Ok, so host Jesse Palmer didn’t exactly loosen up like we hoped he would last week. And sure, the show didn’t really get any less formulaic this time around (every episode does proceed the exact same way as the last, so what do you expect?). But, curmudgeons that we are, we have to admit that last night’s episode of Recipe to Riches, the entrée challenge, was probably the best. We had three compelling contestants, each of whom was pretty serious about their dish. And each of those dishes was in turn at least plausible as a winner. So this being the final challenge, it’s fair to say the show is going out on something like a high (if it comes back next year, however, the producers are going to have to learn how to mix things up a bit from episode to episode). After the jump, our regular recap and tasting panel.

Mini-Recap

This week’s winner was North Vancouver investment advisor and barbecue enthusiast Robert Luft, whose recipe was for a 15-hour smoked pulled pork. Or maybe a pork bun. Or perhaps it was a line of products with the frozen pulled pork as the anchor. This was never quite clear. On his way to victory, he first bested Montreal’s Scott Usheroff, who brought an off-the-bone braised lamb shank with some risotto-style orzo. Sadly for Usheroff, he cooks like most home cooks do: by feel. As his recipe started going south during the batch-up challenge, he began making all sorts of ad hoc additions, much to the consternation of his professional helper Maggie McKeown. The judges decided to turf him out for having a recipe that just wasn’t precise enough to be scaled up commercially, leaving Luft and Burnaby’s Eva Fong, an aspiring recipe developer. Fong’s lobster mac-and-cheese looked quite delicious (as do most lobster mac-and-cheeses); however, she made two unfortunate decisions during the marketing challenge. First, following the dubious advice of the experts at Quizative Marketing Group, she renamed her dish “Three-Cheese Pasta With Lobster” (with “Lobster” almost illegible on the packaging) because that was somehow more upmarket. Second, she decided to promote her product by setting up a pop-up restaurant in Metro Centre, which fell apart like so many restaurant-war challenges on Top Chef. So despite a somewhat dubious, cigar-smoking logo for his Bobby’s Slo and Low, Luft won the day, and perpetual guest judge Galen Weston Jr. couldn’t have been more excited, gushing that pulled pork is “one of the best protein trends out there.”

Tasting Panel

The first disappointment with this week’s winner was with the branding: instead of Bobby’s Slo and Low, we got Slow and Low Pulled Pork, with the usual Recipe to Riches cartoon on the front. And after we saw the judges repeatedly castigating Luft for not selling his pork as a topping that could just as easily go on nachos or fries as in a sandwich, the only serving suggestion in the PC version is, yes, on a bun. We also have to admit that out of the box, this was one of the least appetizing winners—the two logs of frozen pork resemble, to put it charitably, something you might feed your dog. And the meat itself? Heavily sauced and very sweet, with barely a trace of the promised 12-hour smoke. One eater pointed out that it didn’t taste that different from something you’d throw in a slow cooker in the morning, although another thought it would be a no-fuss way to throw together a quick appetizer if she were having carnivores over. For our tasting, we served the meat on mini-buns with a helping of coleslaw (both of which were procured from a local Metro—sorry Galen!). After looking at the box, one person made the astute observation that the meat sort of tasted like a cartoon. The telling detail: after their tasting portion, five panel members helped themselves to a second sandwich—made with only coleslaw and a bun. See how we put it all together in our box-to-plate gallery »

Starting December 7, viewers will have two days to cast their vote for their favourite Recipe to Riches dish at recipetoriches.ca. On December 14, Food Network Canada will air the finale special announcing the winner of the $250,000 grand prize.

(Images: Luft and homemade pulled pork, Food Network Canada; tasting images, Andrew D’Cruz)

(Image: The huevos rancheros at Origin, by John Cullen)

Inside the front dining room area of Hardys (Image: Gizelle Lau)

Back in May, we reported on an upcoming barbecue joint, Hardys: A Hogtown Brasserie (its name a riff on Toronto’s pig-farming past) that was setting up shop just a few blocks west of barbecue stalwart The Stockyards. On Friday, the restaurant had its grand opening and we stopped in to check it out.

