Editor’s note: We’re thrilled to finally present to you our new highly anticipated column, led by none other than restaurant industry veteran, Ivy Knight. A regular contributor at the New York Times and Food & Wine, she’s also a filmmaker (her latest work premiered at Hot Docs in 2023) and a content creator who’s memes count the likes of Matty Matheson and René Redzepi as fans. Fun fact: as a former cook, Knight is featured in the Netflix documentary The Heat.
Ivy Knight’s ready to explore the world’s best hotels and report back here with all the decadent details. This month, Hotel Diaries kicks off with a trip to the Ritz-Carlton in Toronto. #HotelDiaries
What’s your pillow preference? Are you a bamboo girl or a sokabawa baby? Do you long for a body pillow to wrap yourself around like a boa constrictor, or are you more of a hypoallergenic microfiber with the feel of down kinda person? Well, The Ritz-Carlton has a pillow menu y’all. Hotel Diaries is finally here and we’re getting some beauty rest at what just might be the most famous hotel brand in the world. Celebrating the finest hotel experiences, this column is only concerned with highlighting the most unique and incredible places to lay your sweet head.
Star-studded
In 2011 a friend of mine, let’s call her Kay, got a job in the kitchen at TOCA inside the freshly minted Ritz-Carlton hotel in Toronto. The first (and still the only) Ritz in Toronto, which had opened just in time for TIFF. One night the kitchen got a panicked request from a publicist. A cluster of VIPs were on their way and a rush order of h’or d’oeuvres was required stat! With the kitchen mostly closed for the night, the chefs got to work.
Pulling off gourmet miracles with absolutely no notice is actually the unspoken top requirement of chefs the world over, and on this night it meant that they had plattered delicacies ready in record time. Because of the late hour, a full complement of floor staff was unavailable so the cooks were required to bring the food to the private party room themselves. Rushing to get everything in place before the guests arrived, Kay entered bearing a heavy platter of exquisite comestibles, she almost bumped into some clod who wasn’t looking where he was going. Narrowly averting disaster she was just about to reprimand this imbecile, only to lock eyes with Canadian sweetheart Ryan Gosling. He smiled, said “Sorry” and stepped back to let her pass. She felt the beginnings of a cardiac arrest as she hurried past him to the long table set up for canapés.
Finally arriving at her destination, she put forth the large platter when a hand reached out and grasped the edge to guide it safely onto the table. Her eye noted the hand, up the wrist to the impeccable white sleeve peeking from the midnight blue suit, and all the way up the arm to its owner, whereupon she took in the full glory of Mr. George Clooney. “These look great,” he said. Brown eyes dancing above a charming grin. Wow. Kay was going to need a defibrillator any minute now. The room was filling up fast. She had to quit with the swooning and get back to the kitchen. The rest of the h’or d’oeuvres weren’t going to plate themselves. She turned to race back and in her haste bumped into someone else. This time none other than Angelina Jolie sheathed in a floor length Vivienne Westwood ballgown. What the hell? Kay apologized profusely to the (what appeared to be) 6-foot-tall goddess in heels, before hustling back to the kitchen to fully freak the f’ out.
Pampering
As soon as we check in at the Ritz-Carlton we go directly to the spa. I am looking for A-lister level treatments and I’m not disappointed. I’m whisked off for some top tier exfoliation. The botanicals are botanicking (it most definitely is not a word, so sue me) all over my dried out peasant body. Tayah is in charge of giving me the myBlend Energizing Body Treatment. She looks about as forceful as a kitten, but she exfoliates me within an inch of my life. Even my thoughts are clean by the time she’s done. My guest, Arlene, is getting the myBlend Essential Touch Facial. The tech used during these treatments includes a ColorBlend LED Mask, a WaveBlend Vibration Technology Machine, and a non-invasive ‘cold’ Cryotherapy Device. Arlene and I walk out of the spa literally looking like dew-kissed angel babies. I’m on a natural high (read stoned out of my mind after being non-invasively cryotherapied and slathered in gorgeous lotions) as I flop onto a chaise poolside and take some quick selfies to capture my newborn baby glow. #nofilter
Suites
It’s worth noting that the Ritz-Carlton claims to have an employee turnover rate of 20%, which, if true, is quite impressive in an industry where that rate usually hovers around 70%. The Michelin Guide’s Toronto Ritz profile has some strange reviews; Mike compliments the HVAC (which, if you’re not an air conditioner repairman you can be forgiven for not knowing stands for Heaving Ventilation Air Conditioning), saying that it’s the best he’s ever encountered. Then there’s Thomas who notes that the hotel is “kind of old looking.”
