Cities are often affected by political events outside their borders. In the mid-20th century, North American cities profited enormously from the arrival of well-educated immigrants fleeing the Nazis. The brilliant philosopher Hannah Arendt famously landed in Manhattan after escaping France in 1941. The pioneering modernist architect Ludwig Mies van der Rohe moved to Chicago in 1937 after the Nazis deemed his work not German enough. Later, in 1956, when Soviet troops occupied Hungary, Canada admitted close to 40,000 Hungarian refugees, nearly doubling the Hungarian-Canadian population. Many intellectuals, writers and artists settled in Toronto, and the city’s café culture was born.

A decade or so later, Canada absorbed a tidal wave of draft dodgers—tens of thousands of young Americans, many of them well-educated, who came here to avoid fighting in Vietnam. For Toronto, it was a windfall. Dodgers proved to have a profound impact on the social makeup of the city, assuming leadership roles in our universities and cultural institutions as well as the corporate world. Andy Barrie, the former host of Metro Morning on CBC, exemplified the phenomenon: for 15 years on the show, he was a fierce Toronto patriot, more enthusiastic about his adopted city than many of us who were born here.

Today, world events are again conspiring to make Toronto a more interesting city. As the American economy fails to recover, a growing group of professionals are looking north for a better life. The Canadian Department of Citizenship and Immigration reports that the number of Americans applying for Canadian work visas has increased steadily over the past few years (reaching nearly 35,000 in 2010). Immigration officials, not surprisingly, are also noting a surge of applications from European countries such as Ireland and Greece. And according to Toronto Homecoming, an organization that connects expat Toronto professionals with job opportunities in the city, a growing number of Canadians who have spent much of their lives abroad are returning home.

Talent is flocking here. An acquaintance of mine who works at the University of Toronto says that when a job opening is posted there now, it attracts hundreds of top-rate candidates from beyond our borders—and the quality of applicants improves every year. I know a Canadian couple, both graduating soon from Harvard with PhDs, who are eager to return to Toronto, if they are lucky enough to secure jobs here. It’s the only major city where they can imagine earning enough money to own property and at the same time find public schools good enough for their baby daughter. Where else in the Western world might they go? They fear America is falling apart, Europe is about to endure mass hardship, and Australia is, well, just too far away. They want to be in a city that is growing and prosperous, and their options are limited.

All of this immigration and repatriation is great news for Toronto. The price of an average two-storey house is up 7.6 per cent this year—a sign of our prosperity and desirability—at a time when property values in most other parts of the West are falling. As we have learned from other influxes of brainy, ambitious immigrants, the city can benefit from their presence in unexpected ways. Even now, when Toronto has a mayor whose international claim to fame is being named “the worst person in the world” by Keith Olbermann, the city might be on the brink of an interesting new era.

(Image: Nigel Dickson)

A traditional ’50s diner, reborn

For almost two decades, the Ace Chinese Restaurant on Roncesvalles has been shuttered. This spring, however, Maggie Ruhl (co-owner of the Dakota Tavern) and her partner, Greg Boggs, took possession of the space. The pair renamed it simply The Ace and have preserved the vintage 1950s aesthetic, but updated the menu with homestyle comfort food and French classics.

Ruhl and Boggs knew they wanted to keep as much of the original diner charm as possible. Apart from updating the lighting fixtures, painting the ceiling, fixing the floors (there was some serious water damage to deal with) and reupholstering the booths, this time warp hasn’t changed much. They’ve even kept the original soda fountain and milkshake mixer (although the latter has been converted into a beer draught).

Executive chef Peter McKnight (Wish, Smith) serves elevated takes on blue-collar standards, like deep-fried chicken and collard greens ($17) and pork chops with russet mashed potatoes and red-eye gravy ($17). There are also more straightforward French dishes, like steak frites ($21) and a tarragon-tomato-fennel based bouillabaisse ($18), which is made with Lake Huron whitefish, shrimp and mussels. A kids’ menu offers standards like mac-and-cheese and house-made pogo sticks (all under $8), and a weekend brunch includes comfort classics like cheddar biscuits with scrambled eggs and ham gravy ($10). The drinks, meanwhile, veer toward the brown spirits, with an emphasis on bourbon and Canadian whisky. The Ace Manhattan is made with Crown Royal Black, sweet vermouth and a dash of bitters and is garnished with an apricot that’s stewed in cinnamon-spiced red wine ($10). After 11 p.m., the space is transformed into a bar, but for those still peckish there is a small menu of snacks like the Chef Plate (Mennonite and summer sausage, olives and cheeses), a cheese plate and oysters, as soon as the bar and wait staff learn to shuck.

