Remember last year when Chris Cosentino, one of the pioneers of the offal revival, visited Toronto for undisclosed reasons and claimed he could smell Chinatown from three blocks away? Or when Richard Blais, the molecularly inclined winner of Top Chef All-Stars, tweeted about the interesting tasting menu he’d just lunched on in Toronto? Or when Italian food legend Lidia Bastianich dropped in at All the Best Fine Foods? Turns out they weren’t here just because they love us—they’re all guest judges on season two of Top Chef Canada. Other notable judges and tasters include—and let us be clear, this is a bit of a spoiler for those who really like to keep their Top Chef Canada viewing pure—east-coast chef Michael Smith, season one host Thea Andrews (no hard feelings, we guess!), chef-about-town Matty Matheson of Parts and Labour, Leafs assistant captain Colby Armstrong, Susur Lee and his soon-to-be restaurateur sons Kai and Jet Bent-Lee, Toca’s Tom Brodi, Roger Mooking, Top Chef Masters winner Marcus Samuelson, last season’s winner Dale MacKay and his adorable son Ayden, Keisha Chante, Rick the Temp Campanelli, Lorenzo Loseto of George, Charlie’s Burgers mastermind Franco Stalteri, husband-and-wife dynamos Marc Thuet and Biana Zorich, Odd Bits author Jennifer McLagan, Vancouver Indian restaurateur and chef Vikram Vij and assorted competitors from last season, not to mention the somewhat bizarro guests we already told you about, like Alan Thicke and Mike Holmes. (Whew!) Not bad.
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Top Chef Canada reveals the rather stacked list of guest judges for season two
President’s Choice gets in on the bacon-everything trend with the new, upscale Black Label line
(Image: Michelle Easton)
Loblaws is set to launch a line of gourmet products meant to compete with the likes of Pusateri’s or Mark McEwan’s grocery store McEwan, the auspiciously named President’s Choice Black Label. Indeed, they’re working with Toronto chefs like Marc Thuet and Anthony Walsh and macaron pushers Bobbette and Belle to introduce a tasting menu based on the products to 40 or 50 food writers and “influencers” at Parkdale’s Neubacher Shor Contemporary gallery on September 22. We got a sample at this week’s TIFF Tastemakers gifting lounge at the Intercontinental, where celebs were offered ginger-spiced chocolate, hickory-smoked olive oil, sweet chipotle dip and bacon marmalade.
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New Reviews: Wvrst and Mavrik
A modern beer-and-sausage hall on King and a quintessential wine bar on Queen
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WVRST 
609 King St. W., 416-703-7775
Chef Aldo Lanzillotta’s modern “sausage and beer hall and other wonders,” as he’s called it, is exactly what it sounds like: long plywood communal tables and bench seating run the length of the stripped-down space that used to be Marc Thuet’s convict-run restaurant, Conviction. There are 18 house-made sausage options, from traditional (Italian, boerewors, kranjska) to vegetarian (tofu kolbasa that tastes like malnutrition) to game (venison, kangaroo and duck, which tastes like chicken liver). The crowd is young and worldly, for the most part: plaid shirts and Topshop playsuits who see the delicious irony in conservative Bavarian-Italian fare served on King West. The food is good, though limited—fennel-rich pork sausage, for instance, grilled over a gas flame and topped with caramelized onions on a grilled bun. The duck fat–fried French fries are crispy and intensely potato-y, though they’re only marginally different from the ones fried in plain vegetable oil. The beer list, curated by Stephen Beaumont of Beerbistro, is one of the best in town and includes bottlings from Quebec’s outstanding Dieu du ciel microbrewery, plus plenty of local independents like Flying Monkeys, and one-litre steins of Pabst Blue Ribbon. Lanzillotta’s self-service concept is bold and a little annoying. Customers order and pay at the open kitchen, and runners then bring out the food when it’s ready. You have to leave your credit card at the bar or settle your bill each time you get another round. If you want to order more, you have to line up again. “Please tip,” the menu nonetheless advises. “The runners who deliver your food and happily clean up after you would truly appreciate your generosity.”
