The Church, Restaurateur Joe Mandel & Stratford Chef School

Stratford, Ontario

Photos by Terry Manzo

What draws me time and time again to Stratford, Ontario — besides world class theatre and the fact that it is a great walking town is the city’s vitality as an agriculture hub and important culinary centre. Start you're walking tour of the downtown at the Market Square behind the historic 12-sided red-brick City Hall built in 1899. Stroll the downtown streets and browse the charming independent shops as you explore the captivating town which exudes natural beauty. Stratford is full of amazing, innovative restaurants and stimulating, niche specialty shops and galleries situated on its heritage streetscapes or off the beaten path on side streets. The town has attractive outdoor gardens flanking the banks of the stunning Avon River. Among the city’s culinary assets is the revered Stratford Chefs School, where students work with local culinary luminaries and chefs across Canada and worldwide. Culinary pros and alumni have stayed in Stratford, adding innovation and prestige to the local culinary scene. I have written extensively about the Stratford food and drink scene for over twenty years.

Stratford, Ontario, photographer Terry Manzo is known for her stunning portraiture and for telling stories through pictures and her long affiliation with the Stratford Chef School. Since I read former New Zealand-born restaurateur Joe Mandel's obituary in January 2023, I have been pondering Manzo's two black-and-white photographs from the early days of the Stratford Chef School accompanying this post. 

Manzo captured the upper photo of the chefs and founders of the Stratford Chef School in 1985, the season The Church employed me. There are several people in this photo that I have been closely acquainted with over the years, including the late Rob Penfound, who went on to work at Buckingham Palace as part of a brigade of 20 chefs.

Joe Mandel converted Stratford, Ontario's former Mackenzie Memorial Gospel Church, into The Church Restaurant, a 160-seat restaurant, in 1975. The Church was a venerated culinary landmark for decades.

When the Stratford Festival shuttered for the winter season, prominent Stratford restaurateurs like Joe Mandel and Eleanor Kane of the Old Prune and Jim Morris of Rundles began opening their kitchens to aspiring chefs, the first iteration of the Stratford Chef School in 1983. There have been over eight hundred graduates of the Stratford Chef School program since its inception. I have worked with and employed many Stratford-trained chefs over my career. I have always maintained their is an idiosyncratic sensibility unique to a Stratford Chef School trained chef.

The last time I ran into Joe Mandel was in New Hamburg two years ago at Murrays tailored clothing store, where I bought a coat, and Joe was picking up a suit jacket just before the haberdashery closed for good.

The backstory of The Church involves former British actor and director and acclaimed Stratford Festival artistic director Robin Phillips. He was hired in 1975 and spent six years directing many productions, cultivating new talent and reinvigorating the Festival. Phillips' first season coincided with his partner of 46 years, restaurateur Joe Mandel, opening the landmark Church Restaurant. According to The Times, "By the time he left, Stratford rivalled New York as a centre of theatrical excellence." 

Phillips had a wide-ranging career as an actor and director in Britain and several cities across Canada, including as artistic director at The Grand Theatre in London, Ont., in the early 1980s and as director general of Edmonton's Citadel Theatre in the 1990s. Robin passed away in 2015 after a sustained illness. 

When Joe Mandel sold The Church, Mark Craft, the Maître d when I worked there, operated the restaurant for an additional twenty-eight years. Joe dissolved his affiliation with the Chef's School after the sale. 

The Church Restaurant was in its prime, in the mid-1980s when I worked there. The restaurant was cavernous and demanding and ran like a well-oiled machine. The work was demanding, the atmosphere was competitive, the hours were long, and the gratuity structure was unfair, although ahead of its time and somewhat egalitarian in theory. It was challenging to balance work and life because of the long days, late nights, split shifts, and favourites.

m given to the locals. Plates were carried up flights of stairs from the basement kitchen on large banquet trays onto serving stands in the dining room. I was fortunate to sublet my friend Cathy Bowie's apartment in Stratford kitty corner to the Old Prune while she was on a sabbatical in France. 

In 1979, the New York Times said, "Rows of tables set with linen and crystal have replaced the pews in the main body of The Church, and a bar dispenses cocktails from the spot where fiery sermons were delivered to generations of Stratford residents. The pre-theatre dinner menu offers a choice of hors d'oeuvres, entrees and desserts for a fixed price of $19.50 a person. Soups range from chilled gazpacho Andalouse to vichyssoise à la ciboulette, and diners choose from a list of 11 entrees, including fresh trout poached in wine with lemon sauce and a rabbit stew with fresh shrimp. The Church also offers lunch at $9.50 and an after-theatre buffet at $19.50. Reservations are essential on theatre days."

In 1988, the New York Times said, "The Church began life in 1874 as a Congregational church, and the restaurant retains the altar, organ pipes and stained glass. Diners enjoy shrimp-filled ravioli in a creamy herb sauce or supreme of salmon with mint mayonnaise in a big, dark-panelled room. Desserts include Pavlova (a lightly baked meringue with fresh fruit), an iced cassis souffle, and a Bosc pear filled with caramelized pistachios and pine nuts. A three-course dinner from the fixed-price menu costs about $28.50. Early reservations are essential. Upstairs at The Church, the Belfry, a favourite haunt of festival cast and crew, provides meals and after-theatre fare in a more casual atmosphere." There was also the ubiquitous Robin et Isabella, a stuffed chicken dish filled with cream cheese on the menu for years. 

During those years, Maggie Smith, Martha Henry, Brian Bedford, and Timothy Findley, like many well-known actors, writers and celebrities, dined at The Church. We were not allowed to converse with them. I remember Maggie Smith standing in front of me in line at the Canada Trust across from the City Hall and hearing the inimitable voice of Miss Jean Brodie. Celebrities were among the late-night habitués who frequented The Belfry, which was The Church's upstairs room and a popular pre-and post-theatre destination. The Belfry was the bastion of hospitality and completed many a visitor's Stratford theatre experience.

The once-celebrated Church restaurant, previously Mackenzie Memorial Gospel Church, is now Revival House. The inspired and ambitious revitalization of the former grande dame of Stratford's culinary scene took half a year to complete. The location, architectural features, and spacious interior inspired its original transformation. The property remains one of Ontario's finest instances of converting a historic property into a hospitality venue with integrity and respect for cultural heritage. -BL