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Toronto Taste 2011: We get the latest news from top chefs and restaurateurs from Woodlot, Buca, Nota Bene, O&B and many more

Rob Gentile (Buca), David Lee (Nota Bene), Andrea Nicholson (Great Cooks on Eight), Paul Boehmer (Böhmer), Teo Paul (Union)

Two thousand of Toronto’s food lovers and makers gathered at the ROM on Sunday for the 21st edition of Toronto Taste. The annual fundraiser—which raises money for Second Harvest—saw more than 60 restaurants and 30 beverage purveyors offering their best to the guests. Burgers and tacos might have been the plats du jour, but new restaurant openings seemed to be the hottest item on the plates of many chefs and restaurateurs we spoke to. Here’s what we heard from Buca’s Rob Gentile, Woodlot’s David Haman, Scarpetta’s Scott Conant, Splendido’s Victor Barry, Top Chef Canada contestants Dustin Gallagher and Andrea Nicholson and many more. Words and images by Renée Suen

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The Dish

Opening

June 10, 2011 | 9:35 am

12 Comments

With Acadia, Scott Selland and Matt Blondin aim to shake up conservative Toronto palates

Blondin and Selland, fomenting revolution (Image: Will Fournier)

Despite the ethnic diversity of cuisine in Toronto, the city’s dining scene sometimes comes under fire for its lack of innovation. Acadia, a new venture by first-time owner Scott Selland (Splendido, Colborne Lane, Susur) and chef Matt Blondin (Colborne Lane, Senses, Rain), hopes to change that by bringing the unique flavour profiles of the east coast—from Louisiana and both Carolinas all the way up to the Maritimes—to Toronto’s sometimes conservative palate. We caught up with the pair to find out just what they’re up to.

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The Dish

From the Print Edition

May 12, 2011 | 8:30 am

7 Comments

Bringing Sexy Back: Chris Nuttall-Smith takes on Aria and Toca

After three years of restaurant restraint, Aria and Toca, two unabashedly flashy new spots, are giving diners a reason to get dressed up again By Chris Nuttall-Smith

Opulence, I missed you. I missed high thread-count table linens and hand-blown water glasses and even edible gold leaf a little. I missed the dining rooms whose owners gave carte blanche to talented designers, insisting only on “something grand.” But mostly, I missed gasping when I walked into restaurants—having to stop to take a space in, to admire. Though restraint wasn’t all bad for dining culture these past few years, it wasn’t always easy on the eyes.

Two ambitious, expensive, flashy new dining rooms have opened downtown in recent months, one of them from a hotel chain that’s synonymous with conspicuous luxury, the other from a pair of neighbourhood restaurateurs who’ve come out shooting for the moon. Both are fine dining (more or less), and both are likely to make you gasp when you enter.

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The Dish

From the Print Edition

April 20, 2011 | 9:11 am

9 Comments

The sipper club: meet the city’s competitive cabal of top sommeliers

Will Predhomme belongs to a competitive cabal of top sommeliers who sniff, sip and spit their way through hundreds of bottles a week. They do this to help you decide what to drink with your dinner, while making you think it was your idea all along
By Jason McBride | Photography by Sandy Nicholson

One hundred and fifty-one people have reservations at Canoe tonight. Among these are many Bay Streeters, a couple celebrating their 25th wedding anniversary, dozens of people on dates, including the bar manager from Crush, and a young woman who plans to propose to her boyfriend over dinner. The two private dining rooms are fully booked.

Canoe, part of the ever-expanding Oliver and Bonacini empire, is routinely considered one of the finest restaurants in the city. Last summer, in a rigorous competition held by the Canadian Association of Professional Sommeliers, known as CAPS, Canoe’s head sommelier, Will Predhomme, was proclaimed Ontario’s best. Predhomme has devoted a third of his life—he’s 29—to wine scholarship. He now knows more about wine than almost anyone in Toronto.

