The Canadian Culinary Book Awards have a new name, a new logo and, the organizers hope, some newfound relevance. TV consultant Karen Gelbart (who helped bring the Food Network to Canada) took over as national chair a few months ago and has already put her stamp on the awards, now called Taste Canada—The Food Writing Awards. Gelbart told the Toronto Star that she wants to move away from the “insider feel” of years past to attract more media coverage and more widespread public awareness. In other words, make like the James Beard Foundation and the Giller Prize to generate buzz. As Cookbook Store manager Alison Fryer put it to the Toronto Star: “We’ve got awards for everything—playwrights, poetry, non-fiction, children’s books. For heaven’s sake, cookbooks are always the elephant in the room because they probably sell more than any other category outside of fiction.” Read the entire story [Toronto Star] »
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Winterlicious 2012: our food editor whittles the monster list down to a manageable 11
The spectacular view from c5 (Image: Suzanne Long)
It might be hard to believe, but Winterlicious celebrates its 10th anniversary this year. That’s right: it’s been a whole decade of commoners storming the fine dining gates, not to mention mutual bile and suspicion between restaurateurs and diners. And yet, the annual prix fixe event keeps growing. In its inaugural year, only 35 restaurants participated. This year, there are 175 on the roster, making it tougher than ever to choose where to spend your hard-earned $25 or $35 or $45. So we narrowed the choices down, first to 61 Toronto Life–approved spots and now to just 11 of the best. Because we’re slaves to trends, we focused the list this year on the new and improved—places that recently opened, overhauled or changed chefs—and because we like a bargain as much as anyone, we looked for the spots that offer the very best bang for the buck, which is, after all, what Winterlicious is all about. Start making your reservations now (unless you don’t have an AmEx card, in which case you can wait until Thursday like the rest of us).
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Recipe to Riches Reviewed: Episode 7, Slow and Low Pulled Pork
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.
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Top Toronto chefs recognized in 2011’s Nine of Dine at the Gourmet Food and Wine Expo
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This weekend, the Metro Toronto Convention Centre will host the Gourmet Food and Wine Expo, four days celebrating everything imbibable. Over 38,000 guests are expected to sample more than 1,500 fine wines, spirits and beers and participate in tutored tastings. The show also recognizes some of Toronto’s hottest chefs as part of the sixth annual Nine of Dine award, sponsored in part by Now and the expo itself.
Chuck Hughes anointed next big celeb chef by Grub Street, contemplating Toronto restaurant
(Image: Shaw Media)
Montreal chef and tattooed, all-around heartthrob Chuck Hughes could be the next primetime celeb chef, according to New York magazine’s Grub Street. The blog offers a slew of reasons why the easygoing host of Chuck’s Day Off is about to take off: he’s gotten plenty of exposure through the Cooking Channel (Canadians have watched Hughes on Food Network Canada for even longer); the cuisine at his Montreal restaurant Garde-Manger fits in with the current mini-trend of interest in French-Canadian food; he crushed Bobby Flay on Iron Chef America (with lobster poutine, no less); and he’s got a slot on the upcoming Next Iron Chef.
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Do TV chefs sometimes seem a little too satisfied with their creations? Exhibit A
There’s plenty to love about cooking shows. Heck, even in moments of failure we can’t look away. But there’s something about the way TV chefs react to tasting their own dishes that’s disturbingly, um, self-satisfying. Thankfully, the folks at Slate seem to feel the same way, and they recently put together a money-shot compilation from some of the Food Network’s more recognizable personalities. As usual, Paula Deen totally steals the show.
Top Chef Canada recap, episode 8: warring restaurants
An uncharacteristically friendly looking judge’s table—could it be because of Thea Andrews’s Princess Leia outfit? (Image: Food Network Canada/Insight Productions)
TOP CHEF CANADA
Season 1 | Episode 8
The Restaurant Wars challenge on Top Chef is always a fan favourite, and for good reason—it’s a reliable way to jump-start any season low on drama, bleeped-out words and finger pointing, much like our rather polite Canadian edition. After the jump, our recap of how it played out on last night’s episode.
Top Chef Canada recap, episode 7: placing products
The giant Michael Smith and the merely tall Thea Andrews (Image: Food Network Canada/Insight Productions)
TOP CHEF CANADA
Season 1 | Episode 7
Top Chef and blatant product placement have always gone hand in hand, with each season ratcheting up the level of sponsor integration. Far from being an outright fault, it has become something many fans almost look forward to—albeit with a little cringe. Top Chef Canada really outdid itself last night in that regard, with both the quickfire and the elimination challenges centred around a sponsor—a real milestone in the annals of Canadian TV brand integration. But episode seven was about more than just the all-important sponsors; it also featured a delightfully snarky Michael Smith, some adorable pictures of chefs with their significant others and rhyming put-downs from the judges. We recap it all, after the jump.