The Ace, 231A Roncesvalles Ave., 416-792-7729, theacetoronto.com

See you latte; Tim Hortons executive chairman, president and CEO Paul House (Image: CNW Group/Tim Hortons Inc.)

Tim Hortons, that Canadian bastion of par-baked doughnuts and extreme folksiness, announced yesterday that it will soon be making espresso-based coffees available in 2,500 locations across Canada. The drinks, which include lattes, cappuccinos and espressos, will be selling for significantly less than at their competitors: a 10-ounce latte is priced at just $2, compared to $2.95 for 8-ounces at Starbucks.

While Tim’s has served cappuccinos for some time, they’ve always been made with a powdered substance. Apparently they also experimented with the real deal at a few GTA locations in 2005. The chain is now upgrading to genuine espresso, albeit run through an automatic machine as at Starbucks’s. Customers will also get real steamed or frothed milk, but without choosing from among their competitors’ tens of thousands of possible drink variables like decaffeination, fat and lactose content, foam or temperature.

While luxury coffee seems like an obvious route for expansion (even McDonald’s started selling the stuff), we admit we’re a little wary: Timmies has made its fortune on inexpensive, quick food and drink, and we’re not sure how well a premium product like espresso will do. For a glimpse at the potential harrowing future, consider the “lasagna” the company started offering last month. Ontario gets the $2 latte on November 14, while the rest of the country will have to wait until mid-December.

• Tim Hortons tiptoes into Starbucks territory [National Post]
• Tim Hortons to take on competitors with its own espresso coffees [Ottawa Citizen]
• Tim Hortons ramps up coffee chain wars [CBC News]

Chef Joseph Bear Robe works the stoves at Keriwa, the city’s only Aboriginal restaurant (Image: Emma McIntyre)

In the basement hallway of Keriwa Café, there’s a row of photographs showing an Ojibwa man dancing through Paris in feathered powwow regalia. From the Louvre to the Champs Élysées, the stomping, rattle-shaking man appears in hyper-saturated colour, while the City of Light behind him is rendered in muted sepia, as if to invoke a noble past. But in the final image, the dancer leans over. As you look more closely, you see that he’s fiddling with something, an iPod connected to a ghetto blaster—Sitting Bull meets the b-boy crew. “You think you know me?” the photo seems to say.

The series, by the part-Ojibwa artist Jason Jenkins, is a fitting emblem for Keriwa, which opened in early August on the western edge of Parkdale. The restaurant is the project of Aaron Joseph Bear Robe, a half-Scottish, half-Blackfoot chef who grew up on the Siksika Nation reserve in southern Alberta. He’s a classic dual-identity Canadian: though he ate bannock, saskatoon berries and bison meat for much of his young life, he also ate plenty of non-Native food, and he trained at Calgary’s highly regarded River Café, at Eigensinn Farm and, most recently, at Splendido on Harbord Street. There are Aboriginal accents around Bear Robe’s well-run dining room—a chandelier made with eagle feathers, a strip of Pendleton blanket running through the leather banquettes, his grandmother Maggie Barrow’s 70-year-old buckskin robe displayed in a prime spot beside the bar. But the music is Wilco and the Grateful Dead, the service is run by an ex–Splendido hand, and the menu, though it offers a few Native dishes, reads more fresh, local and organic than it does Aboriginal. Bear Robe’s heritage influences his cooking, but only as a foundation. He brings it upstairs when it works.

The 28-year-old chef does a smart starter of smoked whitefish that’s presented much the way a French chef might do it: with a caviar-topped buttermilk blini, horseradish crème fraîche and a salad of shaved radish and pea shoots. There is a tomato gazpacho one night that balances the supernal tug of sweetness, salt and acid in late-summer tomatoes against local jalapeños, bursting kernels of fresh corn and crunchy pepitas. Bear Robe topped the soup with a quenelle of sorbet that he made from cold-pressed canola oil, lemon syrup and sparkling water. He could sell tankers of that stuff. Pheasant from nearby Lake Simcoe arrives dripping-juicy, cooked half a shade past medium and sided with a superb golden galette filled with confit chicken, kale and stewed plums.

