Claudio Aprile

Claudio Aprile (born 23 January 1969) is a Uruguayan–Canadian celebrity chef, restaurateur, cookbook author, and TV personality of Italian descent best known for serving as a main host/judge on CTV's culinary competition MasterChef Canada since January 2014. Having owned and worked at multiple Michelin-starred restaurants over the years, he recently served as the head chef, owner and manager of the acclaimed Toronto restaurant Copetin from its grand opening in July 2017 until its closure in March 2019. In the fall of 2019, Aprile opened up a new restaurant named Xango Toronto, which he presently serves as the owner, restaurateur and head chef of since the closing of Copetin, Colborne Lane and the Origin chain.[1]

Claudio Aprile
Born (1969-01-23) 23 January 1969
Uruguay
Culinary career
Previous restaurant(s)
  • Colborne Lane
    Origin
    Origin Liberty
    Origin North
    Copetin
Television show(s)
Websitewww.instagram.com

Biography

Claudio Aprile was born in Uruguay, grew up in Toronto, and has traveled, lived, and worked in professional, multi-Michelin starred restaurant kitchens as a professional chef internationally. Aprile has been cooking since he was 14 years old, always wanting to be a chef since the age of 5, having spent his career in kitchens working through the ranks becoming the successful professional celebrity chef and restaurateur that he is today.[2] He never received formal training for becoming a chef, and stated that, as a child, he informed his mother that he would become one, rather than a desire to attempt to become one. At 18 he travelled to Thailand, which had a profound influence on his style of cooking. He visited 160 cities in 17 countries, before stopping in England, where he worked extensively throughout London until earning the executive position as the head chef at Bali Sugar in Notting Hill.[3][4]

Throughout his career Aprile has passed through some of the most renowned Michelin-starred restaurant kitchens around the globe. The Uruguayan-born, Toronto-raised chef is a product of diverse elements, with a cooking style representative of his time spent in kitchens around the world, including Bali Sugar in London, which earned him outstanding reviews as a young executive chef where he received local and international critical acclaim. On returning to Toronto in 2000, Aprile cemented that reputation at Senses in Toronto, where he impressed critics and diners with use of avant-garde and experimental cooking techniques.[5]

Career

Colborne Lane (2007-2013)

In 2007, Aprile opened the successful restaurant Colborne Lane in Toronto, Canada.[6] In 2009, he opened the original Origin restaurant in Toronto. Touted for its modernist food and nitrogen desserts, Colborne Lane led the pack in creativity across an unimaginative Toronto foodscape. Due to the success of the original location, he was able to open two more locations within Toronto in the subsequent years.[5]

Colborne Lane was lauded as one of the best restaurants in the world, and Aprile was named one of the most innovative chefs working in Canada. With Colborne Lane offering beautifully crafted, precisely plated fusion cuisine with molecular gastronomy, he switched gears with Origin restaurant.[7] Opening in 2010, Origin offered fast, fresh, and accessible food, delivered to guests sitting right across from the chef in the open kitchen. Toronto Life magazine and Now magazine voted Origin the #1 restaurant in Toronto.[8]

Colborne Lane was located on Colborne Street in Toronto, close to St. Lawrence Market.[9] Aprile’s first restaurant, Colborne Lane, opened to immediate success and became the breeding ground for some of Toronto’s current top chefs including Jonathan Poon, Steve Gonzalez, Matt Blondin, Jonathan Bower, and Romain Avril.[10] It was named one of the top ten new restaurants in Canada in enRoute Magazine. Aprile officially closed the restaurant in February 2013.[11][12][13]

Origin (2009-2017)

In 2009, Aprile opened the first Origin restaurant as the executive chef and owner. The original restaurant opened its doors to the public in 2010, it was located on King Street in Toronto and closed in early 2017. In subsequent years, Aprile opened two more Origin restaurants, one in Liberty Village and one in Bayview Village. The Liberty Village location opened in 2012 and closed in 2013. The Origin North Bayview Village location opened in June 2013, in a two-storey building in the parking lot of the Bayview Village mall. The third of Aprile’s Origin restaurants and the first outside the downtown area, it was promotionally featured in MasterChef Canada's Season 1 Restaurant Takeover, and closed in early 2016.[14][15] Aprile served as the owner and creative force behind the Orderfire Restaurant Group, which included Toronto’s acclaimed Origin brand restaurants, which were voted the #1 restaurant in Toronto by Toronto Life and Now magazine.[16]

