a Blog of Cheese

Only so many wheels to turn

2011-07-09T21:07:00.002-04:00

Hello Readers!We have been very behind in updating this blog. That's not to say we haven't been online though. We've migrated populating blogging content to our Facebook page. We hope that you can join us on there with all the latest events and store discussions and thanks very much for visiting us here on 'a Blog of Cheese'. Also, come find us on Twitter: @Cheese_Boutique

February: Month of the Party Platter

2011-02-04T14:34:00.001-05:00

February is an event filled winter buster. We have been busily planning three major themed platters for the month. The Superbowl Platter features a stadium-style board featuring cheese-teams in a big face off. It's the perfect feast for your group of famished football fan foodies. Next up-- it's that time of year for chocolate lovers, cheese lovers, and lovers of all sorts-- so for a

Festive Concierto, December 18th, 9-10 am

2010-12-12T14:21:00.005-05:00

International Opera Tenor, John Mac Master returns to CheeseB next Saturday, December 18th for a morning concierto, 9-10 am.A shopping experience like no other!

2010-12-06T13:11:00.002-05:00

Christmas is drawing near, and the store is brimming with seasonal goodies. Recently arrived, in fact, is a fresh order of both Black and White Truffles... not to mention truffles of the chocolate variety.For your Holiday feasting needs, now is the time to pre-order a Free-Range local turkey and our famous in-house dry-aged meats. We'll have it all ready for you to pick-up when you need

Bob Blumer Book Tour Arriving at Cheese B

2010-11-08T23:34:00.000-05:00

Where would a culinary adventurer make a pit-stop around Toronto anyway? Cheese Boutique, of course! Fans of intrepid culinary daredevil and TV personality Bob Blumer will be pleased to hear that he'll be making an appearance at our store on Saturday, Nov. 13. The creator/host of two successful Food Network series, Glutton for Punishment and The Surreal Gourmet, will be available from 10 am

Tasting Series: Rundown

2010-09-24T18:09:00.008-04:00

Tasting Series has been running full throttle. We've seen Chris Woods treating customers with Risotto, Palais Royale's Executive Chef, Steffan Howard capturing the splendid local tomato season stuffed with Italian Boccacini and Globe Bistro's Kevin McKenna, utilizing fresh Duck Eggs for the Ravioli stuffed with squash and ricotta.In the midst of Tasting Series, on Oct 8th, Cheese Boutique

Tasting Series-Fall edition 2010

2010-09-14T07:01:00.005-04:00

Tasting Series is back! Last Saturday, Café du Lac with Chef Bernadette Calpito came by to present a Quebecois Goat Cheese Terrine with a .5 inch slab of fig fused with Australian Chiraz. For the carnivore version, it was wrapped in prosciutto. Missed it? No problem, there are 7 more Saturday's to go. Here's the full rundown:Studying before sampling.Meet the Chef! Knowing the people behind the

Summer machinations

2010-08-18T13:32:00.005-04:00

A Chevalier's idea of a getaway? Work!Afrim Pristine spent the past two days in Ottawa for a special dinner over at Beckta.A report on the result of that dinner by Ron Eade from the Ottawa Citizen.*********An article about CheeseB by Vantage.*********CheeseB offers free tours and tastings for pre-schools and nursery schools.Educating young gourmand minds and palates. Want to setup a tour for your

Mid-Summer roundup

2010-08-05T16:15:00.008-04:00

August=Searing heat=summer fun, mid-Summer roundup at CheeseB.To start, our favourite oyster shucker, Patrick McMurray is travelling to PEI for an event tomorrow night, Aug 6th, The Canadian Oyster Sucking Championships. You can watch it all go down here. The Championship is set to go at 7:30 PEI time (6:30 Toronto time). Good luck Patrick!From last weekend at the store....back in April who

English Cheese-Tasting, Take 2

2010-07-29T10:11:00.004-04:00

In April, air travel disruptions caused by an erupting volcano in Iceland incurred world travel havoc. With the cloud of doom no longer present, we finally get to renew and showcase our English cheeses with feature presenter and cheese expert, Helen Dallimore, this Saturday from 12-4 pm.Helen Dallimore is a cheese expert from Coombe Castle International, with an array of fine English cheeses.

Cheesekeeper: Day in the Life

2010-07-15T18:07:00.032-04:00

Friday's are for the food service industry a frenzy at the best of times. Customers and resto's clamor at CheeseB for weekend plans as well as last minute orders. (We would always recommend an earlier day of the week shopping experience at CheeseB.)When notified that 'Cheesekeeper' Afrim Pristine was adding to that regular Friday schedule, two PR events on Friday, July 16, we tagged along for an

Langdon Hall: Summer BBQ's

2010-07-05T15:55:00.005-04:00

Summer heat! When it gets this hot out, the best thing to do is to take it easy and chill by the pool.Here's the ultimate summer get-out-of-the-city-pool-getaway plan to do just that....Langdon Hall is offering a casual gourmet experience with their sizzling summer BBQ series. Executive Chef Jonathan Gushue co-hosts with guest chefs each Friday with foodies and other 'culinarians' (new word alert

Raymification: Food Concert

2010-07-02T07:31:00.019-04:00

Hi, I'm Raymi and I'm a celebrity blogger who also just so happens to be an eataholic. I come bearing no off button, so when Cheese Boutique invited me along for the Seafood for Thought event (Toronto Zoo's 2nd annual fundraiser that promotes Sustainable Food) eating tour I just about fainted. I photograph everything I put in my body on the regular (foodie gourmand

