness promptly moved in to the covered patio. This area, a somewhat fancy part of downtown Toronto, has been full of such disadvantaged people lately. And as their encampments have grown in the past two years, I’ve seen more private security hanging around, apparently hired by nearby building owners. But it’s not just an issue with homelessness. These days, I see security guards wherever I go, from Dollarama to Shopper’s Drug Mart. In Ontario alone, there were more than 100,000 licensed security guards in 2021, a 13-per-cent increase from 2020. That is a massiv...

Chef René Redzepi of Noma, who practices a style of cooking known as 'New Nordic,' works in the kitchen at the Copenhagen restaurant. ERIK REFNER/The New York Times News Service Gus Carlson is a U.S.-based columnist for Tausi Insider. Foodies around the globe are mourning the news from Copenhagen this week that Noma, consistently ranked the world’s best restaurant, is closing. The death of this pioneer of New Nordic cuisine is more than a blow to lovers of signature dishes such as reindeer tongue tartare. It is yet another sign that, along with human customer service reps and common courtesy, traditional fine dining is rising up the list of endangered species in our culture. The reason, according to Noma’s owner-chef René Redzepi, is that the high-end restaurant business model doesn’t work any more. Changing cultural habits, severe shortages of qualified labour and a tightening of consumers’ belts in an inflationary period are putting pressure on an industry that is notorious...