Copetin Restaurant & Bar Toronto (2017-2019)

In June 2017, Aprile reinvented his original Origin restaurant space and opened Copetin Restaurant & Bar at the same Saint James location on King Street East in Toronto. This high-end restaurant of his was featured in Season 5's Restaurant Takeover in MasterChef Canada. The open-concept kitchen in the 80-seat dining room offered "not one, not two, but four separate menus: An a la carte dinner card for the eastern dining room, a menu of casual salads and sandwiches for the patio, a slate of bar snacks for the western "lounge" half of the resto, and an anything-goes tasting menu for those who elect to sit at the kitchen rail."[17][18][19]

Xango (2019–2023 - now closed)

In September 2019, Aprile teamed up with Nick Di Donato of the Liberty Entertainment Group to open up Xango, located in the heart of Toronto's King St. West neighbourhood.[20][21][22]

Masterchef Canada (2014–present)

Aprile is one of 3 presenters / judges on MasterChef Canada. [23] [24] [25] [26]

References
  1. Richie, Nicole (October 9, 2019). "MasterChef star Claudio Aprile is back with a new restaurant". trnto.com. Retrieved March 26, 2021.
  2. Naud, Rachel (March 27, 2018). "MasterChef Claudio Aprile Dishes on Parenthood". InBetween.ca. Retrieved March 26, 2021.
  3. Aksich, Caroline (March 2, 2020). "A Q&A with Xango's Claudio Aprile, TL Insider's chef-in-residence for March". Toronto Life. Retrieved March 26, 2021.
  4. "The sweet taste of Bali Sugar". www.standard.co.uk. March 21, 2000. Archived from the original on June 13, 2020.
  5. Storey, Amanda (February 1, 2014). "The Making of a Master Chef". MyCityLife.ca. Retrieved March 26, 2021.
  6. "Colborne Lane". Toronto Life. Retrieved March 26, 2021.
  7. Conlin, Jennifer (September 9, 2007). "Toronto: Colborne Lane". New York Times. Retrieved March 27, 2021.
  8. "Claudio Aprile". Orderfire.com. Archived from the original on April 12, 2014.
  9. "Colborne Lane: Location". Archived from the original on March 4, 2009.
  10. Doss, Suresh (September 7, 2016). "Where Origin and MasterChef Canada's Claudio Aprile eats in the burbs". TorontoLife.com. Retrieved March 27, 2021.
  11. D'Cruz, Andrew (February 21, 2013). "Claudio Aprile is closing Colborne Lane". TorontoLife.com. Retrieved March 27, 2021.
  12. Suen, Renee (April 16, 2013). "Slideshow: Claudio Aprile hosts a farewell dinner for Colborne Lane with six of his top alumni". TorontoLife.com. Retrieved March 27, 2021.
  13. "Canada's Best New Restaurants". November 2007. Archived from the original on May 18, 2015. Retrieved May 7, 2015.
  14. Yu, Igor (June 18, 2013). "Introducing: Origin North, the new uptown tapas restaurant from Claudio Aprile". TorontoLife.com. Retrieved March 27, 2021.
  15. Pupo, Mark (October 21, 2013). "The Critic: Claudio Aprile, the chef behind the Origin empire, takes on the burbs". TorontoLife.com. Retrieved March 27, 2021.
  16. "Claudio Aprile". CanadaInADay.ca. Screen Siren Pictures, Inc. Archived from the original on June 13, 2020.
  17. Manzocco, Natalia (July 18, 2017). "Inside Copetin, Claudio Aprile's overhauled Origin". NowToronto.com.
  18. "What's on the Menu at Copetín profile".
  19. "Copetin Closed TV profile".
  20. "Claudio Aprile and Nick di Donato Join Together to Open Xango in the Heart King West".
  21. "5 hot Toronto restaurant openings for fall 2019". September 18, 2019.
  22. "Popular Toronto restaurant shut down over rent dispute".
  23. "Season 6 of Masterchef Canada is Officially Happening".
  24. "MasterChef Canada Returns April 8".
  25. "MasterChef Canada Returns on CTV".
  26. "MasterChef Canada Returns 2-Hour Premier". March 13, 2019.

Further reading

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