Wine Director

It’s Impossible to not get excited about wine when speaking with Drew Walker, Wine Director at Café Boulud and dbar. An avid lover of sports, health, and fitness. Drew’s teamwork approach, positive energy, and enthusiasm about creating an exciting wine experience for guests Is exhilarating. “We are providing guests with a transcendent experience, which is exciting and memorable, yet also accessible and value-focused. Wine is about personal experience — you are your own guide, and it Is very much an individual journey. I’m here to coach and
empower.”

Originally from southern Ontario, Drew grew up in the heart of Niagara wine region. I grew up in the Industry, working in various restaurants end wineries. It’s exciting to be back home, working with local partners I’ve known my whole life. Drew’s extensive experience includes positions at Peller Estates Restaurant, Hillebrand Winery Restaurant, Restaurant Tony De Luca, and Edgewater Manor. Drew was Maitre d’Sommelier at Daniel Boulud’s Lumiere Restaurant in Vancouver, where in 2010 Lumiere was awarded the AAA Five Diamond Award, one of only three properties In North America to receive this designation.

A graduate of the University of Western Ontario who majored in History and Business, Drew has travelled to the wine regions of France, Italy, Spain, Australia, New Zealand, and across the United States, and in 2008 completed a 3-year Sommelier Diploma Program with the International Sommelier Guild.

Daniel Boulud is Chef-Owner of several award-winning restaurants and the Feast & Fêtes catering company. While he hails from Lyon, France, it is in New York that he has truly mastered the dining scene and is today considered one of America’s leading culinary authorities. Raised on his family’s farm in the village of Saint-Pierre-de-Chandieu, the chef remains inspired by the rhythm of the seasons and menus driven by fine ingredients. Since arriving in the US in 1982, Boulud has become renowned for the contemporary appeal he adds to soulful cooking rooted in French tradition.

Daniel Boulud’s New York City restaurants include his flagship DANIEL (1993), a Michelin starred Relais & Châteaux member; the elegant one Michelin star Café Boulud (1998) with its adjacent cocktail bar, Bar Pleiades; his contemporary Parisian bistro, db bistro moderne (2001); two Upper West Siderestaurant including the charcuterie-centric Bar Boulud (2008) and the Mediterranean themed Boulud Sud (2011). DBGB Kitchen and Bar (2009), situated downtown on the corner of Bowery and Houston, is chef’s relaxed restaurant where the French brasserie meets the American Tavern. Épicerie Boulud (2011), with locations across from Lincoln Center and within The Plaza Food Halls, is an eat-in and take-out market and café, with exquisite homemade and gourmet items from around the world.

Beyond Manhattan the chef has created Café Boulud in Palm Beach (2003) and db bistro moderne in downtown Miami, Florida (2010). Boulud has extended his culinary reach internationally with db bistro moderne at Singapore’s Marina Bay Sands (2010), Bar Boulud London (2010) at the Mandarin Oriental Hyde Park, Café Boulud at the Four Seasons Hotel Toronto (2012), and Maison Boulud at the Ritz-Carlton Montréal (2012). In spring 2014 the Chef returned to Las Vegas and opened db Brasserie in partnership with The Venetian® Las Vegas. Additionally, in September 2014 he opened a second DBGB at downtown Washington D.C.’s CityCenterDC, and Bar Boulud at Boston’s Mandarin Oriental.

Boulud’s culinary accolades include James Beard Foundation awards for “Outstanding Restaurant,” “Outstanding Restaurateur,” “Best Chef, New York City” and “Outstanding Chef of the Year.” He has been named “Chef of the Year” by the Culinary Institute of America and Chevalier de la Légion d’Honneur by the French government. Restaurant DANIEL has been cited as “one of the ten best restaurants in the world” by the International Herald Tribune, has earned multiple Michelin stars and Wine Spectator’s “Grand Award”. In 2015 the World’s 50 Best Restaurants awarded Boulud its Lifetime Achievement Award for his success as a restaurateur, businessman, and ‘chef who is revered as one of the world’s finest.’ Boulud’s culinary style is reflected in nine cookbooks, including the definitive DANIEL: My French Cuisine (Grand Central Publishing, 2013) and his most recent My Best: Daniel Boulud(Ducasse Books, 2014).

