Mark Cutrara

Passions of the kitchen

Cooking for Chef Mark Cutrara is like making beautiful music.

"Ingredients are the most important part of cooking, like notes are the most important part of music," says Cutrara. "If you bring together the right ingredients, you’ll create food that people will love. Like music, good food has the ability to take you back to a perfect moment in your life."

After graduating with honours from chef school, Cutrara worked with some of Toronto’s best chefs including Jamie Kennedy of JK ROM and JK Kitchens, Eugene Shewchuk of Messis and Rocco Agostino of Silver Spoon.

Under the mentorship of these chefs, Cutrara learned to respect food and where it comes from.

"They taught me to place the utmost importance on my food buying decisions," he says. "The buying choices I make as a chef count in the quality of the food that I create. They also helped me understand that using local, fresh, seasonal ingredients equals more flavour."

Restaurant Description:

Inspired by turn of the century French bistros, Cowbell owners Mark Cutrara and Karin Culliton have created an atmosphere of comfort, originality and fun in their very own neighbourhood of Parkdale. Chef Cutrara is dedicated to serving fresh, simple food. Cowbell's chalkboard menu changes daily to reflect the availability and freshness of their ingredients. Cutrara and his kitchen are working almost exclusively with naturally-raised, organic meat and produce, sourced from local farmers. Cutrara purchases whole animals, butchers, smokes and cures his meat on the premises. And he churns his own butter!