Slow Food: Chef Series: reds bistro

2010-06-25T12:22:00.020-04:00

On Friday, June 18, reds bistro hosted Slow Food Chefs Series dinner. The charcuterie buffet that ended the evening alludes to the tempo of evening indulgences. Just take a look at the still life! After a 7-course meal, to see this buffet was a brain teaser on full blast ....eyes told me yes... stomach said, don't you dare, you're already spending the weekend at the gym.The buffet was not left

World Cup party platter

2010-06-10T18:31:00.010-04:00

Cheese or Meat platters designed specifically to last for those 90 min fútbol games.Ask coach Afrim to customize your gameplan. I recommend challenging Afrim to create one plate of each filled only by countries of that game day.Cheese PlatterRoaring FortiesGuiness CheddarGruyere of SwitzerlandBosinaLe Grand ChevalierAged Thunder Oak GoudaBrieMeat PlatterBerkshire ChobaiHot Gemoa SalamiIn-House

June is an event-filled month

2010-06-04T15:21:00.009-04:00

Festival of Chefs 2010 is now a warm memory, and photos from all five weekends can be found in our gallery. The last couple of weekends had a very strong closing with lots of attendance, and the chefs outdid themselves with some amazing food preparations. In the meantime a few announcements for events happening in June are on the agenda: 'Slow Food Chefs Series' is being hosted by reds bistro

FoC-2010: Finale

2010-05-29T06:58:00.001-04:00

The 5th and final weekend of the 2010 Festival of Chefs happens today and tomorrow. On the roster is Keith Froggett, Scaramouche, and on Sunday, Jonathan Gushue, Langdon Hall. 12- 4 pm.The past week was very work heavy so after this weekend--expect a super pic posting from the last two weekends showcasing the activities post event.Also,Luncheon chef table bids is officially over for this year's

Chefs under the tent May 22-23

2010-05-21T23:34:00.003-04:00

Quick reminder that this weekend is the 4th weekend of the Festival of Chefs. On the roster for Saturday, May 22, Chris MacDonald from CAVA.Sunday, May 23, Chef John Higgins, Director at George Brown College.A reminder that this is the last weekend for the silent auction bids on the chefs table:Lunch for 4 set with Cheese Boutique’s linen, porcelain and silverware on May 29th, 2010 at 1:00 p.m.

Festival of Chefs 2010: reds bistro and the Drake Hotel

2010-05-17T10:14:00.012-04:00

Warm spring weather returned for the weekend and the grill was fired up to celebrate. Prawns and Veal Whistle Dog for tasty afternoon eats... next weekend if you're stuck with Gardiner closures and hell traffic--I propose a detour to Cheese Boutique and let the afternoon traffic ease while you relax under our tent!May 15: Mike Steh--reds bistroPrawns!Steh and the reds team.BC Prawn Chrostini,

Festival of Chefs 2010: reds bistro

2010-05-14T17:11:00.004-04:00

Mike Stehreds bistroat the Festival May 15This is Mike Steh’s third consecutive visit to the Festival, so the anticipation from a seasoned presenter is going to raise the presentation ante this year. I’m hearing gossip that prawns are on the menu. In the meantime you may recall our post on the restaurant experience from last year about reds. This year we popped in for something quick during lunch

Festival of Chefs 2010: Auberge du Pommier and Tutti Matti

2010-05-10T16:26:00.002-04:00

May 8: Jason Bangerter Spring Soup: Peas, fava bean, and wild leeks with first-season burrata and prosciuttoA visit from the charitable group "Growing for Grannies" Wine provided by Cave SpringsBangerter in the CheeseB kitchenJason Bangerter and teamCheese course at the VIP TableMay 9: Alida Solomon Tortelli with asparagus, mint and ricottaTutti Matti Pasta at the VIP tableSilent Auction: that

Festival of Chefs 2010: Auberge du Pommier

2010-05-07T17:08:00.002-04:00

Jason Bangerter Auberge du Pommier At the Festival May 8th There is probably several pages worth of praise I could gush forth over my first meal at Auberge, if they would let me. I will have to show a little restraint-- suffice it to say that it's a good thing the chairs were uber-comfortable, because we were eating and enjoying for nearly 4 hours. The time flew by, not only because of the

Festival of Chefs 2010: the Drake Hotel

2010-05-04T23:06:00.003-04:00

Anthony Rose Drake Hotel At the Festival of Chefs on May 16th The Drake Hotel-- design-district flair bringing us a wealth of music and art events, and great food to boot. Walk in and find the spacious main dining room, as well as their Raw Bar, the "Sky Lounge" rooftop patio, and a street-level patio. On this evening we found a nice table in the main dining lounge. Our bread comes out right

Festival of Chefs 2010: Canoe and Frank (AGO)

2010-05-03T18:02:00.000-04:00

May has arrived and the Festival has begun, kicking off to a scrumptious start this weekend with Anthony Walsh and Anne Yarymowich. Attendees were greeted with tasty samplers prepared from local, seasonal ingredients like fiddleheads, wild ramps, and heritage pork belly, paired with a red or white wine from Cattail Creek winery. May 1: Anthony Walsh of Canoe Basil, Heritage pork belly... Canoe

Silent Auction: the "VIP Table" awaits you

2010-04-30T13:48:00.000-04:00

...A multi-course Tasting Lunch for 4, prepared by a Festival Chef, paired with wine, at our ornately exotic VIP table section in Cheese Boutique. How's that for a culinary adventure? If all this sounds like your cup of tea, make it yours by participating in our charitable Silent Auction. In-store only! Find the station in the foyer of the store entrance. Funds raised will benefit the Toronto