“I am essentially a duck dealer,” says Malcolm Wood. The restaurateur extraordinaire, who is also something of an international man of mystery, was giving me a first look at Mott 32, next to the Shangri-La Toronto. It being one of the most anticipated openings of the year in town — complete with black-tie bash later this month — it was only a matter of time before our convo turned to their signature Peking Duck (a main-character dish since the resto opened exactly a decade back in Hong Kong, prompting similar pangs wherever the la-di-da brand has opened offshoots hence, from Dubai to Singapore to Vegas).
He was joking, but only sort of. “We sell out of the duck every night, everywhere in the world. People message me constantly, going: ‘Hey man, I am in Vegas, I cannot get the duck!’” Game recognizes game! As they say.
Wood, who is a first-rate alpinist and extreme sports junkie when he is not fielding menu requests (the kind who, when mentioning his home base in the French Alps, tells me, “it means, before work, I can do 1,000 vertical metres into the mountains, fly back to my house and start my calls”) was now climbing his latest Chinese sensation, spread over three floors in the former Momofuku space. The soundtrack of construction hung around us. Boots on ground.
The dance of hammers. “I have done 60 restaurants in my 20-year-long career. These two rooms are among the best,” said Malcolm Wood, pointing out a beautiful table that fits 16 at Toronto�.
