Well, the big news this week was the Hogtown visit by potty-mouthed chef Gordon Ramsay. Here doing a book tour (and checking locations for a possible new restaurant) Ramsay had a busy schedule of interviews with pretty much every major media outlet. Except us. Oh, we asked. Didn’t quite lower ourselves to begging and pleading, though, and scored a consolation prize of a review copy of his latest book instead of some face time, but we did ask. I’ll keep my ranting to a minimum about how blogs and online news sites (on any topic) ARE TOO real media, but I can’t help but be a little put out that a devoted fan like myself (who has actually seen every episode of the UK series The F Word) didn’t get to burn toast with Gordo.

At the Toronto Star, food editor Kim Honey cooks a recipe from Ramsay’s book and bungs up the toast. The accompanying video seems a little sketchily edited, and at one point Ramsay asks if he’s been punked. Honey’s a great writer, but if you can make toast and actually set fire to it in a toaster oven (is that even possible? Don’t they have smoke alarms in the Star test kitchen??? Were they spoofing the highly-scripted shenanigans of Ramsay’s shows?), maybe food writing is not so much your forte. Rita DeMontis of the Toronto Sun chose not to cook for Ramsay but instead presented him with a spread of locally made delectables. Thankfully Beppi Crosariol of the Globe and Mail spares us the coquettishness and offers a straight-up interview with info about the potential new restaurant (corner of Yonge & Bloor if he doesn’t choose Vancouver instead), and fans who are so devoted they have the Hell’s Kitchen logo tattooed on their back. Yowza.

Continue reading What’s Cooking - Wednesday, April 30th »

There’s an old cliché that goes “there are plenty of fish in the sea”. This is meant to convey options and opportunities, but nowadays, it’s not a particularly apt analogy. Because fish stocks are dwindling due to poor husbandry and overfishing, and there aren’t a lot of fish in the sea anymore.

SeaChoice is a program by Sustainable Seafood Canada designed to mobilize consumers and industry to buy sustainable seafood, which is caught or farmed with consideration for the ocean’s ecological balance and the long-term viability of the fish. SeaChoice offers guidance to restaurants and consumers on what to buy and what to avoid.

Continue reading Not So Many Fish in the Sea »

As with wine, its sibling in fermentation, there was a time when beer was commonly made, transported, stored and served in wooden casks and barrels. These containers were generally sealed with pitch or resin, making them impervious to leakage, and also preventing the beer from picking up any flavours from the wood.

Or that was the intention, at least. Well-sealed or not, it’s quite likely that beers stored for longer periods of time and/or in volatile conditions, such as the India Pale Ales that spent months travelling the rough seas from Britain to India, probably obtained flavours and other characteristics from the wooden container, even if the brewer didn’t intend it.

In more modern times, these wooden containers have been replaced with metal, making it easier for beer to be produced in large batches that are consistent, with no chance of the wood (or the bacteria that can live in it) imparting any flavours - good, bad, or otherwise - into the beer. This is great for mass producers like Molson and Labatt, and any other brewer big or small that wants consistency in their beer, which is generally most of them.

Continue reading Beer of the Week - Trafalgar Oak-Aged Rye »

Volo
587 Yonge Street
416-928-0008

The restaurant business, as we all know, isn’t easy. Statistics tell us that a large percentage of new restaurants fail within the first year (the exact percentage depending on which stats you choose to believe. Making it to five years is impressive. Ten years, really impressive. Twenty years? To many, that’s a minor miracle.

If so, then some higher power or other must be smiling onto the corner of Yonge and Dundonald, where Ralph Morana has just passed his twentieth anniversary as owner of Volo, an unexpected success story if ever there was one. And to be clear: The “unexpected” descriptor is not meant as a criticism of Morana or his restaurant, but rather commentary on how someone with absolutely no restaurant experience can take a struggling Italian restaurant, keep it going through times thick and thin, and eventually turn it into an indispensable destination for lovers of local beer, wine and cheese.

Continue reading Viva Volo! »

Yesterday I watched Heston Blumenthal on the Food Network figure out a way to make ice cream hot on the outside but still cold in the centre. After much experimentation and chemical intervention, he found a way to do it, and I congratulated him through the screen, pointing out that he was now qualified to run the deep-fried ice cream station at ChiChi’s.

Which is to say that I’m not a fan of molecular gastronomy, mostly because it seeks to waste time finding solutions to problems that don’t need solving. Blumenthal’s quest for the “perfect” Baked Alaska was moot. His experiments comparing the insulating properties of various types of cake against roofing insulation were amusing but unnecessary. Hundreds, even thousands of chefs before him had already done the work. So despite the write up at Torontoist, I won’t be one of the folks lining up to see Dr. Herve This discuss the wonders of foam and meat glue. However, Torontoist has a post about a more down to earth food item with some vintage ads for bread.

