Kitchen Tours: seeyousoon
Behind the scenes with the Toronto hospitality group that’s taking the world by storm
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seeyousoon emerged in the Toronto culinary scene by hosting creative pop-up dinners in collaboration with artists, brands, and restaurants across the city. With a shared passion for bringing people together through food, chefs Keith Siu, Michael Ovejas, and Kevin Le combine the flavours of their Chinese, Vietnamese, and Filipino backgrounds to curate a unique dining experience. Since the group’s inception in 2022, they have taken their pop-up series to Vancouver, London and Paris—and they’re just getting started.
In this interview, I ask the trio about how they collaborate on crafting unique menus, how they met, their favourite Toronto spots, what they’ve learned since their first pop-up, and more.
What got you into cooking?
Ovejas: I first started cooking in high school, where I took a course on hospitality and tourism. I enjoyed the class but never really considered making cooking my career because I originally wanted to pursue performing arts or fashion. When it was time to apply for post-secondary education, a lot of my close friends were going to culinary school. Admittedly, I was too scared to go down the performing arts route, so I decided to take the Culinary Management program at George Brown College. I realized then that I was pretty decent at cooking and actually enjoyed it a lot. From there, I decided to work at a couple of restaurants within the GTA (Greater Toronto Area) and have loved cooking ever since.
Le: My first introduction to cooking was by helping my mom and grandma in the kitchen when I was younger, either picking herbs or making Vietnamese spring rolls. They were both early inspirations for me to become a chef.
Siu: I grew up with a really diverse relationship with food through. I’d say I got into cooking because I had to find a purpose in life, and I stuck with it after meeting great chefs who also enjoyed cooking a lot.
So, how did you meet each other?
Le: Mikey and I had many mutual friends throughout high school, but had never actually met. I staged at a now Michelin-starred restaurant called Frilu about five to six years ago, which is where I met Keith. We’ve become really close friends since then. Coincidentally, Keith and Mikey went to culinary school together and officially introduced us to one another in 2022.
Ovejas: I met Keith in my second year of culinary school. From there, we worked at a few restaurants together, such as Buca in Yorkville, Hexagon in Oakville, and most recently, MIMI Chinese.
What made you want to start seeyousoon together?
Ovejas: It originally started as just Keith and I doing a casual pop-up dinner called shy sheep. Shy is the abbreviation of Keith’s full Chinese name, Siu Hao Yin, and Sheep is what my last name means in Spanish. Eventually, we realized that we were gonna need help with the pop-up, and that’s when Keith asked Kevin to come along. Slowly, Kevin became more and more involved with the pop-up, so we decided to just make shy sheep a trio. The only issue was that shy sheep only represented Keith and myself, so we decided to change our name to fit all three of us, along with the concept of doing pop-ups and private dinners. So, one night, we all went out for drinks to figure out a name and Keith’s partner came up with seeyousoon—it stuck with us ever since.
How do you come up with your menus?
Siu: We mostly just talk it through. With the time and space constraints of our nomadic cooking style, we don’t end up testing many dishes. We usually come up with ideas inspired by a variety of things, whether it’s something we’ve done previously, something new, or something we’ve always wanted to remake. We end up trying a lot of dishes for the first time when we actually make them.
Ovejas: We like to take inspiration from dishes we’ve made or eaten growing up, through our careers working in other restaurants, and from our cultural backgrounds. From there, we check to see what produce is in season and figure out which ingredients we should showcase. We also try to cater to the venue space we’re cooking in and incorporate any elements that the venue or collaborator is known for—i.e. during our 915 DuPont events, we’d include whiskey or coffee into a dish because that’s their specialty.
What’s your favourite dish you’ve created together?
Le: I think our beet dish is the perfect example of a combination of our cooking personalities, techniques, and playfulness. It incorporates white soy marinated beets, which we then cut into stars (as a play on our branding), a brown butter beet puree, soy braised rishiri kombu, and topped bubu arare, which are toasted rice pearls.
Siu: Our take on filet-o-fish with XO sauce is quickly becoming a classic, but in terms of a dish that had equal input from all of us, I would say the semifreddo dish we did in London: cardamom semifreddo, shortbread crumble, caramel, and spiced apple compote.
Ovejas: I think any dishes that we create for specific brands or events are always fun because they test our creativity. We made a cake for a clothing brand called Mowalola, where we recreated their logo onto a chocolate disc. We also did a shrimp toast with herb mayo for Sam Youkilis’ book launch in London and made the herb mayo the exact colour of Sam’s Instagram profile photo.
When was your first pop-up, and what have you learned since then?