Inside the restaurant, the front dining room features a large brick mantle with a faux stag’s head and floating shelves that hold books and other knick-knacks. Partway through the restaurant is the bar, fashioned with slender sanded tree trunks. The back has a hoedown feel, with barnboard walls, an alcove for live music (it was jazz on the night we visited) and centrepieces of wildflowers in antique bottles and jars.

On the meat-heavy menu are barbecue classics, made in the kitchen’s industrial smoker (apparently, Toronto Public Health thought a homemade 55-gallon oil drum wasn’t quite legit). The southern-style pulled-pork sandwich with sweet mustard barbecue sauce ($11) is braised for seven hours. The whisky-glazed smoked chicken (quarter chicken $11; half chicken $15), meanwhile, is brined twice for extra juiciness. There’s also a smoked burger ($10) that uses organic, grass-fed Belted Galloway beef and, of course, house-smoked ribs, served with jalapeño cornbread (quarter rack $12; half rack $18). For sides, there are crispy ale-battered onion rings ($6), jalapeño cornbread ($3) and house-smoked mac-and-cheese ($6) with aged white cheddar that’s been smoked for over 24 hours. For extra indulgence, it’s served with optional pork loin that’s been braised for seven hours, diced, then fried until caramelized ($3 extra).

The drink menu focuses on beers and hard liquor (eight brands of whisky) and less on wines and cocktails. The handful of Ontario craft beers on tap includes Nickle Brook’s Green Apple Pilsner ($7), Maple Porter ($6.50) and Belgian White Wheat ($6.50), as well as offerings from Spearhead, Muskoka, Flying Monkey and Steamwhistle.

The menu is a collaboration between owner John Hardy and French-trained chef Trevor Bedard, formerly a private caterer who has worked at Lucien and Globe Bistro and staged at Auberge du Pommier and O&B Café and Grill. With two southern barbecue joints now within shouting distance of each other, we fully expect to see billowing clouds of apple wood and hordes of hungry diners on St. Clair West.

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Hardys: A Hogtown Brasserie, 992 St. Clair Ave. W., 416-901-4100, hardyshogtown.com.

ADDRESS: Peninsula Road, Port Carling

NEIGHBOURHOOD: Lake Muskoka

AGENT: Richard Scully, Harvey Kalles Real Estate Ltd., Brokerage

PRICE: $8,495,000

THE PLACE: This giant log cabin overlooking Lake Muskoka proves that the classic cottage can be both rustic and luxurious.

BRAGGING RIGHTS: It’s really, really big. The main house is a behemoth—7,007 square feet—and includes a wine cellar, a gourmet kitchen and enough space for the whole family to spend the night (five bedrooms and five bathrooms).

BIG SELLING POINT: Sure, this cottage is huge; but it’s also homely. The B.C. cedar logs inspire both a sense of awe and a sense of warmth, while the interior space feels grand without being overwhelming.

POSSIBLE DEAL BREAKER: The master bedroom is bold and beautiful—but it also features an open-concept bathroom. Not everybody wants everything in plain sight.

BY THE NUMBERS:
• $8,495,000
• •7,007-square-foot main house
• 990 feet of lakefront property
• 5 bedrooms
• 5 bathrooms
• 3-car garage
• 3-slip boathouse
• 1 wine cellar
• 1 outdoor bar
• 1 built-in barbecue

Innovative butchers are digging up old family recipes and mixing exotic meats with offbeat flavourings By Eric Vellend

(Image: Christopher Stevenson)

Olliffe’s butchers mix ground Ontario lamb from a Bruce County farm with piquant Stilton and fresh mint. $10/lb. 1097 Yonge St., 416-928-0296.

Lean, gamey pheasant is balanced with fatty Berkshire pork. Rosemary adds a piney perfume, honey lends sweetness, and a chicken demi-glace sauces it from inside. $15/lb. Cumbrae’s, 481 Church St., 416-923-5600; 1636 Bayview Ave., 416-485-5620.

