Taste T.O. - Food & Drink In Toronto

Sunday Brunch – Fire on the East Side

Sheryl Kirby — Sun, 14 Mar 2010 15:53:58 +0000

Fire on the East Side
6 Gloucester Street
416-960-FIRE
Brunch for two with all taxes, tip and coffee: $40

There's a renewed interest in southern food these days – fried chicken, collard greens and even grits are showing up on restaurant menus. But for the past few years, one restaurant just steps off the Yonge Street strip has been quietly serving up some classic southern-inspired fare. We reviewed dinner at Fire on the East Side a few years ago, back before Chef Adam Baxter took over the stoves, but figured it might be time to stop by for brunch.

Like most Torontonians, we enjoy brunch, and doing a column about brunch means we're always looking for something out of the ordinary. You can only eat so many omelettes, yanno? So we were pretty delighted to arrive and find a selection of classics with unique southern-flavoured twists.

We get off to a shaky start with some complimentary banana bread. And while I know it's probably rude to complain about the freebies, these chunks of really cold loaf manage to be dry at the top and soggy at the bottom. Plus, it's kind of bland. We spy staff pulling them out of a cooler with tongs and an exclamation of “eww!” from one of them while peering into said cooler isn't reassuring.

That seems to be the only miss though, as we peruse the regular menu to make our choices.

I'm torn between the spicy rosemary turkey hash ($12) and the crab cake Benny ($12) – one of four variations, the others are served atop cornbread – with the crab cakes ultimately winning out. They're a little spicier than I'd prefer but the orange Hollandaise sauce softens the burn. Lots of real crab in here too, which pleases me – there's nothing worse than getting crab cakes that are mostly bread crumbs. Accompanied by a hearty portion of crisp frites and a mixed green salad with candied walnuts, I now doubly regret eating the banana bread, just because there's less room for crabby goodness.

The hungry husband cannot resist the breakfast poutine ($11) which is a big ol' bowl of grease – and I mean that in the best way. The same frites are topped with pulled pork, Monterrey jack cheese, chipotle hollandaise and an egg. It is overwhelming in both quantity and cholesterol. It is awesome.

There are healthier options too, such as the healthy scramble ($11) or granola ($9), but Fire on the East Side wouldn't be true Southern food without some hearty plates, and brunchers can find everything from steak and eggs ($14) to toad in the hole ($11) here.

Service throughout is pleasant and well-timed. This is a busy joint and staff manage to keep people moving so there's never a wait for newcomers. Atmosphere too, is enjoyable. We're seated off to one side but the main room is bright and cozy and in the warmer months, the patio is the place to be.

Banana bread aside, we're pleased with the quality and quantity of the food – as well as the price – and may soon feel the need to wander back this way for dinner.

Flavours of the Day – Sunday, March 14th, 2010

Greg Clow — Sun, 14 Mar 2010 12:00:32 +0000

EVENTS

The Great Sugaring Off
Dufferin Grove Park, Dufferin Street north of College Street
1:00 PM to 4:00 PM
free admission
We’d Tap That has been Not Far From the Tree’s pilot project in urban maple syrup production. Scattered around the city right now are a dozen or so trees, lovingly tapped to collect their bountiful sap. But as the weather heats up, the sap stops flowing... which means it’s time to make maple syrup! Let us bring the sugar bush to you, and join us for an afternoon of syrup tasting, fun, and learning. We’ll be serving up tiny tastes of urban maple syrup, and we'll have activities and games for all ages, and information galore about the wonderful world of maple syrup. Come on out and chat with some of our amazing volunteers about their experiences, and what they’ve learned through the process. There will also be live music (weather dependent), a warm fire, and The Zamboni Cafe will also be selling yummy maple-syrup-themed fare (pancakes, beans, and sausages!) for you to completely enjoy this experience.
[more info]

Mad Hatter Tea Party
cafe Taste, 1330 Queen Street West
6:00 PM
$15 - reserve online or call 416.536.7748
Staff member Julye is celebrating her unbirthday festivities with a Mad Hatter Tea Party! A special selection of teas and a buffet of snacks (with vegetarian options) will be available. The kitchen and bar will also be open.
[more info]

St. Patrick's Week
The Ceili Cottage, 1301 Queen Street East
various times & prices
To celebrate St. Patrick's Day in fine style, The Ceili Cottage will be hosting fine days and nights of events including: St. Practice Day (March 13th), St. Patrick's Parade Day (March 14th), Industry Night (March 15th), Session Day (March 16th) and St. Patrick's Day Proper (March 17th). For full details, see the link below. (Continues to March 17th.)
[more info]

