Carlo Tanel

Career
The quiet- spoken business man seated across the desk had no English when he came to Toronto 11 years ago. Today he heads the vast food departments of both the Seaway Hotel and its sister, the luxurious Seaway Towers Hotel, side by side on Lakeshore Blvd at Windermere. Executive Chef Carlo Tanel hails from the province of Trento, in the north of Italy, close to the Swiss border. His love of good food and its preparation undoubtedly stems from his mother, who each year worked at major tourist hotels during the big seasons.

Following some experience in European hotels, Carlo came to Toronto, worked at the Seaway Hotel as sauciere (sauce chef). He then served as the night chef for four years (which put an end to his night language classes) until the opening of the of the Seaway Towers. From that time he served as Sous Chef. When the executive chef retired four years ago, Carlo was Chef de Cuisine for the Seaway Hotel. In July of last year, he was invited to direct food operations for both the Seaway Hotel and the Seaway Towers Hotel. By way of their proximity and his tightly run system of ordering and management, the experiment appears successful.

What, of the many facets of fine cooking, Key asked Chef Tanel, does he consider the most important? "Seasoning" he replied, "especially in sauces and soup. Dried herbs are fine if fresh ones are not available, but I prefer them green". To this end he grows large patches in his own garden - sage, mint, basil, peppers, tomatoes and endive. When fresh herbs are not available for the hotel, he brings a supply from home. "The longer you leave endive outside the better it becomes, more yellow, more crisp. The secret is to cover the heads with plastic (cleaner’s bags with holes cut in them for ventilation) which in turn are covered by potato sacks".

As a hobby, the enterprising chef makes his own wine, for which he built a wine cellar. He and his cousin make their own salami and smoked bacon and sausages. The process takes time, but with proper smoking the meats will last an entire year. For this process, he built a special room in which a constant temperature of 42 degrees is maintained. The necessary moisture is maintained by pouring water over small stones which cover the floor. The trick in smoking meats, he points out, is not to cook them, but merely saturate them with smoke.
Canadians, he feels, would be better off to give time to the understanding and enjoyment of food. "Everything is fast here. People are so often sick. They live too fast, eat too fast".

(The foregoing was an excerpt taken from the January 1968 Key to Toronto which had profiled the Carlo Tanel in the Key to Cooking section).

Family Life
Our father came to Canada from Spormaggiore Italy, landing in Nova Scotia and then making his way to Toronto by train. In 1956 he met his sweetheart, Maria Grazia and they were married on October 26, 1957. He and his two brothers, Lodovico (and his spouse Bruno) and Luigi (and his spouse Pierina), both of which had arrived from Italy around the same time, pooled their savings and bought a home in an newly built subdivision off of Eglinton Avenue, in which they lived together for a number of years. Our father never lost his love of his homeland and after he was comfortable and established in Toronto he returned annually and enjoyed many summers with our mother and his friends at his place in Italy.


It was around time of Roger’s birth in 1965 that our father took an interest in horses. The Seaway Hotel had arranged a chartered plane to take guests to see the Kentucky Derby and our dad joined them on the trip to Louisville. Not only did he pick the Derby winner but also won the Derby pool on the plane and five other winners that day to celebrate the birth of his son. That was the beginning of a long love affair with horses which continued until his passing.

As we grew older, we too would fall in love with horses and looked forward to spending our Sunday afternoons with our father who would always take us to the race track. We often dreamed with him that one day we would own and raise horses. Well that dream turned to reality in 1993. Our dad decided to retire from the hotel business at age 60. Instead of downsizing and relaxing, he started his search for a farm to start his second career. He found a lovely farm in the Town of Caledon and embarked on a new career as a horse farmer along with us. For the past 19 years, we bought, sold, raced and bred thoroughbreds, experienced the highs of winning races and lows of losing a young foal. My father would get extremely attached to his horses, often being unable to sleep if any of them were ill and he could not wait to get up the next day to rush up to the barn to make sure the horse was on the mend. We had never seen our father emotional except on the day that he loaded the first race horse that we ever bought, Texas Fire, onto a trailer and knowing that Tex would not be returning home. Our father wept uncontrollably.

Through the years on the farm he also enjoyed early mornings in the garden tending the vegetables and flowers with our mother and the weekly visits with his brother Luigi and his many friends and family who often visited the farm to trek out into the bush with our father to share a good cigar, laugh, joke and play bocce balls.

And now, after sharing so much with our father, it is our time to good bye and to thank you for being a great dad and friend and most of all for taking us and your friends and family on wonderful journey with you. Say hello to Tex for us until we all meet again.
Love always.
Your family.