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When Chef Sebouh Yacoubian stepped onto the stage to accept a plaque from the Michelin Guide in September 2024, the moment hit hard. “I had a flash,” he recalls. “The stages of Michelin were walked on by Thomas Keller, Grant Achatz, René Redzepi… chefs I worshipped growing up. And here we were—three Armenian brothers with a restaurant named after our mom. One of only 16,000 restaurants in the world to make it into the Guide. Who are we to deserve that?”

The brothers — Sebouh, Serouj, and Saro — opened Toronto-based Taline in April 2023. From the moment you step inside, you feel it’s a tribute. Named after their late mother, who passed when the boys were just 16, 12, and 11, Taline carries her presence in every detail: rose, olive green, and copper — her favourite colours — flow through the space.

On the wall, a map of Anjar, the Lebanese town where she was born and raised before emigrating to Canada in the late 1980s. A gentle stream of Armenian music floats through the air — never obvious, just enough to bring you closer to the soul of a nation.

Climbing the narrow staircase to the second floor, a collage of old photographs: Taline at her wedding, Taline with her sons, Taline smiling through the soft haze of time... It’s not design — it’s devotion. A quiet, deeply personal act of remembrance…

Opening a restaurant in Toronto’s upscale Summerhill — a neighbourhood with no established Armenian presence — was deliberate. “We’re an Armenian restaurant that doesn’t have Armenian clientele,” Sebouh says, half-joking. But the strategy is real. Yonge Street draws a cultured, cosmopolitan crowd — people with a taste for a story as much as flavour. The brothers weren’t just opening a restaurant. They were planting a flag.

“If we wanted money, we wouldn’t have opened Taline,” Sebouh tells me. “We opened it to be heard.” “Every time I say I’m Armenian,” he continues, “people either mention the genocide or the Kardashians. Is that all we are?”

His voice never rises, but the conviction is thunderous. “We’ve been protesting for 110 years. Maybe it’s time we show who we are in a different way. We have exquisite music, culture, wine, and food. We are loud, warm, fun-loving people. We love to eat. We love to drink. We are hospitable. Why not let the world see that side, too?” He smiles. “Sit someone down, feed them, pour a glass of Kataro from Artsakh, tell them where it comes from —you’ve opened a door. Yes, restaurant is a business—but for us, it’s a legacy. I want our children to look back and say: our parents came together, and did something different for the Armenians, they got our voices heard”.

Before Michelin came calling, margins were brutal. “It’s fine dining,” Sebouh says. “Overheads are high. Ingredients are expensive.”He doesn’t flinch. “I was ready to take a penny to do what I believed in. Armenian cuisine needed more sexiness,” he says, “It needed an electric shock.” So, they shocked it. Harissa with octopus. Ashta reimagined as crème anglaise. “Even my dad said, ‘You’re messing with the culture too much.’ But that’s my job — to say it loud: we’re not just kebab.” Yes, there’s khorovats — Armenian BBQ — but not the skewers people expect. “Our grandparents didn’t do skewers,” he insists. “They grilled primals. Big cuts. They fed families. Khorovats means ‘from the fire.’ Our food has depth. It just hasn’t been tapped the way it deserves.”

But diners came expecting kebab. 'It was tough,' he says. 'We still ask ourselves how on Earth we survived those days”. A day before the Michelin news, I had only $100 to my name. My wife was seven months pregnant. We were house hunting. I felt crushed.” His brothers urged him to do something for himself. “So, I played golf. On the 18th hole, the email came. Michelin. I called my brothers. We read it aloud. Then… silence.”

That day changed everything. Taline became the first Armenian restaurant in Canada — and the second, after Zhengyalov Hatz in L.A., to be recognised by Michelin. Bookings surged. Guests arrived — not just from Toronto, but from across the world. “People are coming with open minds,” Sebouh says. “They want new flavours, new wines.” Today the wine list boasts 20 Armenian labels and Armenian vodka. Armenian gin is on its way.

