A Toronto chef who cut his teeth in fine dining restaurants across North America is venturing out to do something totally different. Chef Barbode Soudi says that, for the majority of his 20-year tenure working in kitchens across the continent, fine dining was always the plan. From there, stints at The French Laundry in Napa, Toronto's Lucien, Nota Bene, Black Hoof, and San Francisco's Quince all added feathers to his cap until, ultimately, he returned to the local fine dining scene at Actinolite and Alo. Eventually, he rose in the ranks from sous chef to executive sous chef and, eventually, chef de cuisine at Alo. The initial plan was to open a fine dining spot of his own, called Sima, after his mother, but lease agreements and financing consistently fell through.