435 Kettleby Rd., King, Ont.
Asking price: $1,699,000
Lot size: 94 by 132 feet
Taxes: $6,399 (2026)
Listing agents: Lindsay Strom and Susie Strom, Royal Lepage RCR Realty
The Backstory
When you’re a celebrated restaurateur, and you’ve had the gigantic modern house with white walls and glass, sometimes the thing you want next is something a little more personal. A little more grounded.
Five years ago, Yannick Bigourdan was travelling for work when he got a message from his wife: “I think we found our last home.” It wasn’t on his list of to-dos: They had moved to semirural King City, Ont., five years before, and he had three restaurants to manage – Toronto fixtures Splendido, Nota Bene and the Carbon Bar – with expansion on his mind. But he agreed to swing by Kettleby, Ont. and have a quick look at the home, parts of which are said to date back to 1875. He fell in love with it.
“I grew up in the south of France in a very similar home – our home had been built at the end of the 17th century – and I always love houses that talk to me,” Mr. Bigourdan said. “When you are in a century home, something very special happens. A lot of my friends have done really well in life and have massive houses, but they say it’s so comfortable here. And that’s what a small space that’s well-designed does for your soul.”
The House Today
The family room has a wall of multi-paned windows looking into the backyard.Realty Photo Haus
Kettleby is barely a town, more like a hamlet where the road bends around a river in a protected section of the Oak Ridges Moraine between Highway 400 and Newmarket, Ont. Mr. Bigoudan’s is one of several historic homes in the area.
The main house is clad in yellow board and batten, and sits 90 degrees from the roadway, its front door facing the yard and a large workshop that contains a gastronomic surprise. Past a fence with a car-sized gate to the backyard, there’s a side entrance that opens directly into the kitchen.
Underneath a white-painted shiplap planked ceiling, the kitchen has a modern farmhouse feel with updated cream-coloured cabinets and a reclaimed workbench as a central island. A step down past carved-wood posts is a family room with a wall of multi-paned windows looking into the backyard and sliding doors to the large side deck.
Home of the week: Country living, but close to town
Next to the stairs to the upper level is a laundry room and separate powder room decorated with terracotta colours. A combined sitting and dining room rounds out the main floor, which is almost entirely floored in wide-plank pine.
“The floor is alive; there is a historical complement to it,” Mr. Bigourdan said. “Throughout the years, the flooring would be repaired, and the planks are all different sizes. It was built at a time when people would use the wood they had and milled themselves.”
The colour palette throughout the house is muted but not monochromatic, with pastel shades common in the 1800s that blend with the scale of the house and its history.
There are three second-floor bedrooms; the primary suite is carpeted, and the ceiling has been lifted and the rafters exposed. That vintage wood flooring makes a reappearance in the walk-in closet and the bathroom.
The Workshop
The kitchen is a centre for entertaining in the former workshop.Realty Photo Haus
Also on the property is a barn that was also once a workshop. Now the space, lined with rough-cut barnboard under exposed beams and on top of polished concrete floor, holds a restaurant-quality kitchen and a gathering space for family, friends and employees.
The kitchen is a centre for entertaining, and anchors one side of the building’s main floor. There is a prep area with bar seating and a large trestle table.
A wood-burning stove, leather couches in the opposite corner and a fully stocked bar at the far side of the room make this area extra welcoming.
An apartment upstairs is mainly used as guest quarters, with two beds, a sitting area and a full bathroom with walk-in shower.
Home of the week: A remote refuge and all-season glamping getaway
Using the workshop as a photo studio and team-building space for his expanding restaurant and consulting businesses – including a new pasta restaurant called Pasta Privato opening at the end of March – has been a boon, but the pace of work downtown has also drawn him away from home more often.
Just as office-workers are heading back to Toronto, so too is Mr. Bigourdan. Thus, the decision to sell their rural retreat.
“We have a very special home, it’s not your cookie-cutter four- or five-bed home; it’s completely different,” said Mr. Bigourdan. “We know that it’s going to somebody special.”