Posted by Sheryl Kirby in news and media, what's cooking on February 13, 2008 at 4:11 pm

24 hours. That's how long you've got to get out there and spend way too much money on dinner, roses and candy if you subscribe to the traditional Valentine's day gift-giving scenario. However if your interest in chocolate extends away from the be-ribboned heart-shaped box, Kim Honey of the Toronto Star has interviews with Colleen Wong-Sala of Kakayo Chocolate Co, as well as David Castellan of SOMA Chocolatiers, and Michael Sacco of ChocoSol.

Also in the Star, Jennifer Bain offers some recipes for a home-cooked V-day dinner, and the culinary calendar shows that St. Louis Bar and Grill is giving out free chocolate body paint with all take-out orders over $15 until the end of the month. Tamsyn Burgmann enjoys tasty Persian food at Tanoor; Scaramouche is looking for a new location; and Gordon Stimmell thinks perfume maker Loris Azzaro should stick to perfume and not try to make wine.

At the Toronto Sun, Rita DeMontis is taking the Valentine's heart literally with articles on heart-healthy V-Day treats, including... cornbread? ("Oh, darling, cornbread, you shouldn't have!") The Sun also has a blurb about that chocolate body paint from St. Louis Bar and Grill (and in case you were looking for some tie-in to the previous articles, there is none. Ribs = not heart-healthy, but darn tasty).

Also in the Sun (hey, Toronto Sun, what's with not listing all your food articles on the main Lifestyle page, yo?? Do you not care if people read them?) DeMontis reveals the secret shame of every chef and foodie I know - that the frozen pizzas from Dr. Oetker are really, really good. Hidden at the bottom of the pizza post - a link to an article on pairing chocolate and red wine, and from that article a link to Elizabeth Baird's article about tarts and other food news. And if I keep working my way backwards via the links hidden at the bottom of each article (seriously Sun website admins - let's get user-friendly, huh??), there's an article from yesterday about George Brown College's Yes Chef fundraising program.

Over at the Globe and Mail, it appears Alexandra Gill has been reading the competition, since today's topic of noise levels in restaurants has been an ongoing concern of Gina Mallet at the Post. Also at the Globe, Michael Smith gets busy with butter and biscuits, and Beppi Crosariol muses on the two faces of the biodynamic wine movement - the organic, earth sustaining aspects, and the uh, less concrete elements.

Halfway through an otherwise sensible and lucid seminar about sustainable, organic farming practices, biodynamic bigwig Nicolas Joly of France veered into la-la land with talk of invisible energy forces zapping down from the sky and of the significance of "le zodiac" on the flavour of our merlots and chardonnays.

Good thing there were samples. I can't think of a better example of a time when the phrase, "I need a drink," would ring true. Hopefully there was some sparkling wine on offer so M. Joly could fashion a stylish hat from the discarded foil wrappers.