“Cool. I’m down, you know?” he says, sitting in one of Le Bremner’s booths, speaking of future projects. Down, it seems, for almost anything: he’s the Chef de cuisine at one of Montreal’s hottest restaurants, a leading contestant on the Food Network’s Top Chef Canada, a part-time rock musician and a street style enthusiast. He even makes a mean cup of coffee, as we found out catching up with him early one morning, the restaurant quiet before the daily bustle.
Set up in a basement space in the heart of Old Montreal with no name displayed outside and warm, dim lighting, Le Bremner feels a lot like a speakeasy. The grey stone walls, raw wooden floors and black leather chairs give it a rustic charm both chic and unpretentious. “The menu,” he says, “is filled with classics done our way. We take ingredients that traditionally go well together and we really jazz it up. Big, bold and balanced – that’s how I like my dishes.” And so you get a revisited take on the Deep South’s shrimp-and-grits that trades in the grits for cornbread and lightens it up with a fresh salad. You get a Hawaiian pizza made with Italian prosciutto, jalapenos and caramelized pineapples, or steak topped with Bordelaise sauce and pommes allumettes. “I just really want to cook good food,” he says. “It’s only a matter of putting thought into it, you know? I’m always thinking about it.” Considering the man sleeps with a notepad on his nightstand to jot down late-night inspirations and dreamed up dishes, it’s safe to say he means that quite literally.
Danny’s journey started in his parents’ small hotel, where he first worked the line before studying at St. Pius X culinary institute in Montreal. The training led him abroad to complete internships with chefs in Italy. “One year, I was in Calabria – I loved it there; the south of the country is super hospitable. It has a completely different vibe [from the North]. Northern Italy is very snobby. The south is less industrial; it’s about the people’s people.” Getting to meet them, the ‘people’s people’, is what fuels his travels. From Thailand to Mexico, he looks for them – then at how they eat.
“When I travel, I like to go into local areas. I have the comfort of my home here; why would I go look for it elsewhere? I’m not the guy who’s gonna ask for AC and shit like that. I’ll go anywhere. I just want to live their reality… That’s when you really travel, you know? And that’s when travelling starts to really influence my cooking style, too.” The integration of these influences with his cooking style is a very natural process to him, thanks to his Egyptian-Italian heritage and Canadian breeding. “When you travel, you’re seeing new techniques, new products and you relate them to what you do back home. You get to pull so much from wherever you are, even if you’re just travelling across Canada.”
Yet, at the end of every expedition, it’s Montreal he comes home to. “You know, you’re in Toronto for a weekend, and you wanna open up there. You’re in New York for a weekend, and you wanna open up there. But you come back to Montreal and… it’s good. I’m happy here,” he says, noting that the city’s multiculturalism makes bringing in and fostering outside influences particularly easy.
It is in Montreal he met acclaimed chef Chuck Hughes, owner of local staple Garde-Manger and Le Bremner. Hughes took a while to warm up to Danny – “I was supposed to work at Garde-Manger and never got the job,” Danny laughs – but by the time Le Bremner opened in 2011, Chuck had changed his tune.
“I was just excited to come and eat here; I was just a fan of Chuck’s. I sat right here,” he remembers, indicating the booth in which we were seated. “Exactly right here, and Chuck told me they needed someone. I was like, ‘Now that it works for you, eh?’” So the story goes, and it took less than a year for Danny to go from line chef to sous chef to chef de cuisine. The two, now next to inseparable, quickly turned the seafood-centric Le Bremner and its fresh, inventive dishes into one of Montreal’s most sought-out dining experiences.
Though numerous, his travels are far from being the only influence Danny brings into the kitchen. By now it is difficult to picture him as anything but a chef, but, years ago, he had trouble deciding whether to pursue food or music – he even went on a cross-Canada tour with an indie rock band before settling on cooking. “You’re forced to choose since they’re both nighttime gigs, you know. You don’t want to be a lunch chef and play music at night; you don’t want to play covers in the afternoon. At this point I just prefer cooking,” he says of the decision. To this day, though, the speakers in the kitchen are never quiet and his stories of the restaurant business are interspersed with comparisons to the music industry. “I always relate food to music because they go hand in hand. Music’s more than in the background in our kitchen. We play it loud.”
