In today’s New York Times, former food critic Frank Bruni weighs in on the food fight between everyone’s favourite loudmouth food writer and former chef, Anthony Bourdain, and the undisputed queen of southern fried cooking, Paula Deen (Bourdain told TV Guide last week that Deen is “the worst, most dangerous person to America” for “telling an already obese nation that it’s okay to eat food that is killing us”). After noting that Bourdain himself used to serve some pretty unhealthy fare at Les Halles (duck confit, pâté), Bruni points to a double standard in how many in the food world talk about fatty foods. “When Deen fries a chicken, many of us balk. When the Manhattan chefs David Chang or Andrew Carmellini do, we grovel for reservations and swoon over the homey exhilaration of it all. Her strips of bacon, skirting pancakes, represent heedless gluttony. Chang’s dominoes of pork belly, swaddled in an Asian bun, signify high art.” While we reserve the right to poke fun at novelty fatty foods, Bruni’s got a point. Read the whole story [New York Times] »
The comprehensive index of every blog post, magazine story and restaurant review that appears on Torontolife.com
All stories relating to fat
How running became the city’s collective obsession
Last year I turned 30, broke up with my long-term boyfriend and moved into a tiny apartment for one. The domestic vision I’d had for my future—marriage, a semi-detached fixer-upper, kids with endearingly arcane names, homemade pie—dissolved overnight. When I tried to reformulate a picture of my future, alone, my imagination failed. Usually when I’m lonely or stressed out, I run. I’ve been running non-competitively for 10 years. It eases my anxieties more effectively than anything else I’ve tried: psychoanalysis, yoga, eBay buying sprees, binges on HBO series, even anti-depressants. When I run, for one blissful unmeasured hour, my brain stops spinning.
FAT will surely bring these eight intriguing designers out of their shells
Toronto’s Alternative Fashion Week, also known as FAT, will take place April 26 to 29 at 99 Sudbury Street, and we just can’t wait for the smoke machines, whimsy, mini concerts and try-hards with PVC. All right, we may skip the smoke and PVC, but FAT is always an opportunity to see wildly creative designers who may otherwise feel bogged down by the bureaucracy (and price tag) of LG Fashion Week. On this year’s roster, we look forward to seeing Heidi Ackerman’s inventive silhouettes, last year’s New Labels winner Anastasia Lomonova and, of course, Colleen Booth’s entire collection of pajamas. (Yes, pajamas.) See the gallery below for selections from this year’s crop of left-of-centre designers.
Ryan Gosling was fired for being too fat
Gosling in 2007 (Image: Michael Loccisano/FilmMagic/Getty Images)
Ryan Gosling admitted this week that he was fired from The Lovely Bones back in 2007 because he put on too much weight in preparation for the role. He told The Hollywood Reporter that he melted Häagen-Dazs and drank it in order to bulk up to 210 pounds, but director Peter Jackson wanted a trimmer look for the role of grieving father Jack Salmon and replaced him with Mark Wahlberg. “I really believed he should be 210 pounds,” Gosling said. “I just showed up on set, and I had gotten it wrong.”
• VIDEO: Ryan Gosling: Why Peter Jackson Fired Me From ‘Lovely Bones’ [Hollywood Reporter]
• Gosling fired from film after ice cream binge [ABC News]
The world’s 10 fattest countries: Canada is out, Palau is in
Obesity: a growing problem (Image: Graham Richardson)
Despite the recent proliferation of poutine in this country, Canada has been left off the list of the fattest nations of 2010. According to GlobalPost, which used World Health Organization statistics to compile its list, most of the bad news is concentrated in the South Pacific. Not including the obligatory nod to the U.S.—number eight, with 70 per cent of its population with a BMI north of 25—the top 10 were all far-flung island states.
Read the rest of this entry »
The CBC thinks we’re fat
Taylor, B.C., is the Village on a Diet (Image: CBC)
The CBC’s winter TV lineup was announced late last week, and despite the departure of “give the people what they want even if it’s total pap” head honcho Richard Stursberg, the network is continuing down the crowd-pleasing path. Though much of the programming will remain the same as this fall—Republic of Doyle, 18 to Life and Little Mosque on the Prairie all return—there are two new noteworthy shows.
