Top Chef’s MacKay Shutters His Vancouver Restaurants

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VANCOUVER — Dale MacKay, last year’s Top Chef Canada winner, has dished up his last meals at his two Vancouver restaurants.

Vancouver’s high rents were too high for the chef to maintain. “I’m pretty sad but at a certain point you have to make emotional decisions if the numbers aren’t working, and you don’t have enough capital. I’d never put myself in a position where I couldn’t take care of my staff,” he told The Vancouver Sun.

MacKay picked up the Top Chef Canada title last summer, just after opening Ensemble, which he followed up with its more casual cousin Ensemble Tap a few months later. No stranger to hard work, the chef has worked with Gordon Ramsay and Daniel Boulud.

Last weekend marked his last services at both restaurants, but, according to Vancouver’s Province newspaper, the Saskatoon native hasn’t closed the door on opening another restaurant in the future.

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