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Six Toronto chefs battle for doughnut supremacy (and $10,000) on the new reality series Donut Showdown

Mmm… Doughnuts… (Image: Janice Cullivan)

Food Network Canada is launching another competition-based reality TV show. Each episode of Donut Showdown begins with three chefs vying to produce the most delicious doughnut from a basket of mystery ingredients. Then the weakest entrant is dropped, the remaining two chefs cook a big batch of doughnuts based on a theme and the winner takes home the $10,000 prize. (Three contestants, two straightforward contests, one consistent dish—this is no Top Chef.) Cooks from across North America will compete, including 12 Canadian contestants, six of whom hail from Toronto: Amanda Harmer of Barque Smokehouse, Trista Sheen of Crush Wine Bar, Kristen Boates of John & Sons Oyster House, Rachelle Cadwell of Dough by Rachelle, Michelle Edgar of Sweet Escapes Patisserie, Rachel Pellet of Emma’s Country Kitchen. The first episode airs April 2.

The Dish

Food Events

September 29, 2012 | 10:30 am

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Weekly Eater: Toronto food events for October 1 to 7

Shuck U: Oyster 101 takes place at Hooked on Wednesday (Image: Gabriel Li)

Monday, October 1

86’D With Ivy Knight: This week, a “twisted foodie adventure” with Rodney Dangerfood, plus reinvention of the cosmo by GwaiLo cocktail queen Christina Kuypers. The Drake, 1150 Queen St. W., 416-531-5042. Find out more »
Monday Night Dinners at Local Kitchen and Wine Bar: Every Monday night, Local Kitchen serves up a $40 prix fixe menu of their Italian fare with half-price wine bottles and no corkage fee. 1710 Queen St. W., 416-534-6700. Find out more »
Piola’s Monday Night Mixer: Piola’s weekly aperitivo Italiano, with cocktail and beer specials and complimentary snacks. 1165 Queen St. W., 416-477-4652. Find out more »
Burger Mondays: Enjoy $5 burgers and $5 pints on Mondays, 5 to 8 p.m. at the Gladstone Melody Bar. Gladstone Hotel, 1214 Queen St. W., 416-531-4635. Find out more »
Grocery Innovations Canada 2012: Exhibitors and delegates from all over the country gather to discuss their plans for the coming year and the top trends that will hit aisles in 2013. October 1 and 2. Metro Convention Centre, 255 Front St. W. Find out more »

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Features

September 20, 2012 | 3:31 pm

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Gastropub Crawl: the good and great among the new wave of British pubs

Can a new crop of British pubs push the comforting cuisine beyond stodgy pigs and puddings?
By Jared Bland | Photographs by Emma McIntyre

The Oxley in Yorkville serves up solid standards with a side of kitsch

Toronto is a town obsessed with the culture of its constitutional overlord. We woke up early to watch the royal wedding, eagerly pirated the latest episodes of Downton Abbey, and still flock to Stratford for our annual dose of Elizabethan manners. Now we’re doing the previously unthinkable: craving British food. It isn’t a new fixation—the city has long had its share of toads-in-the-hole velvet banquettes and dark wood panelling, but there’s a new seriousness to the endeavor.

In 2009, the Manchester-born chef Andrew Carter and Jamieson Kerr, the British expat who also founded Crush Wine Bar on King West, opened The Queen and Beaver on Elm Street, the city’s first (and still best) sophisticated pub. Across town that year, the renowned oyster shucker and Starfish proprietor Patrick McMurray launched The Ceili Cottage, a raucous Irish pub that, while not British, helped lift Toronto out of its Firkin fog and raised our expectations of pub food.

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The Dish

Food Events

August 25, 2012 | 10:30 am

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Weekly Eater: Toronto food events for August 27 to September 2

Outstanding in the Field comes to Whitty Farms on Wednesday (Image: Jeremy Fenske)

Monday August 27

86’D With Ivy Knight: A special 86’D at the Drake’s Sky Yard, celebrating the pairing of chardonnay with corn. Sample Rosehall Run’s chardonnay alongside grilled corn dipped in the Drake’s selection of fine butters. The Drake, 1150 Queen St. W., 416-531-5042. Find out more »
Piola’s Monday Night Mixer: Piola’s weekly aperitivo Italiano, with cocktail and beer specials and complimentary snacks. 1165 Queen St. W., 416-477-4652. Find out more »
Summer Pasta Making: Join chefs Scott Savoie and Shahir Massoud and learn how to make, sauce, and store the best fresh pasta, including various noodles (tagliatelle, fettuccine), stuffed pasta shapes (agnolotti, ravioli, tortellini) and the softest potato gnocchi you’ll ever try. 201 Weston Rd., suite #101, 416-565-1730. Find out more»
Cooking for Cooks: Jamie Kennedy pays tribute to those who do service with a three-course dinner for industry folk (although non-industry types can come too). Gilead Cafe, 4 Gilead Pl., 647-288-0680. Find out more »

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The Dish

Food TV

June 5, 2012 | 5:05 pm

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VIDEO: watch the crowd go wild at a Top Chef Canada viewing party hosted by the winner

(Video: Suresh Doss)

Last night, we found ourselves at an open viewing party hosted at The Sister with the winner of this year’s Top Chef Canada, along with some of his close friends, industry types and sundry supporters.

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Food TV

May 18, 2012 | 10:08 am

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Top Chef Canada exit interview, episode 10: that’s a wrap

This season, we’re chatting with each week’s eliminated chef after they get the boot (or, rather, after their boot-getting episode airs—this stuff was recorded months ago).