Sugarbush Maple Syrup Festival
Kortright Centre for Conservation, 9550 Pine Valley Drive, Vaughan (open daily)
Bruce’s Mill Conservation Area, 3291 Stouffville Road, Stouffville (open Wed-Sun, March Break & Easter Monday)
9:30 AM to 4:00 PM
$8 adults - $6 kids and seniors - free kids 4 and under
Tap into nature at the 42nd Annual Sugarbush Maple Syrup Festival, the GTA’s longest running and most popular maple syrup festival. The festival celebrates the coming of spring and the sights, sounds and tastes of a Canadian heritage that sprouted from an age-old tradition of the First Nations people who first used the syrup for food and medicine. The Festival will include food and drinks, fun for all ages and lots of entertainment including daily self guided activities at both locations: maple syrup demonstrations, syrup sampling, horse drawn wagon rides, pony rides, maple syrup guided walks and more. (Continues to April 11th.)
[more info]

Total Health 2010
Metro Toronto Convention Centre, 225 Front Street West
various times
various ticket options - see website for details
Total Health 2010, Canada's premier national health show, will celebrate 33 years of striving to make a difference in the world, bringing cutting edge knowledge to the public by the leading innovators in the natural health field. "Our Health, Our Planet" is our theme for 2010. Our stewardship of the planet influences the state of our health. We as consumers must choose foods and products which do no harm to people, animals or our planet. Our speakers will focus on traditional healing methods, traditional farming methods, promoting agricultural biodiversity, creating ecologically based communities, and preserving a healthy environment for our children. (Final day.)
[more info]

DINNERS

Stop For Food
various restaurants
various times
$35 & $50 prix fixe menus
Dozens of Toronto’s finest restaurants unite once again for Stop for Food, a culinary celebration that raises funds for The Stop Community Food Centre, a unique anti-poverty organization in the city’s west end. Throughout the month of March, each participating restaurant will offer a special prix fixe menu priced at either $35 or $50 per person, with $5 or $10 respectively per meal being donated directly to The Stop. These menus will be prepared in each restaurant’s distinctive style, using exclusively Ontario-grown ingredients, further strengthening the bonds between local farmers and artisanal producers, restaurants and the community. (Continues to March 31st.)
[more info]

MARKETS

Downsview Park Merchants & Farmers Market
Downsview Park, 40 Carl Hall Road
10:00 AM to 6:00 PM

For a comprehensive list of upcoming events in and around Toronto, check out our Events page.

In The Papers – Saturday, March 13th

Greg Clow — Sat, 13 Mar 2010 22:16:57 +0000

Here’s a round-up of the food & drink articles in Toronto’s papers today…

Globe & Mail:

Joanne Kates falls under the meaty spell of The Hoof Cafe and gives it a rave review.
Beppi Crosariol rates a bunch of "blue-chip reds, uncommon whites and emerald greens" - the latter referring to several Irish whiskies, trotted out in honour of St. Patrick's Day.
Marilisa Racco tells us that while bottle service is often associated with the sort of places that attract greasy douchebags and the trashy girls that love them, a version with a bit more class is being offered at some of the city's more refined establishments.
Deirdre Kelly hits the bar at Blowfish to try a Goldfinger 007, the gin-based cocktail that won bartender Nishan Nepulangoda top spot at Monday's "Made With Love Mixology" competition at The Drake.
Sebastien Centner makes things sweeter with a little maple sugar.
Lucy Waverman prepares for a March Break at home with recipes from Chile and the Caribbean.
Leah McLaren gets so upset about over-packaged food that she pulls a Helena Guergis on an innocent check-out clerk.
Amy Verner chats with Tourfik Sarwa, owner of Amber and Cinq 01.
In the Travel section, Julie Besonen dines at The Wright, the restaurant at NYC's Guggenheim Museum, while Stephen Beaumont advises on ten places to tip back a few glasses of beer, wine or spirits in Manhattan and Brooklyn.
Sasha Chapman reviews Locavore, the new book by Sarah Elton on Canada's local and artisanal food culture.

National Post:

Gina Mallet has issues with sage, steak and service at Paramour.
Margaret Swaine reviews three worthy wines that are all under 12 bucks a bottle.
Sarah Musgrave interviews Darra Goldstein, founding editor of the well-respected food journal Gastronomica.
Rod Phillips takes umbrage to wine critic Robert Parker's slamming of the "Anti-Flavour Wine Elite".
Bonnie Stern agrees with moms everywhere that soup is good food.

