Winterlicious is typically pretty generous to the denizens of the Annex and Yorkville, and this year is no exception. Here, our 10 picks for the area.

The challenge itself is on November 26, but the fundraisers have been on the job since the summer to raise the minimum of $2,500 required to attend the event, which will be held at the Metro Toronto Convention Centre. The 60 people who raise the most money will be broken up into six groups, each led by a celebrity chef, and will get to help make a five-course meal that will be judged by a panel led by Flay. As the top 60 fundraisers cook their hearts out, the rest of the fundraisers in attendance will get to enjoy watching the culinary battle while dining on a five-course meal conceived of by Flay.

This year’s celebrity chefs include Mark McEwan, Chuck Hughes (who actually bested Bobby Flay on Iron Chef America earlier this year), Massimo Capra (of Mistura), Bitchin’ Kitchen’s Nadia Giosia and Lynn Crawford, who was last year’s Chef’s Challenge winner. With less than two weeks left until the event (the fundraising deadline is November 24), it’s still not too late to throw your apron in the ring, although new entrants are unlikely to best the top fundraiser, Karen Fonn, who has nearly achieved her goal of raising $30,000.

The imported Neapolitan pizza oven at Fabbrica (Image: Karon Liu)

Now in its ninth season, the city-run ’Licious phenomenon (there are both summer and winter incarnations, in case you’ve been living under a pizza stone all this time) shows no signs of tiring, even if every year it seems to enrage more and more curmudgeonly downtown diners who don’t much like sharing their favorite restaurants with the plebes. Summerlicious succeeds precisely because it makes inaccessible restaurants accessible, even if it’s only for two weeks each July. The big list (there are 150 participating restaurants this year) will never include the hottest, newest, most interesting restaurants in the city—those places don’t typically need the help. It typically does include more than its share of dogs. But there are plenty of places in between: proven, well-run, inviting rooms with committed kitchens. We’ve picked a few of the best.

The Drake
read our review | see the menu
Chef Anthony Rose’s smart, homespun cooking puts the lie to the oft-heard Torontonians-don’t-like-to-eat-in-hotels complaint. The Drake is a glaring exception, at very least. Rose’s Summerlicious lunch menu is a steal at $20: choices include sweet tomato alphabet soup, for instance, followed by fried chicken that’s goosed with cumin and dry mustard, then salted butterscotch for dessert. The $35 dinner is also great value, if slightly less of a deal: the menu choices are the same, save the addition of (the freakishly amazing sounding) roast pig with chipotle-stewed beans and pico de gallo.

Fabbrica
read our review | see the menu
Mark McEwan’s newish uptown Italian place mostly plies the “rustic Italian” canon that threatened, like a 40-storey, hideously anthropomorphized bucatino, to overtake the city last year. It’s well-prepared stuff, though: blistery crusted pizzas from the Neopolitan oven, wickedly creamy pastas and outstanding desserts, all in one of the most inspired spaces in town (witness the unisex handwashing area outside the washrooms: it’s neck-wrenchingly beautiful, but also totally confusing if you want to, oh, wash your hands or find a toilet). Though there’s a good-looking $20 lunch menu, dinner’s when you want to be here. The $35 prix fixe choices include polenta with pork ragoût, risotto with peas and guanciale and a chocolate terrine.

Globe Bistro
read our review | see the menu
Ed Ho’s growing empire of high-priced, local-focused kitchens started at this two-storey Danforth location. I’ve eaten well here, and the Summerlicious menus look good. Best bets on the $20 lunch menu: the yellow tomato and gin gazpacho with basil jelly, followed by the farmer’s bi bim bap, made with honey mushrooms, Chioggia beets and garlic scape kimchee, and the panna cotta with sea buckthorn coulis. For dinner ($35), I’d try the Wellington County flatiron steak with duck fat frites.

Some of Yorkville and the Annex’s best restaurants participate in Summerlicious each year. Here, 14 of Toronto Life’s favourites.

