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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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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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The Dish

Food TV

May 29, 2012 | 11:26 am

4 Comments

Top Chef Canada recap, episode 12: fashion victims

Jennifer McLagan joins the regular crew at the Shops at Don Mills (Image: Courtesy Top Chef Canada)

With only four chefs remaining in the competition, last night’s episode of Top Chef Canada started in style—with Carl Heinrich, David Chrystian, Trevor Bird and Jonathan Korecki suiting up at their condo, accompanied by appropriately gladiatorial music. Over the next 43-odd TV minutes they’d be confronted with a legendarily tough (and foul-mouthed) guest judge, and one of those perplexing elimination challenges that leaves a chef between a rock and a hard place. Find out who makes it to the final and who gets sent packing, below.

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The Dish

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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The Dish

Food TV

May 15, 2012 | 12:11 pm

2 Comments

Top Chef Canada recap, episode 10: I got soul, but…

Marcus Samuelsson and Dale MacKay joined the judges this week (Image: Top Chef Canada)

Last week, we complained that the one-two punch of a vending machine quickfire followed by a camping challenge made it feel a bit like a novelty episode. So it was with great anticipation that we tuned in to see last night’s episode, which featured Top Chef Masters champ and all-around chef hero Marcus Samuelsson, who, as Ryan Gallagher suggested, did push the chefs to try harder. It also featured a shot of a young Trista Sheen, who grew up in Flemingdon Park, in full-out cornrows. In other words: an excellent episode all around.

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The Dish

Food TV

May 8, 2012 | 12:08 pm

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Top Chef Canada recap, episode 9: roughin’ it

Bright-eyed and bushy-tailed (Image: Top Chef Canada)

Last night’s episode featured two guest judges (Spencer Rice, a.k.a. Spenny, and Roger Mooking, a.k.a. MC Mystic), one topless chef (David Chrystian) and a whack of inept camping from city folk stranded out in the country. In other words, it was one of the novelty episodes—and with only six chefs standing at the end, we hope it’s the last. Of course, it featured its share of hijinks, so we’re not complaining. A rundown of what happened, including the shocking revelation of which folksy instrument Mark McEwan plays in his spare time, below.

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The Dish

Food TV

May 1, 2012 | 12:47 pm

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Top Chef Canada recap, episode 8: later, caterer

(Image: Top Chef Canada)

Last night’s episode started with some reflections from the chefs back at their, um, glamorous condo. Xavier Lacaze was amazed that he’d made it so far. Ryan Gallagher thought that Curtis Luk had been sent home too early. Carl Heinrich missed his girlfriend (it was her birthday). And Jimmy Stewart? He revealed that he still lived with his mom. “A lot of people might find that embarrassing,” he said. “Home will always be there. This will not.” Was that a sly forshadowing by the producers of things to come? Read on to find out.

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The Dish

Food TV

April 10, 2012 | 11:20 am

8 Comments

Top Chef Canada recap, episode 5: the Thicke of it

The regular gang, see here cracking wise, was joined by Alan Thicke and the Distillery District’s Jason Rosso (Image: Top Chef Canada)

The opening of last night’s episode of Top Chef Canada revived a time-honoured trope from season one: chefs in their skivvies. This time around, it was Victor’s David Chrystian (last episode’s victor, as it happens) who launched himself, shirtless, out of his top bunk to quell a screaming alarm clock. The episode was also a return to form for the show’s fabled product placement division, with an entire challenge focused around a sponsor’s product, and a nice showcase for some cheffy temper flare-ups. Oh, and it featured a guest judging spot by “Canadian icon” Dr. Jason Seaver Alan Thicke, for reasons we can’t quite fathom—not that we’re complaining.

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The Dish

Food TV

April 3, 2012 | 12:03 pm

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Top Chef Canada recap, episode 4: something offal

Matty Matheson welcomed the judges to Parts and Labour, including Chris Cosentino (Images: Top Chef Canada)

Last night’s episode of Top Chef Canada seemed perfectly calibrated to appeal to the foodie audience, from the chef skills quickfire to the guest judge spot by San Francisco’s offal king Chris Cosentino (whose trip to Toronto was memorably recounted on Twitter last year). And we’ll be honest: we fell for every last bit of it (more like this, please). The episode started with Gabriell Cruz anointing Victor’s David Chrystian as the “sleeping giant” of the competition (presumably because he keeps ending up on the bottom, despite owning a stake in his restaurant). But would that sleeping giant rise to take his rightful place? Find out in this week’s recap.

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The Dish

Food TV

March 27, 2012 | 11:30 am

6 Comments

Top Chef Canada recap, episode 3: the craving games

A very pregnant Thea Andrews returned for a guest spot (Image: Top Chef Canada)

Last night’s episode of Top Chef Canada accomplished a couple of rare feats: it brought last season’s host Thea Andrews onto the same set as this season’s host Lisa Ray without any sparks flying; and it managed to theme an entire episode around the appetites of pregnant women without being grossly offensive (even if it couldn’t escape being deeply corny). So, to the fine people at Insight Productions, we say: good on you. Oh, and the cooking? Actually, it was a few notches up from last week’s construction-site rigamarole, although it did include enough you-just-can’t-make-this-stuff-up bombs to keep us amused.

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The Dish

Food TV

March 20, 2012 | 12:13 pm

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Top Chef Canada recap, episode 2: hokey doke

Does meatitarian Mike Holmes look happy with Elizabeth Rivasplata’s black cod carpaccio? (Image: Top Chef Canada)

The original U.S. version of Top Chef tries to maintain a steely cool tone with the chefs run ragged and constantly at each other’s throats (witness the bullying of poor Beverly Kim this season). The Canadian version, however, has never been afraid of sustained periods of hokeyness—which might explain last night’s episode featuring celebrity tough-guy contractor Mike Holmes. We can’t say exactly what culinary expertise Holmes brought to bear on the competition. We can say, though, that Holmes’s wildly popular renovation shows all air on HGTV Canada, which is mostly owned by Shaw, which also owns most of Food Network Canada. So whatever else his appearance was, it was a fine display of brand convergence in the best Top Chef fashion.

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The Dish

Food TV

March 13, 2012 | 11:37 am

4 Comments

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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The Dish

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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The Dish

Restaurants

February 13, 2012 | 4:57 pm

1 Comment

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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The Dish

Food TV

February 6, 2012 | 1:22 pm

34 Comments

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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