Since working at a successful burger chain in North Carolina right after graduation, Chef Joe Friday has known he wanted to do something with his favourite meal: the humble hamburger.
Sixteen years later, the private chef will be living out his dream with the launch of Friday Burger Company — a quick-service joint in the brand-new food hall at CIBC Square, right in the heart of downtown Toronto.
“It’s my southern style take on quality burgers and chicken sandwiches, carefully curated with quality ingredients; including my specific beef chuck and short rib blend done in a California smash patty, along with the utmost quality of toppings — and my special Friday sauce,” says Chef Friday. “My team and I cannot wait to start smashing patties and sharing my long-term love of burgers.”
Chef Friday may have a lifetime of experience with burgers, but his recent web presence has truly solidified him as a burger aficionado on social media. Casual followers of Chef Joe Friday may know him simply as “the burger guy.”
While researching burgers ahead of the launch of his own burger joint, Chef Friday started a TikTok called FridayBurgerReview, where Chef Friday posts short videos rating the different burgers he’s tried across Canada. The videos are good-natured in tone, and work to highlight different burger chefs folks should visit across the country. “It’s been awesome to try all different restaurants, and I’ve been getting a lot of great feedback,” says Chef Friday, adding that he has over 70,000 views on some of his TikTok reviews.
On Instagram, Chef Friday has around 25,000 followers, interspersing his burger reviews with posts about the work he does as a personal chef.
Where it began
Although Chef Friday’s focus on burgers may seem singular, his interests and background are exceptionally varied, having been born in North Carolina, raised n Okinawa, Japan, and trained in French Cuisine
Chef Friday recalls first being exposed to the idea of pursuing cooking professionally through his grandfather, who owned a successful restaurant in Jacksonville.
Chef Friday moved to Japan at the age of three. He spent more of his formative childhood and early teenage years in Japan, being exposed to cuisine beyond that of his Southern American roots. Chef Friday recalls watching his parents — both avid home cooks — mix their southern-style cooking with different traditional Japanese cooking practices, creating dishes such as Southern-style yakisoba, or Japanese-fried chicken karaag.
“I intently watched my parents cook as a team, working together in harmony and then enjoying our meals together as a family,” says Chef Friday. “I was surrounded by love and dedicated to food. Being a family in a new and culturally unfamiliar place, food was always something that could bring us together at home”
Outside of his family, Chef Friday was able to experience the food culture in Japan first-hand, walking the food markets, and marveling at the attention to detail paid by the chefs.
“Living in Japan was an amazing experience as a child — the food culture and care runs throughout the country,” Chef Friday says. “And hearing stories about how good of a chef my grandfather was, and seeing both my parents at home in the kitchen together, I knew I wanted to follow in my family’s footsteps and become a professional chef.”
Gaining Traction
Chef Friday pursued his culinary training in the Restaurant Management program at the Culinary Institute of America in New York. From there, at the age of 20, he became one of the 10 worldwide individuals invited to train at Walt Disney World’s culinary program — a unique program where participants work alongside top industry chefs and learn to hone their craft, as well as excellent hospitality skills.
Chef Friday has staged around Europe, Asia, and the U.S., including staging with Thomas Keller at the world-renowned French Laundry, working as a Saucier Nobu in Honolulu, and working as the Executive Sous Chef at the Hilton Hawaiian Village.
Chef Friday moved to Toronto almost 10 years ago to be part of the opening team for the new venture, LUMA at TIFF Bell Lightbox. Since that time, he’s been an integral part of Toronto’s restaurant scene as a member of the team that opened Bar Mozza, acting as a part owner and Executive Chef of ViaVai.
He went on to bring his love for Hawaiian Cuisine to Toronto, and opened as part owner and chef, the popular quick-service poke restaurant Calii Love.
He’s also keen to share his knowledge with the next generation of chefs. In 2013, he founded The Chef Collective – a chef-driven event company created for chefs, by chefs, with the goal of providing a platform where chefs can showcase their talents in a live culinary battle.
After a three-year hiatus due to the pandemic Chef Friday brought back the popular underground chef battle series in October 2022. Three of the industry’s best chefs in Toronto sharpened their knives and competed in an ultimate black box culinary competition for the chance to win The Chef Collective title and huge prizes.
Check out Chef Joe Friday on Instagram for updates on his restaurant opening, catering business, and 2023 Chef Collective event dates.
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