WINE BAR DOWNTOWN HALIFAX

Growing up in Nova Scotia, Moira Murray always identified food as the thing that brings people together. While her maternal grandmother cooked and served hearty roast dinners, her paternal grandmother spoiled the family with baked goods and pastries. Although Moira loved playing around in the kitchen herself, she didn’t quite see herself going down a career path in culinary arts. While attending Dalhousie University for kinesiology, she still managed to distract herself by cooking and throwing dinner parties for her friends. Moira soon realized that the kitchen was her happy place, and decided to make the jump to Toronto to enroll in George Brown’s Culinary Management program.

At George Brown, Moira found herself surrounded by passionate, talented young cooks who helped inspire, challenge and motivate her on a daily basis. Moira quickly hit the ground running in Toronto’s restaurant world, earning a Chef de Partie position at Splendido under acclaimed Chef Victor Barry. There, Chef Moira built a foundation of discipline and organization, before moving on to join Chef Patrick Kriss at Acadia while she waited for her U.S. visa. Visa in hand, she moved to New York City where she landed a Tournant role at Dovetail, a Michelin-starred fine dining restaurant specializing in vegetable-forward New American cuisine incorporating classic French techniques. There, Chef Moira devoted herself to learning this new and exciting approach to cooking, as well as soaked up the endless culinary delights that New York had to offer.

Shortly after returning to Toronto, Chef Moira settled in as Chef de Partie at Actinolite, working alongside chef-owner Justin Cournoyer for nearly three years. Actinolite’s vegetable focus meant that the chefs would work very closely with local farmers, picking everything directly from farmers markets or the farms themselves — or even foraging produce from Justin’s hometown of Actinolite, just north of Belleville, Ontario. Justin’s commitment to the quality of every single ingredient coming out of the ground would greatly influence Chef Moira’s approach to cooking and eating — realizing the intrinsic beauty in simple preparation and allowing an ingredient’s natural flavours to shine with minimal intervention.

Following her time at Actinolite, Moira moved on to work with Chef Anna Chen, opening Alma Restaurant as Sous Chef. Starting the restaurant from the ground up was an invaluable experience, and Chef Anna’s mentorship and friendship continue years after Chef Moira’s departure from this small but mighty gem in Toronto’s Bloordale neighbourhood.

Most recently, Chef Moira led the kitchens at Duncanby Lodge and Bison Lodge Revelstoke in British Columbia as Head Chef and Private Chef, respectively. Although it was a big change from tasting menus, Chef Moira challenged herself creatively to come up with new daily specials throughout the 110-day season-and succeeded, as well as routinely created custom menus for her clients at Bison Lodge Revelstoke.

In late 2021, Chef Moira decided she was ready for her next step. Enter Peacock Wine Bar, which represents everything Chef Moira could want in a restaurant. Here, she is proud to offer guests a meaningful vegetable-forward dining experience where vegetarians don’t have to feel restricted to one corner of the menu, and the Everything from the breads to the vinegars to the pastas are made fresh in house. Wine is thoughtfully incorporated into the cooking. Chef Moira and her team have fun with their cooking and menu planning, inviting guests to experience the bursts of beautiful produce and flavours that represent the season.

When she’s not experimenting in the kitchen, you might be able to find Chef Moira swimming a few laps in Chocolate Lake, or enjoying one of her personal favourite food and wine pairings: chilled Champagne and freshly shucked oysters.