âI was hellbent on doing itâ: In conversation with chef Cheryl Johnson
There are good chefs in Montreal, and then there are great chefs in Montrealâwe want to hear their stories. Thatâs what youâll find in these interviews, a series where Time Out Montreal talks to the incredible women representing the best of this cityâs restaurant scene, all of whom can be found at Time Out Market MontrĂ©al. For our fifth interview, we spoke to the chef and restaurateur Cheryl Johnson, co-chef of the culinary powerhouse MontrĂ©al Plaza and its stellar market offshoot MontrĂ©al Plaza Deli, about going from a military brat to a CIA-trained chef, maintaining balance in the kitchen and what makes Montreal exceptional.Â
This interview has been edited and condensed for clarity.
Thereâs no one way to become a chef, but if you talk to enough of them, one constant emerges more often than not: Someone says, âhey you, this is what youâre supposed to be doing, so go do it.â If youâve ever met Cheryl Johnson, whoâwith her business partner Charles-Antoine CrĂȘteâbrought MontrĂ©al Plaza into the world, you may have a hard time imagining her needing to be talked into, well, anything, but itâs true. Like many others , her path to the Culinary Institute of America, to Montreal, to ToquĂ©! and beyond started because someone saw what she couldnât at the time.
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Montréal Plaza, Time Out Market Montréal
Photograph: Patricia Brochu
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Whatâs your cooking origin story?
Iâm going to give you the shorter of the long version. Iâm half Filipino, half American. I was born in the Philippines,