Living through the pandemic as a member of the Ontario restaurant industry has not been a pleasant experience. And those on the management side have not been spared, forced into wearing multiple hats while repeatedly dispensing gut-wrenching news to staff, as facilities trim expenses in the attempt to maintain solvency.

“It is difficult to be the bearer of bad news,” acknowledges James Peden, Head Sommelier as Casa Loma’s esteemed BlueBlood Steakhouse and Wine Director for the Liberty Entertainment Group, the portfolio of which also includes the Casa Loma property itself, the high-end Don Alfonso 1890 restaurant, Liberty Grand Entertainment Complex, Xango restaurant and the trio of Cibo wine bars at King Street West, Yonge Street and Yorkville.

Born and raised in Mississauga, Peden began his hospitality career at his family-owned Otello’s Banquet Hall in Oakville. Steadily working his way up the food chain as he immersed himself into the world of wine, Peden acquired his Advanced Sommelier degree in the summer of 2019 and is currently a board member with the Ontario chapter of the Canadian Association of Professional Sommeliers. But he hopes to climb into even more rarified air in July, when he ventures to Dallas to take his Master Sommelier exam—its red-and-gold lapel pin signifying the ultimate achievement among the ranks of the Court of Master Sommeliers.

In the meantime, the expense and relentless preparation required for that infamously difficult test grinds away for Peden. But if the pandemic has afforded the 37-year-old Grimsby resident one silver lining, it’s a little extra time to study.

TheLushLife: You’re used to being around people and high energy every day. What do you miss most because of the pandemic?

JP: “My wife Kim and I are diners. We don’t have kids and we love to have a dinner date and make a whole night of it—getting dressed up and going out on the town. I need to do that so, so, sooo badly right now. And we also had all these wine exploration trips planned.”

And what’s it like at BlueBlood right now, with only takeout orders due to the lockdown?
“It’s been nice to deal with the few customers we get. I think a lot of people are doing their best to support local restaurants, getting takeout more than they normally would. But on the other side, the boomerang of closing and opening and then closing again has been really hard on staff. They’re so happy to get back to work and get caught up on their bills, then you break the news that you’re laying them off again.”

And these are not your typical restaurant employees—they’re highly trained staff.
“Especially at our fine dining venues, BlueBlood and Don Alfonso 1890. These folks are career servers and bartenders. Some of the captains have 30 years’ experience on the floor. They’re invaluable to us. They’re irreplaceable. Now it’s going to be an arms race when people start to open their doors again. Everyone will try to poach other restaurants’ best servers, because people are so desperate for shifts. And it’s not like we can bring everyone back at the same time. We’ll be told, ‘You can now open your patios.’ And with many restaurants having gone out of business, there are fewer places for those people to work. I don’t even know many storied restaurants have closed because of this. Closing and opening and closing and opening—it costs so much money. You bring new people in and train them and outfit the restaurant. And then there’s all the food you bring in. At a luxury property like BlueBlood, we’re not buying cheap cuts of meat that you can freeze. We’re not going to buy Japanese A5 Wagyu and then freeze it! And the luxurious seafood towers with crab legs, lobster and oysters, the kegs of beer—you can’t store this stuff. It ends up being tens of thousands of dollars for a restaurant to incur.

“There are some properties we just gave up on. We had to rebrand because there’s no end in sight. One of our properties is a nightclub called Arcane. We’re renovating and rebranding it as a restaurant now. The booths for bottle service and dance areas—that’s not a thing anymore. I can’t even imagine when it’s going to be OK to get together in a nightclub in any quantity to make it a financially viable business. And any subsidy you’re going to get is barely going to cover the rent—if it even does that, because some of the rents in Toronto are astronomical.”

How are people tipping for takeouts?
“When people go through delivery services like DoorDash UberEats and Skip the Dishes, I see the gratuities that people are leaving, and they are generous. But they go to the delivery drivers, not the staff at the restaurant. If we have people who come in and physically pick up food, they are still leaving at 15% gratuity, which is immensely generous, because they’re paying for a service that they did not receive.

“But more than 80% of our takeaway are the delivery services, and they’re taking 20-30% off our revenue, plus all of the gratuities. But we are happy for any revenue. We are staying current and our diners won’t forget about the restaurants they enjoy. But I don’t think that people understand that when you order through Uber eats that 30% of the revenue he’s going to the service, and your gratuity is not going to anyone at the restaurant. And that can be a big gratuity, since those apps have a built-in percentage, where you can choose 15% or 18% or 20%. So for people ordering a $400 dinner from BlueBlood, they could be giving a $60 gratuity to the delivery person. But I understand the drivers are just trying to get by as well. I’m not saying they’re the bad guys.”

