The comprehensive index of every blog post, magazine story and restaurant review that appears on Torontolife.com

All stories relating to chocolate

The Weekender: The Lion King, Easter Eggstravaganza and six other can’t-miss events

Woody Harrelson, Measha Brueggergosman as Vitellia in La Clemenza di Tito and Adam Jacobs as Simba in The Lion King

1. THE LION KING
You wouldn’t think a theatrical adaptation of a Disney movie would run for so long (nearly 14 years), earn so many accolades (more than 70 awards, including a Tony for Julie Taymor’s direction) or turn out to be so good, but somehow The Lion King does all of that. Oh, and did we mention it’s gorgeous? The puppets, costumes and stage design have been consistently blowing young minds since the show opened. This limited engagement is only in town for eight weeks—don’t miss it. To June 12. $35–135. Princess of Wales Theatre, 300 King St. W., 416-872-1212, mirvish.com.

2. CHOCOLATE AND CHEESE PAIRING (FREE!)
We usually pair cheese with wine and chocolate with, well, more chocolate. But this free foodie event, hosted by chef Chris McDonald (of Cava and Xococava fame) and Jane Rodmell (founder of All the Best Fine Foods), pairs two of our favourite foods with each other. Expertly spiced chocolate tiles are partnered with their ideal matches from All The Best’s stock of specialty cheeses. To be honest, we’re just a tad skeptical, but if anyone can make this pairing work, it’s McDonald. April 23. All the Best Fine Foods, 1101 Yonge St., allthebestfinefoods.com.

Read the rest of this entry »

The Dish

Opening

April 11, 2011 | 3:10 pm

9 Comments

Coco Rogue to bring stylish chocolates and desserts to Yonge and Eglinton

Yonge and Eglinton is a neighbourhood that loves its cafés and bakeries (witness the Cupcake Shoppe, La Bohème, the Designer Cookie Boutique and Bakeshop, Dufflet, La Bamboche and Jedd’s Frozen Custard). So it’s no surprise that the ’hood is about to be home to Coco Rogue, an haute chocolate and dessert shop with decor to match (think chandeliers and a grand piano).

Read the rest of this entry »

The Dish

Neighbourhoods

April 8, 2011 | 12:02 pm

34 Comments

Rosedale-Summerhill Guide: 23 need-to-know places along Yonge Street’s poshest stretch

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 »

Read the rest of this entry »

The Dish

Culinary Curiosities

March 29, 2011 | 10:19 am

2 Comments

New bacon inhaler (yes, that’s right) arrives right on trend

A couple of years back, we told you about Le Whif, a French product that allows you to taste chocolate without the hassle of actually chewing by inhaling a puff of chocolate micro particles. Now, with equal parts excitement and revulsion, we present BaconAir: the world’s very first bacon inhaler that “combines the deliciousness of bacon with the unrivalled health benefits of 95 per cent Himalayan oxygen.”

Read the rest of this entry »

The Dish

Rumours & Rumblings

March 10, 2011 | 5:04 pm

4 Comments

12 trends we observed at 2011’s Canadian Restaurant and Foodservices Association show

Health-conscious indulgences at the Canadian Restaurant and Foodservices Association show (Image: Renée Suen)

Yesterday we reported the results of the second annual Canadian Chef Survey of menu trends. The relatively predictable list might reflect the chefs’ outlook on food trends, but attending the Canadian Restaurant and Foodservices Association show showed us exactly what food-service providers are pushing onto the dining room table. After the jump, 12 trends we observed from the CRFA show.

Read the rest of this entry »

The Dish

Opening

March 2, 2011 | 4:56 pm

9 Comments

Introducing: The Primal Grind, a sugar- and dairy-free café in a crossfit gym (no, really)

The Primal Grind sits inside the Academy of Lions crossfit gym (Image: Gizelle Lau)

Toronto’s independent coffee scene has boomed in the past year. With that rapid growth has come new levels of coffee snobbery. First, the new breed waved goodbye to the humble drip. More recently, hardcore baristas have done away with decaf, with one even calling it “the devil’s blend.” Now, The Primal Grind, a new café on Dundas West, is taking coffee purism to a new level: no milk, no sugar.

Read the rest of this entry »

The Informer

City Sindex

March 1, 2011 | 2:31 pm

6 Comments

Gravy found! Some of the juiciest bits of fat in the TCHC audit will get in the way of the real scandal

By now the whole city knows the story of the city’s auditor general’s report [PDF] on the Toronto Community Housing Corporation, and how mayor Rob Ford has called for the non-elected members of the TCHC board to resign. The stuff that has gotten the most play in the news accounts of the reports includes:

More than $90,000 for Christmas dinners in 2008 and 2009
$1,000 in Holt Renfrew chocolates
$6,000 for a Muskoka getaway
$5,000 in one restaurant in 2009 alone

All told, bad expensing may have cost TCHC $200,000 a year. But while this is, as we say, the talking-point fodder that Rob Ford needed to refresh his “respect for taxpayers” verbal arsenal, the real scandal is in the details that probably won’t get as much attention, if only because they’re less obviously and comically wasteful. That includes stuff like:

Read the rest of this entry »

The Dish

Opening

January 28, 2011 | 2:28 pm

6 Comments

Soma, the Distillery’s chocolate mecca, to open new downtown café

Soma’s new space (Image: David Castellan)

It takes time to coax a cacao bean into chocolate, and it took seven years for David Castellan and Cynthia Leung, Soma’s husband and wife co-owners, to heed the siren call of expansion. Bolstered by the ongoing success of their Distillery location, the bean-to-bar chocolatier and café will be spawning a second location at 443 King Street West, near Spadina, and a couple of doors down from the Calphalon shop.

