Niagara Cooks

I’ve perfected my Beef Bourgogne!!!

2012-01-12T08:37:00.000-08:00

I’m still dreaming about my Christmas Day Beef Bourgogne I made in my little kitchen in Paris. It was so amazingly delicious that I made it again when I got home. At home, it was horrible! The second attempt was better, but not even close yet. A perfect beef Bourgogne, I’ve learned is about the quality of the ingredients as much as it is the recipe.

So I searched for the best ingredients I could find. I discovered the best beef from my local butcher, hung to perfection - it’s only $4.99 a pound, how can you not go for quality at that price! The second time I made it, it was much better than the first but simply not quite right yet. So learning from the beef, I went further.

The butcher in Paris recommended a bit of cheek in my Bourgogne and it was marvelous. So my local butcher got me cheek. Instead of regular, off the shelf flour, I had some stone ground all natural flour from Morningstar Mill in Thorold. I found little pearl onions at the market and went back to using regular white button mushrooms.

I’m not sure what the key ingredient was by OMG the Bourgogne was as spectacular as what I made in Paris! Perfecto! The sauce was sinfully rich, smooth as silk and elegantly full of flavour. The meat melted in hearty flavours while the little pearl onions creamed on the palate like silk. Aughhh, finally a dish to swoon over.

The entire experience reminded me of a time when a beautiful kitchen store graciously volunteered to make a dish out of my cookbook during my book signing. It was the Pesto Pan Chicken, a delicious and easy one skillet meal. When I arrived, they shared some concerns so I took a look. It looked so horrible I didn’t want to taste it. I suspected they added too much liquid because the entire dish was swimming. I saw no brown searing marks on the chicken either. Now I know that the chicken was injected with water that was released when cooked. The cook at the time didn’t know enough to drain the skillet of the chicken juices. You see, when you brown meat, it acquires delicious flavours, when you boil meat, it becomes bland and tough. When I made the recipe, I used chicken from the butcher so my recipe turned out very yummy.

So here’s my lesson for 2012. Buy the best ingredients you can from people who are experts in what they do. Second guess all recipe ingredients and make sure they’re the best you can buy. If you don’t, you're leaving yourself vulnerable. I'm raising my fork full of Bourgogne to toast the best quality Ontario ingredients!

Beef Bourgogne, a second attempt

2012-01-07T11:15:00.000-08:00

Good food is worth great effort and that’s why I’m attempting Julia Child’s Beef Bourgogne twice in one week. I made it on Christmas Day in Paris with all the best ingredients I could find. It was so spectacular I just had to make it again when I was home. Unfortunately, the stewing beef I purchased at a grocery store was a disaster, but then you know that from my previous blog.

So I went to probably the best butcher in Niagara; Lakeshore Meats. Scott the butcher was sympathetic to my woes and explained why his meat will give me the results I wanted. He further ages the already aged beef, he buys from trusted sources and his meat is free from anything nasty you just wouldn’t want to eat. “Better quality meat will give you a better quality result,” he said.

So for exactly the same price ($4.99 a pound) I bought a pound of Lakeshore Meats stewing beef and a slab of pork belly. I wasn’t quite done yet, as I didn’t have the right sized pot nor did I have a sieve large enough to do the job easily.

I shopped some retail stores in Niagara but couldn’t really find what I needed. Then I remembered the restaurant supply store in Niagara Falls. I bought an exciting sieve and the perfect size Paderno pot (btw, restaurant supply stores are the perfect place to shop for everything you’ll ever need for your kitchen. There are 2 in Niagara, they’ll save you money and they’re delicious places to dig around in).

Equipped with the right tools and better quality ingredients, I made another Beef Bourgogne. I cut up the pork belly into what Julia calls Lardoons. In Paris, they sold lardoons; it was a package of pork belly already cut up.

I dried each piece of stewing meat with paper towels and got the pot to almost smoking hot. I dropped a few pieces of meat into the pot and they began to brown quickly. I turned them over and over making sure all sides were browned and like magic – no water appeared! I browned the entire pound of stewing beef with great success. Things were looking up!

Funny thing happened. I had far too much liquid so I removed 2 cups from the pot before it went into the oven. Perhaps I had more than a pound of stewing beef last time (?), hmmmm. I kept it aside just in case I needed it later. The stew simmered in the oven for 3 hours and I finished it off just as Julia wanted without the need for more sauce.

The result was amazing! The meat was tender and luscious! The meat in the previous attempt fell apart with a bit of fork pressure but I wouldn’t say it was tender because it was still stringy and the strings were chewy. This beef was actually tender, juicy and had more flavour – ok, so better ingredients make a world of difference.

What I couldn’t do was to get the sauce as velvety and luscious as my sauce in Paris. Perhaps it’s the flour. Augh, why did I leave the rest of the flour in the apartment in Paris?