There are a few duds—dishes that come freighted with good intentions but fizzle on the plate. “This reminds me of horse feed,” my tablemate said of the buckwheat-stuffed cabbage roll one night, and he’s right. The texture, the flavour—it’s beige in every way. The whipped pork fat, served with the dark, wonderfully dense house-made bread, delivers smoked paprika and borderline rancid bite, instead of porcine roundness and sweet.

But then there’s the braised bison pemmican, which is served in an oblong wooden bowl that looks like a canoe, alongside bannock made from Red Fife flour. Pemmican, in its traditional form, is little more than a mash of meat, fat and berries. Bear Robe smokes his bison and braises it with juniper, cloves, sage, onions, bison stock and saskatoon berry jelly. It tastes like the greatest short-rib dish you’ve ever tried.

The bannock is just as good. Though it originated in Scotland, bannock is mostly known as a Native food; it’s been a staple of North American Aboriginal diets for at least 150 years. Bear Robe flavours his with maple syrup and fennel seed, and he pan-fries the dough in vegetable oil. It turns up steaming hot and dense, so its chew is reminiscent of a Montreal bagel, but it has depth and nuttiness from the flour, and a bit of Tiny Tom sweetness. If you don’t feel the urge to order more, check for a pulse.

Chef Aaron Joseph Bear Robe at his brand new Parkdale restaurant (Image: Gizelle Lau)

Back in April, we told you about an upcoming Aboriginal-focused restaurant on Queen West. Last Wednesday, Keriwa Café threw open its doors to friendly and curious neighbours—like the chefs from nearby Parts and Labour—who stopped in to welcome the new kids on the block. 

At Keriwa, owner and chef Aaron Joseph Bear Robe (Splendido, Eigensinn Farm, Haisai), along with sous-chef Dennis Tay (Splendido, also a breakdancer extraordinaire), showcases both Aboriginal-inspired food and Canadiana. Using seasonal ingredients from local producers like 100km Foods, Sovereign Farms and Hooked, Bear Robe creates dishes like smoked whitefish with red fife blini ($12), bison pemmican with Saskatoon berries and red fife fry bread ($14) and grilled bison tail on polenta with chanterelles ($26). The menu, unsurprisingly, will change monthly to reflect seasonal flavours and produce.

Behind the bar, Amos Pudsey and sommelier Doug Fulton (also the restaurant manager), both also previously of Splendido, bring their fine dining experience to the table. The cocktail menu features classic cocktails ($8–$11), playfully modified with names like The Streetcar, Parkdale Pusher, Montgomery’s Tavern and Old City Hall, a modern take on an old-fashioned. On tap: the Golden Horseshoe Lager and Green Tea Ale from Great Lakes, as well as a selection from Duggan’s Brewery and other Canadian craft breweries ($6–$7). Wines are all VQA at the moment, with offerings from Tawse, Closson Chase and Norman Hardie ($9–$13 by the glass). Beer and wine tastings, flights and pairings are all in the works.

The restaurant’s dining room is bright and warm, with elements that reflect Bear Robe’s philosophy of “keeping it playful” and bringing together old and new (the patterns from a traditional Aboriginal Pendleton blanket double as a trim in the banquettes). Above the door as you enter, a giant silver eagle feather—a sacred symbol of peace—with other, smaller eagle feathers dangling beneath welcomes patrons. On one wall, Bear Robe’s grandmother’s buckskin dress, over 70 years old, hangs in a frame. Two large art installations catch the eye: a repurposed piece of old wartime machinery from New York and another woodsy birch patchwork piece designed and pieced together by Bear Robe and his wife (and designer) Marta Floranska.

Start the slideshow »

Keriwa Café, 1690 Queen St. W., 416-533-2552, keriwacafe.ca.

Rob Feenie with host Thea Andrews (Image: Food Network Canada/Insight Productions)

TOP CHEF CANADA
Season 1 | Episode 11

From the opening moments of last night’s Top Chef Canada, we learned the following: Dale MacKay, the supremely arrogant self-confident Vancouver chef, actually has a soft side (he was missing his young son); Montreal-by-way-of Vancouver chef François Gagnon sleeps without his shirt on; Mercatto executive chef Rob Rossi likes to sleep in; and Connie DeSousa is feeling the pressure to win the competition for all the female chefs out there (about Grace’s Dustin Gallagher, we learned nothing). None of these micro-developments gave away who the winner and loser might be. After the jump, the twists and turns that brought us down to the final four.

