Farmers’ markets are great….One day they’re going to kill some people though.

—Loblaw executive chairman Galen Weston at the Canadian Food Summit, reflecting on the importance of food inspections (to be fair, he later added, “I’m just saying that to be dramatic though”) [Toronto Star]

Your favourite competitive cooking show—no, not that one—is back for a second season, according to the folks at Food Network Canada. Recipe to Riches, which pits home cooks against each other for what the press release calls “a once-in-a-lifetime shot at having their recipe developed into a President’s Choice® product,” begins a national casting call today. As regular Dish readers will do doubt remember, recipes featured on the show’s first season included bannock hazelnut pie and pulled pork, with Lunenberg, Nova Scotia’s Glo McNeill taking the win for her lemon pudding cakes. Like last season, the show features $25,000 prizes each episode, as well as a $250,000 grand prize for the overall winner of the season—a much heftier payout than certain other Canadian game shows. While the entire judging roster—Laura Calder, Tony Chapman, Dana McCauley and Galen Weston—will be returning, the fate of former Bachelor Jesse Palmer is still up in the air. A spokesperson for Food Network Canada writes, “as for the host, more details will be confirmed and revealed in the coming months.” Recipes can be submitted in one of the seven categories (they’re a little different from last year) on the show’s website.

(Image: Food Network Canada)

Last night, as thousands of Canadians looked on from their living rooms, Recipe to Riches came full circle when Glo McNeill, winner of episode one’s sweet puddings and pies challenge, took home the $250,000 prize. The vivacious grandma from Lunenburg, Nova Scotia, impressed the country with her Luscious Lemon Pudding Cakes, beating out John Grass and his Chicken Grenades in the final elimination round. The cakes weren’t the office favourite, but we have to respect such a simple recipe trouncing the competition. We caught up with her just after the taping to discuss her toughest rivals, web presence and what she plans to do with all that cash. Read our Q&A with the one and only G-Lo from Lunenberg, after the jump.

You said in the finale that you didn’t expect to win. Was that just modesty?

I’ve been following this online, and I’ve been looking at people raving about the kulfi ice cream. I really thought it was going to come down to Rosy and me. I thought she had a huge support network and her product was extraordinarily well received. I mean, some of the comments about it were just lyrical. Now, I took a couple of mouthfuls and I didn’t care for it at all, but that’s a personal palate.

Do you know how well your product is selling?

We could only go on hearsay, word of mouth. I know they were sold out along the south shore, which is where I live, because people kept phoning me up and asking, “When are you going to make some more?” But I had no no way of knowing besides what I read on my Tweetdeck or on Facebook.

Were you active on social networking before the competition?

I got my first computer in 1986. I played Scrabble on ISC [Internet Scrabble Club] for many, many years. So computers are nothing new to me—mind you, I’m sort of an idiot savant because I don’t know how they work—but when I found out it was going to be cyber-voting, I took it very seriously.

So do you think your personality contributed to your success? Being a somewhat tech-savvy, eloquent old lady…

Compared to a gorgeous 22-year-old with incredible tattoos and hair down to her behind? Or compared to a six-foot, four-inch ex-football champion? We all had our charms, or else we wouldn’t be up there as finalists.

So what are you going to do with all that money?

First we’re going to have a good Christmas, a damn good Christmas. Second we’re going to get the builder in to look at our 140-year-old house and fix all the little niggly things that have been worrying us. We haven’t had a holiday in a long, long time. We’re going to be able to go to the dentist without thinking we can’t afford it. So, really and truly, we won’t have to look over our shoulders for a long, long time.

What have you used your $25,000 for?

We put away enough to cover our mortgage payments for the next year, which is huge. Visa took a lot, you know. And the rest is just going on basic living. It couldn’t have happened at a better time, because we were really at a stage where we were thinking we were gonna have to talk with the children to see if they could help us, which is a horrendous thing to have to do.

Do you have any other genius recipes to share?

I’ve written a family cookbook and I think they’re all genius recipes. You’ve probably not seen the Facebook page, G-Lo from Lunenburg? Well, I’ve been doing quotes from the family recipe book, which is used on most Canadian coast guard ships because of Drew. [McNeill’s son is a senior captain.]

We’ve been wondering: why is your cartoon likeness painting on the box art?