Toronto Star:

Amy Pataki is absent this week.
Gord Stimmell reports that while the earthquake in Chile may mean a leaner 2009 vintage, most of the country's wineries thankfully avoided any major damage or injuries.
Corey Mintz invites his neighbourhood butchers from Sanagan's Meat Locker and city councillor Adam Vaughan over for dinner, where the conversation turns to the lack of garbage cans in Kensington Market.
Garnet Fraser is suckered in by the schtick of Vince "You're Gonna Love My Nuts" Shlomi and gets himself a Slap Chop, followed by a big ol' dose of buyer's remorse.
Sonia Day advises home gardeners that it's about time to get tomato seedlings started for the season.
Robert Cribb reports on the latest listeria outbreak, this one linked to deli meats made by Siena Foods.
Laurie Monsebraaten investigates concerns that the upcoming provincial budget may cut or shrink the Special Diet Allowance which ensures that people on welfare with certain medical conditions have sufficient access to healthy food.

Call For Writers – New Anthology About Food

Sheryl Kirby — Sat, 13 Mar 2010 17:38:51 +0000

(We're not involved in this project but are passing on the details in case any of our readers are interested in taking part.)

Red Claw Press Announces
A Writerlicious Anthology About Food:
Literal, Poetic, Imagined

Call for Contributions
We invite the submission of works about Food and Drink in all their meanings: stories, poems and art work that celebrate food, or decry it; the joy of eating, or not; foods you love or hate now, or did as a child; cooking experiences bad and good; foods you ate recently or a long time ago; cooking recipes with commentary; food for thought, recipes for disaster, recipes for love. When in doubt, query first at editors@redclawpress.com.

Formats
We want to include a variety of art forms. Contributions can be in any one or a combination of these formats: short fiction, poetry, creative non-fiction (e.g. recipe, memoir, essay, travel piece), graphic essay, or comic. Other formats could be photographs, or photos of painting, sculpture, collage, or work in glass, ceramics, textiles, metal, wood or jewellery.

Details
All works must be unpublished.
Poetry: Maximum of five unpublished pages of 36 lines per page or fewer, title and stanza breaks count as lines.
Prose: Maximum 1500 words in 12 pt. font, double spaced.
Artwork: Maximum of five JPEG’s in black and white or colour at 72dpi with a maximum pixel dimension of 2000 x 2000 and a minimum pixel dimension of 500 x 500. If accepted, you must be able to send high resolution images at 300dpi. An artist’s statement, maximum 200 words, linking the art to the theme, should accompany all images.
Multi-media: Maximum of five pages total of illustration and commentary. See above.

Deadline
Submissions must be pasted into the body of an email, or in the case of artwork sent as JPEG’s, and forwarded to editors@redclawpress.com by midnight Tuesday June 1st, 2010, for publication in the spring of 2011.

The Anthology
A perfect-bound book of 150 pages, with artwork in both colour and black and white, and a dazzling cover. Payment will be one copy of the book.

Flavours of the Day – Saturday, March 13th, 2010

Greg Clow — Sat, 13 Mar 2010 12:00:02 +0000

EVENTS

iYellow Wine School: Wine & Food 101
Reds Wine Bar, 77 Adelaide Street West
4:00 PM to 5:30 PM
$35 per class - $260 for all 8 classes - see website for enrollment details
The second term of iYellow Wine School courses for Winter 2010 will help build your confidence around the art of wine and food. Classes are led by Sommelier Taylor Thompson, with food paired by Reds Sous Chef Amira Becarevic. See the website for full details on all 8 classes in this term.
[more info]

DINNERS

MARKETS

Downsview Park Merchants & Farmers Market
Downsview Park, 40 Carl Hall Road
10:00 AM to 6:00 PM

Farmers Organic Market
St. George the Martyr Church, 197 John Street
9:00 AM to 3:00 PM

Green Barn Farmers Market
Artscape Wychwood Barns, 601 Christie Avenue
8:00 AM to 1:00 PM

St. Lawrence Farmers Market
St. Lawrence Market (North Building), 92 Front Street East
5:00 AM to 5:00 PM

The Village Market
Toronto Waldorf School, 9100 Bathurst Street, Thornhill
8:30 AM to 1:30 PM

For a comprehensive list of upcoming events in and around Toronto, check out our Events page.

What’s Cooking – Friday, March 12th

Sheryl Kirby — Fri, 12 Mar 2010 22:22:25 +0000

Here's what's cooking around town today...

What the hell is a bitchin' kitchen anyway? The Food Network's newest show, that's what. [Roger Mooking - Soul Food]

How much do you love the veal sandwich at Mustachio on St. Lawrence Market? Enough to eat no other sodium for the rest of the day? [Toronto Star]

Which came first, the chicken or the head? [Bon Eats]

How to make a lobster roll without (hopefully) starting a fistfight. [Save Your Fork]

The shameful club that is being a Slap-Chop owner. [Toronto Star]

Chapatis - actually kind of fun and easy to make at home. [Joshna Maharaj]

Further proof that many of us in the food scene live in a local sustainable bubble - encountering people who have never heard of a CSA. [Homemakers.com: Dana McCauley's Blog]