Quickfire

Rob Rossi fights with some seafood (Image: Food Network Canada/Insight Productions)

As the contestants piled into the GE Monogram kitchen (there, we finally said it), they were introduced to a familiar face for Canadian food TV fans: chef, restaurateur and restaurant consultant Rob Feenie, described—confusingly—by host Thea Andrews as Canada’s Iron Chef (turns out she meant he was the first Canadian to defeat an Iron Chef). The producers decided not to delve into the messy history between Feenie—once chef and co-owner of Vancouver’s Lumière—and MacKay, who succeeded him after his dramatic exit. Likewise, Gagnon’s decidedly tamer tenure under Feenie also went unmentioned (unlike “Dusty” Gallagher and Susur Lee’s back story, which the show played out back in episode 4.)

The challenge seemed strangely straightforward for Top Chef: pick three seafood items from the live, writhing spread on the table and create three memorable dishes to showcase them. Of course, there was a catch. After the chefs had made their selection, Andrews blithely informed them that they’d actually be cooking the seafood chosen by the chef to their right. Cue lots of good-natured grumbling from Rossi, who got stuck with Gallagher’s slimy, oozing and, frankly, phallic geoduck. Amazingly, Rossi, who’d never cooked with the giant clam before, managed to pull out the best trio of dishes: oyster with black pepper and apple, scallop ceviche and geoduck with wasabi, cucumber, ginger and jalapeño. Feenie was effusive in his praise, exclaiming, “Rob, by far what you did was brilliant!” Rossi replied with an impish kid-at-Christmas smile.

Elimination

After a fairly elevated quickfire, the elimination challenge was down and dirty: the chefs were asked to create street food that melded two world cuisines and serve it from a hot dog cart in Nathan Phillips Square (once again, we’ll note the irony is hard to miss). The chefs drew knives for their two cuisines, with DeSousa drawing Thai and German, MacKay getting Trinidadian and Indian, Gagnon, Chinese and Spanish, Gallagher, French and Italian and Rossi, Canadian and Vietnamese. As winner of the quickfire, Rossi was given the option of swapping one of his cuisines, so he nabbed Gagnon’s Spanish and dumped his Vietnamese on the poor francophone chef, who confessed his experience with Asian cuisine was limited to the eating end of things, not the cooking.

During the manic shopping spree at Loblaws, we were treated to a panicked Gagnon running around searching for won ton wrappers, all set to the tune of accordion music that screamed, “I’m a hapless Frenchie” (never mind that he’s from La Belle Provence, not France). MacKay’s grumbles about the challenge, meanwhile, started early and continued right to the end—apparently he was unable to compromise his lofty dining standards for lowly street food, and he seemed particularly aggrieved that he might be sent home for Trinidadian food, a cuisine he’d never once tasted. Is it us, or has “aggrieved” become his default tone? (In a rare moment of cheffy insight, MacKay did acknowledge that “sometimes I’m a bit of a douchebag, and I just need a sleep and I’m usually better in the morning.”) DeSousa, for her part, confessed that she’d actually worked for a Thai chef in Germany, so she was perfectly suited to her challenge—a realization that gave her the confidence to once again make sausages, despite head judge Mark McEwan’s misgivings about her previous attempts.

Rob Rossi’s winning dishes: grilled cheese and a sloppy Joe—no, really (Image: Food Network Canada/Insight Productions)

At the top for this street food challenge were the two remaining Toronto chefs: Gallagher, who created a French take on pizza with duck confit, emmenthal and béchamel alongside a sort of niçoise salad on a bun with Italian ingredients; and Rossi, who made a grilled cheese sandwich with serrano ham and Canadian cheddar and a sloppy Joe with chorizo, manchego and green onions. Rossi’s down-home cooking netted him the win.

