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Toronto Life - The Dish

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Bob Blumer on humiliation, faking it and falling asleep watching Barefoot Contessa

(Photo by Karon Liu)

Bob Blumer gets comfy (Photo by Karon Liu)

Bob Blumer has come a long way from the cheesy printed shirts, the tornado hairdo and the Mrs. Dash commercials. Reclining in a plush chair at the Spoke Club six hours before he leaves for his next adventure in Buenos Aires, the Montreal-born Blumer—wearing a muted sweater, his hair neatly coiffed (“Even Michael Bolton cut his hair”)—is doing interviews about the final season of his gastronomical schadenfreude show Glutton for Punishment.

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Out of Africa and into Ontario: the story behind Canada’s first grower-direct imported coffee

A:DFLDJF (Photo courtesy of Ashanti.com)

David and Amy Wilding-Davies with their Zimbabwe Coffee Farmers of the Year award (Photo courtesy of Ashanti.com)

Ashanti Coffee might not be a name recognized by many of Toronto’s coffee connoisseurs, but maybe it should be. The company established Canada’s first grower-direct importing scheme for beans, which are shipped from Zimbabwe, roasted locally (in Thornbury, Ontario) and sold in Toronto stores. Owned by Canadian Olympian David Wilding-Davies, an equestrian who competed at the 1988 games in Seoul, Ashanti is unique for its importation methods, its quality control and its survival of Robert Mugabe’s land reclamation campaigns.

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Q&A: legendary chef Thomas Keller on his culinary empire

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Thomas Keller at his first Toronto appearance (Photo by Renée Suen)

A crowd of 450 (including top Toronto chefs Ted Corrado, Mark McEwan, Bonnie Stern and Donna Dooher) gathered at the Toronto Reference Library on Monday night to hear from Thomas Keller, who was in town to promote his new cookbook, Ad Hoc at Home. In the book, Keller, the only American chef to receive Michelin stars for two restaurants (The French Laundry, Per Se) at once, reveals recipes from Ad Hoc, his restaurant in Yountville, California, which serves a different prix-fixe menu every night. We wrangled some alone time with the chef to talk about his culinary empire.

It’s your first time in Toronto. Will you be exploring much of its culinary scene?
Unfortunately, I got in late last night and am leaving early tomorrow morning, so I won’t really get to see much this time. The one restaurant that is on my list is The Black Hoof, which I heard from a friend is very good.

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