Pretty much any root vegetable can be made into a cake. Just don't tell the hubby he's getting something healthy. [Foodie and the Everyman]

A recap of the paella party at Cava last week. mmmm...paella. [The Cookbook Store Blog]

And in Food for Thought - the future of food in retrospect, culinary xenophobia, and when are your free-run eggs not actually free of anything. [Save Your Fork]

Winery with a Storied Past

Chris Saunders — Fri, 12 Mar 2010 17:25:30 +0000

Henry Smith was the son of a Loyalist who moved to Canada during the American Revolution. The family settled in Niagara, in the area now known as the Short Hills Bench. Later in life, Henry built his an inn near the family property. He chose to name the tavern Henry of Pelham, a jab at the English Prime Minister at the time, and a reference to Pelham Road, which ran through the land he settled.

The inn, built in 1842, was still standing in the 1980s, when The Speck family, descendants of Henry, purchased what pieces of land remained of the original Smith land claim. The Specks had put together what they could to save a few land parcels, moved into the old inn, and replaced the vines that Henry had planted 150 years ago to make room for new vineyards. This is not a story of old money with a new idea; it was the hard work of Paul Speck and his sons that built a winery. They planted 65 acres of vineyards by hand over several summers. The winery was born, named after the man who originally farmed the land: Henry of Pelham.

Today, the three boys run different aspects of the winery; Paul Jr. serves as President of the winery, and is a founding director of VQA. Matt is Vice President and Viticultural Manager. Daniel serves as Vice President of Sales and Marketing. Winemaking at Henry of Pelham is overseen by Ronald Giesbrecht, a Niagara native who followed up his University of Waterloo degree in microbiology with a Masters at University of Guelph. He studied oenology academically for some time and worked for two Ontario wineries before taking the role of winemaker at Henry of Pelham in 1990.

The Short Hills Bench where fruit is grown for the wines produced by the Speck family and team is a UNESCO World Biosphere Reserve protecting numerous species of flora and fauna. This land was carved out by the pre-glacial Niagara river, and soils are a mix of clay and silt covered by a sparse amount of topsoil. The clay soils restrict the vines productions naturally, but means the vineyards need special drainage to make up for the water-retaining qualities of the clay. Being a stone’s throw from Lake Ontario means that the vines have some degree of protection from Ontario’s winter ravages - warm air currents come off the lake and blow through the Short Hills.

The 2008 Reserve Off-Dry Riesling from Henry of Pelham (LCBO 557165, $15.95/750mL bottle) contains residual sugars from the late harvest grapes due to a short fermentation process. The grapes were taken from vines 15 years old or older. Scents of green apple, pink grapefruit, honey and hints of grass lift from the glass. Honey and apples dominate the flavour profile, with a citrus tinge. The finish is medium length, filled with echoes of honey and lemon. There is still great acidity present in this wine which keeps the palate refreshed and ready for another glass. This is a well balanced off-dry riesling, with great aromatics and interesting flavours.

Flavours of the Day – Friday, March 12th, 2010

Greg Clow — Fri, 12 Mar 2010 12:00:49 +0000

EVENTS

DINNERS

Fri, Mar 12, 2010
From Paris with Love with Dimitri from Paris
Roosevelt Room, 2 Drummond Place
7:30 PM dinner - 10:00 party
$49 for dinner - $20 for party - call 416.599.9000 to reserve
Internationally acclaimed DJ and Grammy Award nominated artist Dimitri from Paris will host an intimate dinner and showcase of his signature sound. The three course prix fixe menu crafted by Executive Chef Trevor Wilkinson will feature dishes made from local, market-fresh ingredients and will include a choice of appetizer, main course and dessert.
[more info]

For a comprehensive list of upcoming events in and around Toronto, check out our Events page.

What’s Cooking – Thursday, March 11th

Sheryl Kirby — Thu, 11 Mar 2010 22:14:25 +0000

Here's what's cooking around town today...

In case you mistook this week's issue of NOW for a genteel, paper version of The Wire, don't be alarmed. It's really just about celebrating the great things on either side of good ol' Yonge Street. In the food section, Steven Davey puts many miles on his bike, zipping back and forth to compare pubs, burgers, Italian restaurants and even the two Chinatowns. Something for everyone, regardless of what side of the line you live on. [NOW]

Ooh, ooh... sugaring off party - this Sunday at Dufferin Grove Park. [Not Far From the Tree]

Stylish but comfortable Italian food might just be the ticket to keeping Yorkville happy. Turns out Ciao is less about the nabe and more about the grub. [Eye]

Not sure what new wines are worth your dosh? Check out these tasting notes of some recent releases. [Gothic Epicures VinCuisine]

People will do anything for good sushi - including creating zombie fish. [Homemakers.com: Dana McCauley's Blog]

