By Eve Thomas
When Toronto got a Michelin Guide in 2022, the entire city—and country—celebrated. But most Canadians heard only about the win, not the years of work or the people involved behind the scenes. High on that list helping to make it happen are Franco Stalteri and Donato Carozza of Charlie’s Burgers and the CB Wine Program, a wine and spirits agency with a seriously tasteful track record.
The pair had already gained acclaim in the culinary world for Charlie’s Burgers, a series of ultra-exclusive dinners launched in 2009 that gives free rein to the world’s top chefs (including many Canadians such as Matty Matheson, Jamie Kennedy and Michael Stadtlander). The ongoing series has been featured everywhere from The Globe & Mail to Vogue, and Food & Wine included it in its 100 Best New Food and Drink Experiences in the World.
It was the perfect pairing of their strengths: Stalteri came up in the restaurant industry and spent years as a chef headhunter (he can also be spotted as a guest judge on episodes of Iron Chef Canada and Top Chef Canada), while Carozza has decades of experience in every facet of the wine industry. As Carozza points out, sommelier courses and studying are all well and good, but you’ve also got to “be out in the field, visiting the vineyards, seeing the process, the cellars, the bottling, meeting the families.”
The CB dinners have always featured privately sourced wines, often offering bottles that are not available to the public, let alone for sale—no matter how frequently diners requested them. So, it was only a matter of time before the pair launched their next project: the CB Wine Program. Membership includes a monthly delivery with in-depth notes and an emphasis on smaller and emerging makers.
Members also get special perks, including a waived corkage fee at select restaurants every month. “We’re the only wine club in the world with a corkage fee agreement at Michelin-starred restaurants,” notes Stalteri.
As for that Michelin Guide, although the exact process is quite confidential, Stalteri reveals that it took about five years and involved a dedicated team, including Michelin’s Paris and New York offices and Destination Toronto. But the idea that Toronto was a world-class culinary city deserving more recognition had been on the minds of Stalteri and Carozza from the start. “We’d been bringing in chefs from around the world—Rome, Copenhagen, across the U.S.—for the dinners, and in their downtime, we showed them the city’s best bars and restaurants,” says Stalteri. “They were always blown away by the level of quality, the diversity.”
He adds that sometimes it takes an outsider to show Canadians what they’ve got. Though Charlie’s Burgers and the CB Wine Program are proof that insiders do a pretty good job, too.