I used to make my living teaching art. And since this show has happened, a new gallery has picked up on my paintings. So, after not painting seriously for 40 years, I’m back in business. I was in the 1967 centennial exhibition of Canadian women painters. My best years were pre-1974.

How do you think the product is going to do going forward?

I think it’s going to be the sort of thing that’s totally ageless. I’ve worked on a gluten-free version as a result of comments I’ve read about how excited people were about a gluten-free cookie. So I experimented with flours and I was just mentioning it to Galen Weston, and he said, “Let’s talk about it.” So there may well be a gluten-free version. I think it’s going to be around a long time.

Always with your name attached to it?

Irrelevant. I don’t mind. I’ve had my moment. How much excitement does an 82-year-old want?

Photographs: Houses by Daniel Neuhaus; faces by George Pimentel and CP Images

Elbow-patched academics, keg-emptying frat boys and earthy middle-incomers have long ruled the Annex. But lately, a clutch of moneyed, high-powered Forest Hill and Rosedale types have wandered south, looking for cool downtown bustle without having to give up the acreage. And who can blame them? The east Annex is a natural geographical nexus for the intellectual and moneyed elite, what with U of T and all the museums to the south, and the revamped Bloor Street promenade—not to mention Whole Foods—a short stroll away. The choicest address is Admiral Road, a winding, bucolic boulevard with huge heritage homes ripe for renovation. Margaret Atwood is its most famous resident; she’s lived there since ’85. Ex-GG Adrienne Clarkson became her neighbour in ’05. Adrienne’s ex-hubby, eminent egghead Stephen Clarkson, is down the way on Lowther—a strip dotted with luminaries like George Cohon of McDonald’s and real estate king Jimmy Molloy. Above, we chart the most recent arrivals to Toronto’s newest Golden Mile.

(Maple Leaf Gardens image: Kevin Naulls)

In the seven years since news broke that the Maple Leaf Gardens would be turning into a grocery store, it’s become something of a bad joke, a symbol of modernity callously stomping on the past. But after Wednesday’s grand opening of the Loblaws flagship store, Torontonians have suddenly opened up to the idea with surprising vigour. And there’s a lot to love, what with walls of cheese, cupcakes, tea and aging meat, as well as plenty of relics from the days of yore, like a giant leaf sculpture made out of the stadium’s original plastic chairs and a red dot in aisle 25 marking the former location of centre ice. Here’s some of what other Torontonians had to say:

• Hockey Hall of Famer and former Maple Leaf Dick Duff wandered the floor on opening day, signing autographs and posing for cheesy photos at the centre ice marker. “It’s a shame they couldn’t keep the Gardens as the home of the Leafs,” he told the Toronto Sun. “But I’m glad they’ve done something good with the building. In Montreal, they’ve almost forgotten the Forum.” The 75-year-old was largely satisfied with the nods to the team’s glory days, but joked to the National Post, “That Ace Bakery sign—it should really say Ace Bailey.” Zing!

• According to the Toronto Star’s Christopher Hume, “Maple Leaf Gardens never looked so good, nor smelled so sweet.” He credits the store, along with new condo development and the National Ballet School expansion, with revitalizing a once-crummy Carlton Street. Apparently the effect was immediate: as soon as the doors opened, “Loblaws was already an urban fixture. That’s how long it took.” He also contributed some Humovision.

• Marcus Gee at the Globe and Mail was also impressed: “The stunning new Loblaws brings life to the old hulk and a new urban buzz to its downtown neighbourhood,” he writes. Gee expects that the flagship store will prove that big chain operations can fit in and flourish in the city. With a university, a corporation and the government working together, he calls the Gardens rebirth “city building at its best.”

• To prevent the city from collapsing in fits of joy, The Grid’s Edward Keenan tweeted a link to a grumpy 2004 article in which he called it an insult to have “the repository of our dreams and past glories” transformed into “a place to buy toilet paper and dog food.”

• Like Keenan, Toronto historian Michael Bliss chastised Maple Leaf Sports and Entertainment for vetoing efforts to establish a hockey stadium that could rival the Air Canada Centre. “Surely Ryerson University and Loblaws have done a great thing for Toronto and Canada,” he wrote in a letter to the Post, “mostly against the wishes of the organization that also has failed repeatedly to give our community a quality hockey team.”

