The essentials according to Bossa chef Daniel Lo Manto

Daniel Lo Manto isn’t your typical chef-turned-entrepreneur.

At 23, he launched the Italian deli & grocery store Bossa in Verdun, and it quickly became a local institution. It was a family affair: Lo Manto’s roots run deep, from learning how to jar tomato sauce with his grandparents to sourcing fresh ingredients from the shop's own backyard garden.

We wanted to ask the man behind the community staple that churns out hundreds of sandwiches daily—chicken parm, porchetta, you name it—what he considers essential to his day-to-day, and where we can pick it up from in town.

Knives from L’Émouleur

1081 Avenue Laurier Ouest

"One of my most-used items is my knife set from Émouleur, the Japanese knife shop in Montreal. As a chef, I use them every day. Fun fact: it’s bad luck to gift a knife, so the recipient should 'buy' it with a penny to avoid bad luck... maybe a nickel though, now that pennies are out of circulation."