While at Lakeshore Meats I asked Scott about adding cheek to Beef Bourgogne and he agreed, a bit of beef cheek make a huge difference in stews – so why is this a butchers secret! No one in Niagara carries cheek, but he was nice enough to order some for me. Yea, you guessed it, a third attempt at Julia’s Beef Bourgogne is just a week away – stay tuned. I’ll get this right yet!

Julia Child's Beef Bourgogne

2012-01-01T08:43:00.000-08:00

Time in Paris was magical. My most memorable times were shopping for our Christmas tree, Christmas Eve midnight mass at Notre Dame Cathedral, our walk back to the apartment along the Seine and Christmas day dinner – I made Beef Bourgogne from Julia Childs cookbook.

I have to say that Julia Child was not afraid of spending too much time in the kitchen. By the time I managed to do all the steps she recommended, dinner was on the table by 8 pm (I started at 10 that morning!). Of course, it always takes longer to make a dish the first time, that’s why I had to make it again.

We’re now back home in Niagara and deep into the madness that is our daily lives. I picked up some stewing beef (and braising ribs - I can't resist, they're delicious!) and the rest of the ingredients at the supermarket and set to work. After I’d finished with the bacon, I began to dry the beef. I set a piece in the hot oil and it began to spit and sputter as it should. I put in another piece, another and another. Soon I had 8 pieces of stewing beef in the skillet when I noticed there was a lot more liquid in the skillet than I’d started with.

My meat was not browning, it was now boiling. I removed the beef and dried it one more time, pressing down firmly to catch the liquid that was now oozing from each piece. I drained the skillet and returned the meat. It began to brown quickly. Good, dry beef, I’ve discovered, browns in seconds.

I did have to wipe out the skillet after I’d browned the 8 pieces because a bit more water came out, but not enough to warrant another drying. I continued to dry the beef, sear it, remove it, dry it again and finish the browning process – some pieces had to be dried 3 times, but most only 2.

So why is it that our Canadian beef has so much water in it? Is it injected to add weight as one customer claimed? Is it not aged long enough? Is it the type of cattle? I don’t know the answer to this but I will soon.

The meal was absolutely delicious! It was far from the rich, velvety, smooth, beefy, ambrosia meal I’d made in Paris with my French ingredients, but it was still very good. The difference was that of a fine, aged red wine at its peak of perfection compared to a quaffable house wine – both are good, but still noticeably different.

We enjoyed our Beef Bourgogne, the meat was more than fork tender – it succumbed to pressure so easily and readily, but interestingly, the tiny little juicy shreds of beef that fell apart were noticeably chewy; a bit unlike the sweet, velvety tender texture of the Parisian meat.

Julia Child’s Beef Bourgogne is so spectacular, so delicious, so amazing that I think everyone should experience it at least once in their lifetime. I would delightfully spend hours in the kitchen if my food tasted this good every time! Besides the seductive flavours, it’s been a lesson in quality of ingredients, and I’m learning about judging quality. This week I’ll make her Beef Bourgogne again, but I’ll go to a butcher shop and chat with him about the beef before I buy. Stay tuned and I’ll let you know what he says.

Christmas in Paris

2011-12-26T03:30:00.000-08:00

Ok, it’s now the day after Christmas and I haven’t blogged for 2 days – but hey, I’ve been enjoying Paris!

Off we went to the Opera House. We took a tour of the magnificent building and since there is no way to describe how fantastically incredible it is, I’ll just show you some pictures.

After our tour stopped into a café for a quick salad. Off in the corner of Fayette Gourmet (yes, the famous department store) was a large glass urn of hot chocolate. The thick dark liquid was being stirred by something below and of course I couldn’t resist. We sat at the bar along the window and people watched while we had our snack. The hot chocolate, while not quite as amazing as the one yesterday, was definitely a hundred times better than anything I’d had in Canada. I took a sip and the scum from the milk stuck to my top lip - I licked it off – yum. It was pretty dam good. I’m looking forward to tomorrow and another hot cup of chocolate chaud - my new love.

Christmas in Paris, Day 2

2011-12-23T12:24:00.001-08:00

This morning we got up and made it out to Le Cordon Bleu culinary school in the 19th Arrondissement of Paris. The subway brought us 2 blocks away from the school and it was so quick we were there half an hour early. We walked the streets around the school and found a farmers market. Both sides of this street were lined with market vendors. There were florists, shoe salesmen, meat vendors, fresh produce and seafood mongers. At this market you could buy sweaters and scarves, pots and pans and carpets, there was even one guy with furniture for sale. The market was about 6 blocks in length and we had only gone a few blocks when we had to turn back so we could make it to Le Cordon Bleu on time.

Le Cordon Bleu is tucked a few blocks away from the hustle and bustle of Paris’ busy streets. We walked into what looked like a small building and asked for Catherine Baschet, development manager.