Read the rest of this entry »
Canadians are fat, even by rich-people standards
In the past few years, Toronto has been overrun by gourmet dining options of the fattening variety. Whether they’re serving gourmet poutine made with duck confit or lovingly hand-crafted burgers topped with rosemary mayo, some of the hottest places to eat are also the fattiest. That may be one of the reasons that a new study has found Canadians are getting chunky, even compared to the residents of other wealthy countries (well, not the U.S., U.K. or Australia).
Read the rest of this entry »
Among the delicacies at this year’s CNE: deep-fried butter
Deep-fried butter at this year's San Diego Fair (Image: It's Holly)
For those of us who prefer to waddle rather than race between the attractions at the CNE, food vendor Vicky Skinkle is offering perhaps the fattiest of all fried foods: deep-fried butter. These are Timbit-size balls of butter, covered in funnel cake batter, fried in oil, topped with either raspberry, chocolate, caramel or vanilla sauce and dusted with icing sugar. A four-pack is $5, but to avoid any cardiac emergencies at the midway, we recommend sharing.
Read the rest of this entry »
Wait—street hockey is illegal in Toronto? No wonder our kids are fat
Outlaws (Image: doviende)
Spacing publisher Matthew Blackett was at Yonge and Dundas when Sidney Crosby scored the gold-medal goal for Canada back in February. He watched as an impromptu hockey game broke out on the street, thinking: too bad that’s illegal. According to Blackett, the by-law outlawing the most Canadian of pickup games came from the pre-amalgamation version of Toronto, and became the law of the megacity afterwards. Breaking the rule comes with a $55 fine—something most hockey-playing kids don’t typically have on hand—and certainly not the kind of punishment a doctor would order when 1/3 of young male Torontonians are overweight.
And that’s why if Blackett and his supporters get their way, street hockey and other ball-playing would be legalized once again.
Read the rest of this entry »
“Worst beverage in America” available at Tim Hortons
(Image: Marc Majcher)
Just as Canadians were congratulating themselves on their nation-wide health consciousness for rejecting the allure of the Double Down comes the news that Canada’s national ambassador, Tim Hortons, is home to a snack that makes KFC’s sodium speedball look positively ascetic. The drink that Men’s Health has declared the “worst beverage in America” is available right here in the GTA, all thanks to Timmies’ penchant for brand partnerships.
Read the rest of this entry »
Where to eat lunch this week: The Queen and Beaver Public House
This downtown resto-bar elevates pub grub to swish dishes
Five expert tips on finding the ultimate steak
Carnal wins: Mark Schatzker hunts for the best steak in the world (Image: Pixel Puzzling)
It took Mark Schatzker three years to find the perfect steak. The Toronto-based journalist, traveller and lifelong beef lover was sick of the less-than-revelatory variety available hereabouts and set out to find the best a cow could give. The Globe recently hung out with Schatzker to eat steak and talk about his new book, Steak: One Man’s Search for the World’s Tastiest Piece of Beef. Here, five pearls of beefy wisdom we gleaned from that encounter.
Read the rest of this entry »
Tim Hortons adapts to American way of life as doughnuts become hamburger buns
(Image: myinnerfatty.blogspot.com)
When Tim Hortons started opening locations in the United States a few years ago, we mused that a distinctly Canadian operation might have trouble assimilating. How would Timmies fare in the world of Krispy Kreme and Starbucks? Well, today our worries are put to rest. Thanks to a recent blog post on My Inner Fatty, we can see Tim Hortons doughnuts are fitting in nicely with the American way of life.
Read the rest of this entry »
Mayoral debate more confusing than funny
We’re sure there was some real comedy and some real debate on Saturday, but none of it was at the mayoral debate, held at the Green Living Show. Because of the setting, the candidates all tried to out-green their rivals. Things got weird as Rocco Rossi claimed that selling Toronto Hydro was necessary to fund Transit City; George Smitherman accused Sarah Thomson of supporting Rossi’s sell-off (she denies it) and Rob Ford accused Smitherman of stealing his ideas. If the audience was confused, well, we can’t blame them.
Read the rest of this entry »
Among Jaffer’s problems: double chin
Troubled ex-MP Rahim Jaffer was arrested for drinking while intoxicated, is an alleged cocaine user, and is accused of using his wife’s position as a cabinet minister to conduct private business. But the Edmonton Sun is the only paper brave enough to say what everyone’s been thinking: Jaffer’s put on a lot of weight.
Read the rest of this entry »
Follow Toronto Life on Twitter, Facebook and via RSS