A recap of the Bring Food Home conference. [Sustain Ontario]

If you've not been following the "bake-sale" issue in New York, this post might not make sense - in a nutshell, NYC is banning school groups trying to raise money for trips and such from selling homemade "bakesale" type goods in an effort to control calories, trans-fats, sodium etc. What kids are allowed to sell is prepared foods such as Doritos and PopTarts, in calorie-restricted serving sizes. Rightfully so, a lot of people are confused as to how Doritos in any size bag trumps a homemade oatmeal cookie. Joel weighs in. [Well Preserved]

Look out Oz, Böhmer is open. [Compendium Daily]

And in Food For Thought - canning and preserving - the domain of the hipster, why bunnies are cute but cows are tasty, and would you rather diet and exercise or have a gastric bypass? [Save Your Fork]

Sobering Up at the CRFA Show

Sheryl Kirby — Thu, 11 Mar 2010 17:21:40 +0000

It's no secret - well, maybe it is - that those of us in the SOLE (sustainable/seasonal, organic, local, ethical) food scene live in a bit of a bubble. We tend to think of all food as "real" food, made from fresh ingredients, and we tend to frequent restaurants with the same philosophy. But the majority of food service businesses still don't operate this way. And when I say "food service" I don't just mean high end restaurants serving artisanal food; food service includes everything from hospitals, hotels, catering companies, school and office cafeterias, sandwich trucks and yes, restaurants, but of all sizes and styles, from little neighbourhood coffee houses to family-style chains and everything in between.

While the philosophy of these establishments may be as different as night and day, they all share some common ground - there are some things they all need to run a successful business: pots and pans, salt and pepper, plates, napkins, dishwashers...

The annual Canadian Restaurant and Foodservices Association trade show is the place where all of these things come together. Where food service operators can ogle shiny new Hobart mixers, pick out new menu covers, or find a supplier of eco-friendly take-away containers. It's also where companies of processed foods try to sell their products to restaurateurs. Some of these products are a given; from ingredients like spices to things like coffee, tea and condiments. There's also the category of products that many restaurants could potentially make in-house but often choose to bring in. Bread is a massive category at the CRFA show, and bakeries are here with huge displays and samples to entice restaurant owners to serve their products.

After bread, cakes and pastries are probably the most prominent category of items brought in to restaurants. In both catering operations and many restaurants, believe it or not, desserts are often not made in house, and many bakeries here offer gorgeous displays of treats at wholesale prices.

There is some representation of fresh fruit and vegetables - companies like 100km Foods Inc. were on hand, and local food artisans such as Alba Lisa and Chef Jono were part of the Toronto Food Business Incubator section. But big food is also prevalent here. At the McCain booth, we sampled something called an "early riser"; a McNugget-looking thing made from potato, egg, cheese, pepper and bacon and coated in a corn-flake based crust. It was horrifying. Likewise the pre-made omelettes we came across. And let's not forget the plethora of frozen fries, chicken wings and other pub grub that diners generally expect is made fresh... but maybe isn't.

The event isn't just about the trade show floor, however - there are cooking demos featuring well-known chefs such as Lynn Crawford, Susur Lee and Donna Dooher, and throughout the three days of the show, seminars are offered on everything from wine glass comparisons to how to use social media.

But while the CRFA show is always a fun and informative time, it's also kind of sobering - there is an awful lot of crap food out there. And despite the efforts many of us make to support local farmers, to eat seasonal and organic products, or to just support local restaurants or local food artisans, someone, somewhere, is eating all that processed stuff.

Watermelon head guy - probably the most photographed person at the whole event.

Gorgeous tins of tea from The Tea Emporium.

The Beemster blue cow. Just because I think it's cool.

This is kind of a fun idea - from Cedar Bay Grilling Company in Nova Scotia; salmon and shrimp, vac-packed with a cedar plank for grilling.

Sad little pizza mascot - doesn't he look like he needs a hug?

The "display only" sign is the most prominent message at the CRFA show. Because there are lots of samples, and people will eat anything without even asking first. This display of pastries is from Gastronomia in Montreal - and they are shipped to restaurants frozen.

I didn't get a picture of the breakfast nugget thing - but here is a tray of pre-made omlettes. Be very afraid.

There are lots of cool new finds at events like this too, though - and these little single-serving packages of olive oil are a great idea.

The display from Ponderosa Mushrooms in British Columbia, featuring fiddleheads from California.

One of many elaborate bread displays, this one from Fred's Bread.

Pate, fruit preserve and a pippette of port top these funky crackers from Pidy, a French company that specializes in various pre-made pastry shells.

This was my favourite find of the day - not yet available in stores, Ontario crème fraiche from Thornloe Cheese. For everyone who has ever written to us asking where to find crème fraiche (and there are a good number of you out there)... soon, my lovelies.