Judging by his designer aprons and Vans sneakers, style also plays a role in his creative process. “This apron is by a company in Calgary called Medium-Rare. They did it for a couple of chefs; me and Derek [Damman of Maison Publique] and Chuck each have one in Montreal,” he says, showing us his well-crafted, detail-oriented navy apron with brown leather straps. “Now I’m working with Off The Hook – they wrote a spread on me and are making me my own apron. They’re helping me out; they’re good cats in Montreal right now.”
Considering this open-mindedness to new collaborations and experiences, it is no surprise that Danny jumped on the opportunity to be on the Food Network’s Top Chef Canada. Throughout his appearance on the show, he stayed entirely true to himself, adopting a laidback attitude that relied far more on passion and execution than on flamboyance. This is not to say the competition went without its bumps; Danny let his nerves and emotion get the best of him on occasion. Still, week after week, his love of balanced dishes and “jazzed-up” classics was on full display. When contestants were assigned the creation of “Canada’s next national dish”, Danny’s Coast-to-Coast Roll, an East Coast-shrimp and B.C. crab roll with maple bacon and house-smoked BBQ chips, won him the challenge and, finally, a legion of admirers.
To him, the experience was a challenge to constantly raise the bar and a rare opportunity to cook without having the worries of running a restaurant, having to deal with suppliers, staff and everyday occurrences. Rather he got to focus exclusively on cooking, as he did in his days as a line chef. The accompanying fame is welcomed, but secondary. “It’s just like in music. You have those indie bands that want to stay underground, and you have the other bands who are looking for that sort of platform. I think I’m one of those guys,” he notes. “I don’t think I’m a fucking rock star; I don’t want to start doing all kinds of TV shows. I just want to cook and show my skill. That’s the whole point, you know? Beyond that, God knows what will happen,” he says. Smiling, of course.
“Cool. I’m down, you know?” he says, sitting in one of Le Bremner’s booths, speaking of future projects. Down, it seems, for almost anything: he’s the Chef de cuisine at one of Montreal’s hottest restaurants, a leading contestant on the Food Network’s Top Chef Canada, a part-time rock musician and a street style enthusiast. He even makes a mean cup of coffee, as we found out catching up with him early one morning, the restaurant quiet before the daily bustle.
Set up in a basement space in the heart of Old Montreal with no name displayed outside and warm, dim lighting, Le Bremner feels a lot like a speakeasy. The grey stone walls, raw wooden floors and black leather chairs give it a rustic charm both chic and unpretentious. “The menu,” he says, “is filled with classics done our way. We take ingredients that traditionally go well together and we really jazz it up. Big, bold and balanced – that’s how I like my dishes.” And so you get a revisited take on the Deep South’s shrimp-and-grits that trades in the grits for cornbread and lightens it up with a fresh salad. You get a Hawaiian pizza made with Italian prosciutto, jalapenos and caramelized pineapples, or steak topped with Bordelaise sauce and pommes allumettes. “I just really want to cook good food,” he says. “It’s only a matter of putting thought into it, you know? I’m always thinking about it.” Considering the man sleeps with a notepad on his nightstand to jot down late-night inspirations and dreamed up dishes, it’s safe to say he means that quite literally.
We take ingredients that traditionally go well together and we really jazz it up. Big, bold and balanced – that’s how I like my dishes.
Danny’s journey started in his parents’ small hotel, where he first worked the line before studying at St. Pius X culinary institute in Montreal. The training led him abroad to complete internships with chefs in Italy. “One year, I was in Calabria – I loved it there; the south of the country is super hospitable. It has a completely different vibe [from the North]. Northern Italy is very snobby. The south is less industrial; it’s about the people’s people.” Getting to meet them, the ‘people’s people’, is what fuels his travels. From Thailand to Mexico, he looks for them – then at how they eat.
