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All stories relating to Anthony Walsh

The Dish

Weekly Lunch Pick
May 31, 2010 | 8:41 am

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Where to eat lunch this week: Canoe

This iconic purveyor of Canadian cuisine—and one of the best restaurants in Toronto—dazzles as much at lunch as it does at dinner

The place: Visiting at midday gives diners the opportunity for a full, day-lit view of the city; the simple decor, wisely, makes no attempt to compete.
The crowd: Food lovers of every ilk, including high-powered execs, political aides, office mavens and a few recognizable faces dressed in everything from suits to jeans.
The deal: Consistently topping Toronto (and Canada) best-of lists, Canoe’s lunchtime menu impresses. Executive chef Anthony Walsh and chef de cuisine John Horne draw on ingredients from coast to coast, from maple B.C. salmon gravlax ($17) to the Canoe classic tourtière ($23) to Yarmouth lobster and chicken pot pie ($26). And like the dinner menu, you can super-size any appetizer to meal-sized portion for an extra $6.

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The Dish

Aprons & Icons
April 22, 2010 | 3:27 pm

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Is poutine Canada’s national food? Two arguments for, two against

With slowing hearts we see thee rise (Image: blue.tofu)

When legendary U.S. journalist and food writer Calvin Trillin finally got around to trying poutine last year, he deemed it “surprisingly inoffensive” in an article for the New Yorker. That would adequately describe last night’s 11th annual Leacock Debate—which was to decide whether poutine should become Canada’s national dish—unless any ardent fans were to take umbrage with the oft-repeated breakdown of poutine’s essentially disgusting-delicious ingredients.

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The Dish

Restauran-TO
January 28, 2010 | 11:45 am

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Five 2010 trends to watch: we ask Jamie Kennedy, Anthony Walsh, David Lee and other chefs what to look for in the coming year

Bespoke Bread from Marc Thuet (Photo by Renée Suen)

Bespoke bread from Marc Thuet (Photo by Renée Suen)

It’s no secret that 2009 was rough for restaurants—“It’s a year a lot of restaurateurs are happy to see go,” says C5’s Ted Corrado—but with the new year almost a month old, optimism is back on the table. We talked to some of the city’s top chefs about five culinary trends for the coming year.

1. Less Is More
Small, chef-run restaurants that are down-to-earth in both atmosphere and culinary style. Chef Jamie Kennedy, who’s focusing on the Gilead Bistro, a decidedly more casual restaurant than the Wine Bar he sold last fall, anticipates more “chef-driven” spots like J.P. Challet’s Ici Bistro and Grant van Gameren’s Black Hoof. Claudio Aprile, who’s working on his second restaurant, Origin, agrees: “I’m hoping that we see a lot more restaurants that are open kitchen, 30 seats, three line cooks.”

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The Dish

Aprons & Icons
July 29, 2009 | 12:38 pm

12 Comments

Cookbook fracas: Susur Lee, Marc Thuet and other Toronto foodies displeased as Canadians left out of 100 Emerging Culinary Stars

Shut out: Canadian chefs have been left out of COCO

Backcountry bias: COCO: 100 Emerging Culinary Stars Chosen by 10 of the World’s Greatest Chefs snubs Canuck chefs

The country’s top chefs and food writers are outraged that an upcoming book profiling the world’s 100 most promising chefs does not include any Canadians. The 448-page book titled COCO: 100 Emerging Culinary Stars Chosen by 10 of the World’s Greatest Chefs will also contain recipes by these young, non-Canadian chefs. When Toronto writer Shaun Smith learned that there is still one slot left in the book, he promptly started a letter-writing campaign to the COCO’s British publisher, Phaidon, making the case for squeezing in some CanCon.

The letter (full text below) explains how disappointed the signatories are with the list. It’s an impressive collection of names: 24 of Canada’s top chefs and food writers have thrown their support behind Smith’s campaign, including Susur Lee, Jamie Kennedy, Marc Thuet, Anthony Walsh, Guy Rubino, Anne Yarymowich, Lucy Waverman and Toronto Life’s own James Chatto.