One of our few encounters with fresh vegetables (seriously, the only raw thing I ate all day was a carrot stick that came with some dubious dip from Nestlé), the gorgeous and really delicious soups from Alba Lisa.

And last but not least, a selection of Ontario cheese. (Yes, that IS chocolate cheese at the bottom there.)

This Just In: Scaramouche Staying Put Until At Least 2016

Greg Clow — Thu, 11 Mar 2010 16:38:58 +0000

After several years of speculation about an impending move, Scaramouche announced this morning that they've signed a new lease that guarantees they'll be staying in their current location at 1 Benvenuto Place until the end of 2016.

In a press release, co-owner Carl Korte states: "We’re delighted Scaramouche will be staying in its current location so we can continue to provide our many loyal clients and guests with the high level of cuisine and trusted service that’s been recognized for years. Extending our lease also means we can happily reinvest in our kitchen and dining room to maintain our position as one of Toronto’s top restaurants with the best view in town."

Partner and executive chef Keith Froggett adds: "Friends and clients have been asking us where Scaramouche will move so I’m pleased to finally report that we’re staying where we are. This is a great way for Scaramouche to celebrate its thirtieth anniversary and we look forward to our next decade of operating a successful and vibrant restaurant."

Flavours of the Day – Thursday, March 11th, 2010

Greg Clow — Thu, 11 Mar 2010 12:00:49 +0000

EVENTS

Thursday Night Tasting Series: Cheezy Does It!
Vineyards Estate Wines Queens Quay, 228 Queens Quay West
7:00 PM to 8:30 PM
$8 - call 416.598.8880 to reserve
One of our ongoing challenges is to create fresh, intriguing and truly educational tasting ideas. In the past, we have striven to showcase the very best wines and the matches made in heaven. As a result of this, our sommelier and staff have received accolades and awards from writers and gastrophiles all over the world! What could possibly be next when you have covered everything? This week, we're "going rogue" and turning formal wine tasting upside down! It's the "ANTI-CHEESE TASTING EVENT"! What wines pair with processed cheese foods like Velveeta, Kraft Singles and Cheez Whiz? What wines go with those little triangular cheeses wrapped in silver foil? It's Babybel Heaven (and Hell)! It's cheap and cheerful! Every wine tasted will be under $10.00 (a litre). Quelle Fromage!
[more info]

Denison's Brewing Feature
barVolo, 587 Yonge Street
6:00 PM to 8:00 PM
$6 for Denison's tasting flight - other food and drink available
barVolo will be featuring three beers on draught from the talented brew master Michael Hancock of Denison's Brewing: Denison's Weissbier, Denison's Dunkel and a brewery blend of the two beers, Denison's Spezial Weissbier Dunkel. Michael Hancock will be present to start the feature, and a sample trio will be offered featuring 5 oz. tasters of all three beers for $6.00.
[more info]

Beer School for Cheese Fans: St. Patty's Day
Leslieville Cheese Market East, 891 Queen Street East
two tastings: 7:00 PM and 8:30 PM
$30 - call 416-465-7143 to reserve
Brewmaster Sam Corbeil trained as a Brewmaster in Germany. His knowledge of the world of beer is formidable. Sam is no slouch when it comes to cheese. He will be pairing five beers with five cheeses, and surely heightening our appreciation of both.
[more info]

Pairing Port and Cheese
Spence Gallery, 600 Markham Street
6:30 PM
ticket info t.b.a.
A classic pairing, Port is beautifully complemented by cheese. The South African Wine Society has selected six elegant ports and will have a cheese that complements each of them. Come and find out which pairs best - the paring potentials are endless, but you will have your favourites.
[more info]

DINNERS

Rosewood Estates Winemaker's Dinner
Globe Bistro, 124 Danforth Avenue
$99 (plus taxes and gratuities) - email info@globebistro.com or call 416-466-2000 to reserve
In conjunction with International Women's Day, Globe Bistro pleased to present a Winemaker's Dinner featuring award-winning winemaker Natalie Spytkowsky from Rosewood Estates Winery. Wines to served include 2008 Semillon, 2008 Sussreserve Riesling, 2008 Pinot Noir and the yet to be released 2008 Merlot. There will also be sampling a wide array of Rosewood meads.
[more info]

MARKETS

Apple Tree Market
behind North Toronto Memorial Community Centre, 200 Eglinton Avenue West
3:00 PM to 7:00 PM

Dufferin Grove Organic Farmers Market
Dufferin Grove Park, 875 Dufferin Street
3:00 PM to 7:00 PM

For a comprehensive list of upcoming events in and around Toronto, check out our Events page.

What’s Cooking – Wednesday, March 10th

Sheryl Kirby — Wed, 10 Mar 2010 22:29:06 +0000

Here's what's cooking around town today...