DOWNTOWN NORTH | DOWNTOWN SOUTH | EAST | WEST | UPTOWN

(Image: Renée Suen, from the torontolife.com Flickr pool)

January is upon us, and for many hungry Torontonians, that means one thing: Winterlicious. The menus are less predictable than previous years—crème brûlée’s out,  lentils du Puy are in—so even the ’Licious haters might have a reason to take advantage of the festival this year. We’ve already named the 12 menus that we think are the best bets, but that doesn’t begin to cover it. Here, find Toronto Life’s 62 favourite Winterlicious restaurants, complete with menus, reviews and reservation numbers.

Winterlicious runs from January 28 to February 10. Reservations are accepted from January 13 onward (January 11 for American Express users).

Those who simply must finish every meal with crème brûlée (we’ve heard such people exist) may be disappointed by this year’s expanded dessert selection. Lentils du Puy are still showing their tiny heads on all sorts of menus (perhaps the addition of “du Puy” distances them from macrame associations), while sweet potatoes and ravioli are here to stay. Returning ‘Licious heavyweights, like Mildred’s Temple Kitchen and the whole O&B gang, are posting menus that make us sigh with happy anticipation, not despair.

Both the AGO and the ROM’s restaurants, Frank and C5 respectively, have lunch and dinner menus this year—and they don’t seem to be resting on their ambiance laurels. C5 ($25 lunch; $45 dinner) is doing a posh fish and chips nosh with “Boddingtons battered halibut cheeks”, plus a starter of “Tamworth Pork Rillette.” The lower-sticker price Frank ($20 lunch; $35 dinner) has creative vegetarian dinner options like “tomato eggplant and chana masala with basmati rice pilauo, crispy papadam and yogurt raita.” Frank and C5 are also offering gluten-free dishes: six of Frank’s fall into this category, as do four of C5’s (though C5′s are more heavily weighted to the dinner menu), including pear scone shortcake dessert.

Fresh off the downtown office Christmas party rush, Crush Wine Bar returns for another season, as does perennial wedding venue Archeo. Smaller neighbourhood favourites also making a return appearance are Seven Numbers (the Danforth location is tapped this time), Joy Bistro, Amaya’s Bread Bar, Banu and Pan on the Danforth. Staples like La Maquette, Fred’s Not Here and Noce are also back, though, as usual, two of those three are usually worth our custom.

Undistracted by opening three new restaurants this year, local empire Oliver & Bonacini is still in the game. No slouchers in the menu-writing department, the O&B Café Grill selection includes “blackened Jail Island salmon and crispy Cajun shrimp dirty rice with a black bean salsa” (dirty, dirty rice!). Diners keen on tasting Canoe’s “vanilla braised rabbit”, “chicken and  goose liver parfait” and “pear and rosemary bread pudding” are advised to get dialing the minute lines open on January 13—or January 11, if they have American Express cards.

Also in the near-impossible category is North 44, which is returning with a dinner menu ($45) that’s all the more creative than last year’s. It includes starters like  “sesame and citrus crusted ahi tuna with hearts of palm, radish sprouts and Yuzu miso sauce” and a “braised lamb neck with creamy polenta.” In the same bracket, although perhaps slightly less inventive than previous years, is Mistura. They are offering their standard butter-drenched menu of bounty, including “roasted Cornish hen garnie with mushrooms, veal bacon and butter-poached herbed potato” and “Merguez sausage and Castelluccio lentil stew”.

The Winterlicious list is again thick with Toronto’s hotels, including the Royal York’s Benihana, the Marriott Bloor’s Matisse, the Marriott Downtown’s Trios Bistro, the Drake Hotel and the Four Season’s Studio Café. Studio Café peppers its menu with bits of Canadiana—a maple glaze here, a dose of pumpkins and spiced cider vinaigrette there—while Trios is well-poised at the $20 price point to pull in an office crowd looking for something fancier than street meat. A new hotel addition is Prime, the Windsor Arms’s steakhouse. A meal offers a good way to peak at the interior of the dark wood old money hotel, without the price tag of a room. The presence of two ’Licious landmines (linguine primavera and crème brûlée) make it likely we’re going to see the inside of the building, not a true taste of the kitchen.

