Posted by Greg Clow in in the papers, news and media on November 24, 2007 at 11:47 am
It's ooh-la-la time on the food pages today, as two of our three resident reviewers visit French restaurants (and our third isn't even resident this week, but more on that in a moment).
First of all, the National Post's Gina Mallet visits the brand new Tati Bistro, which has taken over the spot recently vacated by Kensington Kitchen, and is named after the incomparable French film maker Jacques Tati. She's suitably impressed with most of the food, but she understandably takes issue with the place being called a "bistro":
By definition, a bistro is local, cheap and cheerful, plentiful sit-down lunches and dinners cooked with brio. These are not easy elements to replicate in Toronto -- or for that matter anywhere in North America where the cheap-and-cheerful market has been coopted by fast food. [...] Tati is expensive by bistro standards. The fish cost $28 -- I don't begrudge the cost of good cooking and the dish was more elaborate than most routine bistro fare; I simply regret it. I'd thought of ordering bouillabaisse but was put off by the $30 tab -- the soup is made at Tati with expensive clams, shrimp, calamari.
What I'm saying is that despite the generically inspired menu, Tati really isn't a bistro either in cost or size: It can seat (on two floors) up to 100 people. It is a new invention: a Bistrone.
Also in the Post:
- Michael Vaughan picks a few favourites from today's red-dominated Vintages release - and gets in his obligatory jab at the LCBO's increasing price points on mid-range vino.
- Suburban noshers Jon Bricker and Kate Swoger spend most of their review of Woodbridge's Memphis BBQ and Wicked Wings explaining why they think all of Toronto's rib places suck in comparison. A fair point, perhaps, but more than two short paragraphs about the food and Memphis would've been nice.
- Mark Medley peeks behind the scenes at a swank launch party for Courvoisier's new cognac.
- Amoryn Engel recaps the recent Grand Cru Culinary Wine Festival fundraiser, and a Grey Goose-sponsored cocktail competition.
- Bonnie Stern recommends a few kitchen gadgets for the foodies on your Christmas list.
Over in the Toronto Star, Amy Pataki lunches at Didier, the namesake restaurant of French traditionalist Didier Leroy, who is so hardcore about authenticity that he bases his menu around dishes from the 1914 cookbook Le Répertoire de la Cuisine. Unfortunately for diners, very few of the classics seem to survive the translation from page to plate, especially those that are seafood-based:
For a menu in which half the selections are piscine, Didier should serve fresher fish. A pairing of marinated salmon and king crab ($18) is decidedly pongy, while the whiff emanating from hand-cut fish tartar ($18) – the waiter isn't sure which species go into the mix, maybe snapper, maybe Arctic char – is almost masked by capers and minced cornichons. Almost.
Cooked fish is no better. A trio of cod, snapper and char ($26) is steamed into mush. Its red wine-based genevoise sauce has a skin on top from sitting too long before serving. And what is that flavourless paste in the middle of the plate? Mushroom duxelles, we're told. Yikes, I say.
Other than that, it's a quiet food day in the Star, with the only other articles being Gordon Stimmell's wine column, and a short piece about the food vendors on Front Street being allowed to return to their posts after originally being given the boot for Grey Cup festivities.
And then there's the Globe & Mail, where this week Toronto-based restaurant critic Joanne Kates dines at The Modern and The Bar Room. "Where in Toronto are these places?", you may ask. "Nowhere" is the answer, as they are two of the dining options at the Museum of Modern Art in New York City.
Now, I understand that the Globe's target reader is the sort of person for whom a quick weekend in NYC with dinner at a $200+ per person restaurant ain't no big thing. But still - is it too much to ask that the main restaurant reviews in "Canada's National Newspaper" be of Canadian restaurants?
And if Ms. Kates wants to give her expense account a workout south of the border, why not stick the review in the Travel section where it belongs? It was good enough for Michael Redhill's recount of his visit to Languedoc, the region of France known for producing a lot of not-so-great wine, but where that reputation is changing for the better.
Also in the Globe:
- Beppi Crosariol advises you to shop fast and soon if you're looking for a decent bottle to give a wine-astute friend over the holidays.
- Maggie Wrobel has herself a corporate little Christmas with the Starbucks advent calendar.
- Leah Rumack has something that's supposed to be a "martini" at Mark McEwan's One, except it's made with fruit-infused vodka, pineapple juice and Triple Sec.
- Lucy Waverman cooks up some hearty cold weather fare, including a fall-off-the-bone beer brisket.
- Sasha Chapman ain't eating local this week, as she munches some tasty Marcona almonds from Spain.
- Laura Serra investigates the increasingly risque artwork that graces the walls at several Toronto eating establishments.
