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Michael Stadtländer has rallied 100 of the best chefs from across Canada to participate in Foodstock, an epic, pay-what-you-can public food event on October 16 to raise money to fight the construction of a huge limestone quarry in the town of Honeywood, Ontario. The Highland Companies’ plan aims to span 2,316 acres of land and run 189 feet deep (deeper than Niagara Falls), and will have to pump 600 million litres of groundwater out of the pit each day (about the same amount used by 2.7 million Ontarians), all to extract crushed stone known as amabel dolostone.
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Introducing: Keriwa Café, Queen West’s new outpost for Aboriginal cuisine
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.
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Today in Toronto: Darren Sigesmund, Forests and Saint-Saëns Organ Symphony
Darren Sigesmund Most musicians have second jobs, but Sigesmund’s is one of the unlikelier ones: he’s a chef who apprenticed at Eigensinn Farm under Michael Stadtländer. Sigesmund also cooks up hot licks on his trombone. Find out more »
Forests First came Tideline, then Scorched (submitted in film form to this year’s Oscar race under its original title, Incendies) and now Forests, the final instalment in Montreal playwright Wajdi Mouawad’s acclaimed trilogy. Find out more »
Saint-Saëns Organ Symphony A feast for keyboard enthusiasts, this TSO concert has organist Patricia Krueger revelling in Saint-Saëns’ arch-romantic swoons; the esteemed Yefim Bronfman takes on Liszt’s rollicking Piano Concerto no. 2. Find out more »
Keriwa Café, a new restaurant with an Aboriginal menu, to open on Queen West next month
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A new restaurant focused on Aboriginal cuisine is set to open on Queen Street West this coming May. Behind Keriwa is Aaron Joseph Bear Robe, previously of Splendido, Michael Stadtländer’s Eigensinn Farm and Haisai, and the River Café in Calgary. With a strong pedigree of farm-to-table haute cuisine, Keriwa Café will bring Aboriginal recipes together with more contemporary dishes, and will focus on local, seasonal and organic ingredients. He’s also promised us fried bread.
Toronto chefs and Ontario wineries join forces for Japan earthquake relief dinner
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In response to the devastating earthquake and tsunami that hit Japan last week, a number of Toronto chefs and Ontario wine producers will be joining forces in a fundraiser on Sunday, March 27th, organized by Nobuyo Stadtländer, the business partner and wife of Michael Stadtländer.
Michael Stadtländer and Jamie Kennedy walk away with new Governor General’s Cuisine Awards
Honourees Jamie Kennedy, Michael Stadtländer (Images: Edlynne, farmerchefconference)
The Governor General’s Awards, heretofore known for honouring the best in Canadian academics and arts, have added a new category to their ranks: cuisine. Yesterday, in an award ceremony at Rideau Hall, celebrity chefs Jamie Kennedy and Michael Stadtländer received a joint distinction for their role as culinary leaders by outgoing GG Michäelle Jean and her husband, Jean-Daniel Lafond (the new awards were apparently his idea).
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The Danforth Guide: our 21 favourite spots along the east end’s main avenue
The east end’s main thoroughfare has long been known for two things: Greek food and the Taste of the Danforth. Over the past many years, though, homebuyers drawn to the subway line have slowly turned the long strip of two-storey brick buildings into a bustling neighbourhood that has attracted a rich selection of fine shops, independent coffee houses, Thai joints and haute cuisine restaurants. The Danforth has reached a wonderful maturity that we think should be celebrated. Here are 21 of the best reasons to cross the viaduct.
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Two Canadian restaurants make the S. Pellegrino top 100
Langdon Hall: 800 pro foodies can't be wrong (Image: langdonhall.ca)
The much-anticipated list of S. Pellegrino World’s Best Restaurants 2010 was announced in London yesterday in front of the world’s finest chefs, most influential restaurateurs and members of the international press. It appears that two Canadian culinary gems have caught the eye of the academy, and one of them is in the GTA.
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Best New Restaurants 2010
This time last year, the future looked awfully grim. We braced for restaurant closures and recessionary menus, but 2009 was surprising. Though we lost some good places (Perigee, Truffles, Alice’s and Gamelle, in particular), and mac-and-cheese quickly wore out its welcome, it was an exciting time to dine out. Anxious restaurateurs dropped corkage fees and slashed wine markups, while chefs cooked up imaginative prix fixe menus. It suited our mood as well as our wallets: these days, Torontonians want informality. We’re still hungry for local produce and nose-to-tail dining, chefs are once again finding inspiration in Italy and Japan, and the city is finally beginning to develop a serious cocktail culture. Most encouraging of all is the number of new restaurants opening. Here, the best of the vintage.
