Claudio Aprile

Claudio Aprile (born 23 January 1969) is a Uruguayan–Canadian celebrity chef, restaurateur, cookbook author, and TV personality of Italian descent best known for serving as a main host/judge on CTV's culinary competition MasterChef Canada since January 2014. Having owned and worked at multiple Michelin-starred restaurants over the years, he recently served as the head chef, owner and manager of the acclaimed Toronto restaurant Copetin from its grand opening in July 2017 until its closure in March 2019. In the fall of 2019, Aprile opened up a new restaurant named Xango Toronto, which he presently serves as the owner, restaurateur and head chef of since the closing of Copetin, Colborne Lane and the Origin chain. Claudio Aprile was born in Uruguay, grew up in Toronto, and has traveled, lived, and worked in professional, multi-Michelin starred restaurant kitchens as a professional chef internationally. Aprile has been cooking since he was 14 years old, always wanting to be a chef since the age of 5, having spent his career in kitchens working through the ranks becoming the successful professional celebrity chef and restaurateur that he is today. He never received formal training for becoming a chef, and stated that, as a child, he informed his mother that he would become one, rather than a desire to attempt to become one. At 18 he travelled to Thailand, which had a profound influence on his style of cooking. He visited 160 cities in 17 countries, before stopping in England, where he worked extensively throughout London until earning the executive position as the head chef at Bali Sugar in Notting Hill.Throughout his career Aprile has passed through some of the most renowned Michelin-starred restaurant kitchens around the globe. The Uruguayan-born, Toronto-raised chef is a product of diverse elements, with a cooking style representative of his time spent in kitchens around the world, including Bali Sugar in London, which earned him outstanding reviews as a young executive chef where he received local and international critical acclaim. On returning to Toronto in 2000, Aprile cemented that reputation at Senses in Toronto, where he impressed critics and diners with use of avant-garde and experimental cooking techniques.