Mark McEwan is slicing into his oxtail tortellini framed with delicately charred octopus at a dinner to celebrate the Season 6 premiere of the Food Network’s Top Chef Canada.

We are in the soaring atrium of Corus Quay overlooking the Toronto waterfront, where contestants from the show have anxiously prepped dishes for the approval of some of the most discerning palates in Canada. That includes a shrimp and coconut ceviche with basil jalapeno that journalists on a budget like myself, who once ate Dollarama food for a week, probably shouldn’t get used to any time soon. But this is the rarefied culinary world of Top Chef Canada, which airs Sundays at 10 p.m. on Food Network Canada.

“It’s really an incredible season and I think you’ll be surprised by what you’ll see,” says McEwan, the celebrity chef and owner of upscale restaurants such as the Hazelton Hotel’s ONE, Bymark and North 44, who also happens to be head judge for the show.

“This season I’ve had some of the best meals in my life,” says judge Janet Zuccarini. That’s high praise since, among other properties, Zuccarini owns Felix, the hottest restaurant in Los Angeles and rated the best new restaurant in the U.S. by Esquire Magazine in 2017.

But frankly, even if this really were “the most dramatic season yet” of Top Chef, what’s had the most buzz of any Canadian restaurant lately is not owned by luminaries such as Zuccarini or McEwan. It belongs to chef Michael Hunter of Toronto’s Antler Kitchen & Bar.

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Hunter received international fame after he started to carve the leg of a deer in his window, after animal rights protestors, who had been there several times before, stood outside his door with signs saying “Murder.” Customers entering and leaving the bar were also greeted with “You’re a murderer.”

After the dust-up, the restaurant was subject to a Toronto public health inspection after complaints about improper food handling related to carving the deer, but no infractions were found.

The story hit the zeitgeist exactly because it spoke to a myriad of issues including class warfare, freedom of speech, sustainability and the politics of the progressive left clashing with the sensibilities of the mainstream right. It was also a lesson in marketing and finding your voice in the social media age.

“I don’t consider this protest as an attack on him or an attack on his business,” activist Marni Ugar told the Star in an earlier interview. “This protest is about speciesism. A pig is killed and slaughtered and nobody says anything about it. If the restaurant were killing dogs people would be angered.”

Ugar said she started the protest after a she saw a sign on a board outside the restaurant saying “Venison is the new kale.”

Who better, we thought, than the top chefs in Canada to respond to the controversy? The Star interviewed the judges of the long-running Food Network Canada show on the meat vs. vegan argument.

“I was in Los Angeles when the news hit and I couldn’t believe that people were talking about it down there,” said Zuccarini, owner of Toronto’s Gusto group of restaurants, including the critically acclaimed Trattoria Nervosa and Chubby’s Jamaican Kitchen.

“But I really thought their protest was misdirected. If you’re going to eat meat, then you should be eating game meat; it’s the most sustainable. I thought if the vegans were to direct their energy anywhere, they should maybe have gone to a burger chain.

“And I thought the quiet protest of taking a leg and butchering it quietly at the window, I really thought that was kind of brilliant. It’s kind of comical really. I’ve always been concerned about smaller restaurants and their longevity. But this put Antler on the map and it backfired,” she said.

“Although the protestors are totally right: we should be careful about how we get our food. But it wasn’t the right way to approach it. Now you can’t get a reservation at Antler. I don’t think I’m going to worry about Antler surviving anymore, they’re all set.”

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(Ugar has said she didn’t target a big chain like McDonald’s because she focuses her activism on local businesses.)

“I think that’s what’s wrong with the culture today. Everyone is trying to change everybody,” said McEwan, founder of the McEwan Group, which includes high-end restaurants and grocery stores.

“If you don’t want meat, don’t eat meat. If you don’t want cigarettes, don’t buy cigarettes. Let people make their own decision.

“I think Michael has the right to serve whatever he wants to serve. If you want to promote a vegan diet and a nonmeat diet, then do that. But I don’t think you have to protest at a specific restaurant. I was a little bit proud of him, to be honest. Butchering that deer leg took moxie. If they were going to disrupt his business he had every right.”

Judge judge Mijune Pak, an influential food blogger, said the protest could been done “in more positive ways and I don’t think holding up signs like that you’ll really get the kind of reach you might want.

“It really ended up doing the chef a lot of favours. And he’s probably the wrong guy to target. He’s not wasting anything. If anything, wild game is something we don’t eat enough of. Personally, I’m not a vegan; I’ll eat the liver, heart, gizzard, nose. I eat everything,” she said.

“Still I think everyone has a right to their opinion,” she added. “Their method wasn’t the best. I think sharing your message in a positive way would have been more effective. Maybe have a vegan day and invite everyone. But it ended up being a situation where they egged each other on so much it became really comical.”

Ivana Raca, a contestant on this season of Top Chef Canada and a winner of Chopped Canada — she beat Hunter in Season 3 — was sympathetic to veganism in general.

“I’ve been vegan when I lived for two years in Australia,” said Raca, co-owner of Resto Boemo in the Assembly Chef’s Hall.

“I think it is the new wave. I agree that we have to consume differently. We shouldn’t be eating meat more than once, maybe twice a week. And the way we treat our animals isn’t right. Our population is out of control. We’re trying to make changes, but not fast enough.

“I don’t have anything against vegans and I have many vegan dishes. However I don’t think they should be protesting in front of the restaurant,” she added.

“They should maybe have gone over to Canada Goose or something. It backfired on them and he got more publicity than ever. He handled it the right way. I would have done exactly the same thing.”