When the three chefs at the bottom faced the judges, McEwan explained they were all there because, “at the end of the day, flavour was lacking in your dishes.” MacKay’s two dishes, a curry soup with some bizarre roti stuffing and a jerk chicken salad, were all heat and no flavour (resident judge Shereen Arazm was appalled when MacKay confessed he’s never tasted roti). DeSousa’s dishes were also insipid, despite their colourful presentation (and her adorable ball cap): her traditional wurst was watery (turns out she’d boiled it), and her pad Thai prompted Andrews to exclaim, “All those Thai ingredients are there… there’s just no flavour!” (to which a thousand home cooks nodded in rueful recognition). Gagnon’s dishes—a lame-looking dumpling floating in a bland faux-pho broth and some allegedly Peking duck wrapped in a Vietnamese spring roll—were as misguided as they were boring. Arazm’s pithy condemnation: “François’s roll was a waste of time—it was like eating water.” Unsurprisingly, he was sent packing back to Vancouver, where he had quit his job to be part of the competition. He bid a fond adieu to his fellow competitors with a wistful “China and Vietnam took me down.”

Next time on Top Chef Canada

U.S. Top Chef resident judge (and former Toronto Life intern) Gail Simmons stops by to kick the remaining five chefs into shape (and show the judges how it’s done, too). Apparently the results are less than stunning—at the tasting, she exclaims, “I’m totally confounded. This is your last chance to wow us!” We can’t wait to see who’s on the receiving end of her smackdown.

Our weekly Top Chef Canada leader board:

Rob Gentile (Buca), David Lee (Nota Bene), Andrea Nicholson (Great Cooks on Eight), Paul Boehmer (Böhmer), Teo Paul (Union)

Two thousand of Toronto’s food lovers and makers gathered at the ROM on Sunday for the 21st edition of Toronto Taste. The annual fundraiser—which raises money for Second Harvest—saw more than 60 restaurants and 30 beverage purveyors offering their best to the guests. Burgers and tacos might have been the plats du jour, but new restaurant openings seemed to be the hottest item on the plates of many chefs and restaurateurs we spoke to. Here’s what we heard from Buca’s Rob Gentile, Woodlot’s David Haman, Scarpetta’s Scott Conant, Splendido’s Victor Barry, Top Chef Canada contestants Dustin Gallagher and Andrea Nicholson and many more. Words and images by Renée Suen

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Is it just us, or does it seem like Cover Me Canada is set on propagating a Canadian image that’s nearly as embarrassing as the Vancouver 2010 closing ceremony? To audition for the program, applicants must submit a video of themselves performing one of four iconic song choices: Sundown by Gordon Lightfoot, Run To You by Bryan Adams, Life is a Highway by Tom Cochrane or Black Velvet by Alannah Myles.

In a so-Canadian-it-hurts approach to reality television, Cover Me Canada will start with the nine finalists and move on from there. That’s right: there’ll be none of this, or this, or even this. And what’s the point of watching reality TV that’s not (at least a little) mean?

• New CBC reality contest to focus on Canadian music [CBC]

A toast to us! (Image: Food Network Canada/Insight Productions)

TOP CHEF CANADA
Season 1 | Episode 5

Last night on Top Chef Canada, the competition moved into its second phase: some obvious underperformers have been eliminated, a leader pack is emerging, and the clowning around has died down. Tellingly, even when the contestants are shown in their underwear, they’ve got their game faces on. Here, our recap of an episode that contained everything from whole hogs to former military officers.

Quickfire

When Cumbrae’s owner and “go-to meat man” Stephen Alexander was introduced as the quickfire guest judge, we knew the challenge would involve some serious butchery skills. Sure enough, the chefs were asked to break down a pig to Alexander’s exacting standards. Drawing knives, the chefs were split into two teams and each chef was assigned one cut of meat: picnic shoulder, leg, shoulder butt, belly or loin. The first team to satisfactorily complete each of the cuts would win. (Lucky for him, François Gagnon drew a knife that said “hog wild” on it, which granted him instant immunity.)

The challenge proved to be surprisingly dramatic. The black team, with skilled butchers Connie DeSousa (“I can debone a pig’s head in four minutes”) and Chris Kanka (“Most chefs don’t have the ability to butcher, but I do”) took an early lead. But Darryl Crumb managed to tear through a leg with both speed and finesse to help the white team catch up. In the end, it came down to Grace’s Dustin Gallagher for the black team against Great Cooks on Eight’s Andrea Nicholson for the white, both of them wrestling with a giant loin. In a made-for-TV moment, Gallagher cut himself and required a bandage, but managed to rally in time to beat Nicholson.

