An Evening at The Pine

Picture this: you are 11 courses deep into an immersive 18-course tasting menu. The opening cocktail, the Purple Swayze—a rare and striking deep blush of crimson, made of wild frost grapes, pressed rosehip juice, egg whites and Empress gin—plus subsequent wine pairings, has you vibrating in all the right kinds of ways. It’s gently snowing outside, one of the first snow falls of the season.

Inside, the highly celebrated 12-seat restaurant in Collingwood’s historic downtown is bright, crisp and minimalist. The husband-and-wife, chef-owner team of Jeremy and Cassie Austin work with their three-person kitchen team to serve up The Pine’s once-a-night, artfully orchestrated menu. A menu that leaves you feeling like you’ve stamped your passport through China and Italy. All guests start eating at the same time—no exceptions.

Chef Jeremy arrives at the table carrying the next, 12th course.

“This is the King’s Parcel. It’s inspired by a trip I took just outside Chendu, China, for a special meal,” he says, grinning.

“The 10-acre property was very similar to Michael Stadtlander’s Eigensinn Farm. The owner had worked on the property for the past 50 years and, like Stadtlander, loved to show off his art across the entire property. The owner made a toast and proceeded to down the entire glass. Everyone else did the same, including me,” Jeremy continues.

Just upon graduation and getting married, Jeremy was accepted into George Brown’s honours Italian post-graduate program where he would stage at Antica Corte Pallavincina, a one-star Michelin restaurant situated in Polesine Parense, a town of 1,400 people in the Emilia-Romana region. The town is famous for that restaurant, and for its “culatello,” a boneless prosciutto. While there, Jeremy worked on a farm, butchered geese, duck, guinea fowl and quail. He herded cattle and picked grapes.

“When he came back from Italy, he was changed,” Cassie says.

“I got a taste of something and wanted to challenge myself more and more by expanding my comfort zone,” says Jeremy.

Somebody approached him about a job in China and so he and Cassie packed up their lives, not once but twice, to work first in rural Wuxi, then Hong Kong, and then two years later, Shanghai.

“In China, we learned to be comfortable in chaos. Probably something that is very important for the mind of a chef when a good chunk of the day is absolute madness. I would say China taught us to be comfortable in that environment, because the second you walk out your front door, it’s absolute chaos,” says Jeremy.

Storytelling, unbridled creativity, and the influences of working abroad in cultures that challenged their consciousness are the ingredients that have earned Jeremy, Cassie and The Pine some of the country’s top accolades: number 9 of Canada’s Best New Restaurant 2022; number 51 of Canada’s 100 Best 2022; and number 47 of Canada’s 100 Best 2023.

Most tasting menu experiences are a once-a-year type desirable experience, but The Pine’s well-paced and portioned infusion of nuanced flavours and ancient spices and sauces is a menu I am still yearning to return to and explore further.

“For a restaurant solely focused on tasting menus, we see a lot of repeat diners. To have people come back makes us feel like we are doing something special. For most people, a restaurant like this is somewhere they may only visit once in their lifetime. I would say the words we hear the most is that it’s very creative, which we can agree with because it’s something we work hard to achieve. Creativity is the thing that keeps us going!” says Jeremy.

“It doesn’t matter what’s thrown at us or what we have been through,” says Cassie. “Even when I get really stressed, we still take pause not to take things too seriously. We have been put in really challenging positions and it has made our bond a lot stronger. We’ve had to grow and by really challenging ourselves and testing ourselves.”