Just after 5 p.m., the bar area begins to fill up with commuters sipping cocktails as they wait for the traffic on the clogged Gardiner, 54 floors below, to dissipate. One of the restaurant’s first guests, a retired trial lawyer, arrives. As a young female host escorts him to his large corner table, he puts an arm around her shoulder. “I don’t like to pay bills,” he says. “I want a fucking account. Last time I was here, I offered those ladies”—referring to the hosts who greeted him at his last visit—“$300 and told them to set up an account for me. And I still don’t have one.” He and his three dining companions, Canoe regulars, have brought in several bottles of their own wine, including a cabernet franc from the ex-lawyer’s private vineyard in Tuscany. When Predhomme arrives at the table to discuss the wine, the ex-lawyer, captivatingly bratty in a way that only the rich and sort-of-powerful can be, repeats his complaint. “Look, I spend about $50,000 a year at Bymark, and I’d do the same here if I had a fucking account.” Predhomme is unmoved, but gracious. “If you give me your contact information,” he says, “I’ll make sure that it gets to the right people.”

“You’ll get me an account?”

“I’ll look into it.”

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The Dish

Opening

March 18, 2011 | 2:24 pm

5 Comments

Introducing: All the Best Fine Foods—the Rosedale gourmet emporium returns

All the Best’s new 2,500-square-foot home (Image: Renée Suen)

True to its name, All the Best Fine Foods has been offering high-quality ingredients and prepared foods since 1984. The purveyor of gourmet goods is known for its Rosedale home, but restoration work on the heritage building meant taking temporarily residence in a tiny neighbouring trailer for over four years. The reopening of the Summerhill institution has been a long time coming, not just for regulars, but also for the store’s founder and CEO, Jane Rodmell, and COO, Susan Bowman.

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The Dish

From the Print Edition

February 24, 2011 | 9:05 am

5 Comments

Kneadful things: a guide to the best restaurant bread in town

With artisanal flours, custom-made ovens and full-time bakers, restaurants are turning the pre-dinner breadbasket into an indulgence in its own right By Eric Vellend

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The Dish

From the Print Edition

January 5, 2011 | 2:12 pm

5 Comments

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 By Eric Vellend

See the list »

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The Dish

From the Print Edition

September 2, 2010 | 9:06 am

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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 By Eric Vellend

(Image: My Yen Trung)

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The Dish

Restauran-TO

July 20, 2010 | 1:16 pm

1 Comment

Canoe, Nota Bene and Splendido named go-to restaurants for golfers

Tasty triptych: Canoe, scallops at Splendido, Nota Bene

The RBC Canadian Open rolled into town yesterday, bringing with it such golf heavyweights as Mike Weir, Luke Donald and Paul Casey. Instead of chasing the pros along the St. George’s Golf Club fairway, a better way to spot celeb swingers (that’s not a Tiger Woods joke; he’s not playing) might be to check out the restaurants the PGA Tour has predictably recommended on its Web site. Perennial favourite Canoe, Queen West’s Nota Bene and Harbord fixture Splendido all received top ratings from the PGA Tour’s Travel section. Local fare seems to be the basis for recommendation, as all of them offer quality seafood dishes and Canadian specialties.

• Tour Life Travel, Destination: Toronto [PGA]

(Images: Canoe, Matthew Fox; scallops, Renée Suen; Nota Bene, PJ Mixer)

The Dish

Opening

July 7, 2010 | 4:09 pm

2 Comments

Just Opened: Marben trades in the onyx for oh-so-popular reclaimed wood

Carl Heinrich with a companion in the newly redesigned Marben (All images: Karon Liu)

Splendido did it, then Centro, then Brassaii, and now Marben. Sure, they’ve all been renovated, but more specifically, they’ve all received make-unders.

