Oliver & Bonacini Hospitality announces that Canadian restaurateur Peter Oliver has died aged 74, after a battle with cancer.
The co-founder of the company behind luxury Toronto restaurants Canoe, Auberge du Pommier, Luma and Biff’s Bistro was diagnosed with stage four cancer in May 2021.
He burst into the limelight in 1993, when he teamed up with chef Michael Bonacini to create a restaurant empire that runs 29 properties serving 30,000 guests a week and hosting more than 10,000 events a year.
Under Oliver’s leadership, the company has pioneered training, benefits, education funding, travel opportunities and career development for restaurant workers who often don’t get the benefit of such benefits.
Oliver got his start in the restaurant business in 1978, when he opened a small sandwich shop at Yonge Street and Eglinton Avenue named Oliver’s Old Fashioned Bakery.
He is survived by his wife Maureen of 48 years, four children and grandchildren.
An obituary of Oliver & Bonacini said he loved teaching about the interconnectedness of nature at their family cottage on Lac Baptiste.
“He spent countless hours digging holes, moving rocks and planting hostas, displaying an endurance that would put people half his age to shame,” the obituary reads.
“Occasionally he’d step away from his latest project to take a swim, practice yoga or sip a gin and tonic – always with fresh mint – before declaring, ‘This is living.
“Evil alcohol lover. Twitter junkie. Future teen idol. Reader. Food aficionado. Introvert. Coffee evangelist. Typical bacon enthusiast.”