rom his name, it isn’t too surprising that John Sinopoli is Italian; and although it may sound stereotypical, it also isn’t too surprising that he grew up with a strong sense of family; aka big, hearty family dinners.

I caught up with the friendly-faced, up-and-coming (if not “already there”) chef at a Queen Street East café just a few stores down from the location of his latest venture,Table 17. This outgoing easy-talker really knows his stuff, not only marinating veggies, but the whole business behind the food. His expertise didn’t happen in a snap, though; the hard work he’s put in and continues to put in every day in his job became obvious as he traced a timeline of how he got to where he is now.

At 32 years old, John is a veteran in the culinary and restaurant business with ten years of experience under his belt. He jumped right in as soon as he could – he didn’t even wait until he finished university to get in the kitchen and start learning the trade by getting some hands-on experience.

Toronto has the potential to get a name for itself because if its natural assets, yet many restaurateurs just aren’t exploiting their region’s own goods.

Being Italian, an appreciation for food was probably innately in John from birth. When he moved away from his Toronto home to go to McGill University in Montreal, his Italian traditions are what started him on his road to cookery.

He and some of his other Italian friends moved in together and had meals unlike most other starving students. “We still liked to eat like our parents eat – together as a family,” he said. None of the other boys wanted to cook so John became the designated chef, and the rest is history.

After he graduated, John taught English in Japan for a year because he was so intrigued by his studies on philosophy and religion, particularly its focus on Buddhism. His experience in Japan really influenced how he viewed Ontario cuisine. He realized that the Japanese celebrate their food the same way Italians do – something that he realized was lacking in his hometown.

In Italy, the food is regional and celebrated – so much so that Italians give each other nicknames based on their regional food specialty; for example, southern Italians are called Terronis (it’s actually pretty derogatory, meaning peasant or mud people), and a derogatory name that Italians use to refer to Canadians is Magiacake (which just means ‘eats cake’ – I guess Italians don’t really like cake). Italy clearly takes their food extremely seriously.

Japan is exactly the same, with each region specializing in something different (and they are really proud of it). This opened John’s eyes to the fact that Ontario has… nothing. At least when you think of Montreal, you can think of poutine, which is better than nothing at all.

Before John could put this plan into action, he needed a bit more experience. He went to New York, attended the French Culinary Institute for 6 months (taking 40 hours of class a week), stayed there for 2.5 more years, worked with soon-to-be world-famous TV-personality chef Tom Colicchio (head judge on Top Chef) at Craft, the empire-building chef’s very first restaurant. John was starting to make his mark. “Working at the absolute best place possible is key,” John said, because then you’re learning from the best, you’re working with the best and your standards are high.