Catherine walked us through the school, each floor was a different kitchen, pastry on the 3rd floor, demonstration kitchens on another level. We stood and watched a class making madeleines, then up to a pastry class making croissant. We tasted and talked, I took notes and Jon took pictures.

The history of Le Cordon Bleu dates back quite far to Marthe Distel who was a food journalist who began giving a few culinary classes by some of Paris best chefs around the late 1800’s. After Marthe, Madam Brassard bought the school and took it to the next level. This is when Julia Child took a class and it is true that under Brassard’s rule, she was very tough on the students – Julia included. Brassard ran the school for 45 years and retired at the age of 87, selling the school to the present owner, André Cointreau, a descendant of both the Cointreau and Rémy Martin dynasties. It was André that expanded the school into what is today an international school that teaches the highest standard of French cuisine around the world.

There are a few schools in The USA but there is only one in Canada and that is Le Cordon Bleu in Ottawa. After that inspiring experience, we went right back to the market. I bought another 6 escargot for dinner and a beautiful bouquet of holly and evergreen boughs.

We met Jordan back at the apartment and went on a hunt for Christmas lights. We took the subway to the Eiffel Tower and walked down the streets we became familiar with last year when we rented an apartment on Rue Sufferen. We walked into my favourite boulangerie, sure enough, a few of my favourite cheese buns were left and I quickly bought one for my evening escargot. We went into a department store and found some Christmas tree decorations; gold balls and red stars.

We walked around the Eiffel Tower and over to Rue Clare, the street famous for the food shops that spill into the pedestrian cobblestone street. Our friends rented an apartment here last year and we used to walk this way when we would rendezvous with them. We walked through the street and up La Montte Picquet. It was a beautiful street with quaint little shops. One in particular caught my attention, it was a bread and chocolate shop or, Pain & Chocolat. Outside were chocolate brown bistro tables with whicker chairs. Over each chair was a blanket to keep outdoor customers warm. The blankets were in alternating colours of red and white – how beautifully festive and tasteful. We couldn’t resist, we went in; the tiny little place had rich brown wooden furniture against antiqued walls with small tables, glass and brass accents that gave it a feel of a parlor of the 1800’s. We ordered hot chocolate and drank it outside – holey cow! It was pure chocolate. It was a pure drink of thick chocolate topped with foamed milk. It luxuriated across our palate like decadent velvet with a rich flavour. I’m beginning to fall in love with Paris’ version of hot chocolate.

Christmas decorations are not nearly as obvious in Paris as anywhere in North America but what they do have is stunning. Rue Domonique had beautiful lights that resembled long icicles. The lights streamed from the top to the bottom of these 3-foot icicles that were draped across the street. There were hundreds of them and the white lights of each of them fell from top to bottom – in the dark they looked like snow falling – the Eiffel Tower was in the distance and the scene was one of pure Parisian magic.

We walked over to the Christmas Market on the Champs Elyse. It was dark and the Champs Elyse was it up like an elaborate Christmas wonderland. The modern lights circled the street lights in brilliant blue and others in bright white. The hundreds of little cabins that make up the Christmas market were all decorated in white lights. There were thousands of people at the market and as Jordan put it, we were walking through “a sea of people”. At times it was impossible to make your way through. Some people were eating churros from large paper cones. Churros are a sweet dough piped into oil, deep fried and rolled in sugar. I bought a few Boules, they are the size and shape of a short fat candle. They’re some kind of individual cake covered in chocolate with different flavours; I got the mint chocolate one and dark chocolate with nuts. We’ll have them for dessert tonight.

Jordan is getting tired and I have to admit, so am I. Jon is taking hundreds of pictures and we’ve just walked about 10 miles this afternoon. Jordan and I headed back to the apartment through the mile long promenade along Rue Rivoli.

Christmas in Paris

2011-12-21T09:19:00.000-08:00

We arrived in Paris at 4 in the afternoon. The sun wasn’t shining but the weather was warm and dry. Paris was bustling and as we walked the streets around the Louvre, our new neighbourhood, we noticed the unusually large amounts of café’s still with outdoor seating that were bustling with people, drinking, smoking and some were even eating. As we walked by we could feel the warm air from the heaters escaping into the cool evening air.

We couldn’t resist and stopped at a cafe and had a hot bowl of onion soup – they don’t call it “French Onion Soup” here and I’ve learned that this is probably the one dish that Paris can call its own.

Day One

We all slept in this morning When we did get up we were fighting to use the one bathroom in the apartment. We’re so used to our own bathrooms back home that we almost didn’t know what to do, but before long, we had a routine worked out so we could all get ready efficiently with the few facilities we had. We made mushrooms omelets and spooned sweet cherries over yogurt.

