If recent reports are to be believed, the glamorous, booze-soaked life of an official diplomat can only be outshone by the glamorous life of an LCBO employee. Francois Agostini, along with the help of a part-time waitress, allegedly stole more than a million dollars from the LCBO—and he did it by exploiting a program he oversaw for the liquor board that provides booze to diplomats without tax or duty at a savings of up to 40 per cent (who knew?). Over the course of six years, Agostini allegedly conjured fake sales to fake diplomats. An LCBO affidavit says that “approximately $1.6 million worth of product was shipped to the Toronto warehouse…but the proceeds were not remitted.” That product, according to the board, was then sold out of the back of a truck in Stouffville. The LCBO says they’ve fired Agostini and made drastic changes to the diplomat program to prevent future scams. Meanwhile, we’re sure some booze-swilling attachés are more than a little sore at Agostini for blowing their cover. Read the entire story [Global] »
The latest restaurant buzz, including what’s opening, what’s closing, and where to eat, drink and be seen
Ever since the The Real Jerk’s new landlord told the Caribbean resto to close up and move on, owners Ed and Lily Pottinger have shown they’re as good at marshalling community sentiment as they are at serving up jerk chicken and roti. First they went the protest and online petition route. Now the pair has hired a lawyer to seek an injunction that would delay the eviction. “I’d prefer to sit back and relax and run my restaurant,” Ed told the Toronto Star, “but if it means it may be taken away from me, you’ve got to get savvy quick and come out swinging.” Lawyer Albert Formosa had better work swiftly—the eviction notice, served by Bill Mandelbaum of Buckingham Properties, tells the restaurateurs to skedaddle by January 31. Which is tomorrow. Read the entire story [Toronto Star] »
Windows by Jamie Kennedy set to open in Niagara Falls this February
Jamie Kennedy and chef de cuisine Ross Midgley (Images: Jamie Kennedy Kitchens)
Back in May, we reported that Jamie Kennedy was lending his expertise (and perhaps more importantly, his name) to a fine dining restaurant on the 14th floor of the Sheraton on the Falls Hotel, to be called Jamie Kennedy on the Falls. The restaurant is now set to open sometime in the next month, under a new name: Windows by Jamie Kennedy. “We’ve been told mid-February,” Jamie Kennedy Kitchens spokesperson Jo Dickins told The Dish. Partner Canadian Niagara Hotels has already started the search for staff to work under chef de cuisine Ross Midgley, with Tony Aspler running the wine program. The restaurant hopes to draw GTA residents familiar with Kennedy by sticking with his famously locavore philosophy—but we’re sure the views of the falls won’t hurt either.
Weekly Lunch Pick: the sustainable trout at Pangaea
Velouté with spot prawns; Ocean Wise steelhead (Image: Renée Suen)
Although Winterlicious kicked off last Friday (see our 61 best bets), it’s still possible to secure a seat at one of the city’s top tables, especially if it’s just outside the downtown core. Pangaea’s open dining room typically caters to a well-heeled Yorkville crowd (with prices to match), but during the culinary fest, the restaurant offers a steal of a three-course prix fixe for $20 (we stopped by just before the festival commenced).
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Foie gras, surprise caviar orders and one tight ship: my 12-hour stage at Splendido
The service entrance at Splendido (click any image for more info)
Our regular contributor Renée Suen was recently invited to put away her fork and don an apron to stage at Splendido (a culinary stage is a brief and usually unpaid educational stint at a restaurant). Renée is an ambitious home cook, but her professional experience consists mostly of high school summers working at a soup and sandwich shop and weekends slinging bubble tea during university. Can she handle the heat of 12 hours in a professional kitchen? Will chef de cuisine Patrick Kriss make her cry? Find out below, and check out our behind-the-scenes gallery at the end.
Batch of Neilson milk recalled due to cleaning solution contamination (yikes!)