• Stuart Ross—owner of the nearby Bulldog Café—called it “a spectacular store” in the Globe. “Their cheese wall is unbelievable,” he said. “The cupcakes—it seems like a 20-foot-long display case of bakery goods—that impressed me.” He claims he bought the very first item (pomegranate juice) at the new store, with the receipt signed by Galen Weston himself. Predictably, a number of gourmets on Chowhound complained about the quality of the food, but as apologist “freia” noted, quite reasonably, “Well, it IS a grocery store.”

(Images: Kevin Naulls)

When a heritage building like Maple Leaf Gardens is renovated, there’s always a concern that whatever goes inside will gut the building’s soul, with, at best, a commemorative plaque to mark what used to be. Thankfully, Galen Weston and his Loblaws crew chose to retain the charm of the iconic arena, except that instead of stadium seating and the aroma of beer nuts, the impressively large space is now home to fresh bread (from Ace Bakery), a café (with the original Gardens gold seats), a wide selection of organic produce (fans of Portlandia will be pleased to know that images of the farmers responsible abound), a sushi bar, an LCBO, a walk-in clinic, a Joe Fresh, a wall of cheese (seriously, a whole wall), a wall of cupcakes (seriously, a whole wall) and a wall of aging meat (yes, a whole wall). That’s just the tip of the chocolate-by-the-chunk iceberg (of which there is one—it weighs 250 pounds and required a mechanical lift to drop into place). Tour the brand new grocery mega-store in a gallery after the jump.

Before we were admitted to the supermarket-cum-coliseum for the grand opening, Weston gave a speech, followed by a baguette-cutting ceremony (the purpose-baked Ace baguette was a good five feet long). We entered and hung a left to find a red-subway-tiled café selling bagels (69 cents each), espresso-based drinks ($1.79–$3.19) and house-made gelato ($2.99–$10.99). Much of the prepared food in the store, from stocks and soups to baked goods, is made in-house by executive chef Mark Russell and his team of nine Red Seal chefs. According to senior VP André Fortier, who was responsible for the “concept rollout,” there will be no day-old goods at this location (leftovers will be donated to Second Harvest).

There’s a lot to see and touch, but some of the most appealing items in-store right now include Malpeque oysters ($1.20 each), live market lobsters ($9.99), dry-aged Wagyu strip loin steaks ($88.16 per kilogram), a Cropwell Bishop Stilton ($4.59 per 100 grams) and a dried mushroom bar that’s home to dried morels ($113.39 per pound), black trumpets ($31.75 per pound) and porcinis ($45.36 per pound). We even found a pretty decent-looking PC Santoku knife ($22) in the home section and some beautiful Phalaenopsis orchids ($14.99), bred in the Niagara Peninsula, in the large flower shop. We do warn that shoppers should heed the old adage “never shop hungry” at this place, lest they find themselves needing to be pried off the gigantic cheese wall (or the 12-foot cupcake wall).

Last things first: at the end of this week’s episode (the sweet and savoury snacks challenge), the producers flashed a disclaimer explaining that “due to unforeseen circumstances,” the winning contestant would “not be competing for the grand prize in the final episode.” Our minds rife with conspiracy theories neither sweet nor savoury, we dashed off a note to the show’s publicist, who reassured us there was nothing untoward going on. Apparently, after the show was taped, the producers found out that the winner had a family member who worked at a company connected to the show, making her technically ineligible. But since that family member wasn’t in a position to have any influence on the show, they decided to let her keep her $25,000 in winnings while barring her from the grand prize. Given how badly she wanted to win (see below), we have to admit we feel a little bad. After the jump, our weekly recap and tasting panel.