Butcher Johnny Di Benedetto of Di Liso’s Fine Meats uses his family’s 80-year-old Barese recipe from the Apulian town of Bari. Ground beef, veal, lamb and pork are blended with mozzarella, Parmesan, parsley and garlic, then stuffed into natural lamb casings. $6/lb. St. Lawrence Market, 91–93 Front St. E., 416-601-9780.

Jorge Plaza Sr., at Meating on Queen, uses his mom’s recipe for hot Ecuadorian sausage to create a fiery blend of pork, beef, sweet peppers, roasted onions, garlic, cilantro and secret spices. $5/lb. 1160 Queen St. E., 416-461-7500.

An ode to the original hot dog from Denmark, the red pølser is made from double-ground organic pork and spices. Its hue comes from a splash of beet juice. $8.79/lb. The Healthy Butcher, 565 Queen St. W., 298 Eglinton Ave. W., 416-674-2642.

Lean Ontario elk is enriched with pork fat, sweet­ened with wild Saskatoon berries and flav­oured with mustard seed, allspice and thyme. $13.40/lb. Provenance Regional Cuisine, 800 Dundas St. W., 416-504-9889.

At Medium Rare, Frank Del Gobbo blends meaty duck legs with vermouth-soaked dried cherries, roasted red peppers and fennel seed. $12/lb. 5241 Dundas St. W., 416-231-1500.

Peter Sanagan of Sanagan’s Meat Locker combines wild boar from Perth County with roasted pistachios and Montepulciano d’Abruzzo red wine. $9.99/lb. 206 Baldwin St., 416-593-9747.

(Illustration: Jack Dylan)

Backyard sommeliers bored with the usual summer reds (merlot, shiraz, zinfandel) should try fruity garnacha. It is more commonly known by its French name, grenache, but it originated in Spain and thrives in the hot, arid Mediterranean. Despite once being the world’s most widely planted red grape, it was usually considered unfit for fine wine on its own. Its tannin and acidity are low and its alcohol quite high, so it’s most often blended with syrah, mourvèdre and carignan, or torn out of the ground altogether to make way for merlot and cabernet vines. In recent years, however, such leading winemakers as Alvaro Palacios, Hugh Ryman and Norrel Robertson are reviving derelict garnacha vineyards in Spain. The old, gnarled, low-yielding vines make richly fruity, even creamy reds that are dense enough to match red meat textures, smooth enough to drink without aging, and ripe and peppery enough to handle any barbecue sauce yet invented. If you crave something light, garnacha is the base for dry Spanish and French rosés, and there is even a handful of whites made with garnacha blanca. It’s also affordable, so you can mix a case of different styles to keep your deck and dock guests happy all summer long.

Castillo de Monséran 2010 Garnacha
$8.95 | Cariñena, Spain | 87 points
Unoaked and unabashedly simple, this fruity wine offers huge value, with raspberry and blueberry pie flavours. It’s almost a wine smoothie, with some sweetness and soft tannin and nicely contained alcohol (only 12.5 per cent). Chill lightly and serve with burgers, ribs and wings. LCBO 73395

D’Arenberg 2009 The Stump Jump Grenache Shiraz Mourvèdre
$14.05 | South Australia | 89 points
This Aussie GSM (garnacha, syrah and mourvèdre) has a lifted nose of plum jam, pepper, menthol, lavender and tobacco. It’s lightweight and a touch sweet but has piquant, sour-edged flavours and soft tannin. Try it with duck or rare red meats. Chill lightly. LCBO 173294

Forget the fancy gadgets. Really good barbecue is about fire, smoke and meat

(Image: Christopher Stevenson)

It’s easy to feel overwhelmed in the barbecue store, what with all the guy-baiting gewgaws like infrared burners, Snap-Jet ignition systems and sensi-touch control knobs. They’re impressive features, but they’ve driven the price of a top-of-the-line ’cue well above $10,000. And none of them make your food taste appreciably better. That’s what charcoal and the Weber kettle are for. The kettle grill hasn’t changed much since its invention in 1952: it’s a big metal bowl with a lid, two grates inside and air vents at the top and bottom. You can use it for long, slow, low-temperature smokes, simple steaks and dogs or the best grilled chicken ever. When you use a kettle grill, you’re in touch with your food, directly in control of fire, heat and sweet, peppery smoke, without a single knob or blinking LED to get in the way. That’s why the world’s best chefs revere them. (This spring I saw one smoking outside the test kitchen at Copenhagen’s NOMA, a.k.a. the world’s best restaurant.) The best part? Weber’s kettle grills cost as little as $140, and you can’t really get any fancy add-ons. Which is entirely the point.