Continue reading The Wide, Wide World of Web - Monday, April 28th »

Over the past couple years, there has been a sort of culinary renaissance taking place that is reaching it’s prime in today’s food scene. Beer is now being seen as equally complex and diverse as wine and is now standing in the spotlight with one Toronto restaurant leading the way. My embarrassment for being a non-drinker sitting inside a restaurant designed to share the joys of beer quickly diminished as Chef Brian Morin, owner and executive chef of beerbistro was graciously candid with me about his career, his experiences, his opinions and his passion for food.

The 67 seat restaurant in the heart of Toronto’s business district is a veritable shrine to beer. The wood accents and tables are reminiscent of a traditional pub, yet a modern feel is brought in with the floor to (very high) ceiling windows, still in place from the building’s old days as a Bank of Montreal. The bar is nothing less than a beer-lover’s heaven with taps lined-up, leading down to the kegs kept in a custom-built underground storage cooler which is kept at an ideal temperature for serving a wide variety of beers from around the world. There are even gorgeous murals of beer glasses over the windows painted by a local distillery district artist, and I’m sitting and talking with one of North America’s top leaders in beer cuisine… drinking a Coke.

Currently viewed by many as a pioneer in the modern culinary scene in Toronto for setting a trend with his unique approach to using beer as the vehicle for an entire menu, Morin conveys to me that this is, without a doubt, what he was always meant to do. As other kids were playing hockey in the streets, 10-year-old Morin was wondering what he could cook next. Cooking was a calling for him at an early age, and he worked his way through the ranks of the culinary world to get to finally become owner and executive chef of his own restaurant.

Continue reading A Tradesman Who Enjoys a Beer »

When it was launched in 1999, the Santé wine festival was a relatively small affair, with a handful of dinners and tasting events in the Yorkville area, and a subtitle (The Bloor-Yorkville Wine Festival) that reflected its localised nature. In subsequent years, the festival has grown by leaps and bounds, expanding to encompass events throughout the downtown core. And now, as this celebration of the greatness of the grape marks its tenth year, it does so with a new name - Santé: Toronto International Wine Festival - and a line-up of events extending well beyond the official festival dates.

The previews started earlier in April with the Deconstructing Dinner Series, unique events at restaurants including The Fifth Grill, Pangaea, Truffles, Holt’s Cafe and Sopra that featured pre-meal seminars with the chef, sommelier, and hosting wine expert. The festivities continue this coming week through to May 10th with Santé In The City: A Decade of Decadence, a second series of dinners at venues such as Amuse Bouche, Flow, Crush and many others, where the meal will be paired with vintages from partner wineries and import agents.

And then on May 5th through 10th, the main event hits with gala dinners, tutored tastings, seminars and much more. Highlights will include the International Wine Tasting at The Carlu featuring over 200 wines from 74 wineries; the popular Sip, Savour & Shop and Sip, Savour & Learn programs; events focussing on the wines of Australia and California; and dinners prepared by such celebrity chefs as Lynn Crawford, Mark McEwan, Anthony Sedlak, Cat Cora, Anna Olson and many more.

For a full schedule of Santé events, ticket information and more details, visit the Santé website or contact the information line at 416.928.3553 x27.

Selsi Salt Bar
92 Front Street East
St. Lawrence Market, Lower Level
416-854-9088

Food and Wine magazine hails St. Lawrence Market as one of the top 25 food markets of the world, and we Torontonians honour it as such. A jewel of our fair city, bursting to the weekday seams with students and construction workers indulging in the generously piled $5 veal sandwich, it is one floor meats, cheeses and fish mongers alike, over another floor of gourmet snacks, treasures and uncommon goods. The market is more than a food institution; it is our icon.

On the east side of the lower level, beside a walkout to the street, is a kiosk well stocked in both gourmet calibre and the exceptional find. Selsi Salt Bar isn’t unique in that it carries salt, but unmatched in that salt, with all its different colours, flavours and boundless varieties, is the main product.

Continue reading Our Lady of Salt »

Irish Embassy Pub & Grill
49 Yonge Street
416-815-7562
Brunch for two with all taxes, tip and beer: $56

They call it the breakfast of champions, and there was a point when a glass of stout, such as Guinness, was touted as a healthy start to the day. I don’t know if I could do that every morning, but when settling in for brunch at the Irish Embassy, it seemed wrong not to be sipping a glass of Ireland’s favourite beer.

Normally the domain of Bay Street brokers and executives, on an early Sunday, the sun streams through the high south-facing windows of this former bank and the light bounces off the architectural details of the arched ceiling. Never having been to Ireland, I’m not sure if all the locals there are this impressive, but the Irish Embassy is surely one of the most ethereal places I’ve eaten brunch. That may be because it’s not especially busy. This is an odd state and apparently not the norm, but explains why the sharply-dressed and aproned servers outnumber the customers by about 2-to-1.

