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C5 chef swap: Corbin Tomaszeski’s in, Ted Corrado’s out (or, rather, up)

(Images: Steve Krug; Royal Ontario Museum)

The Royal Ontario Museum announced an interesting change of the guard today at C5, the continental fine dining restaurant perched atop of the Michael Lee-Chin Crystal. Ted Corrado, who’s been the executive chef since the restaurant opened, has been promoted to regional executive chef at Compass Leisure, a subsidiary of the Compass Group, the national food-service company that runs C5 for the museum (we took a look inside Corrado’s fridge for our Crisper Confidential series in March). Replacing Corrado is Corbin Tomaszeski, of Restaurant Makeover and Dinner Party Wars fame, who also ran the kitchen at Holt Renfrew’s café. While Corrado’s menus have tended toward innovative dishes with the occasional molecular touch—one tasting menu started with butternut squash that had been cured, compressed and shaved, with a citrus tea syrup and crumbled caramelized cream—Tomaszeski is better known for less complicated fare. “My style is simple, but classic,” he said in a release. “I believe the best meals use everyday ingredients to create beautifully presented dishes that are uncomplicated, accessible and appealing to everyone.” Tomaszeski’s new menu at C5 includes truffled chips with fleur de sel, flatbreads with seasonal toppings and a lobster B.L.T. salad. He’ll also be responsible for the food at the Food Studio Café and C5’s catering service.

The Dish

Rumours & Rumblings

October 6, 2011 | 10:08 am

4 Comments

Susur Lee to open new spot on the Dundas West foodie mile with his sons

Lee at his last opening, Lee Lounge (Image: Renée Suen)

The comings and goings at 777 Dundas Street West sure have been attracting a lot of attention of late. The one-time home of Le Corner has now been scooped up by none other than Susur Lee. This time, however, there’s a catch: according to Now magazine it’s Lee’s sons, Levi and Kai Bent-Lee, who will be the faces of the joint, with their celebu-dad popping in and out of the kitchen.

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The Dish

Opening

August 17, 2011 | 9:25 am

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Introducing: Ruby Eats, Lynn Crawford and Cherie Stinson’s new gourmet food shop

Ruby Eats is the sister food shop to Lynn Crawford and Cherie Stinson’s nearby restaurant, Ruby Watchco. (Image: Gizelle Lau)

March 2010 saw the opening of Ruby Watchco, a new Riverside venture by Restaurant Makeover duo chef Lynn Crawford and designer Cherie Stinson (who also works at Yabu Pushelberg). Two weeks ago, the same team opened their newest venture, Ruby Eats, a new neighbourhood specialty grocery store.

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The Dish

Opening

August 4, 2011 | 2:56 pm

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Introducing: Café Belong, Brad Long’s new restaurant at the Brick Works

Brad Long’s new restaurant at the Brick Works is called Café Belong—get it? (Image: Gizelle Lau)

After almost half a year of delays, Brad Long’s Café Belong finally opened at the Evergreen Brick Works on Saturday morning, to throngs of farmers’ market shoppers. Long is well established in the Toronto food scene, as a co-owner of Veritas and a previous executive chef for Maple Leaf Sports & Entertainment and the CN Tower’s 360 restaurant (he’s of course also familiar from Food Network Canada’s Restaurant Makeover). “We were looking for someone who would be able to create and cater to a community fostering local food,” Brick Works programming director Arlene Stein told us. “Brad was a perfect fit.”

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The Dish

TV Diner

June 14, 2011 | 12:45 pm

21 Comments

Top Chef Canada recap, episode 10: puffed up

Guest judge Lynn Crawford with host Thea Andrews (Image: Food Network Canada/Insight Productions)

TOP CHEF CANADA
Season 1 | Episode 10

This week’s episode of Top Chef Canada began with Vancouver-based chef François Gagnon mourning the loss of recently eliminated “hockey man” Darryl Crumb. What form did the tribute take? The ritual placement of a hockey stick in what we think was Crumb’s old bunk, of course (somehow it was fitting that the Bruins were already four goals up against the Canucks at that point). Last night also featured what we were primed to believe would be the demise of tough-as-nails Connie DeSousa, who, despite eight seasons of Top Chef history warning against the use of store-bought pastry, used it anyway. The fallout from that cataclysmic decision and a full recap of everything else that went down, after the jump.