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Top Chef Canada recap, episode 6: horsing around
Dale MacKay before head judge Mark McEwan and his boss Daniel Boulud; French Food at Home’s Laura Calder (Image: Food Network Canada/Insight Products)
TOP CHEF CANADA
Season 1 | Episode 6
Last night’s episode of Top Chef Canada might have featured superstar New York chef Daniel Boulud, but the viewing audience likely tuned in for another reason altogether: horsemeat-gate (last week’s preview for episode 6 revealed that horsemeat would make an appearance, setting off a pre-emptive e-backlash and prompting Metro Morning to call our own Chris Nuttall-Smith for his opinion). Aside from the horsemeat sideshow, the episode featured some entertaining character development—Dale MacKay as a sore loser, Rob Rossi as a baby-faced trash talker—a classic Top Chef misstep and, for the first time, not a single chef in their underwear. Our recap of it all, after the jump.
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Top Chef Canada recap, episode 5: 11 little piggies
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.
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Top Chef Canada recap, episode 3: Aykroyd’s verboten vodka
Guest judge Dan Aykroyd flanked by his blues sisters, Thea Andrews and Shereen Arazm (Image: Food Network Canada/Insight Productions)
TOP CHEF CANADA
Season 1 | Episode 3
Was it just us, or was the level of cooking on last night’s episode of Top Chef Canada miles ahead of the safe, bland fare from the first two weeks? Maybe the chefs have gotten over their first time jitters. Or maybe it was the presence of actor, restaurateur, winemaker, illicit vodka purveyor and guest judge Dan Aykroyd that (ghost-)busted them into shape. Whatever it was, the contestants stepped up their game—without sacrificing the all-important smack talk and clowning around in their under things (this time Origin’s Steve Gonzalez did the honours). Here, our recap of the best dishes, trash talk and product placements.
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Roger Mooking—of Kultura, Nyood and Bass is Base fame—to take on Michael Symon on Iron Chef America
It seems MC Mystic is back. No, Toronto chef Roger Mooking isn’t reprising his role as rapper and percussionist in Juno-winning, ’90s R&B group Bass is Base. Instead, he will be riding his funkmobile over to Kitchen Stadium to take on Michael Symon on Iron Chef America later this May. Mooking is no stranger to food television—he’s the host of Food Network Canada’s Everyday Exotic—but the executive chef at Queen West’s Nyood will be facing some pretty high expectations following Montreal’s Chuck Hughes’ recent victory against Bobby Flay (Hughes was only the second Canadian chef ever to win on the series, Rob Feenie being the first). Symon has battled against two Canadians in the past, beating Ame’s Guy Rubino in season 6 and earning a draw against David Adjey in season 7. We’ll be tuning in to watch Mooking compete—and hoping for a little beat boxing and fake rain.
• Coming up on Iron Chef: Pasternack, Todd Stein, Mooking [Eater]
Grace restaurant, home kitchen of Dustin Gallagher, to host Top Chef Canada viewing parties. Is this a sign?
Just why is Dustin smiling so broadly? (Image: Food Network Canada)
In case you hadn’t noticed, Top Chef Canada premieres tonight on Food Network Canada. If you don’t have your viewing plans all sorted out, Grace, the College Street home of contestant Dustin Gallagher, is hosting a viewing party tonight in its upstairs lounge, starting around 8 p.m. Grace was closed on Mondays during the winter but is now open Monday through Saturday, just in time for Gallagher’s small-screen debut. Apparently the viewing parties will last for at least the first five weeks of the program and may continue after that. Could this kind of celebration hint at Gallagher’s success on the show? Guess we’ll just have to watch and find out.
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We chat with Top Chef Canada contestants at Thursday’s mock quick-fire
The chefs scramble for produce (Image: Mishki Vaccaro)
Thursday afternoon, Top Chef Canada head judge Mark McEwan, alongside host Thea Andrews, held a mock quick-fire challenge at the Art Gallery of Ontario to promote the show’s April 11 debut. Top Chef fans that we are, we couldn’t resist. The six Toronto-based contestants gave it their best shot in the AGO’s catering kitchen and offered up a few sound bites about the competition. Considering the notorious secrecy surrounding the U.S. version of the show, we’ll probably have to wait until the season finale for any really juicy behind-the-scenes gossip, but we did chat with contestants Steve Gonzalez, Rob Rossi and Dustin Gallagher about their struggles in the Top Chef Canada kitchen.
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New TV show celebrates street food across North America—except Toronto, of course
It’s not exactly news that street food options in Toronto are limited (and the city’s disastrous Toronto a la Cart program sure didn’t help). As a result, we’re pretty jealous of tantalizing fare from the cities featured on Food Network Canada’s newest program, Eat St. The show celebrates North America’s most delicious street food, and while Toronto’s admittedly good street meat didn’t make the cut, various vendors from British Columbia make up the Canadian contingent (it might help that the show is produced by Vancouver’s Paperny Films).
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