Quattro at Whistler bridges the past and present
“Italians only.”
Those two words accompany the menu listing for Spaghetti Quattro — the longtime signature dish created by late chef and revered restaurateur Antonio Corsi — at Quattro at Whistler. Whether the message was meant to be an inside appeal to Italians or a cheeky challenge, given the recipe’s hit of red pepper flakes and minced garlic, doesn’t matter as much as what was always the focus of the dish for Corsi: the pasta.
The dish’s other simple but high-quality ingredients — Italian parsley, extra-virgin olive oil, ground chicken — and its precise preparation are enduring hallmarks of the pioneering Italian cuisine and fine dining Corsi introduced to Whistler. It was during a time when only a handful of high-end restaurants existed in the village, which hadn’t yet become the four-season destination it is now.
Quattro at Whistler was the third iteration of the Corsi family’s famed Quattro brand of restaurants, which once also had locations in Vancouver (run by Corsi’s son, Patrick) and North Vancouver. Corsi established a sense of camaraderie and community, influencing and inspiring an untold number of chefs, servers, restaurateurs and bartenders. “I think ‘passionate’ is the key word that explains Antonio,” says Jay Paré, who now co-owns Quattro with his nephew James Paré. “Passion was just his way of life,” James adds. “It’s what motivated him every day to get up and do what he did. It was sort of what he was born for.”
Jay got his own start in the industry in 1984, when Mario Enero (founder of Caramba restaurant) gave him a job busing tables. Jay then moved on to work at another stalwart Italian restaurant in Whistler: Umberto Menghi’s Il Caminetto. James was a frequent visitor to Il Caminetto’s kitchen and later apprenticed at Quattro.
Corsi’s ethos has inspired both his extended family and the restaurant community, who continue to protect and adopt it in their own ventures. The Parés have kept that legacy alive, even as James carved his own path as a chef, honing his skills at Fairmont hotels in the U.S. That spurred a stint as executive chef at the Savoy in London, where James supervised a brigade of almost 100 at the celebrated West End hotel.
Even so, the lure of working with family never wavered for the Parés, and the pair discussed starting a business. “It was at a very young age for me,” says James, “and we were lucky enough to make that happen in 2014.” They first teamed up to buy Caramba, a casual Spanish restaurant in Whistler, with James taking on the role of executive chef. In 2020, they purchased Quattro at Whistler from Corsi. And their newest venture, Lorette, a French brasserie, will open in Whistler this spring.
The Parés’ trio of seemingly diverse restaurants flow from the ones started by their mentors. “We took … the nuts and bolts of what [each] business was,” says James of Caramba and Quattro, “and all we wanted to do is pay homage to these people who started a great business, a great restaurant.”
When he and Jay took the helm at Caramba, James promised not to touch the beloved calamari. As he’s said, “Why would you want to change something that nice?”
Likewise, Corsi’s cult hit will never leave the Quattro at Whistler menu. “When [Corsi] was a chef,” James says, “he created [Spaghetti Quattro] at the end of the night for himself. He realized how great it was. And, you know, he created this rule that you could never put Parmesan cheese anywhere near it.”
Other menu items are sacrosanct, too, following the heart of Corsi’s cuisine — and his canon. “It would be bold, it would be flavourful, it would be simple,” says James. “It would be uncomplicated, but there was always a rule for something.”
James says such details are what set Corsi’s cooking apart from that at other Italian restaurants. Only pecorino, never Parmigiano-Reggiano, is used in the Fusilli Tartufati, another perennial favourite, made with local wild mushrooms, truffle cream and sage. “He would make sure the Parma ham was always a high-quality product from Italy, but [it] had to be sliced properly, had to be presented properly.”
By continuing these touches, the Parés illustrate their reverence for those who came before. But preserving the classics doesn’t mean there isn’t room for a few twists. And while they didn’t want to modernize the menu at Quattro at Whistler, they now bridge past and present for diners — who, as James says, “cook at home way better than they ever have” — with innovative dishes they’d never make for themselves.
Simplicity, the cornerstone of Italian cuisine, still reigns, and top-notch ingredients are essential. For instance, the Parés bring in burrata from a denominazione d’origine protetta (a protected designation of origin) in Italy, ordering it three weeks in advance. Preserved lemons elevate the ruchetta, an arugula salad. High-end olive oil accompanies the house pane. “We’re just trying to pay homage to Antonio,” says James. “What would Antonio do now if he was still here and in his prime?” he wonders.
The idea for Lorette — a portmanteau of women’s names from the Paré family — came to Jay and James on the heels of their purchase of Quattro in 2020, but the pandemic slowed their plans to bring a “proper” high-end French-brasserie concept to Whistler. Jay’s roots are in Montreal, and James says they’re drawing inspiration from Québécois-style cuisine, using Pacific Northwest ingredients and classic French techniques.
“Flavours are going to be simplistic but complex in taste,” says James. Nothing too modern. Nothing too complicated. Like Corsi’s cuisine.
The upscale casual dining Corsi brought to Whistler almost 30 years ago continues to thrive and grow. His legacy was to bring people together in an atmosphere that feels like family. “Antonio always had an extra seat at the table for you,” says James. “He always had a big smile or was ready to have a glass of wine with you.”