Considering the Ritz-Carlton Toronto was only built in 2011 and renovated in 2020, Thomas has some exacting standards for what constitutes old. I only point those out to show that customer reviews are 90% hooey and to say that my experience at the Ritz-Carlton in Toronto not only felt fresh and current, but Mike was correct, the temperature was always exquisite. And I’m a temperature queen! The minute I sweep into a room I’m wrassling with the overzealous AC before I do anything else. No need at the Ritz though, where the room temp is luxuriously just a little bit warm, all the better to strip down and jump into bed. This is a hotel room, not a cheese cave. And these sheets are 400-thread-count Frette Linen.
Dining
As for the cheese cave, they have one in the dining room at TOCA restaurant (tucked away on the upper level of the main floor). If you want to build your own, I hope you have a quarter mil. This gorgeous little room with the $250k price tag is the only cheese cave in a hotel in the entire country. The cheese selection is lovely sure, but we dare not get distracted.
We’re at TOCA tonight for the Chef’s Table experience, which will include two very specific must try dishes; the Caramelle Pasta and the Risotto Fagiano. First, squid ink pasta in the caramelle shape, so called because it looks like a wrapped caramel. Cute! This adorable package is stuffed with lobster and prawn and served napped with the silkiest lobster bisque. The whole thing is saved from being utterly too unctuous by a garnish of citrus-zested toasty breadcrumbs. Do I need to tell you how gorgeous it is? Literally, if George Clooney was reincarnated as a dish of pasta this is what you’d get. I mean. Come on.
The risotto, only available at this time of year, is rich with pheasant ragu and topped with winter truffles from Spain. Just these two dishes alone would be enough to send me off to the electric chair with a spring in my step. But there’s more.
For the Chef’s Table experience we are seated in the kitchen with a full view of the line. I’m a former line cook who spent a decade in kitchens, so this isn’t exactly the most relaxing seat in the house. I keep wanting to jump up and help out. I restrain myself, barely, and focus on the incredible plates being set before me. We are served a cross section of the menu; a burrata from Puglia garnished with balsamic pearls. An elegant winter salad of caramelized Turkish figs tossed with a mix of chicories. A grilled lobster on the half shell. Branzino studded with capers and drizzled with a lemon beurre blanc. And finally, a millefeuille made with alternating layers of dark and milk chocolate and garnished with gold leaf.
Allow me a moment to talk about the palate cleanser. This kind of dish doesn’t usually rate a mention in a review but I have to single it out. The palest pink grapefruit granita, served in a little glass dish and tasting like the purest essence of a perfectly ripe Ruby Red. It is simply faultless. Like Ryan Gosling’s performance as Ken. Now I’ve had my own Ryan Gosling and George Clooney experience at the Ritz.
The wine pairings elicit “oohs” and “aahs” from my dining companion, Jenny. She’s a globetrotter who dines at Michelin stars the way the rest of us eat cereal. “This is the most interesting Chardonnay I’ve ever tasted,” she murmurs over a pour of I Sistri, by Fèlsina Winery in Tuscany. Meanwhile I’m trying some new mocktails that Saul the bartender is working on. This is real insider stuff – not even on the menu yet. And let me tell you, if you’re so inclined, the mocktails they’ve got coming are going to be stellar. There’s a dealcoholized gin that’s gone through a 36-hour infusion of strawberry and vanilla. There’s also a ginger beer and 0% sweet red vermouth effervescing with nose-tingling winter spices and served in one of those hammered copper mugs. I might be dead sober but my tastebuds are feeling no pain.
Perks
After a night surrounded by every pillow in the known universe, I pay a visit to the Club Lounge. This is how breakfast should be done; a garden of earthly delights laid out for the taking. No conversation required and the coffee hot and ready. Fresh squeezed juices, breakfast pastries, a silver domed chafing dish of crispy bacon. The Ritz logo on everything to remind me I’m kind of a big deal. And if that isn’t enough, this is where they keep all the hotel minis – baby jars of Bon Maman jams and marmalades, baby Nutella, baby Tabasco, even baby Heinz.
I started this column for a number of reasons; because I love hotels and spas, I’m a sucker for sparkly chandeliers and fluffy robes, I’m wild about polished service, and crazy for gargantuan bouquets of flowers. But mostly, if I’m honest, in my heart of hearts, I’m really doing it for the minis.
Address: 181 Wellington St W, Toronto, ON M5V 3G Rooms: 263, which includes 56 one-bedroom corner suites, 4 of their Simcoe Suites, 2 Wellington Suites, and 1 namesake, Ritz-Carlton Suite. Dining: TOCA Restaurant (Italian), EPOCH Bar & Kitchen (Gastropub), Ritz Bar and Cafe, In-room dining, Lounge (for Gold Club level guests only). Amenities: Pool, Whirlpool, Fitness Centre, Spa myBlend (formerly Clarins). Feature Photos: Courtesy of The Ritz-Carlton Toronto hotel. Polaroids by Ivy Knight. Design by Stamina Labs.