Just Opened: The owner of Globe Bistro brings Kevin McKenna’s fresh and local dining to Rosedale with Earth
(Photo by Signe Langford)
Word on the street is that the space at 1055 Yonge is cursed. It’s had a long history of failed restaurants—Tabla, Plakutta, Rosewood Grill, Roxborough’s, Cucina, Arlecchino, Emerald Thai, L’Actuel, Trata, Rosedale Oyster—places that came and went, sometimes before the ink had dried on the lease. Misty-eyed locals still reminisce about Cibo, the last decent thing to happen to this space, and it closed in 1992. Now, Ed Ho, owner of Globe Bistro on the Danforth (and former Bay Streeter, who, like a certain Alaskan, went rogue), has moved in with his latest restaurant, Earth. And Ed Ho doesn’t scare easily.
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Just Opened: Haisai: James Chatto talks to Michael Stadtländer about his new, somewhat straightforward (but still deeply idiosyncratic) restaurant
If you build it, they will come: Michael Stadtländer's new Singhampton restaurant, Haisai (Photo courtesy of Haisai)
Michael Stadtländer, chef, environmentalist, multimedia artist and all-around gastronomical guru, left the world of regular restaurants behind in 1993 when he bought Eigensinn Farm, a 100-acre Grey County property where he’d prepare feasts for a few lucky guests at a time. This September, he’s returned to the fold with Haisai, a 28-seat restaurant and bakery in the village of Singhampton. The new spot shares the same whimsical style; he built all the furniture by hand and spent two years decorating the fairy tale–like rooms (think pebble-encrusted walls, seashell wall sconces, light fixtures fashioned from sawn-off wine bottles and the odd pair of antlers).
Here, we talk to the chef about his latest career move.
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Last call for Fiddleheads: Now we eat them, soon we won’t
Heady times: Fiddleheads come but once a year (Photo by Foodista)
The season’s first locavore love affair is about to come to an end. Fiddleheads—the fern fronds harvested for only one month each spring—have been popping up on menus throughout the city recently, but experts advise that the coming weekend (and the onset of stem-shrivelling summer heat) will likely mark the end of the veggie’s short season. Even the most optimistic predictions have the Polkaroo of plant life on Toronto plates for another week. We scavenged for details of what five of the city’s top chefs are doing with the of-the-moment ingredient.
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Globe Bistro’s Kevin McKenna and Eigensinn Farm’s Michael Stadtländer serve up an epic eat-local dinner
It was gastronomic ecstasy at the elegant “eat local” Globe Bistro Wednesday night, when Eigensinn Farm’s Michael Stadtländer made a guest appearance to heat up the kitchen with his former student, Globe chef Kevin McKenna. A portion of the proceeds from the lavish seven-course wine-paired feast go to the Toronto East General Hospital Foundation. “That’s where I’m going to go after my first heart attack from pork,” owner Ed Ho joked. We were relieved that lamb was the order of the evening.
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Cultivating talent: Michael Stadtländer’s new restaurant goes beyond eco-eats
Singhampton, Ontario, is the site of Michael Stadtländer’s new restaurant (Photo by Bev Currie)
If the farm turned fine-dining restaurant concept of Eigensinn Farm was a radical innovation, Michael Stadtländer’s new project will take the rural revolution one step further. A restaurant, bakery, film school and news network—that’s what the chef has in mind for Haisai, which is set to open in Singhampton (about eight kilometres from his famed eat-in farm) at the end of May. “We’ve been doing Eigensinn Farm for 16 years,” says the chef, “so it’s time for a little change.”
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Stadtländer’s latest, Charlie’s Burgers mystery, 900 Starbucks closures
Stadtländer expands (Photo by jembe)
• Good news for fans of Michael Stadtländer’s acclaimed Eigensinn Farm: the cultivator-chef will be launching a new restaurant, Haisai, in a neighbouring town. Like Eigensinn, it is based on the farm-to-table concept, though we hope that it will seat more than 12. [Reuters]
• Pasta making is an arduous process, but it shouldn’t be a perilous one. A man working a machine at a Toronto noodle plant lost an arm when the mechanism snagged him, initiating a workplace safety investigation. [National Post]
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