Siu: Our first pop-up was in Fall 2022. Honestly, the whole experience of starting seeyousoon has been a learning experience. For me, it’s mostly pivoting the focus away from just food and digging deeper into culture and art. Also, having to be more front-facing and talking to a lot of people—we’ve definitely stepped up our cooking out of less conventional spaces.
Le: Our first public pop-up was a 9-course tasting menu dinner at Soho House Toronto on January 2023. We’ve learned so much since then. More than half of the venues we’ve cooked in have a non-existent kitchen, so we’ve really learned how to efficiently load and unload a full cooking setup into these types of spaces.
Ovejas: I also think this past year has taught us that people can enjoy food in all different forms and environments, as long as it tastes good.
In the past year, you’ve done numerous pop-ups in Toronto and even a 2-month residency in London—how has this experience helped you evolve as chefs and collaborators?
Le: With each pop-up and event, we’ve met so many new friends and people who’ve expressed interest in collaborating with us. With these types of partnerships, it’s really important to us that both parties benefit equally, so we’ve slowly dialled in on what’s essential from our side. We’ve also started to master how to incorporate the space and feel of the venue into our menus. Constantly working with new ingredients and coming up with new dishes along the way has certainly levelled us up as chefs.
Ovejas: I think doing pop-ups and collaborative events with a bunch of different brands and restaurants has helped us learn how to adapt quickly to different working environments, learning how to make things work regardless of how little or how much equipment and space we have to work with.
Siu: We’ve got a lot of practice doing pop-ups now, but in terms of overseas residencies, we still have a bit of trial and error to do. We’ve started to explore a lot of issues that wouldn’t come up in regular restaurants and developed a way to work and cook. Being in London felt validating that we were headed in the right direction. Having another city, let alone another continent, enjoy our food and welcome us with open arms has been a surreal and formative experience.
What’s your favourite type of music to listen to in the kitchen?
Ovejas: I love to listen to upbeat, high-BPM house or drum and bass because it helps me work faster, haha! I can’t say the other two enjoy that music, though, so I never play it when I’m prepping or cooking with them.
Le: I like anything easy to listen to like jazz, city pop, and Frank Ocean.
Siu: I stay true to my playlist! I listen to mostly indie and hip-hop artists. There are also a few Korean artists I really like, like Wonstein, LeeHi, Zion.T, and NewJeans. We love a bit of old emo-rock here and there, too, like Panic! At The Disco and Fall Out Boy. I will say, though, that I’ve also been getting more and more into melodic jams from artists like Monsune, Luna Li, and Jenevieve!
Your poster designs are always so fun and well-designed. Who makes them?
Ovejas: Keith does about 90% of them! Usually, we take inspiration from the designs and graphics of the restaurants we collaborate with and discuss a vision for the poster, and then he makes it a reality. We have also gotten a few of our homies to make some of our posters, like our tasting menu at 915 DuPont and the dinner at AAVVGG.
Siu: I thought I was going to be an animator before I started cooking and really re-entered my passion for visual art through seeyousoon. It’s been super fun, and I’ve honestly just been winging it and hoping it looks good!
What are some of your favourite spots in Toronto?
Le: Oh boy, there are too many to name! For date night spots, I like Taverne Bernhardt’s, Dreyfus, and Sakai Bar. For casual eats, I like Thai Nyyom, UFO Restaurant, Itacate, and Mattachioni.
Ovejas: My go-to places are Sakai Bar, MIMI Chinese, Itacate, Thai Nyyom, and 915 Dupont.
Siu: Edulis is really good. I also can’t shake my love for what Dave and Braden are doing at MIMI Chinese. I really like Donna’s, too—the team there is so kind, and I think what they have is really special. For coffee shops, I love Hamers and 915 DuPont. Roselle, Castle & Coal, and Emmer are also great.
Admittedly, though, I don’t eat that much in Toronto. In the GTA, some of my favourite spots, which are more low-key, are Sam Woo, Taro Fish, Ancillas, Burgers Park, Daldongnae, and Cho Sun Ok.
What does cooking mean to you?
Ovejas: Cooking is a way of expressing how you personally view and taste food. It’s a form of art with so many layers. The taste, the texture, the smell, and the look all matter equally. And there are no limits or boundaries as long as it ticks all those categories. Cooking is also a love language. Seeing people’s reactions when you cook food for them is one of the best feelings in the world, and that’s why I do it.
Le: To me, cooking means bringing family, friends and even strangers together to share an intimate moment in time, share laughs and be present with one another.
Siu: Cooking has always been filled with love. It’s my way of putting meaning in my life, and it has given me a chance to make many connections with people. It has allowed me to experience many things that I wouldn’t have a chance to without it, and I now recognize that it’s also a great medium for art.
This interview was edited for clarity and length.