Mini-Recap

We weren’t able to conduct a precise count, but we’d be willing to wager that this episode had more tears in it than in all the previous ones combined. The main (but by no means only) culprit was Whistler ski bum Sonya Walos, who brought with her a gluten-free chocolate chip cookie she devised after being disappointed, like everyone else, with the quality of gluten-free products on the market. During the batch-up challenge, Walos almost melted down when she found out her assistant had accidentally doubled the chocolate chips in her cookie (“I’ve learned one thing in life, and you can’t trust anybody,” she complained). But it was Natasha Langevin of Dollard-des-Ormeaux, Quebec, who got the axe when the judges thought her one-bite s’mores (which she brilliantly named s’morsels) were a one-time novelty buy. In the marketing round, Valos went up against Vancouver econ PhD student Donna Feir, whose “bacon stampeder” cookie was a homage to the stampede breakfasts of her native Calgary (apparently they tasted of buttermilk pancakes, maple syrup and, yes, bacon). When a couple of strangers helped her set up her mock stampede at Dundas Square, the bubbly Feir was the antithesis to Walos’s cynic, proclaiming that “people are so good… and it’s good to know that my faith in people is validated!” Sadly, faith in people was not enough for Feir; in a most Canadian moment, the judges worried that her cookies were, in Laura Calder’s words, “too interesting for their own good,” and sent her packing. At this point, Walos and Feir reacted in time-honoured reality TV fashion, with weeping, spluttering, giggling, gasping, hair pulling and hugs (Galen Weston’s surprise entrance minutes earlier had provoked a similar reaction). Walos’ send-off was most memorable: “Oh my God, oh my God, oh my God, I don’t know what to say! Thank you so much! I think I’m going to have a heart attack!!!”

Tasting Panel

After last week’s bannock pie, which took over an hour to put together, these pre-baked “smart” cookies were a welcome reprieve—just open the box and eat. Only about half the members of our tasting panel were informed beforehand that these cookies were gluten-free and, not surprisingly, they seemed to like them a little better. Although some complained the coconut-strewn cookies were a little gritty, one taster noted, approvingly, that they “didn’t have that earthy flavour that gluten-free cookies sometimes have.” Someone else added that he couldn’t “taste the stuff mentioned on the box”—i.e. puffed corn, quinoa and crisp brown rice—“and that’s a good thing.” Still, there was broad consensus that the cookies were mighty sweet; tellingly, everyone turned down seconds. The verdict: impressive for a gluten-free cookie, passable otherwise. See the cookies in action in our box-to-plate gallery »

(Images: Sonya Walos and homemade cookies, Food Network Canada; tasting photos, Andrew D’Cruz)

The press comes down hard on Black as news of his unceremonious ousting from Hollinger becomes public. Blackguard Rupert Murdoch is the prime offender, allegedly whipping up negative ink out of nothing, but Black is most disgruntled by the betrayal of his onetime friend (and former lieutenant governor) Hal Jackman, who publicly smears Black with accusations of a death wish, a Napoleon complex and an “absurd” lifestyle.

Black chalks it all up to anti–corporate governance zealotry and accuses the press of prematurely sentencing him with no evidence (for the record, he acknowledges that convicting the execs at Enron and Worldcom was a probably a good idea). He keeps returning to that one comforting thought: his unflagging honesty will keep him out of trouble (we admit that his optimism is kind of irresistible, but it’s so, so misguided).

Meanwhile, he struggles to keep Hollinger Inc. (the Canadian arm of the company, where he’s still a director) afloat; alas, to no avail. His corporate credit card, expense account and company car are all confiscated, leaving him with no choice but to, uh, use his own credit card and his own car. The horror!

He proceeds to try wrangling the sale of the company to a pair of British identical twin brothers (who, we imagine, sport matching monocles and handlebar moustaches). In the meantime, he gets quietly—but brusquely—fired from his directorships at CanWest, CIBC and Brascan. Of course, he does get a nice goodbye from Galen Weston (who we assume also offers him a lifetime supply of President’s Choice chicken wings).

Jobless and alone, Black realizes he’s dirt poor—his cash supply has dwindled down to a paltry, unmanageable $100,000. He desperately starts selling off his assets (but insists that to this day he has a perfect credit record). The auditors, meanwhile—our old city service review pals, KPMG—muck up his case even further. They originally said the non-competition payments were authorized; now they’ve changed their tune.

After weeks of negotiations and sitting in his library faxing the Barclays all by himself—with no assistance (good for him!)—he finalizes the deal. But the stress has taken its toll. On Conrad, who admits to loneliness and perspiration, and on Barbara, who loses weight, colour and, briefly, command of her senses when she walks three miles in the cold to Don Mills and buys Conrad two combs that he didn’t even need. He didn’t even need the combs, guys.