With the George Brown College’s culinary students’ “The Chefs’ House” participating, we can peak into the city’s future kitchens. The culinary school is a solid bet for those motivated to try something more adventurous, offering a less staid menu than most, and at the lowest price point ($15 lunch; $25 dinner). Dishes include ingredients like the “poached peewee egg”, spaetzle, sunchoke purée, and cured ox tongue.

As the influx of group-buy discount sites has taught Toronto—try to tip on the before discount price. Thank your server, and enjoy your meal.

1. Buca’s duck bigoli
Hand-cranked duck egg noodles are coated in a sublime ragú of soffritto, tomato, duck legs and giblets, then swirled into a towering nest rivalling Marge Simpson’s beehive. With mascarpone and basil, it’s nothing less than pasta perfection. $19. 604 King St. W., 416-865-1600.

2. Mistura’s chitarroni all’astaco
Venice meets the Maritimes in this concoction of guitar wire–cut spaghetti, sweet chunks of lobster meat, melting leeks and tomato concassée. A plate-licking emulsion of briny butter zinged with a hint of ginger cranks the volume to 11. $22 or $36. 265 Davenport Rd., 416-515-0009.

3. Tutti Matti’s pinci alla boscaiola
The chewy, foot-long pinci noodles have been a staple since Tutti Matti opened in 2002. This dish bathes them in a sauce of red wine, porcini and cinnamon-scented Tamworth pork sausage. $22. 364 Adelaide St. W., 416-597-8839.

4. Zucca’s beet casonsei
The dark purple filling of roasted beets and smoked ricotta glows through the gossamer pasta in these glorious half moons that are napped in a poppy seed–butter sauce. $22. 2150 Yonge St., 416-488-5774.

5. Enoteca Sociale’s squash ravioli
Simplicity reigns in these autumnal packets filled with butternut squash and parmigiano. They’re topped with crisp sage leaves and browned butter sharpened with a pinprick of lemon juice. $14. 1288 Dundas St. W., 416-534-1200.

(Illustration: Jack Dylan)

(Image: JJ Thomson)

What it is: Bask-It-Style presented a media lounge in the Royal York’s Prime Minister’s suite to preview the swag it will be giving stars. Rather than make the celebs trudge all the way downtown (after all, that Avenue Road and Bloor construction makes travel a nightmare), Bask-It delivers pieces to the Hollywood bigwigs’ suites.

Who gets it: Such celebs as Megan Fox and Mickey Rourke have already been sent bags.

What they get: Like in many celeb gift bags, there are plenty of skin care products, like Cargo cosmetics, Emergen-C serum, Mistura Beauty 6-in-1 solution and $100 gift certificates to Toronto’s PureMed Spa. Anyone who couldn’t bring their own Harley Pasternak to the Great White North can work out with Farhan Dhalla’s Mind, Ball and Soul DVDs. And to cure the inescapable TIFF hunger (press junkets and screenings and parties don’t leave much time for eating), Old Dutch offers up a hearty bag of chips.

The view from Toula: be a tourist in your own city (Image: Ian Muttoo)

First things first: there’s not much change under the Summerlicious sun. All of the old favourites are here (including Canoe and Bymark, which always sell out first). Seven Numbers, which by Winter/Summerlicious rules is allowed only one location, has swapped out its Danforth location for its Eglinton one. Winterlicious participant Conviction is out for the summer edition as the second season of Conviction Kitchen films in Vancouver. The new owners of Crush Wine Bar are apparently not feeling the ’licious love—nor is Moroco. And while The Citizen’s digs are alive and kicking under new ownership, its vaunted replacement, Ruby Watchco, is opting out.