The Scene: Power Ball 13, a party where people drink a lot and eat meat in designer clothes
Forget the fashion—Power Ball 13, 2011’s edition of the annual Power Plant fundraiser, was all about the meat. Think a pig on a spit is decadent? Well, there was an entire bison. Flocks of formally attired party-goers crowded in front of the massive spit to ooh and aah over the roasting beast like enchanted Temple of Doom acolytes as Marc Thuet sliced meat into sandwiches. “We need meat!” cried Stephen Wong of design duo Greta Constantine as he and partner Kirk Pickersgill tucked into their fat-dripping sandwiches. Also spotted: Belinda Stronach, Jeff Stober, Kenneth Montague, Shinan Govani, Loretta Chin and more carnivores (and some herbivores, lest we forget). Check out the fashion, art and meat in a gallery after the jump.
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Toronto Taste 2011: We get the latest news from top chefs and restaurateurs from Woodlot, Buca, Nota Bene, O&B and many more
Rob Gentile (Buca), David Lee (Nota Bene), Andrea Nicholson (Great Cooks on Eight), Paul Boehmer (Böhmer), Teo Paul (Union)
Two thousand of Toronto’s food lovers and makers gathered at the ROM on Sunday for the 21st edition of Toronto Taste. The annual fundraiser—which raises money for Second Harvest—saw more than 60 restaurants and 30 beverage purveyors offering their best to the guests. Burgers and tacos might have been the plats du jour, but new restaurant openings seemed to be the hottest item on the plates of many chefs and restaurateurs we spoke to. Here’s what we heard from Buca’s Rob Gentile, Woodlot’s David Haman, Scarpetta’s Scott Conant, Splendido’s Victor Barry, Top Chef Canada contestants Dustin Gallagher and Andrea Nicholson and many more.
Introducing: WVRST, King West’s new sausage and beer hall
Wvrst’s dining room features long, communal tables (Image: Signe Langford)
More and more, it seems as though Clubland is outgrowing its old epicentre at the Richmond and John area and oozing west along King Street into what was once a much more sedate dining destination led by Susur, Lee, Marc Thuet’s nom-de-jour resto, Brassaii and Rodney’s. As we reported back in April, it’s into this shifting scene that chef and simple food enthusiast Aldo Lanzillotta has opened his first restaurant, Wvrst, which serves up artisanal sausages and brews in a casual beer hall setting.
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The Weekender: Luminato, Toronto Taste and six other events on our to-do list
One Thousand and One Nights director Tim Supple; Scaramouche’s Keith Froggett at last year’s Toronto Taste; and Glee’s Lea Michele
1. LUMINATO
Luminato No. 5 kicks off this Friday with a free concert at Metro Square featuring Beast and the Joel Plaskett Emergency. Other offerings we’re dying to see? Malcolm Gladwell’s talk at the Bluma Appel theatre and One Thousand and One Nights, a multilingual, interdisciplinary retelling of Shahrazad’s tales, by British director Tim Supple and Lebanese novelist Hanan al-Shaykh. June 10 to 19. luminato.com.
2. TORONTO TASTE
Second Harvest’s annual fundraiser isn’t just about raising the cash to support the organization’s good work (over the last 21 years, it has provided on the order of eight million meals to the city’s hungry, and each ticket purchased for this event funds 250 meals). It’s also one of the most anticipated foodie events of the year. Toronto’s culinary boldface names—Marc Thuet, Mark McEwan, Roger Mooking, Teo Paul, Paul Boehmer and more—whip up some seriously gourmet eats at and around the ROM, while this year’s host, Food Network’s Bob Blumer, promises to be extra entertaining. Although tickets are usually available at the door, they’re going fast this year. June 12. $250. Royal Ontario Museum, 100 Queen’s Park, torontotaste.ca.
