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A toothsome feast is a critical part of every wedding—which is why we asked the chefs at Toca, Acadia, Canoe and GwaiLo to design reception-ready dishes that’ll please the most discerning crowd
SHRIMP AND VANILLA RISOTTO
Gihen Zitouni, chef at Toca
Zitouni, who runs the Ritz-Carlton’s fine dining restaurant, makes a risotto as pretty as the bride. She cooks the rice with vanilla-infused butter, then tops it with slivered almonds, two seared shrimp and a cloud of pecorino air.
Dennis Tay and Carl Heinrich from Richmond Station (Image: Igor Yu)
The city’s hard-core ramen fixation has been going strong for about a year now, but it was an earlier Toronto noodle love, Vietnamese pho, which inspired Suresh Doss (Food Truck Eats) to host yesterday’s Slurp Noodlefest. The idea stemmed from a dinner conversation that Doss had with chefs Susur Lee and Carl Heinrich about Toronto’s many excellent pho options. Doss wanted to see what the younger generation of chefs, who’ve had plenty of exposure to pho, could come up with, so he invited them down to The Great Hall to show off their best noodle dishes. The all-star roster included Heinrich, A-OK’s Chris Jang, Nick Liu of the upcoming GwaiLo, Sabai Sabai’s Nuit Regular, Matthew Sullivan of Skin and Bones and even Splendido’s Victor Barry, who stayed true to his restaurant’s haute-cuisine with a porcini and perigord truffle ramen with a sous-vide egg.
Toronto is in the midst of a serious ramen fixation, so it’s only fitting that the latest food event from the trend-savvy Food Truck Eats producers is Slurp Noodlefest, which takes place at The Great Hall on March 3. The roster of chefs includes pop-up regulars like Adam Hynam-Smith of El Gastrónomo Vagabundo and Nick Liu of the still-not-open GwaiLo, as well as representatives from more rarified kitchens, like Splendido’s Victor Barry and Richmond Station’s Carl Heinrich. Expect various takes on pho, ramen and other assorted noodle dishes, all priced in the $5–$10 range (there’s also a $10 entry fee). Amsterdam Brewery, Tromba Tequila and the buzzy new Dillon’s Distillery from Niagara will be serving the libations. Buy tickets »
Taste moves in waves: one year tall food is on every menu in town, and the next year, it’s a half-forgotten embarrassment. Sometimes, though, those embarrassments come back in a new guise. This year saw the quiet return of certain tendencies that we thought were long-buried, like fusion cuisine and wine bars, as well as the full-blown emergence of others that were bubbling away just below the surface, like tacos and, of course, ramen. Below, a roundup of what was hot in 2012.
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The final GwaiLo pop-up at Senses takes place on Monday (Image: Gizelle Lau)
(Image: Jenna Marie Wakani)
For philanthropists with a gourmet bent, What’s on the Table, the big annual fundraiser for The Stop, is kind of a big deal. Every year, a slew of the city’s top chefs come out to support the community food centre and hobnob with some of their biggest fans. The 2012 edition, which took place on Wednesday at the Artscape Wychwood Bars, featured chefs from Beast, Cava, George, GwaiLo, Hooked, Nadège, Noce, Parts and Labour, Paulette’s, Pizzeria Libretto and The Harbord Room, among many others. We spied former mayor David Miller enthusing with Cava’s Chris McDonald over their shared love of Spanish cuisine, and GwaiLo’s Nick Liu politely fending off nosy questions about where his still-not-yet-open restaurant will be located. In the end, after two auctions (one live and one silent), The Stop came away with $270,000 to support their mission of increasing everyone’s access to good, healthy food. The 500-odd donors, meanwhile, left with full bellies and rosy cheeks, having kibitzed with their chef-idols for a few hours.
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Chef Nick Liu in the kitchen (Image: Gizelle Lau)
It’s been almost a year since we first told you about GwaiLo, a new restaurant from chef Nick Liu (Niagara Street Café) and Christina Kuypers (Splendido) that’s been perpetually “coming soon.” Since an initial preview dinner back in March, the pair have been appearing around the city at events like the Banana Mafia dinner and Soupstock, and have now landed at the Soho Metropolitan’s Senses restaurant for a month-long pop-up engagement. We went for a preview dinner yesterday to see what you can expect.