(Image: Canadian Food Inspection Agency)
The Canadian Food Inspection Agency sent out an alert this morning warning people not to drink Neilson Trutaste 2% microfiltered partly skimmed milk, specifically the kind sold in four-litre bags with the UPC code 066800 00404 4, best-before date February 12 and best-before code 1590 FE12 H7. Saputo Inc. of Montreal decided to recall the milk, on shelves in Ontario and Quebec, after learning that some of it was contaminated with a cleaning solution. So far, one person has become sick after drinking the milk, but the Star reports that they didn’t require a hospital stay and have since recovered. In a slightly unsettling twist, the solution-laced milk can cause nausea and vomiting, even though it looks and smells normal. So keep your eyes peeled for those bewildering codes. Read the entire story [Toronto Star] »
Alternalicious: a roundup of rebel prix fixes outside the jurisdiction of Winterlicious 2012
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Every year, some restaurants decide to opt out of the prix fixe madness of Winterlicious and offer their own special menus and bargains outside the strictures of the official program. “We do it to give Winterlicious a bit of competition, to bring people in,” Elle M’a Dit’s Gregory Furstoss told The Dish. “But we don’t have to have the pressure of being under Winterlicious—we don’t have 200 people booked!” Meanwhile, Ross Bonfanti of midtown’s Il Sogno Ristorante launched his winter prix fixe back when it was tough to get into the official festival and now, several years later, feels no need to jump on board. “I have a good thing going,” he told us. After the jump, a roundup of winter prix fixe menus and deals.
Recipe to Riches picked up for a second season of thoroughly branded competitive cooking
Your favourite competitive cooking show—no, not that one—is back for a second season, according to the folks at Food Network Canada. Recipe to Riches, which pits home cooks against each other for what the press release calls “a once-in-a-lifetime shot at having their recipe developed into a President’s Choice® product,” begins a national casting call today. As regular Dish readers will do doubt remember, recipes featured on the show’s first season included bannock hazelnut pie and pulled pork, with Lunenberg, Nova Scotia’s Glo McNeill taking the win for her lemon pudding cakes. Like last season, the show features $25,000 prizes each episode, as well as a $250,000 grand prize for the overall winner of the season—a much heftier payout than certain other Canadian game shows. While the entire judging roster—Laura Calder, Tony Chapman, Dana McCauley and Galen Weston—will be returning, the fate of former Bachelor Jesse Palmer is still up in the air. A spokesperson for Food Network Canada writes, “as for the host, more details will be confirmed and revealed in the coming months.” Recipes can be submitted in one of the seven categories (they’re a little different from last year) on the show’s website.
Three Ontario chefs show off the best of Aussie cooking at the epic Toronto Down Under dinners
Vegemite grilled cheese (no, really), kangaroo with quandong and whisky truffles (Image: Renée Suen)
Today is Australia Day, which celebrates the establishment of the first European colony in New South Wales in 1778 (also: dingoes, babies, Vegemite and Crocodile Dundee). Here in Toronto, three Ontario chefs—Matt Kantor (Secret Pickle Supper Club and Ghost Chef), John Placko (culinary director of Maple Leaf Foods) and Kingston wunderkind Luke Hayes-Alexander (Luke’s Gastronomy)–banded together to host three nights celebrating Australian cuisine, complete with Australian wines, beer and whisky pairings at the Cookbook Store’s kitchen studio, the site of last year’s El Bulli Imitació dinner.