We ventured out in the direction of the Champs Elyse Christmas Market. It was misting, not really raining but if you stayed outside for a long time like we did, you would get wet but the weather was warm enough so we were't cold. About one block from where we started, we entered a promenade that covered us the entire distance from where we were to the Champs Elyse – perfect! Through the promenade there were small shops with their goods spilling out onto the walkway. There were stores after stores of beautiful scarves, hats and gloves. In between there were patisserie’s that made the eyes in your head bulge right out and boulangerie’s that made your drool. There were jewellery stores with diamonds and glitter and antique stores with treasure and antiquities.

Finally we could see it. Off in the distance were hundreds of small white cabins, the size of a farmers’ market tents back home, but instead, they were white wooden cabins. They lined either side of the Champs Elyse. The grounds were decorated with transplanted evergreen trees and glittering lights. The each little cabin was a different shop overflowing with goods. Surprisingly there were few Christmas decorations but there was lots of hot wine, hot beer and of course hot chocolate. Here they have a machine that dispenses hot milk and then you buy a large square of chocolate that is stuck on the end of a wooden spoon. I played it safe with a milk chocolate square. It goes into the cup and you stir. By the time it’s cool enough to drink, the chocolate square has completely melted – it was sooo yummy!

The chocolate cabin was ov erflowing with giant slabs of different kinds of chocolate. Walk along and there were multi coloured macaroons by the hundreds, mountains of cheese and a small city of charcuterie. There was hand made wooden toys and candle shops; Christmas cards and Swiss army knives. Some of the cabins were full of foods from sausages on a bun to giant steel bowls filled with simmering foods over portable flames. Jordan got a bowl of luscious mushrooms in a creamy mustard sauce.

We finished at the market and took the subway to the Bastille district where we thought the market was open every day. Unfortunately it’s just on Saturday so we stopped for a hot bowl of onion soup at a cafe. Once refreshed, we headed towards our apartment on foot. We hadn’t gone too far when we found someone selling Christmas trees on the street corner. Fresh Christmas trees here are all stuck into a tree stump to stand them up. Not like back home where we fight with the waterproof metal tree stands that end up leaking all over your hardwood floor. We picked out a perfect tree and brought it back to our apartment.

We walked down Rue Rivoli with the small 3-foot tree, wrapped in its mesh sock. We passed a small outdoor market and I bought some garlic butter escargot for my dinner. The pedestrian traffic started to get thicker by the block – we were entering the district where most of the reasonable shopping is to be found in Paris and there we were marching with our little tree against the now thick flow of shoppers. The store windows were beautifully decorated, some with animated Christmas displays. There were a few men walking with TV screens on their shoulders – I guess it’s a new kind of advertising – wow! We’re certainly getting into the holiday spirit now.

A Different Christmas

2011-12-18T07:51:00.000-08:00

I’m having a different kind of Christmas this year. Not by choice but by circumstance. The plumbing in my newly renovated bathroom decided to give way and take with it my living room ceiling. So now I have a 15-foot exposed living room ceiling (aka Christmas room) showing off my newly fixed plumbing while all the furniture sits in one corner, covered with sheets.

I suppose I could get upset and have the worse December ever, but instead I decided to cancel Christmas. What happened next was totally unexpected. I felt lighter and began thinking about what I’d like to do with my December while everyone else was engaged in the holidays.

It wasn’t long before I found something to do. I’m going away but while I wait for my departure date, I find myself going about my days feeling very detached from the bustling activities around me, like I’m watching the holidays pass me by and I have nothing to do. I have to say, it feels pretty good.

The malls are busy but people are mostly stressed instead of happy, conversations of family gatherings take on a tone of frustration and anxious anticipation and people are talking practically about money and waste.

But I’m sort of walking through it, enjoying the nicest parts of Christmas. I get a warm fuzzy feeling in my heart when I hear Christmas carols, am amazed at how beautiful some of the houses are decorated, especially at night and there are so many candle light strolls and choir performances that I’m actually being swept away with the best bits of the holidays – how glorious!

As I sit on the sidelines to Christmas this year I’m incredibly thankful I’m not caught up in what I now see as holiday madness. Each and every Christmas I try to recreate the amazing Christmas of my youth for my own family. My family would always put on an incredibly memorable event. It was never about the presents because they would have them all “made” by the end of November. The first few weeks in December was spent making a special outfit to wear on Christmas Eve, then the week prior to Christmas was for preparing special dishes, a little at a time. For my family, Christmas was all about the Christmas table, the food and the gathering. I’m sure it wasn’t always manageable but the effort was always made because – well, it’s Christmas.

This year I didn’t really cancel Christmas but I cancelled the madness that Christmas has become. As you read this, I’ll be in Paris, France with my family strolling the Christmas Markets on the Champs Elyse with a hot cup of cocoa in my hands. I have an apartment just off the Louvre, I brought my Julia Child cookbooks and I’ll be making beef Bourgogne for Christmas dinner along with garlic butter escargot I'll buy at the farmers market and a stunning tourte aux pommes (apple tart) I'll pick up at one of Paris’ famous patisseries. We’ll light some candles, decorate a tiny tree with a few ornaments we found at the Christmas market and our presents will be ourselves. This year is a very simple Christmas, a return to the memorable ones – my gosh, how did things get so out of hand?

