Makoto Ono didn’t always want to be a chef, but the culinary world has always been a part of his life. From an early age he helped prep, serve and wash dishes at his father’s restaurant, Edohei — Winnipeg’s first sushi bar. He saw how hard his parents worked and didn’t want to follow suit, but the youngster’s perspective changed when he got behind the sushi bar. “Inspiration can happen anywhere,” he says.
Despite his initial reservations about foodservice, Ono attended Vancouver’s Dubrelle Culinary Institute to learn the fundamentals of French cuisine, since he had already mastered Japanese cuisine. Following graduation, cooking stints at home and abroad led him to a chef’s position at Gluttons Bistro in Winnipeg. While working there, he won the inaugural Gold Medal Plates Canadian Culinary Championship in Vancouver in 2007.
The Gold Medal Plates title afforded Ono opportunities in Toronto where he made contacts and considered offers to open restaurants in cities such as Philadelphia, before accepting an offer in Beijing. “While I was in Toronto I met this woman whose son was looking for a chef to open a Japanese restaurant in Beijing,” explains Ono. It was before the Olympics, so he travelled east for the opportunity, eventually landing in Hong Kong to open more restaurants before returning home to Canada.
With years of national and international experience in cooking and operations under his belt, Ono was ready for his next move. And, the stars aligned when he met Brandon Grossutti, a programmer-analyst who was planning to change course and open a café; interestingly, Ono was thinking of opening a noodle shop. So, early last year, the duo combined their culinary passions to open Vancouver’s Pidgin, an Asian restaurant featuring regional influences.
Named for a word that’s defined in the Oxford dictionary as “A grammatically simplified form of a language,” Pidgin fit the restaurateurs’ philosophy. “Our standards are very high; I come from a fine-dining background and training,” begins Ono. “It still has the same mentality but, of course, we can’t charge those prices here. We try to keep it affordable and the servers more casual.” Diners flock to the restaurant for dishes such as duck ($29), pork belly served in a rice bowl ($12) and chicken wings ($12), but success hasn’t come easy at the Gastown haunt at the corner of Carrall and Hastings Streets.
When the 74-seat Pidgin first opened, the chic restaurant was criticized and picketed by anti-gentrification protesters. “It just took time for people to see what we are all about,” explains Ono. He adds: “The city of Vancouver has been open to welcoming Pidgin into the restaurant scene.”
Moving forward, the 35-year-old chef’s goal is to find a better balance between his personal and professional life, while keeping his options open. “I am not really the type of person that plans too far ahead; things are constantly changing,” he says. l