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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.
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Introducing: The Böhemian Gastropub, Paul Boehmer’s new casual spot on Queen West
Inside Paul Boehmer’s new pub (Image: Renée Suen)
The Böhemian Gastropub, the new casual restaurant from executive chef and owner Paul Boehmer (Böhmer), stands out from the takeout joints and bars that dominate its section of Queen West. Built on the site of the now-defunct Oh Boy Burger Market (whose menu Boehmer consulted on), Böhemian, which opened last Friday, arrives just in time for the first residents of the new Queen and Portland Condominium and Lofts.
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Today in Toronto: Darren Sigesmund, Forests and Saint-Saëns Organ Symphony
Darren Sigesmund Most musicians have second jobs, but Sigesmund’s is one of the unlikelier ones: he’s a chef who apprenticed at Eigensinn Farm under Michael Stadtländer. Sigesmund also cooks up hot licks on his trombone. Find out more »
Forests First came Tideline, then Scorched (submitted in film form to this year’s Oscar race under its original title, Incendies) and now Forests, the final instalment in Montreal playwright Wajdi Mouawad’s acclaimed trilogy. Find out more »
Saint-Saëns Organ Symphony A feast for keyboard enthusiasts, this TSO concert has organist Patricia Krueger revelling in Saint-Saëns’ arch-romantic swoons; the esteemed Yefim Bronfman takes on Liszt’s rollicking Piano Concerto no. 2. Find out more »
Keriwa Café, a new restaurant with an Aboriginal menu, to open on Queen West next month
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A new restaurant focused on Aboriginal cuisine is set to open on Queen Street West this coming May. Behind Keriwa is Aaron Joseph Bear Robe, previously of Splendido, Michael Stadtländer’s Eigensinn Farm and Haisai, and the River Café in Calgary. With a strong pedigree of farm-to-table haute cuisine, Keriwa Café will bring Aboriginal recipes together with more contemporary dishes, and will focus on local, seasonal and organic ingredients. He’s also promised us fried bread.
Toronto chefs and Ontario wineries join forces for Japan earthquake relief dinner
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In response to the devastating earthquake and tsunami that hit Japan last week, a number of Toronto chefs and Ontario wine producers will be joining forces in a fundraiser on Sunday, March 27th, organized by Nobuyo Stadtländer, the business partner and wife of Michael Stadtländer.
Michael Stadtländer and Jamie Kennedy walk away with new Governor General’s Cuisine Awards
Honourees Jamie Kennedy, Michael Stadtländer (Images: Edlynne, farmerchefconference)
The Governor General’s Awards, heretofore known for honouring the best in Canadian academics and arts, have added a new category to their ranks: cuisine. Yesterday, in an award ceremony at Rideau Hall, celebrity chefs Jamie Kennedy and Michael Stadtländer received a joint distinction for their role as culinary leaders by outgoing GG Michäelle Jean and her husband, Jean-Daniel Lafond (the new awards were apparently his idea).
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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.
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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.
Celeb chefs and namesake restaurants: arrogance run amok or marketing genius?
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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Just Opened: Haisai: James Chatto talks to Michael Stadtländer about his new, somewhat straightforward (but still deeply idiosyncratic) restaurant
If you build it, they will come: Michael Stadtländer's new Singhampton restaurant, Haisai (Photo courtesy of Haisai)
Michael Stadtländer, chef, environmentalist, multimedia artist and all-around gastronomical guru, left the world of regular restaurants behind in 1993 when he bought Eigensinn Farm, a 100-acre Grey County property where he’d prepare feasts for a few lucky guests at a time. This September, he’s returned to the fold with Haisai, a 28-seat restaurant and bakery in the village of Singhampton. The new spot shares the same whimsical style; he built all the furniture by hand and spent two years decorating the fairy tale–like rooms (think pebble-encrusted walls, seashell wall sconces, light fixtures fashioned from sawn-off wine bottles and the odd pair of antlers).
Here, we talk to the chef about his latest career move.
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Summerlicious restaurants announced
Get those dialing digits ready: the city has released its list of the 150 restaurants participating in the seventh edition of Summerlicious, running July 3 to 19. Price points have increased over last year (as they did for Winterlicious), so expect to pay between $15 and $30 for a three-course lunch and between $25 and $45 for dinner.
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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.
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Far Niente and Four get new chefs
The interior of Far Niente, ready for the new guard
Sister Bay Street restaurants Four and Far Niente are getting some fresh flavour this spring with the appointment of new chefs de cuisine. Matt Rosen, a former student of Michael Stadtländer, takes over at Four; Colborne Lane veteran Frank Romano does the same at Far Niente. The two will inject some new life into the kitchens of SIR Corp, which owns 45 eateries across Canada (including Jack Astor’s, the home of bottomless garlic bread). These swankier financial district digs belong to the company’s Signature Group, where both cooks will be marking their debuts with all-new menus created in co-operation with executive chef Gordon Mackie. Read the rest of this entry »
Globe Bistro’s Kevin McKenna and Eigensinn Farm’s Michael Stadtländer serve up an epic eat-local dinner
It was gastronomic ecstasy at the elegant “eat local” Globe Bistro Wednesday night, when Eigensinn Farm’s Michael Stadtländer made a guest appearance to heat up the kitchen with his former student, Globe chef Kevin McKenna. A portion of the proceeds from the lavish seven-course wine-paired feast go to the Toronto East General Hospital Foundation. “That’s where I’m going to go after my first heart attack from pork,” owner Ed Ho joked. We were relieved that lamb was the order of the evening.
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Rosewater’s former chef, Paul Boehmer, jumps on the Ossington bandwagon with his new restaurant
Ossified: The avenue is changed forever (Photo by Dawn Paley)
How much more can Ossington take? A lot, it seems. The avenue’s seemingly endless gentrification will take another step this summer when chef Paul Boehmer opens his first restaurant, Böhmer. After considering Queen West and Yorkville, the former Rosewater Supper Club chef set his sights on a 5,000-square-foot single-storey building at 93 Ossington Avenue. “I see a real surge of restaurants on Ossington. It’s bringing the whole street alive, and it’s full every day,” says the chef, whose credits also include Scaramouche, Atlas and, more recently, Six Steps. “If you capture a reasonable market—like, don’t charge $45 for an entrée—and keep it to a price range where people can afford it and hang out, they’ll keep coming back.”
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