You’ve got your Advanced Sommelier certification and are preparing for your Master degree. Most folks don’t appreciate the expense of that endeavour.
“I try to deny, deny, deny all the money that I spend. I’ve had some conversations with my wife about it. If you’re going to go all the way through to the Master Sommelier diploma, you’re going to spend more than $2,000 on books and way more than $30,000 on wine—absolutely no problem at all! Even for the tasting group I was doing every week before the latest lockdown, I’d spend over $200 for my two bottles. And the exam in Texas is $1,300 to register, and $1,000 for the flight. Then you’ve got the hotel and all the meals. There are half a dozen trips like that. But then I don’t have a student loan for $80,000, like some chiropractor.

Tell me about the blind tasting you do with your Niagara group.
I have a pretty special group. Before Covid restrictions, we’d meet at my house, and my poor wife would tolerate us every Monday. You’re pouring three-ounce glasses for six, seven, eight people. You only bring two bottles, but you’re exposed to 14-20 bottles, so it’s a pretty economical approach to blind tasting. And it’s made us pretty successful—a lot have passed some pretty serious exams and three of us are all studying for the Master Sommelier exam.

You need to have a very understanding wife for this whole process.
“You really do. It’s such a pursuit that it would be toxic to every household if everyone wasn’t on board. You can’t sort of just dabble in this. If you’re planning on going any further than a certified sommelier, all the arrows have to be pointing in the same direction or you’ll never be successful. Never. You need 25 hours of study time on top of your work. It doesn’t leave much quality time for friends and family, or to watch the Leafs or Raptors. Kim has been the biggest factor in whatever success I’ve achieved so far.”

 What do you find the hardest thing to study?
“It’s how many languages the test in in—Spanish, Portuguese, French, Greek, Hungarian, Italian—learning the same words and terms in different languages at the same time. Some, like German, can be really long and hard to remember and pronounce—terms like Trockenbeerenauslese (medium- to full-bodied dessert wine).

“I’m in full study mode right now. I’m really hoping I pass so I don’t have to wallow in the house by myself for the 14 days of quarantine!”

You’re also training other wine students? “Yes, to supplement my income right now. Master Sommelier Bruce Wallner, who I have immense respect for and who has helped mentor me, has a wine school in Toronto called Sommelier Factory. I’ve started to teach there on my days off. It gives me a chance to refresh my own wine theory and blind tasting and teach new crops of potential sommeliers, as well as casual programs for people who just want to learn more about wine.”

You wine list at BlueBlood continually receives Wine Spectator’s Two Glass ‘Best of Award of Excellence.’ But you still maintain a strong Ontario wine offering.

“My first sommelier position was as an uncertified wine steward at Treadwell Farm to Table in Niagara-on-the-Lake. The owner, James Treadwell, was the one who first mentored me as a sommelier. I think we had the largest VQA wine list in the country, and I got a chance to really know the winery owners, winemakers and sales reps of all the Niagara Peninsula wineries. I’ve brought those relationships along with me. I’m proud to pour VQA wines by the glass at all of our properties.”

Do you have a particular wine that you favour?
“I’m a massive fan of all things Pomerol (‘Right Bank’ Bordeaux, France). I can’t get enough of that region. I love following the Châteaux through vintages, their subtle expressions. And for whites, the upper echelon for me right now is Assyrtiko from Santorini, Greece. That’ll be in my glass all summer!”

What’s the wine that your guests walk into the restaurant not knowing about that they walk out loving?
“I find a lot of people have a mix: Some like Old World wines and some like New World wines. If I’m at a table or someone wants to Barolo and someone else wants to Napa cab, it’s very difficult but you have to find a middle ground. For a situation like that, I love to show people Priorat (a wine region in the southwest of Catalonia, Spain). These are big, rich, juicy, generous Grenaches that have some ripe fruit flavours, and also some tar and more restrained fruit flavours. They tend to please a lot of people on both sides of the fence. And they’re so friendly with food, especially steaks like ribeye, porterhouse, Wagyu beef… People will usually leave wanting to take a picture of the bottle.”