“Why serve Barolo when we have a Barolo-esque red from Vayots Dzor?” he asks. The cocktails — Mountains of Dilijan, Nights of Bourjhamoud… The mains and starters — Khetzkedin, Mante, Kaghamp, Tsoug, Vochkhar. Dishes not just with flavour, but identity. And yet — hummus, fattoush, and tabule raise eyebrows from some Armenian diners. “Maybe to some Armenians it feels wrong,” Sebouh shrugs.

“But that’s who we are. Our mother was from Anjar. That’s what she cooked. That’s what our grandmothers, and aunts cooked. So yes, we’re Armenian — with Lebanese influence. That’s our truth.”

As we speak, I glance again at the staircase collage — boys at birthday parties, tables filled with food and laughter. Maybe these were the moments that sparked a culinary destiny.

“I always helped my mom in the kitchen. My first dish? Pasta with red sauce and orange zest. I was 13. It was awful. My brothers still laugh. But food doesn’t have to make sense. It just has to work.” He pauses. “When at Taline I'm reimagining our home dishes, I do it not for a plaque. I just want to know that my people's food deserves to be in that Guide. I really want to show that our food is really cool.

The battles over the question of what Armenian food is — and what it is not — won’t cease anytime soon. Sebouh, however, speaks with certainty. He’s thought it through — and he has his answer. “We eat what the land gives us. It’s peasant food that we grew up eating. Our parents didn’t have money to eat caviars and oysters every night. We ate dolma - the cheapest things coming together but it speaks volumes.”

At Taline, Sebouh embodies what he calls 'a full Armenian essence.' Not only does his international team refers to fish as dzuk and lamb as vochkhar, but the restaurant itself echoes the way Armenians have lived for generations. They ferment their matnakash bread for 48 hours and indent a cross in the dough before it goes into the oven — “that’s tradition’.

They make preserve and compotes. They even source every product within 100 kilometres. “Does it make my life a living hell? One hundred percent. But it forces me to be even more creative”. Sebouh stands his ground. And mind you — stubbornness is a well-known Armenian trait, one that may well explain how the nation has endured through centuries of hardship. Add to that a sharp sense of humour and relentless creativity.

In Armenia recently, he was, however, stunned. “The products are incredible. I’d kill to have such fruits or the wild herbs that you just walk over. But what threw me off was this obsession with the foreign. Sushi, pizza – hundreds of restaurants everywhere — why don't we have more Armenian food there? Why aren’t more Armenian chefs thinking more broadly? There are restaurants and chefs who think outside the box, and I am really impressed with them, but they are only a few. Why?”

Why indeed? How do you make Armenian food cool — modern, scalable, and ready to conquer the world the way tacos, pizza, and sushi have? Maybe it’s time for the Yacoubians to take on a new challenge? “We talk about opening something in Armenia every 48 hours,” Sebouh says, as he and Serouj burst into laughter.

Working with brothers? “We’re open six days a week. We argue seven. But for what? We argue for better experience for our guests, for our food, and culture. And knowing that my younger brothers have my back - is the coolest feeling on planet Earth’, says Sebouh. “Yes, partnership is tough but learned fast that business is business, and brotherhood is brotherhood. You cannot blur the lines between those two”.

So what’s life like after Michelin?

“Harder — in a new way. There’s pressure. But it’s good one. We’ve tasted the sugar. Now we want the whole cake. The night we got the plaque, I told the team: ‘The pressure’s on now.’ They said: ‘What’s next?’ I said: ‘Now we get the star.’” 

So be it! What would their mother have said, seeing their success? “I don’t know”. says Sebouh. “She never got to taste my food. But I hope she’s proud that we're doing something together as the three brothers, three goofs who love to have fun and play pranks on each other in the middle of service. Standing by each other, we've achieved more than we could have ever imagined – just three Armenian guys that put our heads together and said, "We gonna do what we believe is right and we're gonna be the best at it.”  

By Nata Brettell

Photographs courtesy of Taline. Portrait of Sebouh Yacoubian by Nata Brettell.

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