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A record 550 tickets were sold for this year’s benefit. By 7:30 p.m., the room was packed.
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The Stockyards provided the smoked trout on rye hors d’oeuvres.
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The Ruby Watchco crew—including chefs Lora Kirk and Lynn Crawford—were serving chicken liver parfait from their Ruby Eats line.
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Todd Perrin, the friendly Newfoundlander from season one of Top Chef Canada, served a surf-and-turf made of a pork croquette and cod.
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The view from the floor
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Top Chef Canada joker Steve Gonzalez was helping out Nick Liu of the Niagara Street Café.
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Gonzalez plates General Tso Olliffe sweetbreads with jellyfish slaw at the Niagara Street Café table.
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The Niagara Street Café’s General Tso Olliffe sweetbreads with jellyfish slaw. (“Jellyfish is one of the most sustainable seafoods,” chef Nick Liu told us.)
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Scaramouche’s Keith Froggett plating an elegant yellowfin tuna carpaccio
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Scaramouche’s yellowfin tuna carpaccio with olive oil, celeriac and coriander
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Jamie Kennedy holding a Great Lakes fish eclair (yes, made with choux pastry) with wild leek tartar sauce and slaw
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C5’s offering: a halibut cheek tempura sandwich with hot peppers
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Parts and Labour’s Matty Mattheson frying up head cheese croquettes for his take on bahn mi, which also had duck liver paté and assorted veggies and herbs
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Noce’s silky pumpkin gnocchi with truffled pumpkin cream and wild mushrooms
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CBC’s Matt Galloway made an appearance; sadly, he was not sporting his recently revealed dreadlocks.
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Cowbell’s Mark Cutrara sported his signature look while serving house-cured pepperoni.
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Champion shucker Patrick McMurray of Starfish brought two kinds of Channel Island oysters with him.
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Anthony Walsh, the very tall Oliver and Bonacini corporate executive chef, helping to prepare a B.C. scallop and Ontario bacon steam bun
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The Gabardine crew, all in plaid, preparing their porky dish: chicharrón stuffed with pork rillette, served alongside ricotta, black currants and an apple and root veggie salad
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Frogpond Farm, the organic Ontario winery, was one of the drink sponsors
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The Soma table was mobbed most of the night: these miniature truffles were made with Prugna, a plum liquor.
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At the Soma table, they were giving away these little cups of hot chocolate topped with whipped cream and sumac just as fast as they could make them.
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The Nadège table had a large assortment of chocolates and other French gourmandises.
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Auctioneer Stephen Ranger led the live auction. Items up for bid included dinners, getaways and, the grand finale, direct underwriting of healthy lunches at The Stop for a year.