Our favourite part was watching Alexander, who couldn’t hide his dismay as the chefs, their instincts honed for competitive TV, ruthlessly hacked away at his prized, pasture-raised heritage pork. Patrick Wiese’s picnic shoulder? “Completely unacceptable.” Dale MacKay’s hock? “An absolute disaster.” His overall assessment? “It got pretty rough, but there were some flashes of some pretty good butchering.” Ouch. For their marginally quicker hacking, the black team’s chefs won an extra $100 each for their elimination challenge shopping budget.

Elimination

The challenge this time was simple: each chef, working alone, was to prepare two different cocktail hors d’oeuvres, at least one of them featuring the Berkshire pork they’d just butchered, for 100 people. This being reality TV, a twist was announced the next morning when the chefs arrived at their “mystery destination,” the George Brown College cooking school. The kicker? Each contestant would get a student from the program as their sous-chef.

Some chefs took to their little piggies immediately. “My little assistant is so friggin’ cute,” gushed Nicholson of the sous she’d nicknamed Minnie, before going off on a righteous rant about why female chefs make better team players. Crumb, meanwhile, made the ultimate hoser move of trying to bond with his sous over hockey (apparently, she wasn’t a fan). MacKay told the camera that he enjoyed the opportunity to be a father figure to his sous, before name-dropping his own mentors, culinary gods Gordon Ramsay and Daniel Boulud. And Mercato’s Rob Rossi? He couldn’t seem to stop making cracks about getting stuck with the Old Guy, Dwayne, as his sous (“I didn’t know I was actually going to be in the geriatric ward! He was older than my dad!”). Turns out Dwayne was a former major in the Canadian Forces, and he suffered his chef’s orders with military deference.

Dale MacKay’s two winning dishes (Image: Food Network Canada/Insight Productions)

Three Toronto chefs made it to the top of the heap this time around: Rossi, who made confit pork and rillette and a crab and scallop croquette; Nicholson, who made a beautiful brined pork loin over polenta and an olive-oil cake; and Gallagher, who served a loin and an apple terrine. But the win went to Vancouver’s MacKay, who miraculously prepared a Thai consommé with poached black cod and sous-vide pork with sauerkraut in just two hours. Guest judge John Higgins, the director of the George Brown chef school, called the soup “liquid gold.”

The chefs with the four worst dishes were Crumb, Wiese, Todd Perrin, who was on top last week, and Jamie Hertz, who started off the episode whining observing that judges hadn’t yet said one good thing about his dishes. Unfortunately for him, his words proved prophetic: Mark McEwan and company found very little to like in his braised pork belly with cauliflower purée and (did we hear this right?) cola, and his smoked salmon mousse with Boursin cheese over roasted beets. McEwan likened the latter to cat food and offered the philosophical reflection that as a salmon, if your fate in life were to end up on Hertz’s plate, it would be a sad thing. Talking to the camera, Hertz chose not to go quietly into that good night: “There’s no fucking way that my dish was the worst dish today.” The judges, however, disagreed.

Next time on Top Chef Canada

The chefs have their technique tested as they prepare classic French dishes for Daniel Boulud. Will MacKay choke in front of his former boss? Will Crumb actually utter that hoary old reality TV cliché, “I’m not here to make friends”? This week’s preview suggests the answer is yes.

Our weekly Top Chef Canada leader board:

Check out our recap of episode 6 »

(Image: Kevin Knaulls)

The Royal Wedding is more than just another way for Canadians to express their fondness for the motherland; Kate and Will are also the hottest celebrity couple du jour. Hardcore wedding watchers of either stripe will want to secure their Friday morning plans in advance. To whit, here are six restaurants celebrating the Royal Wedding on April 29 in style.