There is a lot of collaboration in the kitchen and on the menu of Café Boulud and d|bar at Four Seasons Hotel Toronto. Sylvain Assié wouldn’t have it any other way. “I try for maximum communication to involve my team,” says Assié, who became Chef de Cuisine of the Hotel’s signature restaurant and lounge, which collectively showcase the talents of chef and restaurateur Daniel Boulud, in spring 2015. “I am not the kind of chef that says, ‘we’re putting this on the menu and that’s it.’ We have a lot of young talent in the crew and everyone has a role to play. I challenge them to be the best they can possibly be.”

Assié believes he was tapped to lead the dining spots for his own talent with the authentic French cuisine he has known intimately since taking his first bites in Avignon, France. He grew up in a small village with his family near Montpellier. “They love food and love to cook. I remember the smell in my grandmother’s kitchen for the Sunday family lunch with everyone around the table sharing roasted lamb leg, stuff squids, an aligot or a fantastic bouillabaisse and many other delights.”

Every family in the village had a garden with fruit in the trees and vegetables in the ground. “We were always doing something with what we got from nature,” he says, recalling picking wild asparagus and mushrooms, cooking every day, and learning techniques of the art of preparation – in particular canning for the off-season. “It was just that kind of place – very simple and authentic.”

After getting his start with Four Seasons in the south of France, Assié skipped across a couple of oceans to Bora Bora and then landed in Toronto as a Sous Chef in 2010, two years before the opening of the company’s new address and Café Boulud and d│bar within. His expertise has been tapped across the restaurant and bar over the years, for monitoring inventory, managing staff, and fashioning new dishes in concert with Chef Daniel Boulud.

Assié honed his technique while climbing the culinary ladder in France, where he worked in two 1-Michelin-Star kitchens before joining Four Seasons, and a 2-Michelin-Starred kitchen afterwards. Harkening back to his youth gone by, he developed a “love of fresh produce” and met regularly with French suppliers to pick the best seasonal ingredients. That passion continues in Toronto: “I really like the small farms and suppliers we work with here,” he says, crediting a colleague for plugging him into the region’s best farms.

Just 36 when he was appointed Chef de Cuisine in Toronto, Assié has the “same dream of every chef,” to one day own a restaurant of his own. His sights are unique, though: “I am still young so I need to learn a lot. Not a restaurant. Something like a farm cottage with food and hospitality. It’ll be a return to the roots.”

Meantime, he takes pleasure in planting seeds of appreciation for what the earth provides with his wife and daughter close to home in Toronto. “We love to pick strawberries and apples at a small farm outside the city when I have the time. It is very important for us to show our daughter the source of the good stuff.”

General Manager

Working in restaurants since the age of 15, Jeremy Geyer’s career spans two and half decades. Starting at Scaramouche as a server assistant then on to Susur as Maitre d’ before taking the role of Sommelier at Centro Restaurant, Geyer has worked with some of Toronto’s greatest chefs. Having spent time alongside Marc Thuet, Michael Bonancini, David Lee, Chris McDonald, Keith Froggett and Daniel Boulud, he adds a wealth of experience to the team at Café Boulud. He always remains keenly aware of the industry and continuously integrates the classic, age-old foundation of Café Boulud’s brasserie-style with modern service and products.

Born in Stockholm, Sweden, Jeremy grew up in Toronto’s Beaches area where he attended Balmy Beach Community School. He is a passionate hockey player, avid golfer, and has a deep passion for cooking with an intense focus on ingredients and simplicity. As a graduate of the International Sommelier Guild Diploma Program, Geyer credits his fathers’ passion for wine as his catalyst into the restaurant industry.