I’m not sure that you need a house disaster to remove the holiday madness from Christmas nor do I think you need to travel to the other side of the world for a simpler, more enjoyable Christmas but it’s amazing how beautiful Christmas can be when you let go and focus on what really matters.

Whether your Christmas table is elaborately festive or simple and delicious, may it be one for your family’s memory books and above all else, enjoy the holidays in which ever way you choose for Christmas is truly meant to be enjoyed. Merry Christmas.

Ottawa's Christmas Market

2011-12-12T14:05:00.000-08:00

Have you been to the new Christmas market at Lansdowne Park in Ottawa? It’s a romantic and festive market in one of Ontario’s most beautiful and historic buildings, the Aberdeen Pavilion. The Aberdeen Pavilion is a stunning 36,000 Victorian heritage building that held a variety of agricultural events in the late 1800’s and continues to do so today.

Christmas Markets are popular in Europe, they first began over 200 years ago. Cologne, Vienna, Nuremberg, Brussels, Munich, Prague, Berlin, Copenhagen, are the best (I’ve heard) and now they’ve spread to Rome and Paris. Christmas Markets are primarily outdoor markets that are different from farmers’ markets in that they have very few fresh fruits and vegetables and more items more appropriate for the season.

White tents decorated in colourful lights spill into village squares selling nutcrackers and Christmas ornaments, wooden toys and marionettes, candles and lambskin shoes. Foods offered include roasted chestnuts, baked apples, gingerbread biscuits, mulled cider and hot wine.

The beautiful new Christmas Market in Ottawa is indoors. Market stalls were decorated with twinkling lights, evergreen boughs and shiny presents. Carolers dressed in historic costume strolled the market singing Christmas carols. On the tables were prepared foods and one-of-a-kind gifts that added interest to the stalls of fresh produce.

It’s amazing how much fresh produce is still available in December. There were chestnuts, apples, pears, squash, kale, onions, garlic, leeks, beets, cranberries, green onions, spinach, potted herbs, fresh greenhouse tomatoes, carrots in rainbow colours and multi-coloured potatoes. There were long stocks of Brussel sprouts and pints of Jerusalem artichokes; pork and bison, sausages and pepperettes. I found green spiky cauliflower marketed as edible Christmas trees and a few honey stalls mixed in with maple syrup vendors; an artisan grain producer was busy grinding fresh flour.

In between the fresh produce was a wide range of wholesome and decadent foods made by culinary entrepreneurs. There was Ottawa’s popular Pascal’s Ice Cream (I had the egg nog flavour). There was sparkling apple cider, apple cider donuts and bags of dried apples, some dipped in yummy chocolate. Bakers with tables overflowing with artisan loaves of bread and bakers with pies; pies made of pumpkin, apple, turkey, steak and traditional tortierres. There were giant, soft cinnamon buns, vegetable stuffed breads and giant irresistible cookies.

There were cakes baked in mason jars, topped with icing and equipped with a silver spoon; bite size pieces of cake called Bombs, enrobed in chocolate and topped with yummy goodies of caramel, nuts, candy and fruit. There was a donut baker offering mini home made donuts in flavours of Pecan Turtle, Malted Milk, Coco Hazelnut and Maple Bacon.

Besides the fresh produce and decant foods there were pots of Christmas greens, holiday candles and wreaths of grape vines. There are hand crafted hats and beautiful scarves, jewellery, stunning cutting boards, artwork, hand made wooden toys and Christmas tree decorations.

Christmas markets are a step back to an old fashioned holiday where simple pleasures are paramount.

The worlds most decadent, beautiful and incredible Christmas market is in Paris, France where over 350 stalls spill out along the Champs Elyse with Christmas lights strung across the boulevard and around every tree, festive music plays while shoppers stroll casually with a cup of vin chaud (hot wine).

I can’t wait, I’m going to Paris for Christmas this year. I’ll be strolling the streets, shopping at the Christmas markets with a mug of hot chocolate. I have an apartment behind the Louve, I’ve packed my Julia Childs cookbooks and I’ll be making Beef Bourgogne on Christmas morning. I’ll write from Paris, but if I don’t, from my table to yours, have a very merry Christmas.

Sizing Up Mushrooms

2011-11-22T13:13:00.000-08:00

Full of mystery and intrigue, mushrooms are an edible fungi. But there’s no mystery for Zlatko Vidmar, an international mushroom specialist. Throughout Zlatko’s career he has been in demand by the worlds top mushroom companies throughout Europe (Italy, Hungary and Germany), then in China and Viet Nam.

In 1999 Zlatko and his family moved to Canada and in 2008 bought an ailing mushroom farm in Amhurstburg. Zlatko saw it as an opportunity to grow mushrooms the way he’s always wanted to - organically. Today Vidmar Oganic Mushrooms (Vidmar-funghi.com) has over 21,000 square feet of production in 7 growing rooms.

