Sebouh Yacoubian, the chef behind the Armenian restaurant Taline in Toronto, is one of 12 chefs competing in the 13th season of Top Chef Canada, which premieres Tuesday, October 20 at 10 p.m. ET/PT on Flavour Network and streams on STACKTV, reports Zartonk Media.
“The pressure is real! The judges are tough! The time is never enough! But let’s make mama proud! Let’s make Armenians proud!” Yacoubian wrote on Instagram on the day of the premiere.
Taline is named after his late mother, who was born and raised in Anjar, the town in Lebanon’s Bekaa Valley settled in 1939 by Armenians driven from the Sanjak of Alexandretta, among them the villages of Musa Dagh, after France handed the region to Turkey. Yacoubian runs the restaurant with his two brothers, Saro and Serouj.
The MICHELIN Guide recognized Taline in 2024, a year after it opened. “It feels really cool being the first Armenian restaurant on the guide,” Yacoubian said at the time. The Guide lists it under Armenian cuisine at 1276 Yonge Street and singles out the babaghanoush.
Yacoubian said a traditional Armenian war song played in his mind through every challenge. “Meaning you know I came in with a fight and was ready for war,” he wrote.
Yacoubian, 32, is among 9 new competitors joining 3 returning alumni. Eden Grinshpan hosts, with judges Janet Zuccarini, Mark McEwan and Mijune Pak, and Season 12 winner Coulson Armstrong appearing as a guest judge in the premiere.
The brothers grew up in the Armenian community of Toronto’s Scarborough district. “We were raised to know Armenia as home,” Yacoubian said. “We opened it to be heard,” he said of the restaurant.
He trained at the Culinary Institute of America and still keeps his mother’s cookbook, which holds ingredient notes rather than full recipes, and draws on it for the menu.
