He’s a top chef that has worked with some of the biggest names in North American cooking. He’s put his own touches on fancy, $100 dishes served up in some of the finest hotels in Canada and the United States.
But Chef Paul Shewchuk doesn’t get noticed by the average Joe until a major league ballplayer posts a blog saying the man makes amazing chicken tenders.
“I honestly don’t know how this happened,” Shewchuk says as he chats with a journalist at the posh Ritz-Carlton Toronto, where he carries the title Executive Chef. “This blog went up in 2018 or 2019 and four years later it becomes a big thing.”
It all began in 2019, when now Toronto Blue Jay Brandon Belt posted an item on the blog site of the San Francisco Giants baseball team, the team he was playing for at the time. The Giants had recently played in Toronto, and they had stayed at the Ritz-Carlton. Belt’s blog post talked about life on the road as a professional athlete.
AN OLD BLOG POST IS DISCOVERED
“I can’t leave you today without sharing one of the highlights of the trip to Toronto,” Belt wrote. “What most baseball players look for on the road is a hotel that has good room service late at night,” Belt wrote. “When I get to the hotel at 11 or 12 after a game or a flight, I can get good chicken tenders and a slice of good apple pie or chocolate cake with it.
“I’m pumped. I get my ketchup and my ranch, and I dip the tenders — ketchup first, then ranch. Then lots of black pepper on the fries.
“The Ritz-Carlton in Toronto had the best chicken tenders I’ve ever had in my life. Just the right amount of crisp and super tender. I had a homer and a double in that two-game series, and I think it was the tenders.”
The tender-loving blog post laid idle for four years (kinda sorta like Gollum’s gold ring in The Lord of the Rings), but then Belt signed with the Blue Jays in January of this year. Some intrepid reporter, who will no doubt go down in the annals of chicken cooking history, uncovered Belt’s blog post.
Ritz-Carlton Toronto Executive Chef Paul Shewchuk shows off a plate of his renowned chicken tenders. JIM BYERS PHOTO
Shewchuk, who’s from Southern Ontario and has worked at such prime dining spots as Langdon Hall in Cambridge, Ontario and the Fairmont Pacific Rim in Vancouver, shrugs off the poultry praise.
“We all love our comfort foods. When I leave work there’s nothing I want more than a pizza or a burger.
“There’s that little kid inside all of us.”
SHOW A LITTLE TENDERNESS
Shewchuk said some of his chef compatriots have teased him about the tender publicity.
“I just say, Hey, you have to be famous for something.”
But he’s dead serious about his cooking, and Shewchuk that means he has to pay attention to every dish that’s served at the Ritz-Carlton.
“If I cook a chicken finger very well it’s just as important as making a boullabise very well.
Shewchuk, who went on the Tim and Friends TV show to display his tender wares, uses slices of chicken breast for his menu. Not for him those flaky bits of meat you might find pressed together and labelled as “chicken nuggets” at some fast food outlets.
Still, he says it’s all about “the dredge,” and not the chicken. He marinates his poultry for 24 to 48 hours in buttermilk, black pepper, Dijon mustard, and a bit of cayenne. Perhaps some other spices, but I didn’t think he wanted to give up any tender secrets.
He then uses an egg wash and dips the chicken in flour and bread crumbs.
But the real secret? Deep frying.
Brandon Belt of the Toronto Blue Jays raves about the chicken tenders and fries at the Ritz-Carlton Toronto hotel. JIM BYERS PHOTO
“I know people like to watch their waistline but there’s no better way to do it than deep frying. They get nice and crispy.”
My serving this week at the Ritz-Carlton, where they kind enough to buy me lunch, came with four super tender, crispy-coated tenders that I really enjoyed. I also had a mound of lovely fries and dipping sauces: ketchup, plum sauce and a mix of homemade barbeque sauce topped with homemade, vinegar-y mustard. With all due respect to the Blue Jays’ new slugger, barbeque sauce and mustard kicks ketchup and ranch dressing’s butt.
The tenders and fries are listed for $25 on the hotel’s in-room dining menu. They also have salads, poke bowls and grilled striploins for those really hungry ballplayers, as well as Indian dishes.