Wvrst, a new King West beer hall, to feature menu from “Southern Italy by way of Munich”
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A couple weeks back, news broke that the space that once held Marc Thuet’s Conviction (which closed last fall and was previously Bite Me! and Bistro and Bakery Thuet) was turning into a loosely interpreted Munich-style beer hall called Wvrst. Recently, we caught up with chef and owner Aldo Lanzillotta to ask him about joining Hogtown’s sausage party.
Rosedale-Summerhill Guide: 23 need-to-know places along Yonge Street’s poshest stretch
Yonge Street’s poshest stretch, from Ramsden Park up to the Summerhill LCBO, has two strong suits: food and decor. Locals from the tree-lined side streets keep the shops going during the week, while the weekend brings floods of shoppers from further afield. Here, our list of 23 essential restaurants, food shops, furniture stores, clothing boutiques and beauty parlours along tony Toronto’s main drag.
START THE ROSEDALE-SUMMERHILL TOUR »
Introducing: Toca, refined Canadiana at the Ritz-Carlton
Back in October, we reported that chef Tom Brodi (formerly of Canoe, North 44 and Gramercy Tavern in New York, under Tom Colicchio) would be behind the new Ritz-Carlton’s signature restaurant. When the luxury hotel opened last week, we got our first glimpse at Brodi’s year-long project, Toca (the name is a play on TOronto, CAnada).
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Introducing: Aravind, an authentic south Indian restaurant in Greektown
Ontario meets the subcontinent: a local fish wrapped in a banana leaf (Image: Jon Sufrin)
Set in the midst of gyro-heavy Greektown, new Indian restaurant Aravind is something of an anomaly. It stands out by serving Keralan and southern cuisine (the curry-and-cream dishes of northern India are way more common downtown) and for utilizing Ontario-sourced ingredients when possible. Aravind, which opened last month, is not a bargain joint by any means—mains here range from $14 to $21—but owners hope the local ingredients, dedication to service and the concise, VQA-heavy wine list make up for it.
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Conviction Kitchen over, but not the end of TV for Marc Thuet
Zorich and Thuet at the opening of Conviction in 2009 (Image: Karon Liu)
It was fun while it lasted, but despite plans to eventually bring Conviction Kitchen to the U.S., next week’s season finale of the reality show will mark the end of the series, Eye Weekly reports. Chef Marc Thuet and partner Biana Zorich have put the kibosh on a third season of the reality show, since working away from Toronto is apparently making it too difficult for the couple to focus on their business here.
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Holiday Gift Guide: 13 edible present ideas
We prefer to pass the holiday season by eating our way through it and forcing loved ones to do the same. So we’ve come up with 13 inventive edible gifts (and not a mini-muffin basket in sight).
See our foodie gift guide now >>
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Q&A with Marc Thuet and Biana Zorich: The restaurateurs talk about Conviction Kitchen II, their marriage and how Vancouver compares to Toronto
Biana Zorich and Marc Thuet at their home in Toronto (Image: Davida Aronovitch)
Marc Thuet and Biana Zorich are exhausted. It’s taken the pair a month to recuperate after shooting the second season of their reality show, Conviction Kitchen II, in Vancouver. Like last year’s Toronto edition, the program is airing on CityTV and features former convicts learning the cooking and restaurant trade. Amid talk of a third season set in the U.S., Zorich and Thuet are in Toronto re-organizing their lives. They’ve shut down the original Conviction restaurant on King Street West and are focusing on their bread-making business. Here, they talk with us about their Vancouver experience, their marriage and the Conviction Kitchen contestants they came to love.
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Inside the fridge of chef Marc Thuet and restaurateur Biana Zorich
In our new series, Crisper Chronicles, we ask the city’s top food personalities to let us into their most intimate alimentary enclave: the home refrigerator. This week, chef Marc Thuet and his wife, front-of-house master Biana Zorich—both back in Toronto after shooting a new season of Conviction Kitchen in Vancouver—talk about the treasures (and trash) that lurk in their icebox.
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