Continue reading Sunday Brunch - Irish Embassy »

As much as I may enjoy reading the Globe & Mail, I’ve long recognized that I’m not a member of their prime demographic, at least from a financial standpoint. I don’t read the business section, ignore the jewellery and car ads, and can’t afford to eat at many of the restaurants reviewed by Joanne Kates.

That said, at least I can afford the trip to most of the restaurants she reviews (well, at least on days when the TTC isn’t on strike), since they’re usually in Toronto. Not so today, though, as Ms. Kates is on vacation in France, and checks in with reviews of three restaurants that I and many other Torontonians will never have the opportunity to visit. As such, I’m not even going to link to the article - those interested in reading it can take a poke around the Globe website, it should be there somewhere.

Continue reading In The Papers - Saturday April 26th »

In honour of Earth Day this week, Catherine of Sugar and Ink offers tips at reducing food waste. It’s good advice, especially when we’re trying to make the most out of local produce. Ferdzy of Seasonal Ontario Food explains why imported produce like berries can be cheaper than local, and it ain’t pretty.

Also not pretty is what gets fed to school kids, and the resulting backlash against fat in children’s diets. Tracy at Fear and Loathing in the Kitchen points the finger away from fat and in the direction of carbohydrates. Me. I’m more of the mind that it’s all about balance, and unless you have specific health concerns, elimination of any one food group is probably not wise, but her point that fat in food has become the scapegoat for fat on our bodies is a valid one that demonstrates society’s need for both something to blame and the desire for a quick-fix.

Continue reading Blog-A-Log - Saturday, April 25th »

The raw food diet isn’t yet very wide spread in Toronto. There are only a handful of restaurants and chefs here catering to this diet/philosophy. But the appeal of this seemingly restrictive way of eating may increase with the infusion of gourmet raw cuisine into the city’s dining scene, particularly at the sweet end of the spectrum.

Raw food culinary artist Jessica Acs is hoping that the appeal of flavour and excitement will lead folks to try a healthy alternative to traditional cooking.

Continue reading The Sweet Raw Truth »

Summer must be coming, ’cause this week there’s a sudden spike in the number of food and drink events happening in and around the city, ranging from beer dinners and wine tastings to charity events, lectures and book signings.

On the celebrity scale, the biggest event would have to be chef Gordon Ramsay’s appearance at Indigo Eaton Centre next Monday, where he’ll be signing copies of his latest cookbook, Gordon Ramsay’s Fast Food - although serious foodies are probably more excited for the following night’s talk by Dr. Hervé This, the godfather of molecular gastronomy.

Tipplers have a wide variety of events to choose from, starting with a pair of events spotlighting the beers of the Southern Tier Brewery from Western New York: a 4-course pairing dinner tonight, and a more casual “meet & greet” tomorrow. There’s also a whisk(e)y and cheese pairing session at Coupe Space next Wednesday, and a variety of wine events, including a series of preview dinners for the upcoming Santé wine festival.

And that’s just the start of it. The full list of happenings for the next week follows below, and as always, our Events page has more information on these and many other upcoming events in Toronto and area.

Continue reading T.O. Events for April 25th-May 1st »

There used to be a time when newcomers to Toronto added a meal at Toby’s to their list of things to do that would make them a real Torontonian. The previously ubiquitous chain is now down to one downtown location and according to Steven Davey at NOW, the “Good Eats” of Toby’s glory days are long gone. He has no better luck at Bonga Buldak (Home of Hot Taste), where the Tearful Blazing Chicken does a number on the lover of all things hot and spicy. Graham Duncan sips some Ouzo in honour of Orthodox Easter.

At Eye, the mysterious unnamed restaurant critic (again this week, there’s no byline in the online version - now there’s a way to protect a reviewer’s anonymity) visits Cibo.

Chef Massimo Capra does a Q&A with Marcy Cornblum of Metro about his favourite things to cook, there’s a recipe for Passover Chicken, Billy Munnelly suggests Gewurztraminer as a great wine to ring in summer and Sandy Caetano explores the growth of the Cora’s chain to the east and west coasts.

Culinarium
705 Mount Pleasant Road, Toronto
647-430-7004

In the uptown enclave of Yonge and Eglinton, peppered with high-end foodie destinations from bakeries to gelato to dim sum, there is a new kid on the block, with a unique take on the upscale food experience. Offering Ontario-only food products, Culinarium, which recently opened on Mount Pleasant at Soudan, is a gourmet grocery store, the retail division of a company called Savour the Flavour. Their mission is “to provide authentic local food experiences by retailing Ontario’s finest locally-produced products and connecting those passionate about food with local food-producing communities via edible events such as cooking classes, tastings and farm tours.” After spending some time with Kathleen Mackintosh, the store’s founder, it’s clear that Culinarium’s unique mission is one driven by a true love of food.

Continue reading A Community Centre for Foodies »