Mushrooms grow so fast you can almost see them growing. Certainly you can see the size difference between a mushroom in the early morning and the same mushroom 8-hours later, they almost triple in size. As the mushrooms grow they have to be thinned. The very first, smallest mushroom to be plucked to make room for the others are called ‘button’. Denis claims they’re the most tender, juicy and flavourful of all mushrooms.

The same is true for brown mushrooms and when they’re picked, they’re graded starting with button, then cremini which are larger, portobelini which are between 2 to 3-inches in diameter and full Portobello mushrooms, or ‘the ports’ as they call them on the mushroom farm, is 3 to 6-inches in diameter.

Inside the growing room is 12 beds with rich black compost and littered on top are hundreds of mushrooms of different sizes, all fighting for room to spread out their caps. Every day the mushroom beds are harvested, or thinned to ensure the remaining mushrooms have room to grow larger. So on a mushroom farm they’re not necessarily picking for size (or ripeness as any size mushroom is ready to eat), but to create space for the remaining mushrooms to stretch and grow. On each wagon the pickers push in front of them they have boxes of varying size mushrooms so they can thin, pick and grade all at the same time.

Zlatko’s son, Denis runs the business while Zlatko works his magic in the mushroom dirt. “I eat mushrooms every day because it’s important to test my product every time it goes into the market,” says Denis who goes on to explain that mushrooms are better the simpler they’re prepared.

Denis prefers to simmer his cremini mushrooms in sweet butter for a short period of time like 3 to 7 minutes in a very hot pan. Just last night I reduced some red wine and beef broth and added some of Denis mushrooms. The mushroom juices mixed with the other flavours and when almost all of the liquid was evaporated, I popped the pan into the oven with a bit of butter to finish them off. Oh yum, meaty and delicious.

Christmas Baking the Italian Way!

2011-11-16T11:55:00.000-08:00

Every year Phyllis Santone hosts a day of cookie baking at her home just before the holidays get busy. How lucky was I to get an invitation this year. Nothing says Christmas more than the elaborate foods we prepare and offer to friends and family over the holidays and in my family, cookies play a big part in the festivies.

We all descended at Phyllis’s house around mid morning and unloaded our cars. I came prepared to make two of my favourite holiday cookies and had ingredients for one recipe of each. I watched as Theresa and Anna brought in box after bag overflowing with ingredients like she was ready to cater cookies to an entire football team - hmmmmm.

With no time to spare, we immediately set to work in Phyllis’s enormous lower kitchen. In the centre is a large table and two bigger tables spill out into other rooms. Ingredients and equipment spill over every inch of the counters while bowls and rolling pins wait patiently on the tables.

Anna brings in two dozen large tubs big enough to bath in. They all have lids and it still doesn’t click that I’m in for some serious baking so I innocently continue on. I’m immediately put at the chopping station. I start with dates, they’re so sticky and laborious. I finish and I move on to chocolate. Wow, Belcolade chocolate wafers, whoa, no Bakers chocolate in this kitchen, yum! I’m working on a glass cutting board and the chocolate ricochets with each chop like an escaping convict, but I quickly get the better of it with a method to keep it confined. Over by the stove, the door is open and Phyllis and Anna have their heads into a pan of toasting hazelnuts whispering about their condition and level of doneness.

It’s Phyllis’ kitchen but Theresa is definitely the one in charge of the baking; measuring and sifting, whisking and mixing by hand. Yes, I glance over and she is almost elbow deep in a giant bowl of luscious cookie batter, squeezing it between her fingers, feeling it intensely until she’s happy with the texture.

I on the other hand have a hot cookie sheet full of toasted hazelnuts in front of me. My job is to skin them. I begin to rub them firmly between my hands. I rub furiously fast as the hot nuts are burning my palms. Some of the skins fall off easily but others are stubborn and the task takes forever – my hands are swelling with the pain – but I don’t say a word.

On the centre table Anna stacks parchment lined cookie sheets, half a dozen high. The first batch of dough is ready and the assembly line begins. The giant bowl (just larger than a kitchen sink) is set beside the cookie sheets, Theresa rolls the dough into a specific size giving Anna and Phyllis instructions that include rolling the dough ball into fluffy, whisked egg whites, then in blonde almonds. The assembly line work begins and the cookie sheets are slowly filled with round bundles of almonds.

Theresa’s recipes are traditional Italian recipes that have been in her family for generations and she’s been baking them herself for as long as she can remember. The room fills with seductive smells of butter, vanilla and almonds. Theresa begins working on another recipe creaming sweet butter – I counted 12 pounds of butter on the counter and 8 dozen eggs. I’m beginning to wonder what they hope to accomplish.

