Laws are like sausages, it is better not to see them being made. - Otto von Bismarck

I can’t testify to the accuracy of the above quote, at least when it comes to laws. But Mario Fiorucci, co-owner of the Healthy Butcher (565 Queen Street West), may be able to as a former Bay Street lawyer. And despite his years in the muck that is lawyering he still decided to open a butcher shop and actually make sausages.

And of course there is always the old saying about sausages and hotdogs – It’s all tits, lips, and assholes. That may be true at the big meat production companies, I can’t say, however the sausages at the healthy butcher are in no way representative of the factory-produced versions. In fact, to find out the truth about sausage making, simply sign up for one of the Healthy Butcher’s sausage-making classes.

Continue reading Wurst Night in Toronto »

Coupe Space
998 Queen Street East
416-469-9656

I’ve lived on the Danforth for eight years and have done just about everything there is to do there. While I still have my old faves, Queen East is my new hangout. On my way to a hangover-remedy brunch in Leslieville one Sunday, I was intrigued by an expansive window I hadn’t noticed before. Full of eggs benny and a mimosa (or three) on the way home, I slowed down out front and discovered Coupe Space.

Continue reading Coupe Space - A Delicious Learning Experience »

There’s an ongoing joke in the restaurant biz, where executive chefs are regularly asked – who cooks the food when you’re not there? The answer is always given with a smirk – the same people who cook the food when I am there.

Presumably most foodies are wise enough to know that the product emerging from restaurant kitchens is the work of an entire team or brigade of staff, not just one person. Brigades can range in size from two or three people in small, family-run restaurants to hundreds of staff in large hotels. From dishwashers to sous chefs, sauciers to pastry chefs, the average restaurant runs on the concerted effort of many people, and that’s the just the staff at back of house.

Which means now more than ever that a career in just about any aspect of the culinary arts is a hot commodity. Canada’s hospitality sector currently employs over 1.7 million people and will require another 300,000 professionals by 2015 to remain competitive. Sure, some people have a natural talent for cooking, but for most, the key to landing jobs in the top restaurants is more easily attained through proper training.

In Toronto, that means the George Brown Centre for Hospitality and Culinary Arts.

Continue reading Yes Chef!: A Kinder, Gentler, Prettier Chef School »