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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New TV show celebrates street food across North America—except Toronto, of course
New Canadian reality show to feature eye-popping $250,000 grand prize
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While we’re anxiously awaiting news of the forthcoming Top Chef Canada, a new Canadian food-based reality television series has just been announced that might be even more over the top. Recipe to Riches will showcase ordinary Canadians with exceptional recipes. Contestants will compete with original fare in seven categories—appetizers, sweet and savoury snacks, cakes, sweet pies, savoury pies (yes a whole category for savoury pies), entrées and frozen treats—to win best of their group, as well as top prize overall.
Empire state of mind: Chris Nuttall-Smith takes on Scott Conant’s Scarpetta
Celeb chef Scott Conant opened his third outpost of Scarpetta this summer. Too bad it looks, feels and tastes like a branch plant
(Image: Lorne Bridgman)
This city’s corps of celebrity chefs has lost some of its swagger in recent years. Lynn Crawford has retreated into what tastes like semi-retirement; Jamie Kennedy’s mismanagement cost him, and the city, his best restaurant (anybody been to Wine Bar lately?); Marc Thuet can’t seem to find a winning formula for his once-vaunted King Street space; and though I’m eager to be proven wrong on this point, Susur Lee is too busy chasing fortunes abroad to give it his best back home.
Scott Conant, on the other hand, is young and hungry, and his Scarpetta, in the new Thompson Hotel, is the first unapologetically expensive and formal room to open here since George, on Queen East, way back in 2004. Conant is also the first U.S. celebrity chef to build a satellite in Toronto. So sure, the city’s gluttonous class got excited: new blood, naked ambition, world-class cooking and all that. One chef even said privately that he hoped Scarpetta’s arrival would force the coasting locals to step up their game. Read the rest of this entry »
The List: 10 things chef David Adjey can’t live without
Ten things chef David Adjey, star of the new Food Network show The Opener, can’t live without
The best perk ever
I used to work as Dan Aykroyd’s personal chef in Kingston, and then I decided to move to Santa Barbara to cook at a resort. He gave me a car as a goodbye present and said, “If you’re gonna live in California, you’re gonna need a California car.” It was a gold ’66 Impala—the same car a lot of L.A. gangsta rappers drive. I keep the licence plate in my office.
A badass leather jacket
I got this jacket in 2003 when I was going through a rebel phase. It was the same month I separated from my ex-wife, opened my restaurant Nectar, and got signed to Restaurant Makeover. It cost $1,000—which was huge money at the time—at Due West on Queen Street. I love that it’s worn in and a little beat-up. I’m too old for it now, but I bust it out once in a while.
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Kitschy collectibles
I have been collecting antique egg cups since the early ’90s. I got the idea from the Park Avenue Café in New York, after I ordered the flan and it was served in an eggshell set inside an egg cup. I thought this was fantastic, so I started scouring flea markets and garage sales. Now my mom and friends are on the mission, too. My favourites are from post-war, 1940s Japan; they say “Made in Occupied Japan” on the bottom.
Introducing: Longo’s. Take a tour of the new 48,000 square-foot supermarket that’s sure to feed the downtown grocery war
Upwardly mobile at the new Longo's (Image: Karon Liu)
The latest supermarket to open in the downtown core is a sleek, 48,000 square-foot megastore by Longo’s. The new spot is part of Maple Leaf Square—the spanking new sports-themed development beside the Air Canada Centre—and should make locals rejoice as their area, better known for tourists and expressways, takes one step closer to becoming a bona fide neighbourhood.
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Our schadenfreude-fuelled love affair with reality TV
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There’s something to be said for watching perfect strangers (or, even better, pseudo-celebrities) make fools of themselves in front of the camera. And this fall’s reality TV lineup—whether it features hockey brutes attempting camel spins or dinner guests puking in the powder room—promises no shortage of wince-inducing entertainment. After all, you can’t have too much trash in trash TV. Here, a look at which Toronto shows put the boob in boob tube (and why you shouldn’t feel guilty about watching).
Mark McEwan’s new restaurant, Fabbrica, will finally open on Friday
Mark McEwan shows off his crostini (Image: Karon Liu)
Two little reminders: one, Shops at Don Mills still exists, and two, Mark McEwan will be opening his casual Italian restaurant, Fabbrica, there on Friday. At yesterday’s press conference for Chef’s Challenge—the November 20 celebrity charity cook-off—McEwan served up some crostini with bone marrow butter and horseradish gremolata that’ll be on the menu at the new restaurant.
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Joys of summer: hanging out with chef Tyler Florence at the Jays game
Tyler Florence at the Rogers Centre (Image: Karon Liu)
The summer may be over, but we couldn’t pass up an opportunity to watch a Jays game with chef Tyler Florence in the coveted 400 seats at the Rogers Centre—especially considering he was letting us taste one of his new creations. Florence was in town with the California Table Grape Commission as part of a five-stadium tour to promote, well, grapes. Specifically, he and his colleagues want the fruit to be sold in cups at the concession stands as a healthy alternative to peanuts and Cracker Jacks. After throwing the first pitch, Florence rushed upstairs, grabbed a beer and waxed poetic about healthy eating.
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Introducing: Scarpetta, the Thompson Hotel’s New York restaurant import
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Chef Scott Conant had never thought of opening a restaurant in Toronto, but when he was approached by the Thompson Hotel group and asked to do just that, it seemed like a logical step for him and his now-famous brand, Scarpetta. “I have so many clients from Toronto who visit my New York and Miami restaurants, it just seems like a natural progression,” says the James Beard Award winner. “To expand on the east coast also means it’ll be easier to travel between the places, since a flight from Toronto to Miami is only three hours. It just made sense. Toronto is an alpha city, and it’s great to be a part of it.”
Toronto writer David Sax wins James Beard Award
(Image: McClelland and Stewart)
Local boy and Toronto Life contributor David Sax won a James Beard Award for his much-lauded book Save the Deli yesterday. He blogs today on the Save the Deli Web site:
It was a wild night. I haven’t shvitzed that intensely since I was at a Russian banya. There was every kind of treyf you could imagine, great friends from the food world, and enough mixed alcohol to give me a hangover for the rest of today (hence, the late entry).
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Food Network’s answer to the demand for cheaper, edgier programming: Canadians
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American kids don’t seem to connect with Paula Deen and Emeril, so the owners of the U.S. Food Network is getting hip with the young ’uns by launching an all-new cooking channel—creatively titled the Cooking Channel—on May 31. What’s interesting here is that in an effort to find “grittier” and more “low-key” programming, the Cooking Channel is importing a wok-load of Canadians.
Canada gets its own Top Chef; wild speculation ensues
News came over the wire today that Canwest is producing a Canadian version of Top Chef that will air on the Food Network next spring, but few details about the show (casting, filming dates, judges, etc.) have been released yet. All we know is that the network has posted a video asking fans to pitch them challenge ideas (read: we’re exploiting Internet users as free labour).