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The Dish

Neighbourhoods

April 8, 2011 | 12:02 pm

34 Comments

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. By Laura Cameron, Carley Fortune, Matthew Hague and Renée Suen | Photography by Jamie Hogge, Emma McIntyre, Renée Suen and Jenna Marie Wakani

START THE ROSEDALE-SUMMERHILL TOUR »

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The Goods

From the Print Edition

October 18, 2010 | 1:47 pm

15 Comments

The List: 10 things chef David Adjey can’t live without

Ten things chef David Adjey, star of the new Food Network show The Opener, can’t live without

The best perk ever
I used to work as Dan Aykroyd’s personal chef in Kingston, and then I decided to move to Santa Barbara to cook at a resort. He gave me a car as a goodbye present and said, “If you’re gonna live in California, you’re gonna need a California car.” It was a gold ’66 Impala—the same car a lot of L.A. gangsta rappers drive. I keep the licence plate in my office.

A badass leather jacket
I got this jacket in 2003 when I was going through a rebel phase. It was the same month I separated from my ex-wife, opened my restaurant Nectar, and got signed to Restaurant Makeover. It cost $1,000—which was huge money at the time—at Due West on Queen Street. I love that it’s worn in and a little beat-up. I’m too old for it now, but I bust it out once in a while.

Kitschy collectibles
I have been collecting antique egg cups since the early ’90s. I got the idea from the Park Avenue Café in New York, after I ordered the flan and it was served in an eggshell set inside an egg cup. I thought this was fantastic, so I started scouring flea markets and garage sales. Now my mom and friends are on the mission, too. My favourites are from post-war, 1940s Japan; they say “Made in Occupied Japan” on the bottom.

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The Dish

From the Print Edition

May 31, 2010 | 12:03 pm

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The Fixe Is In: James Chatto on Lynn Crawford’s new restaurant, Ruby Watchco

At Lynn Crawford’s new restaurant, customers eat whatever she feels like cooking that day. The concept is bold and bossy, but the celeb chef has the talent and swagger to pull it off By James Chatto

I had to admire their cool. With only four hours to go before the grand opening of Ruby Watchco, the restaurant’s three owners—chef Lynn Crawford, designer Cherie Stinson and her husband, front-of-house veteran Joey Skeir—were showing no sign of nerves. They were just sitting around the lunch table at the back of the restaurant, laughing and swapping renovation stories over a bottle of pinot grigio and an excellent chicken cobb salad made by head chef Lora Kirk. If this were an episode of Restaurant Makeover, the TV show that made Crawford and Stinson celebrities, there would be cussing and tears and all sorts of last-minute nail-biting melodramas to negotiate. But everything was pretty much ready, or would be once the last of the green masking tape was peeled off the front window. Even the tall boughs of quince blossom in a vase on the bar co-operated: all the buds popped open that morning, precisely on cue.

Lynn Crawford and head chef Lora Kirk at Ruby WatchCo

Lynn Crawford (left) and head chef Lora Kirk at their new restaurant, Ruby Watchco, on Queen East (Image: Ryan Szulc)

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The Dish

Opening

April 12, 2010 | 2:50 pm

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David Adjey wants to help new restaurants (or at least put them on TV)

Food Network Canada has posted a casting call for David Adjey’s new show, The Opener, which is looking for first-time restaurateurs who need some advice from the seasoned chef. Not to be confused with Restaurant Makeover (the other Food Network show that has featured Adjey and received its share of criticism), The Opener switches the focus from floundering eateries to those that have yet to open but are likely to flounder.

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The Dish

Opening

March 29, 2010 | 3:21 pm

5 Comments

Just Opened: Ruby Watchco, Lynn Crawford’s much-anticipated restaurant

After years of manning other people’s kitchens (the Manhattan Four Seasons), reinventing other people’s restaurants (Restaurant Makeover) and Pitchin’ In on other people’s farms, Lynn Crawford finally has a restaurant she can call her own. The venerable chef has opened Ruby Watchco in Riverdale, in the old Citizen space, with TV colleague (and Yabu Pushelberg designer) Cherie Stinson and her husband Joey Skeir as partners, and Four Seasons protégé Lora Kirk as the co–executive chef. The doors of the Queen East boîte opened last Tuesday, and it’s already booked solid.