I RECOMMEND A CRISP CHARDONNAY
I had a staff member ask Ritz-Carlton Toronto sommelier Elyse Lambert what wine would go well with Shewchuk’s chicken. She recommends The Rusty Shed Chardonnay from Flat Rock Cellars in Jordan Station, Ontario, which sells for $35 on the winery website. If you’re not into wine, a good beer also is a nice match.
Shewchuk says he hasn’t met his biggest fan, and hasn’t been offered any Blue Jays ticket yet. But Bent is pulling down $9.3 million a year, so you would hope is favourite chef might get to see a ballgame or two. (He likes to see the Jays in the playoffs, but admitted he’s more of a hockey fan than baseball.)
Shewchuk grew up in Kitchener and said is parents would take him to the legendary St.Jcob’s market on weekends at 6 a.m.
“We made everything from scratch at home. We had two pear trees two plum, an apple tree. We were always canning. My grandpa had chickens and carrier pigeons, too.”
He went to university to study mechanical engineering, but quickly realized he was in the wrong discipline.
“But I do like building and creating things.”
A CULINARY HISTORY
Shewchuk started his culinary journey with studies at Humber College. He then began his impressive career studying under Chef Michael Stadtländer, the father of Canada’s influential farm-to-table culinary movement. He gained a placement at the famed Eigensinn Farm, where he further developed his passion for sustainability and quality ingredients.
Shewchuk then joined the AAA Five Diamond Langdon Hall Country House Hotel & Spa in Cambridge, Ontario, under the tutelage of renowned Chef Johnathan Gushue, as Restaurant Chef de Partie. From there he migrated to the west coast, taking leadership roles in smaller restaurants and resorts before beginning an eight-year tenure with Fairmont Hotels & Resorts. Developing from Restaurant Chef at The Fairmont Jasper Park Lodge, to Executive Chef, at The Fairmont Olympic Hotel in Seattle.
“Jonathan (Gushue) taught me how to really taste food,” he said. “He has an amazing palate, but he keeps things simple. That’s when I started to understand food.”
A Gentlemen Prefer Blondes cocktail from the Ritz-Carlton Toronto hotel. Photo courtesy Ritz-Carlton Toronto.
I did my tenders-tasting at the recently renovated Epoch Bar and Kitchen Terrace, a gastro-bar on the main floor of the Ritz-Carlton Toronto. It looks spectacular, with massive black-and-white photographs from Caitlin Cronenberg (daughter of director David Cronenberg) that have had bits of colourful paint added to them by Toronto artist Heidi Conrod.
I was told the menu is meant to embrace Toronto’s multicultural identity, as well as the wildly popular Toronto International Film Festival. For example, you’ll find Norwegian salmon that’s slightly cured, so it’s not quite sashimi, as well as Spanish fried chicken. Cocktails include the “Cinema Verite” and “Gentlemen Prefer Blondes, which features Pineapple & Pomegranate infused CÎROC Vodka, St-Germain, Passion Fruit & Rose Hips, Fresh Lemon, Prosecco, Red Wine Reduction, Lavender & Blue Tea infused Tanqueray Gin, Fino Sherry, Honey, Fresh Lemon and Prosecco. Phew.
AN EPIC MENU AT EPOCH
Epoch Bar and Kitchen Terrace also serves an elegant afternoon tea that’s very popular.
I was told the outstanding Italian restaurant on the second floor, TOCA, has a bit more of a trattoria-like menu these days. Menu items include porchetta, Chilean Sea Bass and Steak Fiorentina. One dish that sounds amazing is house-made pasta carbonara that’s tossed in a DOP Parmigiano-Reggiano Wheel. Wowza.
Epoch offers master classes in cocktail making (oh, sorry, mixology), as well as grilling and pizza oven classes on their fine, extensive patio when the weather’s good. TOCA offers master classes in pasta making (I took one a few years ago and had a great time), as well as in wine and cheese. The TOCA cheese cave is a wonder of its own.
A hotel spokesperson told me business has been very good at the Ritz-Carlton of late. Leisure travel is very strong, and group travel has rebounded nicely.
As for Belt and the Blue Jays, their Opening Day game for the 2023 season is in St. Louis on Thursday (March 30). Maybe the Jays can arrange a special poultry shipment from Toronto to arrive by tomorrow night.
