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The comprehensive index of every blog post, magazine story and restaurant review that appears on Torontolife.com
This year’s crop of restaurants, from a million-dollar dining room to a brazen burger joint, pushed Toronto’s culinary culture in creative, comforting and blessedly cheap directions. Here, the 10 new spots that are redefining the way we eat, drink and play in the city
Marco Pierre White (Photo courtesy of ITV)
The Guardian is shaming celebrity chef Marco Pierre White for attaching his name to restaurants he rarely cooks in. “The idea of a famous chef exploiting their name in this way should be a thing of the past. No one, no matter how talented and clever, can assure the quality of a restaurant by remote control,” the British daily writes, smarting at the spread of MPW-branded venues. By comparison, Toronto’s top chefs operate differently, typically launching spin-offs and side projects as separate entities under discreet titles. Star chef Jamie Kennedy added his name to most of his projects, but he was deeply engaged with all of them (oddly, his surviving locavore locale is simply monikered Gilead Bistro). When his flagship Jamie Kennedy Wine Bar was sold, the new owners dropped the name—and name recognition—immediately. Bad boy Marc Thuet once attached his name to his ventures, as well, but now prefers provocative titles, like Bite Me and Conviction (Petite Thuet remains eponymous, albeit diminutive). And then there are Michael Stadtländer’s Eigensinn Farm and Haisai—names as organic as their menu items, but devoid of chef branding.
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Romancing of the Stone: Hunky chef Curtis Stone sets hearts aflutter at Dish (Photo by Davida Aronovitch)
Hunky Take Home Chef host Curtis Stone heated up the kitchen at Dish Cooking Studio earlier this week with a demo of a few recipes from his fourth cookbook, Relaxed Cooking With Curtis Stone: Recipes to Put You in My Favourite Mood. Despite the suggestive title, the book is an homage to his beloved grandmother, with whom he first cooked as a kid, and is all about approaching the kitchen with nonchalance. The surf-ready Aussie (frosted-tip faux hawk and all) cooked up a four-course storm with his own line of swanky kitchen gadgets. True to his book’s promise, Stone set the tone for a casual encounter: “I’m going to have a nice, relaxed dinner party with you,” said the laid-back lad. “It means I don’t have to feel bad walking around with a glass of wine in my hand.”
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Fearless: Christine Cushing takes aim
Spirited TV chef Christine Cushing is on a mission to transform Toronto’s “hopeless lovable losers” into confident cooks on her new reality series, Fearless in the Kitchen. The show, which premieres this fall on the Viva Network, is one part Kitchen Nightmares and two parts Makeover Story. Episodes will feature true cooking amateurs—who will have been tested to prove that they can’t even fry an egg—being treated to lessons by Cushing (for whom “failure is not an option”). Fearless promises all the voyeuristic appeal we’ve come to expect from this sort of endeavour, complete with laughable neophytes, surprise challenges and, as Cushing puts it, a little bit of “oh crap, what’s gonna happen?” Read the rest of this entry »
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