The bowl gets passed around and everyone smells in complete satisfaction, then she takes it over to the scales where she carefully weighs out mounds of dough, whispering the entire time about overages, then adjusting and finally successfully moving on to the next mound.

The first cookies roll out of the oven. Everyone stops to smell, poke, analyze and taste. The room gets serious with talk of production methods, adding more of this or baking longer than that. Should the size be bigger or smaller, they’re just a little too big for the intended one-bite size but the consensus is they’re perfect for someone with a big mouth! Great, nothing is changed and we continue.

Once the girls are satisfied with the cookie conference, we go back to baking in silence. It seems to be more of a meditative act, almost therapeutic and we love it. Balls of dough continue to be rolled out between loving hands, dipped skillfully in egg whites and tumbled in almonds.

There comes a time when we get ahead of the ovens. Phyllis has one oven in the basement with 3 racks that are full. Upstairs there is a double oven that is also full. There is talk of switching to the convection mode to hurry things up, but before the words have a chance to be fully spoken, shrieks ring out in the room. Never! Convection will dry out the cookies, so we keep the traditional ovens going.

We take a break and talk of the latest Toronto baker, Cake Opera. Apparently, an artist turned her talents to baking elaborate cakes. The minimum charge is $2,500 for one cake! But the ladies are convinced these cookies would out do anything the Cake Opera can produce because there’s nothing better than good home cooking.

Theresa takes her perfectly equal mounds of creamy cookie dough and begins to roll them into logs. The sticky dough picks up the icing sugar she’s rolling them in and when it’s just right, she transfers the logs onto a cookie sheet. Miraculously, there is another stack of parchment lined cookie sheets beside her and she has enough dough to fill them all.

It’s early afternoon and we decide we need to stop for lunch. Phyllis makes sure her bakers are well fed and we walk into a feast in the upstairs dining room. Large trays of just made pizzas, one with luscious tomato sauce, herbs and yummy cheese and the other a delicious salty foccacia. There are trays of charcuterie and large blocks of cheeses; parmesan and asiago that are decorated with fresh balls of bocconcinni. There is a scrumptious rapini stuffed bread, a platter of glistening black olives and a colourful salad with a blend of radicchio and greens. A large platter of fresh fruit sits at the edge of the table and we feast, talk, laugh and keep an eye on the cookies still in the oven.

We’re back downstairs and I’m back to chopping the Belcolade chocolate – perfect dessert after our baking feast. Soon the bowls of chocolate are melted and stirred into luscious cookie dough with mounds of toasted hazelnuts. There is still lots of eggs, cream and butter on the counter waiting to be turned into yummy cookies and my wonder begins to turn to worry about the amount of baking there is to do. The back table starts to fill with warm cookies from the oven, the sink fills with hot water while bowls and dishes, spoons and beaters all get their bath and are put to work again.

I start making my biscotti. While everyone else is baking hundreds of cookies, the best I can do is to double my recipe. I’m using a hand beater with a bowl with a ridge on the bottom so the ingredients don’t mix properly. I try to compensate with a spatula. The ingredients aren’t cooperating and I beat it extra long to try and pull the right consistency together. It ends up a little too wet but I have to move on. Magically 6 stacked cookie tins appear beside me and I begin to take dough and form it into logs. Oh no, I didn’t weigh my dough to make sure my biscotti logs were equal; I just eye-balled it. Oh well, the trays are quickly escorted into the oven and we wait – why am I so nervous!

I begin to work on my shortbread cookies. These are not traditional Italian cookies nor are they my Canadianized versions of biscotti, but they’re a personal cookie that means something special to me so I love to share, especially during the holidays. I start to cream an entire pound of soft butter. It succumbs to the beaters and becomes a luscious mass of yellow cream – how ultimately satisfying. In goes the fruit sugar and I beat until it’s fluffy and irresistible. I start to feel better about my cookies and I sift in the flours.

Theresa and Phyllis have their heads together as they work cinnamon and hazelnuts into the chocolate cookie dough. They taste it and Theresa decides to add orange zest and a bit of almond. Then with great satisfaction Theresa parades the kitchen for the rest of us to taste. With approvals all around she moves towards another stack of pristine cookie sheets.

There’s too much flour in my bowl and the shortbread is way too crumbly. I work in more butter with my fingers and it becomes barely acceptable. Nothing seems to be working for me but the ladies are gracious. It’s now 5:30 and the count on the table is 300 cookies of one recipe, 360 of another, 250 of the almond balls and who knows what else – amazing. I’m producing just under 100 biscotti and 40 shortbread cookies – how underwhelming, aughhh.

My biscotti are now out of the oven and I wait to cut them. Theresa’s cutting hers and they’re slicing perfectly. Mine are still warm when I attempt and the nuts and dried cranberries tear every second one – aughhhh. They get cut, turned on their sides and back into the oven for a second baking. I’m getting tired and frustrated, I’m usually a very good baker but in light of these women, I realize I’ve got a long way to go. Look out culinary schools, I don’t know of one that can hold a candle to this efficient production of Italian ladies baking their beloved holiday traditions.

