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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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.
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.
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.
Come to Whistler
So, David Gaunt is now chef at Crush after leaving Eagles Nest golf club. I haven’t tasted his Crush menu yet but he’s talented and driven and I will certainly check it out before the world is very much older. I did go to Maro, on Liberty Street, the latest venture from the guys who own Brant House, Brassaii and West Lounge. David Adjey is executive chef of all the properties and I enjoyed what he has done at Maro—a bunch of bite-sized, globally inspired starters priced from $2 up, then main courses that take a principal ingredient like lamb or cod and present it two ways on the same plate, in an Asian and also a western treatment. A couple of dishes were marred by oversalting but there was lots to enjoy. If you go at lunchtime, you’ll find the place imitating a friendly local noodle house.
Terra Madre
Mother Earth—the clay from which we are all formed. Except for those who sprang from the ocean’s foam or who came here from a distant planet (you know who you are). On Wednesday, Jamie Kennedy at the Gardiner Museum hosted a delightful dinner to raise funds to send Ontario artisanal farmers, producers and chefs to the next biennial Terra Madre gathering in Turin, headquarters of the Slow Food movement. It was an excellent event, with 145 enthusiasts sitting down (eventually—everyone had summer to talk about so pre-prandial conversation was intense) in the Gardiner’s stunningly beautiful, glass-walled, candlelit event space. Anita Stewart, culinary activist, author, MA (Gastronomy) and probably the person who knows more than anyone else on earth about Canadian food from coast to coast to coast, gave an inspiring and patriotic keynote speech. Wines were coordinated by Paul DeCampo from Henry of Pelham winery—all of them delightful, especially H of P’s unfiltered 2000 pinot noir and a 2002 merlot from Lailey Vineyard.