You know, I'm sure this new variety of apple is probably really tasty, but the marketing machine behind promoting it is pretty obnoxious. As this piece points out, getting people to try and like a new variety when they're mostly used to red, yellow and green can be a crapshoot, but seriously, PR people - sometimes less is more. Twitter accounts and Facebook pages for an apple?? There is such a thing as overexposure and the Red Prince apple has jumped the shark in my eyes. [Globe and Mail]

So if you support Canada's seal hunt, how willing are you to stand behind it? A member of Nunavut's legislative assembly is proposing a retaliatory ban on alcohol from the EU - so no Guinness, no French wine, no Belgian beer for the people of that territory. But imagine if the federal government had the balls to take the same stand... sure, we'd all be put out a little bit, but imagine the effect it would have on the European economy. [National Post]

I'm currently reading a book about food in history and it turns out that prepared foods and takeaways existed as far back as Egyptian times, but if this scares the beejeezus out of you, then ditching processed foods and cooking everything at home from scratch might be worth a try. [Toronto Star] [Globe and Mail]

As Canadian as butter tarts... waitaminute - what's that (eugh!!!) corn syrup doing in there? (Seriously, all 4 recipes in this piece contain corn syrup - wtf??? That's pecan pie filling, people!) [Toronto Sun]

I wondered why Johnny Depp's Mad Hatter was staring at me from a Tetley's tin at the grocery store the other day - turns out I should have snapped up all the stock - collectors are going crazy on eBay for the whole Alice in Wonderland-themed series. [National Post]

Soup Sisters brings together women to help other women, over a bowl of soup. [Toronto Star]

Oh no, this is just going to encourage more of those girlie wines with dresses and shoes on the labels, isn't it? - a study is showing a correlation between alcohol consumption and weight maintenance - that is, women who drank a small amount on a daily basis gained less weight over 13 years than their tee-totalling counterparts. [Globe and Mail]

Loblaw's is set to add rooftop solar panels to many of its Ontario stores. [Globe and Mail]

We tend to think of cities like London as being more expensive to live in than here in Toronto. Maybe not. If you're working on the "buck is a buck is a pound" theory, then we come out ahead, but a direct exchange in current funds makes things like milk, steaks and sandwiches far pricier than across the pond. [National Post: Posted Toronto]

And in Food For Thought - pop-up restaurants, tooth decay from sports drinks, and chefs that smoke. [Save Your Fork]

In the Kitchen – and the Garden – with Edward Levesque

Jodi Lewchuk — Wed, 10 Mar 2010 17:34:48 +0000

Edward Levesque's Kitchen
1290 Queen Street East
416-465-3600

It’s a wintry Friday morning in Toronto. The driving snow snarls traffic along the morning commute and forces pedestrians to walk with their heads down, faces buried in the collars of their coats. But the frightful weather is no match for chef Edward Levesque, who is anticipating this year’s growing season.

“My seed packets arrived last week,” he says. “The garden — it’s a year-long process.”

The organic bounty from both Levesque’s garden and his partner’s 52-acre farm in Dunville, Ontario, inspire the menu at Edward Levesque’s Kitchen (dubbed “ELK” by locals), the Leslieville restaurant Levesque opened on Queen Street East in 2002. Vegetables, greens and herbs from the property join other locally sourced and traditionally farmed ingredients to create a seasonally focused dining experience. And even though ELK took a “locavore” approach to food before it became a mainstream trend, don’t expect to find that term on display.

“Right from the start the cooking at the restaurant was seasonal and organic,” Levesque explains, “but it seems unnecessary to say so on the menu. You can taste the difference in good-quality ingredients. When you’re eating root vegetables pulled from the soil you can feel the change in your body, in your cells, all the way up to your brain.”

Back in 1992, however, Levesque was a recent graduate of the George Brown Culinary Arts program and ELK couldn’t have even been a gleam in his eye as he tore open bags of romaine lettuce for salads that would feed the masses at his first job at the Sheraton Hotel in downtown Toronto. “I moved up to deep-frying hors d’oeuvres for executives,” he quips before talking about how much there is to be learned from working the many stations in a large hotel kitchen.

Levesque recalls some other rite-of-passage kitchen experiences like being asked to prep a bushel of onions and peel a sack of fresh Romano beans (he was too slow on the latter task — “Knife skills are where it’s at,” he says by way of advice to aspiring chefs) that paved the way to a four-year stay at Prego Della Piazza, a Yorkville fine-dining institution. There he worked with Massimo Capra, now of Mistura and Food Network Canada fame, whom he credits with exposing him to authentic Italian cooking. Levesque’s c.v. also boasts a stint at French bistro Arlequin, another Yorkville hotspot that closed in 2007.