• Windsor Arms: It seems fitting that on the day Kate Middleton joins the Windsor clan, the most splendid (and pricey) traditional English tea will be celebrated at the Windsor Arms. Available from 4 a.m. until 11 a.m., an elaborate buffet-style tea will be on offer, featuring fresh scones, a variety of sandwiches and celebratory fare, like a Windsor Arms gravlax, Caspian caviar and petit fours. In case 4 a.m. is too early, the hotel also offers a repeat of the royal affair between 2 p.m. and 5 p.m. in the Courtyard Café. Royal tea, $125, afternoon tea buffet, $60. 18 St. Thomas St., 416-934-6033, windsorarmshotel.com

• Le Méridien King Edward Hotel: Starting promptly at an ever-so-civilized 5 a.m., the King Eddy celebrates the Royal Wedding with a full English breakfast. Aside from the three-tiered scone stand, hot cross muffins and warm crumpets, there will be other traditional British items, including a yogurt trifle, bangers, baked beans with molasses and black pudding. $6, 37 King St. E., 416-863-3248.

• Fairmont Royal York: Starting at 5 a.m., both Library Bar and Epic at the Royal York are offering royal matrimonial fare. In the bar, a traditional tea menu applies—expect finger sandwiches, pastries, signature cocktails, and of course, copious caffeine in the form of tea. At Epic, a traditional English breakfast will feature eggs, bacon rashers, hash browns and the seemingly ever-popular royal wedding dish, black pudding. (We wonder: how many people actually eat black pudding?). Library Bar, $35, 416-860-5004, Epic, $21, 416-860-6949 100 Front St. W.

• O&B Canteen: In case you’d rather spend the early morning of April 29 sleeping, O&B Canteen at the TIFF Bell Lightbox has “Buckingham Butties,” two sandwiches inspired by the Royal Family, on offer all week at the grab-and-go counter. The savory option: caramelized onions, aged cheddar and Berkshire sausage with grain mustard on multigrain miche. The sweet option: pastry cream and Ontario strawberries on a vanilla scone. $4.29, 330 King St. W., 647-288-4710, www.oliverbonacini.com/Canteen.aspx.

• Langdon Hall: The folks at Langdon Hall have bet against an early morning turnout for their celebrations. Instead, afternoon tea at 3 p.m. will be dedicated to a recap of the wedding alongside a sweet and savory menu that includes traditional scones, raspberry shortbread, Queen Victoria pudding, curried egg salad, deviled shrimp and Lancashire cheddar puffs. Oh, and wearing a royal wedding hat is encouraged, so make sure you’ve got your feathered headdresses and wide brims on hand. $49, 1 Langdon Dr., Cambridge, Ontario, 519-740-2100. langdonhall.ca.

• Queen and Beaver: For those commoners who’d like to celebrate the Royal Wedding but don’t want to dole out the cash for any of the above options, the Queen and Beaver offers a more affordable—although no less authentic—alternative. The pub will be open at 5:45 a.m. to broadcast the service, and will be offering a full English breakfast including crumpets, cucumber sandwiches, fruit scones and strawberries and cream from an à la carte menu that probably won’t break the bank ($6-$16). Seating is first-come, first-served. The Royal Wedding is even listed on the Queen and Beaver’s sporting events calendar, so hopefully it’ll be a raucous affair (although, of course, no alcohol will be served before 11 a.m.).  35 Elm St. 647-347-2712, queenandbeaverpub.ca.

Coke party: Jeneil Williams, Coco Rocha and Heidi Mount (Image: Coca-Cola)

Coco Rocha has teamed up with fashion friend Karl Lagerfeld and Coca-Cola in a campaign to promote designer-sponsored, limited-edition Diet Coke bottles. Rumour has it that Lagerfeld once lost 90 pounds by consuming nothing but Diet Coke and steamed vegetables for over a year. The U.K.’s Daily Mail reports that he even has a butler to dispense the pop at his whim. We’d like to raise our own Lalique crystal goblet to Rocha and Lagerfeld, ’cause how unhealthy could it be to drink Diet Coke, as Lagerfeld notes, “every day and night?” We just hope Rocha is simply helping out her friend and lining her pockets, not reacting to allegations that she’s too fat to model. Coco, we love you just the way you are.

