Read the rest of this entry »
Eat well and feed the hungry along the way—that’s the concept behind the annual What’s on the Table benefit being held this year on November 2. Since 2005, the fundraiser has gathered $1.5 million for The Stop, the innovative community food centre whose goal is to increase everyone’s access to healthy food (check out our interview with chef Chris Brown from shortly after he joined The Stop). Dining stations open at 6:30 p.m., and patrons won’t be starved for choice; the event features offerings from over 30 chefs, including Lynn Crawford of Ruby Watcho, Anthony Walsh of Canoe and pâtissier Nadège Nourian (see below for the very impressive full list).
The comprehensive index of every blog post, magazine story and restaurant review that appears on Torontolife.com
All stories relating to Mark Cutrara
DIY Barbecue Guide: Cowbell’s Mark Cutrara on the perfect patty
A great barbecued hamburger doesn’t taste like chipotle or paprika or horseradish. It tastes like beef. Cowbell chef Mark Cutrara’s burger, made with grass-fed beef from Dingo Farms, is one of the best in the city for good reason: it’s all about the meat. Here’s how he does it.
(Image: Joel Kimmel)
Terroir 2011 roundup: we talk to Toronto’s top chefs and restaurateurs at the foodie symposium
Fergus Henderson (St. John’s) and Arlene Stein (event chair) at Terroir
A couple weeks back, 400 members of the food and hospitality industry gathered at Hart House for Terroir V. The annual symposium saw chefs, restaurateurs and members of the food media musing over this year’s theme: “the balance of artistic creation and traditional craftsmanship in our hospitality industry.” We caught up with some top chefs—including Jason Bangerter (Luma), Mark Cutrara (Cowbell), Matt DeMille (Parts and Labour) and keynote speaker Fergus Henderson—who shared with us what they took away from the day.
Read the rest of this entry »
The 10 best pickled foods at Toronto restaurants
Pickled things—lovingly brined, jarred and served by the city’s star chefs—are the hottest grandmotherly food since cookies and milk. Here, the best of the puckery pack
Cowbell is the first restaurant in Toronto to get LEAF certification for its green ways
Ring my bell: Cutrara and company get a green thumbs-up (Image: Google)
When it comes to providing environmentally sustainable cuisine, locavore haven Cowbell walks the walk, according to Leaders in Environmentally Accountable Foodservice (LEAF). The new Alberta-based organization, which aims to help diners recognize green restaurants, spent hours extensively examining Cowbell’s energy and water use, its menu and the way it deals with waste and recycling, among other criteria, before giving Cowbell the distinction of being the first LEAF-certified restaurant in Toronto.
Read the rest of this entry »
Despite some reservations, Toronto will appear on Anthony Bourdain’s No Reservations
Anthony Bourdain at his book signing at Massey Hall (Image: Renée Suen)
Toronto chefs and foodies, take note: Anthony Bourdain, the reformed bad boy of the culinary world, beloved potty mouth and host of the Travel Channel’s No Reservations, will be featuring Toronto on his show. Bourdain made that announcement on his book tour this week when he stopped in at Massey Hall to promote his follow up to Kitchen Confidential, Medium Raw: A Bloody Valentine to the World of Food and the People Who Cook. The globetrotting professional eater and drinker entertained and dazzled admirers during his 90-minute performance, downing bottles of Steam Whistle pilsner and drawing upon material from his memoir. Bourdain graciously entertained banal questions during the event’s short Q&A and took time to applaud Beast’s Scott Vivian, who catered the post-show VIP book signing. However, it was his announcement of bringing No Reservations to the city that drew the most hoots and hollers from the packed house.
Read the rest of this entry »
Flavour of the month: 13 ways that local chefs are cooking with corn
We love what Toronto chefs are doing with corn this season. The sweet summer staple is showing up on menus not just boiled and buttered, but grilled, ground, pureéd, roasted, even nitro-zapped. Here, the best places to get your fix
(Image: My Yen Trung)
Nine amazing kitchen gadgets from Toronto’s restaurant kitchens
We’re all for home-cooked meals and comfort food, but let’s face it: people go to restaurants to order stuff they can’t duplicate at home without the right skill set, equipment or the $625 to buy Nathan Myhrvold’s Modernist Cuisine cookbook. We talked to nine Toronto chefs about their weird, famous or indispensable food-making gizmo.
Best of the City 2010: our picks for the top brunches in uptown, midtown and downtown
Huevos Ahogados
Frida
999 Eglinton Ave. W., 416-787-2221
Jose Hadad, the chef at this Forest Hill restaurant, offers an authentic Mexican breakfast. Our favourite: fluffy scrambled eggs bathed in glittering, tart salsa verde with a dollop of rich house-made sour cream. On the side, cotija cheese, beans and tortilla. $13. Read the rest of this entry »
Just Opened: Parts and Labour, Parkdale’s new bar-club-restaurant-art gallery-wine bar
Bring on the bream: Parts and Labour's tables await dinner and diners
For many residents of Parkdale, the opening of Parts and Labour at the Roncy end of Queen West means one of two things: here’s a new restaurant, or here’s a new nightclub masquerading as a restaurant. Anyone who attended last week’s official opening could be forgiven for suspecting the latter, as throngs of people crowded the P&L bar—and they weren’t ordering food.
Read the rest of this entry »
Marijuana and haute cuisine: Toronto chefs on how some top kitchens are going to pot
Who's hungry? (Image: Torben Hansen)
The correlation between marijuana and the munchies is no secret, but a New York Times article that went viral a few weeks ago is taking the link to new heights. In the Big Apple’s “new kitchen culture,” haute cuisine is being influenced by chefs and kitchen staffers who find culinary inspiration by indulging in a little weed. We talked to a few Toronto chefs about the emerging trend and its breakthrough potential in Toronto.
Read the rest of this entry »
New York Times realizes T.O. is total sausage fest
Meat awaits New Yorkers at the Black Hoof (Image: Greg Bolton)
The Times is a bit late on the meat craze, with its magazine recently running a travel piece on some of Toronto’s carnivorous hot spots. Writer Adam Sachs went straight for brunch at the Hoof Café and had the stewed rabbit with blueberry-buckwheat pancakes, grilled cheese with tongue, eggs Benny with suckling pig and even more tongue. He also visited Sanagan’s Meat Locker in Kensington before heading to Caplansky’s for a smoked meat sandwich, a meat-filled knish and the famously large poutine.
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.
Why it’s worth paying $200 to eat in a field
The fabled table: logistics be damned, this table is set up wherever Outstanding in the Field finds itself (All photos by Davida Aronovitch)
We are in the middle of a farmer’s field near Bradford, Ontario, but it looks like a five-star restaurant. Jim Denevan has brought his roving dinner series, Outstanding in the Field, here for one night only. The itinerant anti-restaurant takes locavore lust to the next level by staging dinners at the food source, this time with a little help from Cowbell chef Mark Cutrara, the owners of Dingo Farms (Dennis and Denise Harrison, who provide the aforementioned field) and 90 guests—growers and urbanites, who each paid $200 for their seats. This is Denevan’s first foray into Ontario, and the farmophile likes the lay of the land; he’s already planning more Ontario stops. Sadly, Denevan’s signature 1953 red bus couldn’t make the trip due to border troubles. A bemused customs agent asked, “You organize dinners on farms? Why would anyone want to do that?”
Read the rest of this entry »
Follow Toronto Life on Twitter, Facebook and via RSS