When opportunity struck, then, Levesque was well prepared to run his own kitchen. He had been menu-testing for another chef and noticed the vacancy at 1290 Queen Street East while walking by one day. He got investors together and a mere six weeks later, Edward Levesque’s Kitchen was open for business. “I jumped right into the deep end,” he says, “and lost ten pounds biking all over the city applying for licenses.”

Back in 2002 Leslieville was just on the cusp of the renaissance that has made it the popular neighbourhood it is today, and ELK was certainly one of the restaurants that sparked the area’s gastronomic renewal. As one of the first new kids on the block, Levesque built the establishment’s success one lunch, dinner and brunch service at a time (and the spot happens to serve a wildly popular brunch). Eight years later, he still goes in to work every day, stopping at local bakery Upper Crust for his usual morning bagel, but credits the talent of his current lineup of cooks for the several weeks’ vacation he plans to take this year.

New York City is one of Levesque’s preferred destinations; at the moment he finds it a more fertile ground than Toronto for culinary inspiration (incidentally, ELK’s famous sandwich board advertising “Steak, Chickpeas, Alcohol” is a play on the “Steak, Lobster, Chickpeas” marquee at NYC’s Max’s Kansas City, a restaurant and nightclub frequented by musicians, artists, and politicians in the 1960s and 1970s). His two principal complaints about current Toronto dining are the skewed relationship between food and price — he finds that in many cases the quality of the food is deteriorating while the price is escalating — and chefs’ tendency to oversalt.

“You have to understand flavours and how they mix,” Levesque insists. “You have to know what your finished dish is going to taste like and then taste your way through cooking it.”

As for the flavours at ELK, they tend to be simple and clear — “Lemons make lemonade,” Levesque says — but also inventive. As a result, it is not unusual to find dishes like tandoor-style salmon and osso bucco next to one another on the menu, which is printed often to capture seasonal shifts. Don’t forget the chutneys and marmalades Levesque makes when various fruits hit their peak of ripeness, as well as the pickled root vegetables he puts up at the end of the summer and the plethora of items the restaurant serves made with the herbs that flourish in Levesque’s garden, including a fragrant mint tea made from a bouquet of fresh sprigs steeped with a thin slice of lemon.

Levesque is tight-lipped about what the future holds, though he does concede that there is a plan in the works, to be revealed early next year. Until then Toronto diners will continue to enjoy the ELK dishes that take shape during walks through his garden listening to the frogs, cold beer in one hand and a cigarette in the other. It’s not a bad way to draw inspiration.

“There’s nothing like it,” says Levesque.

Jodi Lewchuk is an editor by profession and a cook and writer by passion. She also writes about and photographs food for her personal blog, Cursive Mechanics.

Flavours of the Day – Wednesday, March 10th, 2010

Greg Clow — Wed, 10 Mar 2010 12:00:50 +0000

EVENTS

Pants Off for Prostate Cancer
Trevor Kitchen & Wine Bar, 38 Wellington Street East
6:00 PM
various ticket prices - see website for details
Pants Off for Prostate Cancer is a mandatory "pants off" event, putting the focus on the "below the belt" nature of prostate cancer. Guests will be required to check their pants at our "pant check" and celebrate the evening enjoying the reckless abandon of "pantlessness". The event will feature mouth-watering appetizers and bar food provided by Trevor Kitchen & Bar, reasonably-priced wine, beer and cocktails, prizes for best and most outrageous boxers (both men and women), a door draw for great prizes, and a silent auction featuring fabulous merchandise, event tickets and gift certificates.
[more info]

DINNERS

Dining Fundraiser for Haiti Relief
Crush Wine Bar, 455 King Street West
various seating times
regular menu available
In response to the devastation caused by the recent earthquake in Haiti, Vintage Hotels is determined to make a difference in the rebuilding of the country. The Niagara-on-the-Lake based hotel company will hold fundraising event in all 5 of its restaurants across Niagara-on-the-Lake, Caledon and Toronto, donating 100% of proceeds for the evening to Habitat for Humanity Canada where the funds will be allocated to relief efforts in Haiti.
[more info]

Rising Star Dinner Series with Chef Trish Donnelly
The Chefs' House, 215 King Street East
6:30 PM
$100 (food, wine, taxes & tip included) - call 416-415-2260 to reserve
Discover Rising Stars in the culinary and hospitality industry as you enjoy an exceptional meal prepared before your eyes. Each month The Chefs' House spotlights the emerging talent of one young Canadian chef who will introduce and serve you a multi-course menu of their own creation. This month's chef is Trish Donnelly from Oyster Boy.
[more info]

MARKETS

University of Toronto Farmers Market
University College, 15 Kings College Circle
2:30 PM to 5:30 PM

For a comprehensive list of upcoming events in and around Toronto, check out our Events page.