In the words of the Lord:

• On the venom of the press: “The press, whose members I had always treated with consideration, continued to attack in the vilest and most relentless assault I have seen on anyone entitled to the benefit of any doubt about his conduct. Such reflexive, resonating, widespread antagonism was unnerving and contagious.”

• On becoming a devotee of Charles de Gaulle’s political ideology at age 10: “My francophilia and realization of the impermanence of triumph and disaster, the value of endurance, and the manipulability and forgetfulness of a general opinion dated from these days.”

• On his unfortunate nighttime tendencies: “For the first time in my life, I had night sweats. I was awakened by my racing heart, stirred to acute fear by unremembered dreams.”

• On his return to the commonplace: “It was the last time I would see our corporate airplane…Commercial aviation had been the means of travel for most of my life and I could quickly get used to it again.”

Gregory Burke with Sarah Bywater, the former Power Plant head fundraiser, at the 2009 Power Ball (Image: George Pimentel)

The Power Plant’s first board meeting of the year was held at noon on Monday, February 7. The gallery, situated on prime waterfront property, is a magnet for the city’s wealthy society figures. The clubby board of governors reflects that. Trinity Jackman, an archaeologist and the daughter of Hal Jackman, is the vice-president. The Drake Hotel owner Jeff Stober is a member, as are Rosedale hostess and arts patron Elisa Nuyten and the entertainment lawyer Paul Bain. The board’s president is Shanitha Kachan, an art collector and the wife of investment guru Gerald Sheff. Kachan called to order what should have been a routine, low-key meeting. Then came the big revelation.

Gregory Burke, the gallery’s director for the past five years, rose from his chair to make an announcement. The 53-year-old Burke is painfully shy and uncomfortable in public, and avoids eye contact. In a quiet voice, he informed the board that he was resigning. The announcement wasn’t totally unexpected. Since the day Burke was hired, there had been tension between him and members of the board, especially Bill Boyle, the gallery’s former director and a steadfast advocate of a more populist approach to arts programming. The socially graceful and savvy Kachan had become board president last June and never really connected with Burke, either.

His resignation came at a particularly awkward moment. The Power Plant was nearing the end of a $750,000 renovation that was meant to reintroduce it to the city when completed this spring. The gallery was also preparing to unveil an ambitious installation by the celebrated Swiss artist Thomas Hirschhorn. The news of Burke’s resignation signalled that he was so unhappy he’d eclipse the grand reopening with his departure.

The directors of medium-sized art galleries aren’t usually celebrities, but the person in charge of the Power Plant spends a great deal of time in the spotlight. Unlike collecting institutions such as the Art Gallery of Ontario and the Royal Ontario Museum, the Power Plant doesn’t acquire art; instead, it spends its budget on curating themed shows of borrowed artworks and organizing exhibitions that survey trendy art themes. The gallery is known as a conduit for the fickle fashions of the international art world, and as an arbiter of the biggest names in contemporary Canadian art (last year it hosted a survey of the video art of Michael Snow). The Power Plant doesn’t sell the art it exhibits, either—it leaves that to artists’ agents and dealers. An artist exhibited at the gallery acquires instead the coveted seal of disinterested approbation. With that endorsement comes status and a spike in asking price. The director of the Power Plant is one of the most power­ful tastemakers in the country’s art circles.

The gallery’s prestigious reputation was carefully nurtured by its parent, the Harbourfront Centre—a non-profit consortium that also runs the International Festival of Authors, the Fleck Dance Theatre and two marinas. Founded in 1976 as the Art Gallery at Harbourfront, the gallery has always been devoted to exhibiting the work of contemporary artists. In 1987, it changed its name and moved into its current building, a renovated 1920s facility that once housed the heating and refrigeration equipment for Queen’s Quay Terminal. The relationship between the Power Plant and Harbourfront is and has always been cozy. Boyle, in addition to serving as a Power Plant board member, is the chief executive officer of Harbourfront and was one of the gallery’s original founders. From the outset, he wanted the gallery to address what he considered a shameful dearth of contemporary art exhibited at institutions such as the AGO. The Power Plant was meant to bring together the bohemian artists on Queen Street West and the international scene in New York, Los Angeles, London and Berlin. The Power Plant’s budget is approved by the Harbourfront board, and it is ultimately Harbourfront that hires and fires the Power Plant’s director.

