FH1117
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ICONS & INNOVATORS<br />
and I bring people up into the<br />
vineyard at the beginning of the<br />
event to decompress from being in<br />
the city, from the drive from the<br />
city, because most people who are<br />
coming are either from Toronto,<br />
Ottawa or Montreal.<br />
There are 60 people at each<br />
dinner. What I bring to the table,<br />
as it were, is all those years of<br />
experience creating and preparing<br />
food, but in a much more<br />
focused sense, using ingredients<br />
that are actually grown on the<br />
farm. It’s an opportunity to speak<br />
to the local-food movement in a<br />
gentle way. It’s not preachy; it’s<br />
just allowing people to discover<br />
for themselves the amazing abundance<br />
of beautiful food we’ve got<br />
available to us, right here.<br />
RC: What made you want to write<br />
cookbooks?<br />
JK: Each of [the three cookbooks]<br />
are a snapshot of what’s going<br />
on; what I’m thinking, So, in a<br />
way, they become a journal or a<br />
souvenir. The last one deals with<br />
more stories around food, the<br />
culture of respect in the kitchen<br />
and being very actively involved<br />
myself, checking in on that all the<br />
time and not letting things get<br />
out of hand.<br />
RC: In 2015, you closed the restaurant,<br />
moved to Prince Edward<br />
County and immersed yourself<br />
in the farm. What prompted that<br />
decision?<br />
JK: It was a difficult decision to<br />
close Gilead. To tell my staff —<br />
long-time employees of mine —<br />
I’m closing this place and have<br />
no offer of employment after that<br />
date, was a very difficult point to<br />
reach. There was a lot of emotion<br />
attached to it, but it was clearly<br />
the right decision. When I look<br />
back on it now, it was not working.<br />
I was still servicing debt and,<br />
at that time, the catering contract<br />
at the Gardiner had ended and<br />
so Gilead itself was put into this<br />
position of having to shoulder<br />
the cost of doing business.<br />
RC: But it pushed you into doing<br />
your Summer Dinner Series at J.K.<br />
Farm. Tell us about this series.<br />
JK: It was a nice place<br />
to land after this emotional<br />
departure from<br />
Toronto. I also have<br />
to mention the relationship<br />
I had with<br />
Windows by Jamie<br />
Kennedy in Niagara<br />
Falls — that was another<br />
wonderful project to<br />
keep me in the restaurant<br />
world. [At the farm<br />
dinners] we create these<br />
emblematic, rural experiences<br />
with open fires<br />
40 FOODSERVICE AND HOSPITALITY NOVEMBER 2017 FOODSERVICEANDHOSPITALITY.COM
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