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The Dish

Restauran-TO
July 3, 2009 | 1:57 pm

1 Comment

Follow the Tweeter: More Toronto chefs, bars and restaurants hop on the Twitter wagon

The mighty T: Increasingly, Twitter is everywhere (including Toronto kitchens)

More T?: Twitter gains popularity among T.O. foodies

Chefs and restaurateurs across the city are heading into the Twitterverse in a big way. Since our last roundup of Toronto foodie feeds, the popularity of the on-line service has exploded, with Grant van Gameren, Anthony Walsh, Dufflet Rosenberg and many more joining the fray. We find ourselves addicted to the culinary dispatches from these local epicureans (unlike most inane tweets that detail what’s for dinner). Here, our latest guide to who’s tweeting what.

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Chatto's Digest
April 15, 2008 | 10:29 am

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Hog wild

Chalk one up for the nerds, the diehards, the people who stay to the bitter end of every party. At Pangaea, on Thursday, Michael Tkaczuk of Serrano Imports introduced an extraordinary prize to the city—the famous dry-cured hams of the Ibérico pig (also known as the Pata Negra or Black Foot pig) of southwestern Spain. I remember the night, years ago, when Tkaczuk first brought Serrano ham to Toronto—a soirée at Bouchon. Even then he had his sights set on the superior and world-renowned Ibérico, but it takes time to persuade Canadian bureaucrats of the virtue of foreign delicacies. Now we can taste.

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Chatto's Digest
February 11, 2008 | 3:15 pm

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Canadian Culinary Championships: The Grand Finale

Three intensely competitive nights, three very distinct occasions. On Thursday evening, the Canadian Culinary Championship began with the black box competition held in the teaching kitchens of George Brown College. We restricted numbers to 65 guests so that the seven chefs could work in relative ease with their sous-chefs, assisted by some of the talented students at the college. GBC maestro John Higgins and I had deliberately chosen challenging items for the black box: flank steak from the brilliant Ontario supplier Top Meadow Farms (who generously sponsored all the black box ingredients), two Georgian Bay whitefish, a celery root, a bag of Ontario peanuts, a honeycomb oozing honey and (the only ingredient from outside the province) a hand of green plantains. The chefs all obeyed the rules, creating two dishes that used every ingredient plus whatever they needed from a communal pantry, and delivered the plates to the judges within the allotted time.

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Chatto's Digest
January 14, 2008 | 12:20 pm

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The Mother of All Parties

This blog post, dear reader, is essentially an invitation. An invitation to a three-day gastronomical extravaganza being held on February 7th, 8th and 9th right here in our own backyard. And since you have shown the impeccable taste and good sense to click on this blog, I am delighted to offer you a unique opportunity to take part in the culmination of this amazing weekend at a substantially discounted price.

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Chatto's Digest
November 26, 2007 | 9:37 am

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All That Glisters

Gold Medal Plates streaked across the finish line this week with events in Edmonton and Ottawa. Now we can resume normal programming—at least for this weekend, for I’m heading down to Stratford for three days on Tuesday. Luckily my wife will be at home to feed the guppies. Here are the final reports.

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Chatto's Digest
October 29, 2007 | 10:44 am

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Coast to Coast

A huge treat this week was the world premiere of a feature-length movie, The Islands Project, written and directed by Michael Stadtländer. The great chef showed it at the Royal Cinema on College Street on Thursday evening to a large and enthusiastic crowd as part of the eco-friendly Planet in Focus film festival. First came a charming, funny and scary short documentary movie, P is for Papaya, by a young filmmaker called Aube Giroux. The story tells of her obsessive love for papayas, a passion suddenly threatened by the discovery that most of the papayas that reach us in Canada come from the U.S. and are genetically modified by the addition of a gene collected from a particular virus. Needless to say, the rest of the world shuns this Frankenfruit, but our beloved government has decided not to tell us about it, so Canadians and Americans continue to gorge. There aren’t many delightful anti-GMO films, but this is one.