The city’s Summerlicious Web site has undergone a change, too. The old vegetarian option carrot icon has been replaced by a little green leaf, and the whole thing is much improved. When we’re trying to scan the list for favourites and favourites-to-be, pictures equal goodness. Happily, we can now sort by cuisine, area and price, though it does look like some restaurants are playing a little fast and loose with the “cuisine” tag. Ultra, for instance, comes in with a whopping seven cuisine types, though its Summerlicious mains are wedding-menu-basic salmon, chicken or steak (rubbing it with chili does not make it “international,” and how they’re justifying the Japanese and Indian labels is a mystery). On the flip side, poke us with Ontario-grown asparagus because Veritas didn’t make the cut for “local/market fresh” and instead ended up as “bistro.”

As for the menus, there are the predictable helpings of mixed greens and pasta primavera, though we did find some more interesting options. The returning Banu, Queen West’s Iranian kebab-vodka (and hookah) bar, is underselling its lush dinners by coming in at the $25 price point. Check out the “salad olivieh”: potato salad Iranian style, cornichons, carrots, green peas, turmeric and saffron, served with sesame barbari bread, followed by murgh chicken breast with saffron-citrus glaze and ending with rosewater ice cream.

At Westin Harbour Castle’s Toula, a 38th-floor view of the city makes it hard to regret spending $20 on lunch—particularly when the options include veal medallions pan sautéed with prosciutto and sage, and a dessert of hazelnut profiteroles. For those looking for more classic artery-clogging decadence, there’s Mistura. The mains are usually in the $30 to $52 range, so the $45 dinner prix fixe seems both justifiable and reasonable.

Why dine on duck confit somewhere expected, like Bodega, when we can wander to Lai Toh Heen, which is back this year with pan-seared foie gras and duck leg confit marinated with Chinese mandarin in pinot noir sauce.

Reliable ’licious veterans La Maquette and Noce have returned for another go. As has Jump—at $20 for lunch and $35 for dinner, it’s least pricey of the Oliver and Bonacini stable (Canoe and Auberge du Pommier are in, but Café Grill is sitting this year out)—which is offering some very tantalizing-looking options, like the big-eye tuna tartare and spicy sopressata followed by piri piri half chicken with smashed fried new potatoes, sweet roasted cipolline and garlic kale.

So bring it on, Summerlicious. Our expectations are set, our mouths are watering, and our credit cards are primed. Time to eat well and tip generously.

See Toronto Life‘s picks for the 64 best bets at Summerlicious 2010 »

Despite the ascendancy of comfort food, some occasions still require more than a tricked-out sandwich. These four posh dishes are worth the splurge.

The chitarroni all'astaco from Mistura (Photo by Daniel Shipp)

CHITARRONI ALL’ASTACO
Handmade spaghetti noodles are tossed with sweet chunks of lobster meat in a sublime sauce of ripe tomato and buttery-soft leeks, with a flicker of red chili–ginger heat. Every part of the palate is brought to life by layer upon layer of flavour. $22. Mistura.

HAMO WAN SOUP
To honour Kyoto’s Gion Matsuri festival in July, Masaki Hashimoto builds a menu around this eel-like fish, flown in fresh from Japan. Fluffy poached morsels of the delicate white flesh, meticulously deboned, arrive in an ethereal hamo stock refreshed with a sugar snap pea purée. A slice of Japanese squash rests in the bowl like the new moon reflected in a pool. The braid of subtle flavours is as refined as the artful presentation. Six-course prix fixe $150. Hashimoto.

BLACK ANGUS RIB-EYE STEAK
A hulking 32-ounce, 36-day-aged cut from Nebraska is first seared in a cast iron pan, then finished under an 1,800° F Montague broiler. The result is an impossibly tender, pink slab with a caramelized crust. Served on the bone on a platter all its own, it’s simply the best piece of beef we’ve eaten all year. $96-$121. Jacobs and Co.

