Read the rest of this entry »
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.
The comprehensive index of every blog post, magazine story and restaurant review that appears on Torontolife.com
All stories relating to kevin mckenna
Introducing: Earth Bloor West, Ed Ho’s massive new bistro and lounge
Earth’s owner Ed Ho at the bar (Image: Jag Gundu)
Earlier this year we reported on the closure of My Place, the massive Bloor West Village pub that lasted only a year. Many restaurant owners would find it daunting to take over an 18,000-square-foot space, regardless of location, but Ed Ho (Globe Bistro, Earth Rosedale) saw it as an opportunity to service an area of town that has long been considered a culinary dead zone. His solution: a neighbourhood bistro serving local and seasonal fare paired with a lounge and private event space.
Read the rest of this entry »
Ed Ho pulls out of plans to open an Earth 2 restaurant in Mississauga
The 'Sauga continues: Mississauga will have to live without a Ho-McKenna restaurant—for now (Image: Seekdes, from the torontolife.com Flickr pool)
After many months of demolition and construction, and many dollars spent, restaurateur Ed Ho (of Globe Bistro and Earth) is walking away from his ambitious Earth 2 project in Mississauga. For now, Ho isn’t saying much, lest the lawyers become involved, but it seems he and his financiers could not see eye to eye, disagreeing on the direction of the project, and other deal-breaking details. “I can’t compromise to make a new partner happy,” Ho explained. “And I am not in this for the money. I left Bay Street for the love of this.”
Read the rest of this entry »
Ed Ho and Kevin McKenna take their locavore ethos to their new restaurant in Mississauga
Kevin McKenna shares an intimate moment with a local swine (Image: Signe Langford)
Farm-to-fork restaurateur Ed Ho—the man behind Globe and Earth—is about to extend his reach right out to the burbs. He and chef Kevin McKenna are betting that their go-local ethos will fly in Mississauga, where they’ve taken over a former Lone Star Texas Grill near Square One. The space is presently being gutted and rebuilt, but when it’s done, Ho expects to be able to seat nearly 250 in the dining area and even more on the patio and in a private room.
Read the rest of this entry »
The great scapes: five ways that Toronto chefs are using garlic shoots
A bunch of garlic scapes (Image: Joe Shlabotnik)
For the past few weeks, garlic scapes have been cropping up on menus throughout the city. An early summer treat, these shoots are the sweeter, mellower off-growth of the more pungent bulbs that come later in the season (cutting them from young plants helps the bulbs grow plumper). But as they are delectable in their own right, scapes have lately found a following from locavore chefs. Below, five ways of the best ways to enjoy scapes in Toronto right now.
Read the rest of this entry »
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.
Start the slide show »
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.
Read the rest of this entry »
Squash season is upon us: five of T.O.’s top chefs show us how they’re treating fall’s star fruit
(Photo by Andy Roberts)
For Toronto chefs worshipping at the altar of fresh and local, squash is the ingredient of the moment. Cowbell’s owner and chef, Mark Cutrara, tells us that the locavore movement has led to a better infrastructure for getting Ontario-farmed versions to cooks, who are doing more than just puréeing the fruit for soup. Culinary innovators around town are transmuting squash into ice cream, gratin and gnocchi. We look at five delicious dishes from five Toronto menus that make the most of this year’s bountiful squash harvest.
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.
Read the rest of this entry »
Follow Toronto Life on Twitter, Facebook and via RSS