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Chatto's Digest
October 22, 2007 | 9:39 am

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Cause and Effect

Thursday night saw the spectacular start of the 2007 Gold Medal Plates campaign with a sold-out crowd of over 600 guests at Toronto’s most glamorous venue, The Carlu. Gold Medal Plates, if I may I remind you, raises money for Canada’s Olympic and Paralympic athletes. Our goal this year is a million bucks, and with events scheduled for seven Canadian cities, I believe we can do it. As ever, it’s the goodwill and generosity of the country’s leading chefs that bring in the high-rolling public—plus the chance to hobnob with elite athletes. Never more so than last Thursday. The multitude was in a generous mood during the silent and live auctions, inspired by an extraordinary evening of excellence in Canadian athletics, cuisine, wine and—as a new departure for GMP—music. Jim Cuddy of Blue Rodeo performed three times during the evening and almost stole the entire show when he sang a duet with Steven Page of Barenaked Ladies.

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Chatto's Digest
October 15, 2007 | 9:57 am

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New Beginnings

Much rejoicing in the basement rec room of my brain that England has made it (OK, somewhat implausibly) to the final of the Rugby World Cup. But the breathless tears of joy are nothing compared with the jubilation of 16 front-of-house staff at Mark McEwan’s new restaurant, One. They just found out they won the October 10 Lotto 6/49—total jackpot a rollicking $4,600,201. I’m happy for managerial supremo Tim Salmon and manager Eric McEwan (Mark’s son) who were part of the syndicate; even happier for the food runners and bussers who also take their equal cut. It works out at $287,512 each. And 56 cents. Most inspiring.

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Chatto's Digest
May 7, 2007 | 10:22 am

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Up the ramp

To Eigensinn Farm yesterday for Michael Stadtländer’s Wild Leek Festival, a fundraiser for local women’s shelters. It was a glorious day with a cloudless forget-me-not sky and warm sunshine flooding the broad, deep dell in the maple forest. You forget how much sun reaches the forest floor when there are no leaves on the trees. There were patches of wild leeks on the northerly ridge—bright green against the grey-brown carpet of leaf litter—though most of them grow in another part of the property. To either side of the pathways little trout lilies were everywhere—just delicate single green leaves. “You can eat them, too,” said Michael, picking one each for those of us who were standing close to him. It tasted as sweet as a corn seedling.

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Chatto's Digest
April 2, 2007 | 9:11 am

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The cheese stands alone

Saturday was a most exciting day for this cheese-eating peacemonkey, when I had the signal honour of being inducted into the Confrérie des chevaliers du Taste Fromage de France. In all, nine of us were dubbed Chevalier in a splendid ceremony held at Cheese Boutique while members of the public stood and cheered and mounted knights, maidens, trumpeters and a falconer from Medieval Times put on a show both inside and outside the store. The Grand Maître of our order, legendary cheesemaker and cheese merchant, Christian Room, came from Paris to do the honours, surrounded by officers of the Confrérie, all of them resplendent in green robes and feathered hats. An avatar of the god Krishna was an unexpected but welcome guest (see photo), joining the group at the microphone. Then the newly minted chevaliers plunged our swords into a sumptuous strawberry and pistachio-marzipan cake the size of a tabletop made by Amuse-Bouche’s Bertrand Alépée.

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Chatto's Digest
December 11, 2006 | 10:05 am

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Smells like burao

One evening last week, while propping up the kitchen counter at Canoe (a restaurant currently at the very top of its game), I was surprised by a treat—a little sampler of a new dish chefs Anthony Walsh and Tom Brodi have been playing with. It stars a “porcelait” from the St-Canut family farm in Quebec’s Lower Laurentians—a milk-fed piglet, in other words. Canoe has been working with the chops—exceptionally tender, lean, finely textured meat with a delicate sweetness. It was absolutely delicious. The meat is distributed through La Ferme to their usual customers—Canoe, Crush, Splendido, George, Biff’s, Rain, Rosewater, Pangaea, Rosedale Diner, as well as the Ancaster Old Mill, Hillebrand Estates Winery Restaurant, Wellington Court in St. Catharines and the Bloomfield Carriage House Restaurant in beautiful downtown Bloomfield. If St-Canut doesn’t whip up some serious new reverence for pork in Ontario’s haute gastronomic circles, I’ll eat my hat. Oh yes—you can buy a porcelait of your own at Cumbrae or Olliffe.

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