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The Dish

Opening

March 23, 2010 | 4:05 pm

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Lynn Crawford’s Ruby Watchco opens tonight

After months of buzz on food blogs and Twitter feeds anticipating chef Lynn Crawford’s return to Toronto, her new restaurant, Ruby Watchco, will finally welcome its first diners tonight. Cherie Stinson of Restaurant Makeover, who is a partner with her husband Joey Skeir, has transformed the space formerly occupied by The Citizen into a dimly lit, autumn-toned dining room. Crawford will run the kitchen with Lora Kirk, who previously cooked at the Four Seasons.

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The Dish

Opening

March 12, 2010 | 1:36 pm

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Brassaii’s relaunch comes with new design, new menus and new chef

The new dining room at Brassaii

This week marked the long-awaited reopening of King West institution Brassaii, and judging from the extensive menu redesign, the place is looking like more of an upscale dining spot than a Friday-night hangout for the mini-dress set.

The new one-page menus were designed by chef Bruce Woods, who left his five-year stint at Centro last year to join Brassaii, and seem to ensure that diners never need to leave the property: breakfast, brunch, lunch, dinner, dessert and late-night snacks are all covered. Expect breakfast and brunch staples, as well as sandwiches and burgers for lunch. As for dinner, it’s continental fare with hints of Asian influence: miso cod ($29), spaghettini with kobe beef meatballs ($20), chicken with a panko crust ($25).

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The Dish

Restauran-TO

January 22, 2010 | 11:00 am

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Lynn Crawford’s new Riverdale restaurant to open in March

Celebrity chef and Restaurant Makeover star Lynn Crawford’s much-anticipated Riverdale restaurant, located in The Citizen’s former space, is set to open in March after its renovation is complete. The name, Ruby Watchco, comes from a 13-foot sign co-owners Cherie Stinson (a Restaurant Makeover interior designer) and husband Joey Skeir found at the Junction decor shop Cornerstone a few years ago. They immediately knew that the odd moniker would be the name of their dream restaurant.

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The Dish

Restauran-TO

November 25, 2009 | 11:11 am

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The rumours are true: celeb chef Lynn Crawford is taking over The Citizen

Restaurant takeover: Lynn Crawford moves into The Citizen (Photo courtest of Google)

Restaurant takeover: Lynn Crawford moves into The Citizen (Photo courtesy of Google)

After weeks of tongues wagging over the future of The Citizen, the Star has confirmed rumours that Restaurant Makeover stars Lynn Crawford and Cherie Stinson are taking over and revamping the Riverdale bistro. “Lynn had been hounding me for a full year to sell,” said former Citizen chef and proprietor Rod Bowers, who also owns Queen West’s Rosebud restaurant. Crawford hasn’t released her spot’s new name, or confirmed whether her former Truffles protégé Lora Kirk will be coming on board. “The food will be about sharing the table, supporting local,” she says. “It’s about me working with the growers, the farmers, the fishermen.” Cherie Stinson, who works for the international interior design firm Yabu Pushelberg (they did Canoe and the Hazelton Hotel), plans to complement Crawford’s socially conscious food by creating “a relaxed neighbourhood restaurant with communal tables and eclectic design.” The restaurant is scheduled to open in March 2010, managed by Stinson’s husband, Joey Skeir, who is also a partner.

• A restaurant makeover of their own [Toronto Star]

The Dish

Opening

August 28, 2009 | 11:44 am

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Brad Long’s new spot in Bloor West Village will have four floors, luck and tourtière

Go Long: celebrity chef Brad Long is opening his pub in Blood West Village

Go Long: celebrity chef Brad Long is opening a pub in Bloor West Village

Chef and Food Network star Brad Long has a quick answer when asked what will be on the menu at his new Bloor West gastropub: “Canadian food.” He pauses. “What the hell is Canadian food?”

Long has been trying to answer that question for a while, from his days at the CN Tower’s revolving restaurant, 360, to his current gigs as executive chef at King East’s Veritas and sometime-guest on Restaurant Makeover. The quest will continue when the new joint, officially named My Place: A Canadian Pub (subtitled “like a bad movie,” says Long), opens in early September. It will be the pub yin to Veritas’s bistro yang, but the grub will still hinge on Long’s stock-in-trade: seasonal, local ingredients.

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