TORONTO — KML has announced the recipient of its 2023 Pinnacle Awards’ Lifetime Achievement Award. This year’s Rosanna Caira Lifetime Achievement Award is being presented posthumously to Peter Oliver, co-founder of Oliver & Bonacini. Oliver was a respected leader who shaped and influenced the foodservice-and-hospitality industry in innumerable ways. He was diagnosed with stage IV cancer in May 2021 and passed away in September 2022.
Oliver’s remarkable career in the hospitality industry spanned 45 years, during which time he set the bar in Canada for high standards of quality, service and professionalism. Born in Cape Town, South Africa, he moved to Canada in 1967. In 1978, following a successful career in stock brokerage and commercial real estate, he opened his first restaurant in Toronto: a small sandwich shop at Yonge and Eglinton named Oliver’s Old Fashioned Bakery. In 1993, he partnered with chef Michael Bonacini, thus marking the start of Oliver & Bonacini Hospitality.
Oliver approached his hospitality career with great pride and professionalism. He was an industry pioneer in providing his employees with training programs, benefit packages, educational funding, travel opportunities and career development.
He also was a strong believer in giving back and in 1992, Oliver founded the Leacock Foundation. Its mission is rooted in the belief that all children, regardless of their circumstances, have limitless potential. The foundation supports children and youth in historically marginalized communities with educational programming locally in Toronto and globally in the Eastern Cape of South Africa.
To purchase tickets for this year’s Pinnacle Awards, please click here
For more information please contact: Rosanna Caira at [email protected]