Yonge Street’s poshest stretch, from Ramsden Park up to the Summerhill LCBO, has two strong suits: food and decor. Locals from the tree-lined side streets keep the shops going during the week, while the weekend brings floods of shoppers from further afield. Here, our list of 23 essential restaurants, food shops, furniture stores, clothing boutiques and beauty parlours along tony Toronto’s main drag. By Laura Cameron, Carley Fortune, Matthew Hague and Renée Suen | Photography by Jamie Hogge, Emma McIntyre, Renée Suen and Jenna Marie Wakani

START THE ROSEDALE-SUMMERHILL TOUR »

Christine Cushing at Terroir earlier this month (Image: Renée Suen)

Christine Cushing is a face that most will recognize from TV shows like Fearless in the Kitchen and Christine Cushing Live. But Cushing has also done stints at some of Toronto’s most renowned kitchens (Four Seasons Hotel, Scaramouche), and more recently, she’s become the developer of a line of upscale food products, Christine Cushing’s. We caught up with Cushing, who has been promoting her latest discovery—a yet-to-be-named roasted red pepper paste—at the Canadian Restaurant and Foodservices Association Show.

The results of the Canadian Chef’s Survey recently reported that local, healthy and sustainable foods are still the top trends. What’s your take?

After going to Terroir, I really do think the idea of grass-fed beef and the move away from commercial meats will become more mainstream. We may eat less meat, but the quality will definitely expand. Also, on the tails of Food, Inc. and all of the negative impacts of bad food management in North America, I think people still want to have trust in what they’re eating. It doesn’t necessarily have to be local, but how did it get here? Is it safe for me to eat and is it nutritious? Is it giving me what it says it’s giving me? Those are really going to be the dominant trends, in my view.

How about organic?

I don’t know how important organic is to people. For some people it’s a deal breaker, but I think the definition of what counts as organic is going to start becoming more specific. People are going to ask if it’s the milk, meat, poultry or vegetables that should be organic. Where am I getting the most bang for my buck?

So do you follow trends?

I think trends can be kitschy and fickle, like fashion: they come and go and are difficult to predict. What drives everything I do is really the equation of quality. I’ve spent probably 20 years of my culinary life building this reputation. The key message for me, both as a chef, but also as a developer of products, is that you’ve got to have a product that people believe in, are loyal to and will go back to. When you get to the heart of it, there has to be something there.

Many new products were featured at the CRFA, including your own. What was your reason behind entering the prepared foods business?

There’s a disturbing trend in the generation down from me where less time is being spent in the kitchen, along with a rise in fast and prepared foods. I think the marketplace is flooded with lots of prepared foods and gimmicks. Low-fat, high-this, high-that and all these claims, but for lack of a better word, the meat is missing. But there’s also a small niche of people who want more and better understanding of food, organics and sourcing. For me, it’s about making real food that people can eat, but with the knowledge that people seem to have less time. I feel that these products are a way for me to stay connected to foodies and people who are looking for help in the kitchen, but still maintain that Mediterranean sensibility and quality equation. I don’t want us to lose our connection with our food.

Would you consider your products a spinoff of what you’ve been doing on Fearless in the Kitchen?

Yes, it is coupled with the show. A lot of times I’m shocked to find food-educated people, who perhaps watch cooking shows, but don’t in fact practise it.

Is it safe to say that people want to be a part of that food making process?

Absolutely. People are constantly looking for ways to get flavour, but they also don’t have the time to develop it. That’s the double-edged sword. People probably eat out more than they ever did—they’re exposed to a myriad of different ingredients from around the world and know more about interesting flavours, but at home, we don’t have the time. So these products are helpers and enablers—things that can help people take ownership of their meals, but they don’t do everything for you. That’s the key.

We take it Drake has never read the interview Gonzales gave Toronto-based fashion mag Corduroy back in October of 2009. When asked if he was aware of the uncredited inclusion of his song “The Tourist” on Drake’s acclaimed So Far Gone mix tape, Gonzales was characteristically blunt:

“Really? Drake sampled me? I don’t know how I feel about that. I mean, that Solo Piano album has reached across many genres—it’s given me shout-outs from the hip-hop world all the way to the classical world. I’m pleasantly surprised whenever it makes its way to an unknown genre. Although, I must confess, I’m not a Drake fan. I guess Canadians should be proud that they finally have the closest thing they’ll ever have to a credible hip-hop personality, but I’m sorry, I’m just not a fan.”

The two artists had definitely met before Juno night, but we’re still not sure what triggered Gonzales’ change of heart. Could it have anything to do with the velour Tom Ford slippers that Drake apparently lent him for the performance, we wonder?

• Interview: Gonzales [Corduroy]
• Chilly Gonzales reveals next album + Drake incident [Data Transmission]