Burke, a native New Zealander, began his career in the 1970s as a video artist. By the mid-’80s, he had shifted to arts curation and administration. He ran the Govett-Brew­ster, a public gallery for contemporary art in New Plymouth, New Zealand. “At the time I was at the Govett-Brewster, there was a plague in public funding,” Burke says. The city administrators eventually came around to his impassioned pleas to continue funding the gallery, agreeing that art was too important to sacrifice to economic pressures. Burke was at the Govett-Brewster for seven years, exhibiting international work, especially from the Pacific Rim, and establishing an artists’ residency program. By 2005, the year he received a call from the Power Plant, he had acquired an international reputation. “I knew about the Power Plant from day one,” he told me. “I knew people in the international art world respected it.”

Jim Balsillie: billionaire (Image: AtelMedia)

According to The Social Network, a million dollars isn’t cool. But you know what is? A billion dollars. If that’s the case, then just a handful of Canadians are cool these days: Forbes released its annual list of the world’s billionaires, and only 24 Canucks earned a mention. Only one made the top 20, while another two ranked in the top 200 and the rest were sprinkled throughout the list of 1,140. Here, we meet (or re-meet, as they’re all pretty predictable) the eight listees from the G.T.A. and environs.

David Thomson and Family
The top Canadians to make the list are 53-year-old Torontonian David Thomson and his family. They rank 16th globally, with a cool $23-billion fortune. Thomson is the chairman of media behemoth Thomson Reuters, which owns 85 per cent of The Globe and Mail and a large portion of CTV.

Galen Weston and family
Weston may place #133 on the overall list, but he is the second-richest man in Canada (when he’s here, that is), worth $7.1 billion at age 70. Weston owns George Weston Ltd., but is perhaps best known for the Loblaw supermarket chain. Weston is also in the rag trade, with Holt Renfew and Brown Thomas in Ireland. According to Forbes, he’s interested in acquiring Barneys New York.

Fun facts: He is an avid collector of avant-garde artist Christo, attends the Vanity Fair Oscar party and has played polo with Prince Charles.

Bernard Sherman
At age 69, Sherman clocks in at #393 in the world (alongside 15 others), with a net worth of $2.9 billion. Sherman attended the University of Toronto for his undergrad and received a PhD from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Sherman founded Apotex, a generic drug maker, in 1974, and sales exceed $1 billion today.

Not so fun fact: Sherman is currently locked in a long legal battle against relatives who allege they own a piece of his fortune.

Wallace McCain
Hailing from Florenceville, New Brunswick, McCain occupies the 512nd place on the list. McCain founded the eponymous frozen French fry empire with his brother Harrison in 1956 and owns meat processor Maple Leaf Foods.

Not so fun fact: McCain was forced out of the day-to-day operations after a family feud. Harrison was reportedly upset when Wallace named his son, Michael, as McCain USA’s unilateral chief executive in 1990. The resulting legal battle forced Wallace to lose his job in 1994.

Mike Lazaridis
Lazaridis, 49, lives in Waterloo and is the co-founder of BlackBerry manufacturer Research in Motion.  Worth $1.9 billion, he is ranked as the 651st billionaire. Lazaridis received a BA-BS at the University of Waterloo, where he is now chancellor, and also founded Waterloo’s Perimeter Institute for Theoretical Physics in 1999.

Jim Balsillie
Balsillie is also a co-founder of Research in Motion, and he placed just beneath his partner Lazaridis in the 692nd spot, with $1.8 billion. At 50, Balsillie is, according to Forbes, a “sports nut,” having made three unsuccessful attempts to buy an NHL team for Ontario. He is also a member of the Trilateral Commission.

Fun fact: Forbes perhaps says it best, describing Balsillie as being in an “active ego-match with Steve Jobs over whose [product] is better.” Back in October, Jobs announced that the iPhone outsold the BlackBerry 14.1 million to 12.1 million, and claimed that RIM’s initial PlayBook tablet would be “dead on arrival” compared to the 10-inch iPad. The Toronto Star reports Balsillie as responding that Apple’s sales figures in the most recent quarter were unrealistically high because of suppressed demand before the launch of the iPhone 4. “As usual … there’s more to the story,” Balsillie said. “Sooner or later … people … will begin to resent begin being told half a story.”