FRESH SOFT-SHELL CRAB
One impossibly plump blue crab is sheathed in a whisper-thin tempura batter, then quickly deep-fried. The result is a body full of sweet meat, and crunchy, oily tentacles, best dipped in sweet ponzu sauce (ordered separately). This treat only comes around once a year (May’s full moon marks soft-shell crab season), which is probably for the best, given the $21-per-tiny-crab price tag. Ematei.

Patrick McMurray at the Festival of Chefs (Photo by Davida Aronovitch)

The Cheese Boutique was abuzz with food enthusiasts last weekend for the launch of its annual Festival of Chefs. Now in its sixth year, the shop’s gastronomic fair showcases the creations of top chefs from across the city—paired with local wines—on Saturdays and Sundays throughout May. We stopped by to check out a round of offerings from Starfish duo Patrick McMurray and Kyle Deming—and to pick up a little oka on the way.

McMurray tells us that people were lined up before the store’s 8 a.m. opening, and with good reason: last year, the hero of the half shell gave away some 1,200 top-of-the-line oysters. This year, his offerings included sweet and meaty clams from British Columbia (“Look at that colour—beautiful!” cried a keyed-up McMurray) and five-year-old whiskey-soaked Ontario farmhouse cheddar. (Look for Guinness cheese at his soon-to-open Ceili Cottage on Queen Street East.) We love Deming’s County Clare salmon, roasted over Irish peat turf to give it a rich, smoky flavour. Top it all off with a glass of fruity Niagara Stratus white, and it’s the most fun we’ve ever had grocery shopping.

How did Cheese Boutique convince 10 of the city’s hottest gourmets to give away their coveted creations? Established in 1970, the shop is a long-time provider of homemade cheese and specialty imports to many of the top kitchens in the province. Second-generation cheesemonger Afrim Pristine explains that the Festival of Chefs started as the occasional demo for chefs, clients and friends. It has since snowballed into a top epicure event. The April 30 launch party featured two lambs on a spit (polished off head to toe), six cases of champagne (ditto) and 500 people. The secret to this success isn’t just a good nose; it’s impassioned eating, explains Afrim: “At family dinners, we don’t talk about sports, politics or history. We talk about food.”

The Cheese Boutique’s founding father, Fatos Pristine, takes a break from dispensing tea to give us a tour of the family jewels, housed in the “cave,” where mammoth cheeses are stored for aging. Fatos says of a 12-foot, 398-kilogram Italian provolone that looks like a medieval battering ram: “We risked our lives getting it in here,” he says.

Still to come at this year’s festival are appearances by Mistura’s Massimo Capra, Frank’s Anne Yarymowich and Epic’s Ryan Gustafson, among others. As for what’s on the menu, “You’ll have to come in and find out,” says Afrim.

Come to think of it, we might need some gouda, too.

Does this man taste like this cocktail? (Mickey Rourke from korbybanner.com, drink from Gourmet)

• Ever wondered what Mickey Rourke would taste like if he were a cocktail? Neither had we. Nonetheless, Gourmet has attempted to figure it out (tequila, bitters and blood orange juice), creating nine other drinks inspired by such Oscar nominees as Brad Pitt, Sean Penn and Meryl Streep. [Gourmet]

• The Kitchn has suggested food pairings for all the best picture nominees. How about the Hannah Schmitzel with a strong Kate Winslet? [The Kitchn]

• Toronto chef Massimo Capra (of Mistura and Sopra Upper Lounge) recommends a somewhat more posh party menu that includes seared Kobe beef on truffled potato croquettes and a ceviche-style shrimp cocktail. [Globe and Mail]

• If finger food won’t cut it, Epicurious’s Complete Oscar Package offers multi-course (if predictable) dinner ideas for all the best picture noms (New Orleans fare for Benjamin Button, Indian for Slumdog Millionaire) and a menu created by Wolfgang Puck. [Epicurious]

• For some, whipping up a four-course American-British meal in celebration of Frost/Nixon is too much work for a Sunday, so Delish has 10 easy-to-make party appetizers, like fig and stilton squares. [Delish]