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With its new blonde roast, Starbucks ups the ante in its simmering coffee war with Tim Hortons
Like us, you’ve probably pondered Starbucks’ complete and total domination by asking, rhetorically, “What’ll they serve next, beer and wine?” And the answer is yes—that’s exactly what they’ll serve next (in limited markets in the States). But while Starbucks is expanding into booze, Tim Hortons has been muscling into the Starbucks market with outlandishly sized coffees and espresso-based drinks. Sure, their espresso might “smell like aluminum” and their latte might taste “tinny,” but the move is a clear encroachment on Starbucks’ turf. Not to be outdone, Starbucks seems to be trying to woo some of Tim Hortons’ customers with its new blonde roast. In a promotional video, one of their roasters says the new offering is perfect “for the person who always wished that Starbucks had a roast like this.” In other words, writes Jessica Allen at Maclean’s, it’s perfect for the typical Tim Hortons customer. It’s a subtle play, but if Starbucks tries to sign Sidney Crosby or appeal to sleepy Canadian nationalism, we’ll know what’s going on. Read the entire story [Macleans] »
Health bulletin: fried foods now good for you (sort of)
Wait: is this deep-fried from the CNE now good for you? (Probably not) (Image: Gizelle Lau)
Turns out you can have your deep-fried cake and eat it too. Well, sort of. A new study in the British Medical Journal has found that, among Spaniards at least, “the consumption of fried foods was not associated with the risk of coronary heart disease.” Of course, those 40,757 participants weren’t exactly firing up the animal shortening for their fried food fix—the study notes that olive and sunflower oil are used much more commonly for frying in Spain. No word yet on the health effects of frequent consumption of frites double fried in duck fat. Read the entire story [British Medical Journal] »
This is what happens when 12 culinary students get to cook with Paolo Lopriore, the world’s 39th best chef
Chef Paolo Lopriore having a short meeting in the Prune’s kitchen (Image: Renée Suen)
During the second year of their apprenticeship at the Stratford Chefs School—considered one of the most prestigious in the country—students are given the opportunity to learn from seriously talented guest chefs, including many with Michelin stars to their name and not a few regular patrons of the illustrious San Pellegrino World’s Best Restaurant list. Past chefs have included Alexandre Gauthier (La Grenouillere, France), Riccardo Camanini (Villa Fiordaliso, Italy) and, most recently, Paolo Lopriore, head chef of Il Canto in Siena, Italy, the 39th best restaurant according to the 2011 list. We stopped by to see what he had to teach and scope out his creations.
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Toronto’s backyard chickens come home to roost (at city hall, right now)
The promised land: Columbus, Ohio (Image: Rachel Tayse)
Right now, in city hall’s Committee Room No. 1, the municipal Licensing and Standards Committee is meeting to determine the fate of the chickens that populate the backyards of Toronto (or, rather, the backyards of certain rebels in Toronto). They’ll be voting on a motion raised by Councillor Joe Mihevc that would allow a limited number of hens in city yards “for the purposes of producing eggs for personal consumption.” Should the motion pass, Toronto would join the ranks of such hen-happy cities as Vancouver, New York, Cleveland and Los Angeles. Things aren’t looking good, however: in an interview with the Toronto Star, committee chair Cesar Palacio argued that fears of mega-coops and feral birds will probably scuttle the motion. “I don’t think there is any appetite for backyard chickens,” he said. We’d love to see him tell that to the members of the chicken underground.
UPDATE: Following a spirited debate, with references to everything from Animal House to Animal Farm, the committee voted unanimously to defer the motion indefinitely, without a staff report—city hall–speak for killing it off for good.
The Golden Turtle, reborn: a quick tour of the renovated Ossington Vietnamese staple
Before and after
Faithful west-side devotees of the Golden Turtle, Ossington’s beloved pho institution, were distraught last month when they discovered it papered up. After soldiering through a post–New Year’s recovery period without the usual salty-spicy fortification, they can now breathe easy: it’s back, it’s a little shinier and the prices are unchanged. We dropped by to check out the new art, chandeliers, windows and kitchen.
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In a fit of hot dog hubris, Vancouver resto launches $100 bratwurst
The beast itself, all $100 of it (Image: Courtesy DougieDog)
Vancouver restaurant DougieDog Hot Dogs put out a press release this morning (which got picked up by the Canadian Press) announcing the latest in fast food extravagance: the world’s first $100 hot dog. The so-called Dragon Dog—a foot-long bratwurst steeped in 100-year-old cognac and topped with Kobe beef, lobster (!) and truffle oil—is a publicity stunt double-whammy: it arrives right on the heels of the Year of the Dragon, and it acts as a bit of promotion for the titular Dougie’s upcoming appearance on tomorrow’s Dragon’s Den (in this clip, Robert Herjavec lauds his “hot girls and hot dogs”). Owner DougieLuv tells us the attention has been nonstop since his announcement and warns that 12 hours advanced notice is required for an order, presumably to allow the Louis XIII to fully soak in. Of course, given what happened the last time someone attempted a novelty, $100 fast food item (we’re looking at you, M:brgr), we’re a bit worried that this operation might prove too big not to fail. Our fingers are crossed for Dougie.
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