Read the rest of this entry »

The Dish

Food Porn

December 8, 2010 | 1:12 pm

1 Comment

Holiday Gift Guide: 13 edible present ideas

We prefer to pass the holiday season by eating our way through it and forcing loved ones to do the same. So we’ve come up with 13 inventive edible gifts (and not a mini-muffin basket in sight).

See our foodie gift guide now >>

Read the rest of this entry »

The Dish

Pantry Raid

November 10, 2010 | 10:18 am

Comments

Chocolate is becoming ever more rare. Will it be tomorrow’s caviar?

We know that the future isn’t how it was supposed to be—it’s 2010, and we have neither jet packs nor flying cars (iPads don’t make up for their absence)—but today we learned that the future might be bleaker still, as the maw of humanity gobbles down the last of the world’s chocolate. According to a piece in the U.K.’s Independent, chocolate’s days are numbered:

In the future, chocoholics might have to work quite a bit harder to pay for their fix. The world could run out of affordable chocolate within 20 years as farmers abandon their crops in the global cocoa basket of West Africa, industry experts claim.

Read the rest of this entry »

The Dish

Neighbourhoods

November 2, 2010 | 3:00 am

27 Comments

Bloor West Village Guide: our 20 favourite places between High Park and the Humber

Though solidly yuppified, this erstwhile eastern European enclave has held on to its tradition of thriving small businesses. Neighbours are genuinely chummy, moms trade intel on good nannies and bad teachers (between Pilates classes in the park), and the main drag offers almost everything. By Crystal Luxmore, Photographs by Emma McIntyre

Start the Bloor West Village tour »

Read the rest of this entry »

The Dish

From the Print Edition

October 14, 2010 | 9:03 am

4 Comments

Introducing: The Chocolateria, purveryor of chocolate-dipped potato chips

Warning: these chips are habit-forming (Image: Sian Richards)

Trend-conscious Roncesvalles has fallen hard for the chocolate-dipped potato chip, the wickedly addictive best-seller at the avenue’s newest confectionery, The Chocolateria. The winsome shop is run by Tim English, a corporate lawyer who succumbed to the siren call of chocolate after taking a pastry course at George Brown. His sweet gamble has paid off: despite opening at the end of August, in the midst of a debilitating heat wave and Roncey construction chaos, the shop has been an instant success. (Smartly, the woo campaign this fall included free samples of nutmeg-laced hot chocolate.) Best bets: craggy hunks of sponge toffee, deliciously gooey turtles with fresh pecans (a huge improvement on Grandma’s drugstore collection) and, of course, these wondrous, habit-forming chips.

The Chocolateria
361 Roncesvalles Ave., 416-588-0567

The Dish

Neighbourhoods

September 23, 2010 | 2:30 am

27 Comments

The St. Clair West Guide: 19 need-to-know spots along the midtown strip

The St. Clair West strip between Bathurst and Oakwood is known for its diverse population, interminable TTC construction, and that classic Toronto mix of urban grit, Old World–authentic mom and pop shops, and yuppie startups. Our list of 20 can’t-miss stops is the best way to get to know the area. By Crystal Luxmore. Photographs by Jessica Darmanin.

Start the St. Clair West tour »

Read the rest of this entry »

The Dish

Caffeine High

September 8, 2010 | 11:46 am

11 Comments

Toronto’s 13 new cafés: board games, Bohème and a resurrected waffle house

(Image: one2c900d)

These days, the arrival of a new indie café on Queen West or in Leslieville is about as novel as a Gap opening in a mall, which is why we’re pleased to inform readers that the newest coffee houses in town aren’t located in hipster hubs. Since our last café census in March, we count a total of 13 new spots for Hogtown’s java lovers.

Read the rest of this entry »

The Dish

Aprons & Icons

August 30, 2010 | 5:20 pm

4 Comments

Nine amazing kitchen gadgets from Toronto’s restaurant kitchens

We’re all for home-cooked meals and comfort food, but let’s face it: people go to restaurants to order stuff they can’t duplicate at home without the right skill set, equipment or the $625 to buy Nathan Myhrvold’s Modernist Cuisine cookbook. We talked to nine Toronto chefs about their weird, famous or indispensable food-making gizmo.

Here’s a slide show of the results »

All stories relating to chocolate

Contests

Links and Offers

Most shared stories today

The latest from across the St. Joseph Media network