The Weber One-Touch Gold charcoal grill. $220. Ontario Gas BBQ, 3310 Langstaff Rd., Concord, 905-761-8511.

(Image: Joel Kimmel)

Being a locavore doesn’t come cheap. While buying in bulk can help, not everyone has a minivan and a deep-freeze big enough for a side of beef. The solution? Meat boxes, delivered monthly from the farm. The deal is similar to veggie programs: subscribers buy in for a few months and farmers divvy up the ethically raised animals among them. Deliveries bring expertly butchered cuts wrapped for the freezer. Here, three programs for keeping your ’cue stocked with virtuous steaks and burgers all summer long.

West Side Beef Co., westsidebeef.com.
One-fifteenth of a cow from Dingo Farms, a GMO-free farm near Bradford. Boxes include ground beef, steaks, sausages, lard and stock. $150 for approximately 20 lbs. Orders are on a cow-by-cow basis. Pickup only.

Stoddart Family Farm, 705-786-7705, stoddart.ca.
Naturally raised beef, lamb, pork and chicken from a farm in the Kawarthas. Boxes bring ground beef, steaks, sausages, chops, stew and roasts. $495 for 10 lbs. per month for six months.

Twin Creeks Organic Farm and Garden, 519-538-4704, twincreeksfarm.ca.
Grass-fed beef and lamb and naturally raised pork. Cuts include steaks, sausages, chops and stew. $335 for 6 to 7 lbs. per month for six months.

How to turn your barbecue into a miniature smoker using a $10 metal box, a handful of wood chips and a little bit of chutzpah.

1. Buy a smoker box (preferably cast iron) and wood chips (available at Wiener’s Home Hardware, 432 Bloor St. W., 416-922-7043). Apple is a good all-purpose wood, hickory complements chicken and pork, and mesquite is terrific for beef.

2. Fill the smoker box two thirds of the way with wood chips. Lift up the grate of the barbecue and place the box directly over a burner on the hottest part of grill—usually the top corners. Replace the grate.

3. Crank the barbecue up to high. Cover and preheat for 15 minutes. At this point, the wood should be smoking like Don Draper.

4. Lower heat and cook food, preferably with the lid closed. Chips produce smoke for about 40 to 50 minutes, so this method is good for fish and smaller cuts of meat.

(Images: Joel Kimmel)

(Image: Christopher Stevenson)

The debate over tangy versus creamy ends here. Stockyards on St. Clair West makes a killer coleslaw that’s a bit of both.

Ingredients
1 cup mayonnaise
¼ cup granulated sugar
¼ cup cider vinegar
8 cups finely shredded cabbage
1 Granny Smith apple, cored and julienned
1 tbsp celery seed
2 tsp kosher salt
½ tsp freshly ground black pepper

Directions
In a large bowl, whisk together mayonnaise, sugar and vinegar until sugar dissolves. Add cabbage, apple, celery seed, salt and pepper and toss well. Makes 6 servings.

Pride, Street Food and Canada Day—that’s what we call a long weekend.

1. 9 TO 5: THE MUSICAL
The ’80s are so hot right now. Ripped skinnies, jelly shoes and Chuck Taylors are all in, samples and remakes of ’80s jams are de rigueur, and this musical is hitting the stage. Based on the cult film of the same name, which starred Jane Fonda and Dolly Parton, this high-energy show is basically the original Horrible Bosses. Three co-workers band together against their dictatorial boss, with a predictably slapstick outcome. June 29 to July 10. $40–$65. Toronto Centre for the Arts, 5040 Yonge St., 416-644-3665, tocentre.com.