Back in March, Marben auctioned off bits and pieces of its former self, including the famous glowing onyx bar, in order to make way for understated pieces, vintage fixtures and reclaimed wood. General manager Sarah Evans says the Wellington West restaurant’s overhaul was meant to lighten up the place and make it known for its food rather than its scene (Brassaii cited similar urges). Still, with the restaurant open until 2 a.m. every day and Bavette—a separate downstairs party space—set to open at the end of the month, Marben isn’t retiring from the revelry. “The city needs a rowdy restaurant,” says Evans.

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The Dish

Aprons & Icons

June 15, 2010 | 2:52 pm

2 Comments

We ask the top chefs at Toronto Taste what’s in store at George, Splendido, Scaramouche and the rest of the city’s hot restaurants

This past Sunday marked the 20^th anniversary of Toronto Taste, the annual event that unites Toronto’s food lovers and food makers for a day of innovative cooking, tasking and fundraising for Second Harvest. 60 of Toronto’s top chefs—including Jason Bangerter, Donna Dooher, Chris McDonald, Mark McEwan, Anthony Walsh and Anne Yarymowich—doled out top-notch cuisine to an estimated 1,600 guests at the ROM. We caught up with the chefs and asked them what’s in store for them and their restaurants this summer.

The Dish

From the Print Edition

April 8, 2010 | 4:00 am

55 Comments

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.

By James Chatto, Photographs by Brendan Meadows and Ryan Szulc, Illustrations by Jack Dylan

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The Dish

From the Print Edition

March 24, 2010 | 4:46 pm

4 Comments

Five food trends we have a love-hate relationship with

Every year, Toronto Life’s April edition names the current food and restaurant trends we love, hate and those with which we have a love-hate relationship. Here are the 2010 trends for which we have mixed feelings

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The Goods

Weddings

March 4, 2010 | 2:06 pm

1 Comment

Ask the expert: a caterer’s dos and don’ts for the big day

Arpi Magyar became a culinary star in the kitchen at Splendido, and now his catering company, Couture Cuisine and Event Artistry, delights palates at more than 150 weddings a year. His dos and don’ts for the big day.

Photograph by Vanessa Heins

How much of the wedding budget should be for food and booze?
About 60 per cent of a wedding budget should be devoted to the food, booze, staffing and rentals. But I never know what they’re spending on everything else—a bride can spend $10,000 on a dress.

Where should couples splurge?
Most people should spend an extra $500 to $600 on better wine. It makes all the difference, and it’s only the equivalent of two flower arrangements.

Where should they save their money?
Don’t serve wedding cake as dessert—it never looks good on the plate, and most of them aren’t that tasty. Get a small, symbolic cake and serve a plated dessert. My favourite thing to do is an assortment of samples: a crème brûlée in an espresso cup, maybe a miniature molten chocolate cake, and a quenelle of raspberry sorbet.

Has the recession changed the way people cater weddings?
For sure. Fewer cheese plates. They’re a luxury item—at the end of the night, after the coffee and dessert—and at $9 a person, that can mean spending thousands of dollars just on cheese. People are also shying away from more expensive main courses. I’ve done fewer veal chops this year and a lot more poultry. Playing it safe with beef, chicken or salmon is always smart.

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The Dish

Aprons & Icons

February 12, 2010 | 12:12 pm

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Splendido’s Victor Barry heading to Calgary on chef exchange—and Rush’s Justin Leboe comes here

As Splendido’s second incarnation continues to draw praise, chef-proprietor Victor Barry is taking the restaurant’s buzz out west, where he will be taking over the kitchen at Calgary’s famous restaurant Rush—owned by Barry’s friend, chef Justin Leboe. “Justin and I worked together in Bermuda back in 2006, and we talked about getting back together,” explains Barry as he prepares for the Eat, Drink and Give benefit at Roy Thomson Hall Tuesday evening. “He’s going to be here on April 7, and I’m going to be there on March 24.” Menus for the Leboe-Barry exchange will be available next week.

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