A brisket in a basket… er, a pot, is the lead story at the Toronto Star this week as Kim Honey tracks down the traditional boiled meat dinner for St. Patrick’s Day. Corned beef is normally considered a Jewish delicacy, but it’s much loved in Ireland as well, and becomes popular again every March 17th. Also a traditional Irish food, Honey’s got Mark McEwan’s recipe for mashed potatoes.

Also in the Star, Gord Stimmell’s got a few of the winners from the upcoming Toronto Wine and Cheese Festival.

At the Toronto Sun, Rita DeMontis interviews Food TV personality Ingrid Hoffman, and there’s a quick dishy AP wire piece on disgraced Food TV chef Robert Irvine. Dude - did it not seem reasonable that someone would eventually check into a claim that you cooked for the Royal Family? Judy Creighton has a piece on pairing food and beer with a recipe courtesy of Chef Ezra Title of the Ontario Craft Brewers Association.

Also in the Sun, Rita DeMontis has some tasty recipes for St. Patrick’s Day including a Guinness, steak and mushroom crock. And Elizabeth Baird reports on how Toronto chefs wowed the crowds at Montreal’s High Lights Festival.

Something’s blue and smelly at the Globe and Mail. It’s Blue Juliette from Saltspring Island Cheese, the first to be reviewed in the Globe’s new cheese column. Vikram Vij recommends teaching children to cook at an early age to instill a love of food; Fiona Morrow profiles Melissa Craig, winner of the Gold Medal Plates competition; and Alexandra Gill reports than none other than celebrity chef Daniel Boulud will take over the pans at Vancouver’s Lumière.

Gil’s also got articles on Alaskan king crab (now in season!), and pork cheeks, while Beppi Crosariol profiles Canadian sparkling wines, and an essay by Charmaine Christie takes readers back to the days of baking cookies with Mom.

At the National Post, Shinan Govani recaps the Michael Pollan talk last week, right down to quoting the Pollan groupies outside. Thank heavens I missed them.

Also in the Post, Anna Olsen gets to know her butcher, Amy Rosen reminds readers that this year’s Canada Blooms event will feature local chefs, and the sampling of posts from the Appetizer blog includes Salt Spring Island cheese, airport food and cuisinarts.