VELA
đź“Ť90 Portland St. Toronto, Canada
https://velatoronto.com/
https://www.instagram.com/velatoronto/
https://www.instagram.com/marvinpalomo_/
https://www.instagram.com/chefkimhaugen84/
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Order in. Tasting 2.
Oui. Alright. Tasting 2. Alright.
Mikey start working 8 ounces medium rare.
Oui.
How long for that burger?
Yeah. Hands.
Vela is known for the amazing cocktails.
The food and service.
I like to think that Vela’s known for
It’s hospitality and
It’s the warmth that it gives.
Most importantly how we’re able to sort of
Transport people to this amazing experience.
The moment they walk into the door.
The vibe here.
Is not your usual King Street vibe.
The vibe is fun.
You know it’s not stuffy.
I’m not knocking anyone on King Street.
Like casual fine dining.
I’d say the vibe here is casual and elegant.
My name is Marvin Palomo
and I’m the head chef here at Vela Restaurant.
My name is Kim Hogan
And I’m one of the
Co-head chefs here at Vela Restaurant.
To be a co-head chef.
With someone that you trust
And someone that you respect.
It’s like a dream come true because
you can sort of focus on one thing.
While the other can sort of focus
On another thing and
The productivity is just way higher.
Co-heading with Marvin is
You know there’s never any…
Ego between us.
So it’s very easy to bounce ideas
And
it’s definitely.
Humbled me in a way.
Like working with someone so talented.
The way he…
Approaches some scenarios.
Is something IÂ would be like ‘Oh okay.’
I would have done it that way. But…
This is probably the better way to do it.
This dish is
The first dish that.
Chef Marvin and I
Made together.
It’s been on the menu ever since and
It’s been a crowd favorite ever since.
The octopus.
Which is one of our signature at the restaurant.
Was inspired by dim sum.
But used Moroccan octopus.
Which is some of the best octopus we can get.
We quickly fry it.
Yeah. You can tell it’s nice and crispy.
Yeah. it’s hot.
In here.
And then we coat it with tamari glaze and togarashi.
Which is very Japanese.
Finish with an ajo blanco which is
Very Mexican.
Right there.
Sundried tomato oil.
And Those similar flavour profiles.
Just go so well together.
Honestly the way.
Marvin and I come up with dishes here is mostly just
Riffing from each other and bouncing ideas.
Oh yup.
I’ve done it this way and you’ve done it this way.
And then
Before you know it.
A dish is Born.
The Spaghetti Ala Chitarra.
This is a high egg yolk pasta.
So 700 grams of flour
600 grams of yolks.
Almost 50% hydration.
So right now we’re just going to run it.
Through our pasta machine here.
We’re very spoiled to have a automatic pasta machine.
One of our bookfold.
Marvin spends a lot of time.
Rolling these.
These pastas out and they’re beautiful.
So nice and flush.
So I’m just going to lightly flour here.
Just going to measure out pasta length.
So now we have our Chitarra.
Which is our machine that’s made from strings.
We’re going to run the pasta sheets through here.
It’s very labor intensive but
We find that the product is just
It’s worth it.
so now you can start of see it.
Sort of just fall through.
You sort of just want to run your fingers down.
And that’s it.
So you have your nice beautiful sheets of
Fresh pasta here.
What we have here is our Asian chili crisp.
That we make in-house.
We have a confit garlic
And just some butter.
I’m not cooking anything out
We’re just sort of melting it down.
A bit of the pasta water.
Nice and emulsified.
Yeah. That’s good.
Now we dropped the fresh pasta that we just made.
This is fresh pasta
So should probably take around like
a minute and a half to a minute.
To 2 minutes.
Once you start to see the pasta float.
It’s almost like a good indication that
It’s almost ready.
Just want to try it.
We take a little more pasta water.
We then add a little more butter.
So now you can start to see
That the sauce start of thicken up.
Sort of come together.
That’s exactly what you want.
Add a little bit of lemon juice for acidity.
some chives.
Beautiful.
Here we have this amazing the
Burrata that we get shipped in from Italy.
And then it’s the parmesan reggiano.
These are ossetra caviar here.
To finish olive oil.
And That’s it.
This is our Spaghetti Ala Chitarra.
Our steaks are simple.
Like it’s simply done.
It’s just cooked nicely on a cast iron pan.
Nice and hot.
A little bit of oil.
You always kind of wanna
Drop it
Starting from closest to you and then away from you.
You just press it down a little bit.
When the steak is nice and tempered
The steak won’t take that long to cook.
I want to cook out a little bit of the fat.
yeah it’s starting to
Show itself like
How far you need to cook.
We’re going to try aim for a medium rare.
It’s like starting to render.
Then we got our aromates.
Just got some garlic here.
Thyme and rosemary.
Then we get the butter in.
So from here you have like a little
Time limit.
Otherwise it’ll just
It will cook too much.
I’m okay with that one.
That’s ready to rest.
This is the green peppercorn sauce.
You see the little green peppercorns there.
This is our sauce on the side.
Then we get the cake tester
And just get the temperature.
Warm it up one last time.
So we use the bincho grill here.
Anything that comes out of a
Charcoal barbecue or charcoal grill.
Just always smells and tastes better.
Yeah.
Nice.
Plate.
Yeah. Just push it out a bit.
Just a little bit of clarified butter.
Just to get that extra shine.
a little bit molden.
Some nice chives.
Some finishing oil.
With the steak we serve it with
the perfectly cooked fries.
What I love about cooking is
Probably the
Ability to travel with cooking.
Especially as a career.
Meeting new people.
Learning new things.
It’s alluring and that’s why I love it.
What I love about cooking
Is the endless knowledge that
you can sort of attain
So everyday you’re constantly learning something new.
Work hard. Stay humble was something that I always lived by.
When I started cooking.
Right away I knew this just wasn’t going to be easy.
So working in these type of environments
Requires a lot of sacrifice.
Like no social life.
You know you have to sort of
Put a lot of things in your life aside.
So IÂ needed something to constantly remind me.
To stay grounded.
Focused.
You know, you go through a hard time.
You just go have to say yourself.
Just work hard stay humble and
I still say to this day and
I say to the team around me and
It’s worked for me so.
The team here is very important.
The team is the biggest thing.
Marvin and I have a close. Tight.
Kitchen team that’s like no other.
Everyone plays such an important role
For the success of the restaurant.
What I love about my job is that.
I don’t feel like I’m working.
It doesn’t feel like a job to me.
I enjoy working with my team.
Especially on busy nights.
You know like when energy is high.
And everyone’s working so well.
Mikey start working. 8oz medium rare.
Oui.
How long?
Two minutes.
I’m very blessed to be able to have this opportunity.
To do what I love and
Work with a bunch of people that
Also feel the same way.
Thank You for regulars who come here all the time and
You know it’s always nice to see them come back.
We’re always kind of excited to like…
Oh.
We got a new dish for you.
I know you’ve already had this.
But.
We’re very excited for you to try this.
And to people who haven’t come here yet.
Come by to Vela.
We’d love to serve you and cook for you.