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Food TV

March 13, 2012 | 11:37 am

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Top Chef Canada recap, episode 1: and we’re baaaaaack

Sarah Tsai looks like she’s got a tough decision to make (Image: Courtesy Top Chef Canada)

Let’s face it: season one of Top Chef Canada wasn’t perfect. Some people complained that the cooking lacked ambition. Others, including many of our esteemed commenters, found the slate of contestants a tad too lily white and male. And, let’s face it, not everyone was the biggest fan of host Thea Andrews. But here we are, eight months later, with a set of chefs that head judge Mark McEwan has said are higher calibre, a more diverse cast and, lo!, a new host, actress and one-time model Lisa Ray. So who knows? We’re already pretty excited to see how this season will stack up against the first (which, to be fair, we thought was pretty entertaining). Find out how the first episode went down—and how much product placement the producers were able to cram in—after the jump.

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Food TV

March 8, 2012 | 5:21 pm

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The Toronto Top Chef Canada contestants go through the motions for us at a mock quickfire

Head judge Mark McEwan with resident judge Shereen Arazm and host Lisa Ray

Season two of Top Chef Canada premieres this Monday, and to celebrate, Food Network Canada held a mock quickfire challenge at Victor (the home kitchen of competitor David Chrystian) for the Toronto-based contestants. Judges Mark McEwan and Shereen Arazm were on hand with Lisa Ray (in an ivory Pink Tartan sheath dress) playing host, as on the show. Chrystian had home field advantage, while Ryan Gallagher (sous chef at Ruby Watchco and erstwhile private chef for the Thompson family), Daniel Boulud–alum Carl Heinrich, Frank and caféAGO sous chef Elizabeth Rivasplata, Crush Wine Bar sous chef Trista Sheen and Sarah Tsai of the Toronto Lawns Tennis Club vied for the symbolic win (the real show, of course, was filmed months ago).

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Restaurants

February 13, 2012 | 4:57 pm

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Forgot to make a Valentine’s Day reservation? Here are 10 restaurants that still have space

Above: Plan B. Or maybe Plan C (Image: Pizza Pizza)

Hoping to take your sweetheart to Splendido, Scarpetta or Auberge du Pommier for Valentine’s Day? Well sorry, it’s too late. However, we did find some restaurants that have both romantic prix-fixe menus and a few tables left for procrastinators. It helps if said sweetheart doesn’t mind eating a bit early or late. And if all else fails, there’s always Pizza Pizza, which will be serving up heart-shaped pizzas until next week (because nothing says “I love you” like gooey cheese, delivery boys and cardboard boxes).

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Food TV

February 6, 2012 | 1:22 pm

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Top Chef Canada season two contestants announced; here are your six Toronto chefs

(Images: Food Network Canada/Insight Productions)

UPDATE: Check out our recap of episode 1 »

With the sophomore season of Top Chef Canada set to premiere on March 12, Food Network Canada has finally introduced the 16 chefs hoping to cook their way to $100,000 (and, lest we forget, a GE Monogram kitchen). The group (which, perhaps responding to feedback about season one, is a tad more multicultural) once again contains six Torontonians, among them Marben’s Carl Heinrich and Ruby Watchco’s Ryan Gallagher. Tasting the food will be new host Lisa Ray, alongside head judge Mark McEwan and resident judge Shereen Arazm and a spate of guests that includes culinary personalities (Top Chef Masters winner Marcus Samuelsson) and sundry celebrities (handyman Mike Holmes, actor Alan Thicke, Kenny vs. Spenny’s Spencer Rice). We round up the Toronto contestants, starting with Victor’s David Chrystian »

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Licious

January 9, 2012 | 3:15 pm

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Winterlicious 2012: Toronto Life’s picks for King West and the Financial District

The dining scene in and around the Financial District has seen a lot of changes since last year’s festival, with new restaurants (Aria, Estiatorio Volos) and new chefs at existing restaurants (Lucien, Brassaii). Here, 24 Winterlicious picks south of College.

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The Hype

TIFF Talk

September 7, 2011 | 1:57 pm

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TIFF after hours: the 44 (and counting) film fest venues with the coveted 4 a.m. last call

(Image: walknboston)

Every year celebs from all over the world flood into the city for TIFF, but for many, it’s the Alcohol and Gaming Commission of Ontario that’s the real star throughout the month of September. Just in time to combat post-summer blues, the AGCO grants certain venues the rights to the elusive 4 a.m. last call. While last year’s list clocked in at 44 venues This year’s list of venues with extended hours finally caught up with last year’s, bringing the current number to 44—some of them not open to the public (we’re looking at you, Windsor Arms) and others open for one night only. Check out the list of late-night watering holes after the jump and stay tuned for updates on extended hours, as more are expected to roll in before the festival.

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The Dish

Drinks

April 20, 2011 | 9:11 am

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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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Licious

January 4, 2011 | 4:15 am

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The Best of Winterlicious 2011: Toronto Life’s 62 favourite restaurants

(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).

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Licious

December 17, 2010 | 3:49 pm

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The Winterlicious 2011 menus are out, so let’s compare them to previous years

By now, Torontonians are well-seasoned winterliciousers—and at Winterlicious 2011, we will be deftly dodging the wilted arugula and heading straight for the belly of the beast (preferably pork). Looking through the newly published list of restaurants and menus, there is plenty to be pleased about this January. Our popular “Best of Winterlicious” piece is coming out next week, but we thought we’d get a jump on things and take a look at how this year’s roster compares with last year’s ’Licous lists.

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