What about the most undervalued wine regions?
“Where I can usually wow people is with VQA wines from Ontario. I am so happy to pour them by the glass. People will say they’re looking for a Chardonnay but don’t want to spend the money to buy a full bottle of Burgundy. You pour people a high-quality wine from Ontario, like The Farm’s Unmarked Chardonnay or Malivoire’s Courtney Gamay Noir—a personal favourite for lighter more simple food, like chicken or Wagyu hamburger—and it usually shocks them at how delicious they can be. Too often when people are shopping at the LCBO they look at the bottle and see the VQA and decide right there that they’re not gonna like it. But in a restaurant setting, when they have a sommelier recommending it, they get rid of that preconceived notion and they drink the wines for what they are. And they realize that you can get an amazing bottle of Chardonnay from Niagara for $25, no problem—while the equivalent from France would cost you double that or more.

“But what really blows people’s minds that is from Ontario is sparkling. Not everyone wants to drink Prosecco but they may not want to pay Champagne dollars. There’s a gap in the middle. There’s Crémant from France, Franciacorta from Italy and Cava from Spain. But you can show them Riddle from Flat Rock, or Cuvée Catherine from Henry of Pelham. One favourite of mine is Kew Vineyards in Beamsville—their Sparkling Pinot Meunier, fruity and expressive but dry. We have such a great climate for sparkling wines. People look at you differently when you make a nice budget-friendly recommendation that exceeds their expectations.”

When you go to other restaurants, what’s the No. 1 fault you see with the service?
“You should be very close to anonymous in hospitality. We’re trying to provide a service for a guest without being invasive or obtrusive. If somebody is pouring something for you or removing plates, you shouldn’t have to move your torso around in a chair to avoid them touching you. You should always be in a position to hug whoever you’re serving—reaching around them, not over them. When they reach over you, it just shows that they’re not really trying to extend a courtesy to you; they’re performing an act. That’s the difference between service—doing something for someone, like, ‘Here’s your Double Double at Tim Horton’s.’ Hospitality is about how you make people feel. And it shouldn’t mean you have to spend a lot of money to get it.”

You work in a castle. Any ghost stories?
“We have quite a lot of people who are able to tour it—it is still an interactive tourist attraction, when it’s open. But there are still some places I won’t go near. There is a castle across the street called The Stables, and there are all these tunnels underground that link the two buildings together. You’re never, ever going to get me to go down there at night unless all the lights are on. It’s like the darkest place I’ve ever been in my life. I’ll just take the long way around, thanks.”

And memorable nights at BlueBlood?
“We had a Christmas party before the pandemic started. We have this law firm come in with all of their clients. They said, ‘We’re going for it tonight!’ So instead of going from one wine to another, we decided to get an enormous, really fun wine and wheel it out. We got a 6L bottle (also called a Methusaleh) of 2009 Tignanello, a Super Tuscan Sangiovese blend. We had to bring it out on its own gueridon (side table). My lead sommelier at BlueBlood is Marie-Claire Perotto, and she’s a pretty petite person, and this bottle is absolutely enormous—it’s half as tall as she is. It took two of us to decant it. We had everyone sign the bottle with wine markers, and someone got a great souvenir from the night. It was the absolute epitome—everything I love to see at BlueBlood, to generate a great positive memory and have guests understand what great hospitality is. We live to replicate nights like that.”

Famous guests?
They’d prefer we not share names. But after the Toronto won the NBA championship, they ended up having a Halloween party at BlueBlood, with all the Raptors in their partners, all in these amazing costumes. They had the championship trophy there on a pedestal, and we all got a chance to take a picture it. There was so much happiness and energy in the air.

“And then there was Mother’s Day in 2018, my first summer as a sommelier at Treadwell. I could see some of the girls huddling around the POS, giggling. I asked, ‘What’s so funny?’ And they said, ‘Oh, they need somebody over at table 401 outside.’ I said, ‘Sure, I’d be happy to.’ And I’m wondering, ‘What is so funny? Is it a difficult table?’ And then as I head outside, I look up and see this stunning woman, and I figured maybe they’re laughing because she’s so pretty and she might distract me. And I could see the back of the gentleman across from her. I could tell he was a pretty fit and handsome guy, even from behind. And I figured, ‘OK, maybe they were laughing because of that.’

“And then I go up to the table and the gentleman turns to me and says, ‘Hey, I’m looking for some wines. What can you tell me?’ And I’m thinking to myself, ‘Oh my God, it’s Matthew McConaughey! Matthew McConaughey is sitting at this table like it’s no big deal, super unannounced.’ And the woman was his wife, Camila Alvez.

“I tried to not ‘fanboy’ myself out, because Interstellar is one of my favourite movies ever. So I wasn’t about to ask him for a photograph, and just served them like they were regular guests—to be professional and extend the normal Treadwell hospitality and let them have a nice, relaxed Mother’s Day.

“But it was pretty shocking to walk over there and see the most beautiful couple going.”