Frank Stronach
Father to Belinda, Stronach, 78, has a net worth of $1.7 billion, putting him at 736th. Stronach emigrated from Austria to Montreal in 1954, working odd jobs before opening his ow,n tool and die shop in 1957 with friend Tony Czapka. Owner of Magna International, one of the world’s biggest automotive parts suppliers, the Aurora-based Stronach relinquished control of his company last year in exchange for a payout upwards of $1 billion.

Fun fact: Stronach is a successful horse breeder. His family owns Adena Springs Farm, which just won its seventh breeder Eclipse Award in January.

Gerald Schwartz
Schwartz received an MBA from Harvard and, at the age 69, is worth $1 billion. Schwartz shares the 1140th slot with several other billionaires around the world. Founder of private equity firm Onex Corp., established in 1984, Schwartz also has large stakes in electronics manufacturer Celestica. St. Frances Xavier University’s business school is named after him.

Fun fact: Schwartz owns a 19-foot dinghy called “Know Heather,” named after his wife, Heather Reisman, founder of Indigo Books and Music.

Inside Briscola Trattoria (Image: Gizelle Lau)

Briscola, the new rustic Italian restaurant from Ink Entertainment’s Charles Khabouth and Amber’s Toufik Sarwa, opened last Friday to the packed crowds one would expect from a collaboration between the two nightlife vets. After taking over the space of Sarwa’s short-lived Cinq 01 restaurant, Briscola apparently saw visits from Ben Mulroney and Galen Weston Jr. on its first weekend.

The menu at Briscola is divided up into Antipasti, Primi Piatti, Pizze and Secondi Piatti. Chef Sean Reeve (formerly of Via Allegro) aims to create traditional Italian dishes that let ingredients shine, but with modern twists. For starters, there are fried olives ($6), tuna carpaccio ($14) and deep-fried artichokes ($8). Primi dishes include modern takes on eggplant parmigiana ($11) and spaghetti pomodoro ($10/$16). Pizzas come in seven styles, including a classic Neapolitan-style margherita ($12), made in the restaurant’s stone-bottom oven in the pizza kitchen next to the bar. Mains range from $21–24, with dishes like osso buco ($21) and seared branzino ($24).

Cinq 01’s loungey interior was refreshed by Commute Home (of Nyood and Colborne Lane) to create a rustic yet whimsical environment. At the front of the restaurant, one wall shows off a flat, life-sized, candy apple–red Citroën DS sculpture, modelled after the Italian-designed car from the 1950s. Custom wire-framed chandeliers hang over lounge tables at the front—perfect for playing briscola, the Italian card game after which the restaurant is named—as well as in the back, over plush white booths. A long communal table made of Canadian walnut with cushioned benches offers additional family-style seating.

Meanwhile, Khabouth’s Ink Entertainment is already busy with its next project. Look for La Société, a new bistro, to open in Dynasty’s old space in the Colonnade on Bloor in June, and a new resto-lounge project along King Street West sometime afterward.

Briscola, 501 College St., 416-964-1555, briscola.ca.

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.

If those categories read like a selection of President’s Choice Blue Menu products, it’s probably because they soon will be: winners in each category not only receive $25,000, but also have their recipe developed and sold by President’s Choice in Loblaw stores country-wide. And if a chance to meet Galen Weston Jr. doesn’t whet your appetite, the contestant with the overall winning recipe will take home $250,000, the largest prize in Canadian reality show history. Promotional tool or not, we say bring on the resurrected phyllo pastry recipes of yore!

Nothing official has been announced, but producers confirm a host has been selected for the project (fingers crossed for Galen) and that the show will air in fall 2011 on the Food Network and Global. Torontonians looking to audition can do so on February 26, at a location to be announced.

Galen Weston Jr.’s Bieber haircut, a commando mission to shoot Conrad Black, and the never-ending battle for fashion supremacy—George Pimentel has seen, done and documented it all. Tonight, the celebrity photographer shares 300 of his favourite Toronto society snaps at a VIP-filled bash at the Carlu. In case you didn’t get an invite, here’s a sneak peek at some of Pimentel’s most memorable shots.

