When Kevin Kent returned to Calgary in 2007 after spending a few years as sous-chef at St. John, an award-winning restaurant in London, his grand plan was to open a couple of restaurants back home.
The restaurants, however, never materialized: Japanese knives got in the way.
Kent's obsession with Japanese knives can be traced back to a trade fair he went to while living in London. Kent happened upon a Japanese knife maker and struck up conversation, explaining that he was a chef, before slipping in that he kept his knives "razor sharp."