2. FOOD TRUCK EATS
Remember when Torontonians were promised more exciting street food, only to see their street food dreams go up in smoke as the Toronto A La Cart program was an utter failure? Here’s hoping this foodie event—which offers up five-spice pork belly buns (El Gastrónomo Vagabundo), cupcakes (Cupcake Diner), south Indian favourites (Tiffinday), kulfi (Joshna Maharaj), barbecue (Buster Rhino’s) and yes, even hot dogs—can prompt a street food revival. And if you’re cottage-bound this weekend, no worries. Organizers are planning follow-up events in August and October. July 2. The Distillery District, thedistillerydistrict.com.

3. CANADA DAY FIREWORKS (FREE!)
The city’s official Canada Day celebrations take place at Mel Lastman square in North York this year, and culminate at 10:15 p.m. in a rousing fireworks display. Other options for the sound-and-visual-fury crowd include the 10 p.m. show that closes out the day-long Red, White and Vinyl festival at Woodbine Park; Ontario Place’s usual spectacular, choreographed to music and starting at 10:30 p.m; the 10 p.m. show up at Amesbury Park at Keele and Lawrence; and even this year’s Ribfest in Etobicoke (see below). Various locations and times.

4. LA FETE DU CANADA DAY (FREE!)
Hosted by the Community Folk Art Council of Toronto, this multicultural celebration of Canada’s birthday features the usual: music, folk dances and plenty of tasty eats, all from a host of cultures around the world. Later in the day, don’t miss the First Nations performance and the Bollywood dance party. July 1. Yonge-Dundas Square, cfactoronto.com.

5. PRIDE PARADE (FREE!)
We’re taking our cues from just about anybody but the mayor on this one and rocking out at the biggest event of Pride Week—the parade. Expect floats, marching bands and many, many Torontonians celebrating their LGBT friends, family or selves. Also: glitter. July 3. Parade starts at Church and Bloor, heads south to Gerrard and across to Yonge, pridetoronto.com.

6. DREAM IN HIGH PARK
A “celebratory story of kings, queens, shipwrecks and statues,” this Estelle Shook–directed take on Shakespeare’s The Winter’s Tale is the perfect way to spend a hot summer evening. Go on Canada Day and the kids can take part in crafts, games and workshops led by the cast, followed by a free performance of the play. To September 4. PWYC (suggested donation $20). High Park Amphitheatre, 416-367-1652, canstage.com/dream.

7. RIBFEST (FREE!)
This annual food festival includes live entertainment, activities for the kids, fireworks and a haunted house built by at-risk youth, but let’s get serious here: the real draw is the meat from prize-winning barbecue masters and the Tiny Tom donuts. June 30 to July 3. Centennial Park, 256 Centennial Park Rd., torontoribfest.com.

8. ON THE PULSE FESTIVAL
A new weekend fest at Harbourfront, On the Pulse is all about fun, outside-the-box expressions of creativity. Funny people Matt Baram, Ron Pederson, Chris Gibbs and Naomi Snieckus, members of the Carnegie Hall Show, look to the everyday for comic inspiration. Musical guests include The Roots emcee Scratch and New Zealand–based Moana and the Tribe, who mash up soul, reggae and funk with traditional Maori chants, haka dance and instruments. For the kids, there’s a real-life game of Where’s Waldo?. July 2 and 3. Harbourfront Centre, 207 Queens Quay W., 416-973-4000, www.harbourfrontcentre.com.

9. OPEN ROOF FESTIVAL
Though Open Roof claims to be a film and music festival, we like the Globe and Mail’s description better: a “modern urban drive-in.” Every Thursday for the rest of the summer, there’s a film screening and open-air concert in the parking lot of the Amsterdam Brewery. Kick off the long weekend with a beer from the brewery and a screening of Beauty Day, a doc about reckless prankster Cap’n Video (a southern-Ontario-in-the-early-’90s version of the Jackass gang) followed by a jam session with local indie rockers The Darcys. June 30. $15. Amsterdam Brewery, 21 Bathurst St., openrooffestival.com.