Begin the slide show >>

(Image: George Pimentel)

One evening last March, Toronto’s stylish set put on their best frocks and headed to a retail baptism. Sarah Jessica Parker, celebrity high priestess of fashion, was in town to launch the Halston Heritage label at The Bay. The party, which reportedly cost over $200,000, was meant to establish Canada’s oldest department store as a major player in high-end womenswear. If retailers can be born again, this was The Bay’s moment to lean back and dip its head into the holy water.

Fashion media and socialites were ushered into the Queen Street flagship store and up the escalator to sip champagne on the third floor. That’s where The Room is located. The upscale designer dress salon was renovated a year ago for approximately $4.4 million in a high modernist style by the designers Yabu Pushelberg. The result is a treasure trove of conversation piece baubles, heels, flirty cocktail dresses and gowns by some of the most prestigious designers in the business. It’s the beating heart of the new Bay.

The Halston invitation promised a chance to meet Parker for some chit-chat and a casual photo op. The stable of thoroughbred clothes horses in attendance that night included Wendy Melvin, the executive headhunter; Simona Shnaider, the wife of the billionaire steel magnate Alex Shnaider; and socialites Stacey Kimel and Catherine Nugent (who wore an original custom-made Halston suit). The dapper designer Wayne Clark rubbed shoulders with then-MTV Canada host Jessi Cruickshank, who bopped in wearing a Halston onesie. An immaculately coiffed Laureen Harper was toured around by Jeanne Beker. The in-store event was followed by a dinner at One Restaurant at the Hazelton Hotel for executives and VIPs. A Studio 54–themed after party was held for 700 slightly less important guests, who danced and drank the night away on a custom-constructed light-up dance floor at the nightclub This Is London.

Sarah Jessica Parker (Image: George Pimentel)

If you believe what you read on Twitter, this campaign to seduce the city’s most sought-after shoppers worked. During the event, Flare editor-in-chief Lisa Tant tweeted that Toronto’s socialites and Canada’s first lady were “breathless” in the company of Parker. Cruickshank overshared about nearly “wetting” herself with excitement. Another party guest compared the vibe in the room to “a bunch of eight-year-old girls waiting to meet Barbie.”

Earlier that night, before Parker arrived in a pair of four-inch silver Ferragamo heels, The Bay’s president and CEO, Bonnie Brooks, had some last-minute business to attend to. A female security guard wearing a poly-blend outfit was stationed at the party’s entrance and looked as frumpy as, well, a Hudson’s Bay security guard. Taking one look at the guard, Brooks instructed an office minion, “Get her out of here.” The order, like all of Brooks’ wishes, was immediately carried out. Such gaffes are small compared to what Brooks faces on her mission to remake the dowdy institution into a major fashion player. She can banish all the badly dressed people she wants, but will The Bay ever be seen as the most glamorous department store in Toronto? Not if the current holder of that title has anything to say about it.

Not since The Bay flogged beaver pelts has the company set its sights so high

The Bay is enormous. It’s Canada’s original big box chain, with 92 outlets from coast to coast, and it thought big from the beginning. Famously founded in the mid–17th century as a string of British-run trading posts (King Charles II signed the Royal Charter granting the company land and trading rights), the Hudson’s Bay Company didn’t branch into department store retail until 1913, when it launched its original six outlets in Western Canada. The first stores were modelled after Harrods in London—sprawling, diverse, one-stop shopping emporiums. They carried everything from stockings to liquor to tinned fish.

Holt Renfrew, The Bay’s main competitor for fashion shoppers, is small and chic—the little black dress of department store chains, with only nine outlets across Canada. Founded in 1837 (the same year as Tiffany and Hermès), it began as a hat store in Quebec City and for several decades served as the official furrier to the royal family. Holts hit its stride by bringing Christian Dior’s New Look to Canada in 1947. Exclusive accounts with other major European fashion houses soon followed, and Holts was established in its modern role as the country’s major high-end fashion retailer.

The newlyweds oozed post-coital confidence (Image: Karon Liu)

Is it just us, or were significant others one of the most commonly spotted red carpet accessories? Nicole, Jon, Megan (to name a few) all showed off their better halves at their premieres. With the festival wrapped up for another year, a look back at this year’s most memorable couples in our slide show below.