“When I travel, I like to go into local areas. I have the comfort of my home here; why would I go look for it elsewhere? I’m not the guy who’s gonna ask for AC and shit like that. I’ll go anywhere. I just want to live their reality... That’s when you really travel, you know? And that’s when travelling starts to really influence my cooking style, too.” The integration of these influences with his cooking style is a very natural process to him, thanks to his Egyptian-Italian heritage and Canadian breeding. “When you travel, you’re seeing new techniques, new products and you relate them to what you do back home. You get to pull so much from wherever you are, even if you’re just travelling across Canada.”
Yet, at the end of every expedition, it’s Montreal he comes home to. “You know, you’re in Toronto for a weekend, and you wanna open up there. You’re in New York for a weekend, and you wanna open up there. But you come back to Montreal and… it’s good. I’m happy here,” he says, noting that the city’s multiculturalism makes bringing in and fostering outside influences particularly easy.
It is in Montreal he met acclaimed chef Chuck Hughes, owner of local staple Garde-Manger and Le Bremner. Hughes took a while to warm up to Danny – “I was supposed to work at Garde-Manger and never got the job,” Danny laughs – but by the time Le Bremner opened in 2011, Chuck had changed his tune.
I don’t think I’m a fucking rock star; I just want to cook. That’s the whole point, you know? Beyond that, God knows what will happen.
“I was just excited to come and eat here; I was just a fan of Chuck’s. I sat right here,” he remembers, indicating the booth in which we were seated. “Exactly right here, and Chuck told me they needed someone. I was like, ‘Now that it works for you, eh?’” So the story goes, and it took less than a year for Danny to go from line chef to sous chef to chef de cuisine. The two, now next to inseparable, quickly turned the seafood-centric Le Bremner and its fresh, inventive dishes into one of Montreal’s most sought-out dining experiences.
Though numerous, his travels are far from being the only influence Danny brings into the kitchen. By now it is difficult to picture him as anything but a chef, but, years ago, he had trouble deciding whether to pursue food or music – he even went on a cross-Canada tour with an indie rock band before settling on cooking. “You’re forced to choose since they’re both nighttime gigs, you know. You don’t want to be a lunch chef and play music at night; you don’t want to play covers in the afternoon. At this point I just prefer cooking,” he says of the decision. To this day, though, the speakers in the kitchen are never quiet and his stories of the restaurant business are interspersed with comparisons to the music industry. “I always relate food to music because they go hand in hand. Music’s more than in the background in our kitchen. We play it loud.”
Judging by his designer aprons and Vans sneakers, style also plays a role in his creative process. “This apron is by a company in Calgary called Medium-Rare. They did it for a couple of chefs; me and Derek [Damman of Maison Publique] and Chuck each have one in Montreal,” he says, showing us his well-crafted, detail-oriented navy apron with brown leather straps. “Now I’m working with Off The Hook – they wrote a spread on me and are making me my own apron. They’re helping me out; they’re good cats in Montreal right now.”
Considering this open-mindedness to new collaborations and experiences, it is no surprise that Danny jumped on the opportunity to be on the Food Network’s Top Chef Canada. Throughout his appearance on the show, he stayed entirely true to himself, adopting a laidback attitude that relied far more on passion and execution than on flamboyance. This is not to say the competition went without its bumps; Danny let his nerves and emotion get the best of him on occasion. Still, week after week, his love of balanced dishes and “jazzed-up” classics was on full display. When contestants were assigned the creation of “Canada’s next national dish”, Danny’s Coast-to-Coast Roll, an East Coast-shrimp and B.C. crab roll with maple bacon and house-smoked BBQ chips, won him the challenge and, finally, a legion of admirers.
To him, the experience was a challenge to constantly raise the bar and a rare opportunity to cook without having the worries of running a restaurant, having to deal with suppliers, staff and everyday occurrences. Rather he got to focus exclusively on cooking, as he did in his days as a line chef. The accompanying fame is welcomed, but secondary. “It’s just like in music. You have those indie bands that want to stay underground, and you have the other bands who are looking for that sort of platform. I think I’m one of those guys,” he notes. “I don’t think I’m a fucking rock star; I don’t want to start doing all kinds of TV shows. I just want to cook and show my skill. That’s the whole point, you know? Beyond that, God knows what will happen,” he says. Smiling, of course.