(Images: Pride, Bryson Gilbert; El Gastrónomo Vagabundo, Suresh Doss; Canada Day, Georgie_grrl from the Torontolife.com flickr pool)

The Drake’s dining room was transformed into summer-school kitsch in the space of one weekend. (Image: Gizelle Lau)

The Drake Hotel has never been afraid of a little shtick, and pop-up and quasi pop-up operations have long been a part of that. There’s the Drake General Store (and its two sister locations across the city), the now-defunct Scoops and Tees and its successor the Drake BBQ, a pop-up shop that, in true pop-up fashion, will serve its last pulled pork sandwiches and whoopie pies this Saturday. This summer, the Drake is launching the Dining Roadshow, a sort of in situ pop-up program that GM Bill Simpson told us is “meant to be an exploration over the next year as we plan to expand The Drake.” The roadshow will feature a series of thematically changing restaurant concepts that will be highly theatrical, whimsical and, yes, pretty darn kitschy. The first stop: Summer School Dining Hall.

Open now through Sept. 4, the Dining Hall is a space completely set apart from the main area (past the sushi bar and stairs going up towards the bathroom) and was redesigned in just three days. Here, communal tables made from old bowling alley wood give the feel of an upscale mess hall, complete with a nostalgia-inducing centerpiece featuring vintage lunch boxes, Rubik’s cube salt grinders (on sale for $28) and daily specials served, yes, on cafeteria trays.

On the back wall, you’ll find black and white team and class photos as well as barn wood shelves of old exercise notebooks, science textbooks, lab equipment, rulers, clocks and the like. Prints by illustrator Gary Taxali brighten up the space with his trademark cartoonish yet complex ideas. New to the space is a mini open kitchen, a concept that The Drake is testing for its expansion next year. Servers don white shirts with school crests and kerchiefs, like a cross between preppy school outfits and scouts’ uniforms. The menus, meanwhile, sit in three-ring binders and Duo-Tangs (yes, Duo-Tangs) and are adorned with textbook figures and notes. During dinner service, you might hear announcements on the P.A. or catch an “impromptu” glee club performance.

On the menu, chef Anthony Rose gets nostalgic with his favourite childhood classics, playing on memories of summer, summer school and comfort cuisine with dishes like the pork ’n’ beans ($26 for a family-style shared plate). “Pork ’n’ beans would always be the first thing we’d eat on the first night when we went camping in the summer,” Rose told us. “You could smell and hear the beans sizzling away over the fire.”

Same goes for the tomato alphabet soup ($9), made with local tomatoes from Cookstown Greens and served tableside from a thermos; the buttermilk fried chicken ($24); and the foot-long (veal) cheese dogs ($17) that Rose hopes will bring you back to baseball games and the Ex. To finish it off, there are lunchbox dessert faves: salted butterscotch pudding ($8) or a homemade passion fruit “passion flaky” ($7).

Next up on the Dining Roadshow circuit, from Sept. 8 to Nov. 19 (just in time for TIFF), will be L.A. Chinatown circa 1940s (we couldn’t help but be reminded of Grant Achatz’s Next restaurant in Chicago, where the current theme is Escoffier’s Paris 1906). We’ll be on the lookout for Chinese lanterns, fortune cookies and cocked fedoras.

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The Drake, 1150 Queen St. W., 416-531-5042, thedrakehotel.ca

(Image: Christopher Stevenson)

Barbecuing a whole chicken has never been for the faint of heart: different parts of the bird cook at different speeds, and melting fat burns like napalm. This recipe for spatchcocked brick chicken solves those problems easily. The whole chicken cooks evenly because it lies flat, and indirect heat prevents flare-ups. It’s also hugely impressive to serve.

Ingredients
1 whole roasting chicken, 3 to 5 lbs. Ask your butcher to remove the backbone, or do it yourself, cutting along both sides of the spine with poultry shears.
⅔ cup coarsely chopped rosemary, tarragon and thyme
3 cloves garlic, minced
3 tbsp olive oil
Fresh ground pepper to taste
1 tsp kosher salt
1 large, clean brick or flat, heavy stone, wrapped in foil