(Image: Renée Suen)
An estimated 40,000 soup-seeking revellers and 200 chefs traveled to Woodbine Park last weekend to attend Soupstock 2012, the one-day culinary protest festival designed to raise awareness for the fight against the proposed mega-quarry in the Township of Melancthon. Building on the momentum generated from last year’s Foodstock, the Canadian Chef’s Congress and the David Suzuki Foundation convened the weekend’s festivities. Regardless of political affiliation, the sheer magnitude of the event was impressive: it’s a rare occasion that offers that many big-name city chefs (and, for that matter, that much soup).
In a dining scene rife with duck confit banh mi, peameal bulgogi and brisket steamed buns, the F-word crops up a lot. But you won’t hear Nick Liu use it. His new Asian brasserie, he insists, isn’t fusion. It’s Canadian. Which is why he chose to call it GwaiLo, the Cantonese slang for foreigners like himself—that is, a Markham-raised Chinese-Canadian who learned to make shumai from his grandmother, but also mastered rustic Italian food in Tuscany and French techniques at Splendido and Scaramouche.
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What the dots mean: We’ve colour-coded Splendido’s kitchen hierarchy and charted the chefs’ rise through its ranks
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The Banana Mafia throwing up deuces (Image: Gizelle Lau)
Last night was the first gathering of the Banana Mafia crew at the Amsterdam Brewery. This alliance of chefs was brought together by the team behind the upcoming GwaiLo, and is made up of Nick Liu (GwaiLo), Robbie Hojilla (Ursa), Jeff Claudio (Yours Truly), Jonathan Poon (Chantecler) and Leemo Han (Swish by Han, Oddseoul). The idea behind the Banana Mafia started with Liu, who wanted to do a Singapore hawker-style event by bringing together some of the city’s brightest Asian chefs.
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While Nick Liu’s fans wait for the opening of his new Asian brasserie GwaiLo, the former Niagara Street Café chef has been showing up at various pop-ups and one-offs. Next up: an Asian Street Market at the Amsterdam Brewery featuring a crew of young Asian chefs calling themselves the Banana Mafia (the name likely does not refer to the fruit). The team is made up of Liu, Robbie Hojilla (Ursa), Jeff Claudio (Yours Truly), Jonathan Poon (Chantecler) and Leemo Han (Swish by Han and Oddseoul, which is presumably the name of the Han brothers’ new Ossington place). The event, which is almost sold out, takes place this coming Monday, May 14, with tickets going for $60 each. Check out the party’s event page for more info.
Kevin Gilmour (sous chef at The Drake Hotel) was assisted by his crew at this pork carving station. Hunks of roasted pork were served over a peanut-ginger slaw (Image: Renée Suen)
Last week, 500 members or so of Canada’s food and hospitality industry gathered for Terroir VI at the newly renovated Arcadian Court. The theme for this year’s symposium was “The New Radicals,” a new generation of chefs that have a collaborative and unconventional approach to cuisine despite their conventional training. Symposium chair Arlene Stein had arranged a line up of the industry’s finest from Canada and abroad, assembled on panels featuring restaurateurs, writers and chefs from the old and new vanguard—most attendees agreed this year’s crop was the best yet (before the event we spoke to Australian chef Ben Shewry, as well as sustainable aquaculture champion Barton Seaver and natural wine advocate Alice Feiring.).
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Steve Gonzalez and Daniel Hadida, on the ends, joined chefs Daniel Burns and Jason Carter in the kitchen (Image: Renée Suen)
This weekend, 90 diners gathered over three nights at Mitzi’s on College for one of this year’s most highly anticipated dinners: a collaboration between chefs Daniel Burns (Momofuku’s food lab, Noma, The Fat Duck and St. John) and Jason Carter (Centro, Lee), both currently between jobs. Those fortunate enough to snag a seat were treated to a $100 five-course menu with wine pairings, along with some snacks to start things off.
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