Anna talks of leaving and I feel relieved – the first sign of the end of the day. We’ve worked feverously hard today and we have mountains of cookies to show for it. I’m thinking the day is coming to an end and we can relax, then there’s a knock on the door. In comes Marissa and Lucy, arms laden with bags of ingredients – the second shift of bakers!

Anna leaves while Marissa and Lucy unload their bags and dive right into the kitchen with the energy of a new day. All of the new recipes are calculated for a double and triple batch. The group hovers around a cutting board filled with whole biscotti logs waiting to be cut. They decide that biscotti perfection is a combination of the right cutting board, a sharp knife, type of nut used and the perfect temperature of the cookie. There is an endless ritual of whispers, poking, cutting and discussing – perfection is always being worked on. I don’t think there has ever been as much thought gone into solving world problems as there is in this kitchen with these cookies that will be shared and eaten in the name of love and hospitality.

It’s dusk, my legs are throbbing and I’m feeling tired. Obviously I’m no match for this group of bakers. But the holidays are coming and these cookies will create flavours and memories for their family and loved ones, it makes sense they must be perfect. Happy baking this holiday season!

The very first and most elaborate farm to table event in Canada!

2011-11-14T08:42:00.000-08:00

It’s over, another Royal Agricultural Winter Fair and it was amazing! I opened the 2011 Royal Agricultural Winter Fair at the Journey To Your Good Health cooking stage and I closed it. In between there were dozens of cooking demos with some of Ontario’s most delicious local food organizations. I made a sinfully delicious Honeyed Apple Crisp with Honeyed Apple au Jus with Nancy of the Ontario Beekeepers Association, a savoury and luscious Sweet Onion Tart with Jamie from the Holland Marsh Growers Association and a succulent and decadent Ice Syrup Pork Tenderloin with the good folks at Willowgrove Hill Farm – the only pork rich in Omega-3 goodness.

We offered tips on how to cook the best scrambled eggs (add melted butter to the eggs before you cook them!) and which apple varieties were best for baking (Ambrosia won for both flavour and texture) and eating. We discovered the flavour richness and juiciness of Yorkshire Valley Farm organic chicken and how a medley of Ontario greenhouse vegetables comes alive with a C’estbon Chevre cream sauce over a steaming bowl of ravishing red fife wheat rigatoni.

Nutritionist, Judy Scott Weldon was the dazzling host of the Journey To Your Good Health cooking stage and she skillfully weaved the cooking demos in between culinary contests and energetic performances about food.

It was the good folks at the Ministry of Agriculture and Foodland Ontario that organized the 2-week long eat healthy, eat local cooking experiences. Around the stage were farmers selling their products, a nutritionist to answer questions and milkable cow.

If you’ve never been to the Royal Agricultural Winter Fair or the ‘Royal’ as the locals call it, it’s a must attend event. There is a continuous parade of livestock that is judged, you can hear roosters crowing throughout the aisles and majestic horses prance in their rings. These beautiful animals are a site to behold while displayed nearby are the largest vegetables, the most perfect and the ugliest. There are butter sculptures and egg displays, ribbons for the best cheese and the Bernardin contest for the best preserves. The Royal Agricultural Winter Fair was and remains the very first and most elaborate farm to table event in Canada!

Besides the cooking demos and generous samples, the fair offers traditional farm food from apple dumplings to peameal bacon on a bun and booths to buy unique items from garlic spreaders, cutting boards and hand crafted blankets and hats. There’s always the deals to be had from beautiful silk scarves, Egyptian cotton bed sheets and quality pots and pans.

The 2011 Royal Agricultural Winter Fair may be over for another year but the recipes gathered, the culinary tips remembered and the flavours savoured will continue to excite for an entire year. Make sure you get there next year

It's Julia Child all over again!

2011-10-29T15:23:00.000-07:00

The Grand Theatre is in the heart of downtown London and tonight Jon and I are here to see TO MASTER THE ART (of French Cuisine). It’s the live theatre version of the Julia Child story. Even from the grave, Julia Child has risen to raise the profile of cooking and eating – she is my hero!

Actress Sara Machin Gale played Child and did an amazing job walking us through Child’s obsession for food and passion for Parisian life. It’s a tasty fairytale that foodies can’t get enough of. If you’re an obsessed foodie you must see this play. On the surface, it’s a celebration of French culinary culture and cuisine but its messages run deep. I was especially drawn to the similarities I see among modern day foodies and Julia; the endless days of pure bliss spent in the kitchen whether the recipes work or not; the husband with the never-ending patience for eating the same dish over and over again while we go through the journey to perfection; and the way friends and family commune around the table in celebration of good food and better conversation.

Some days I feel like it’s a mirror image of my life. While Julia cooked, the aromas of the food flooded the theatre and everyone’s palate was whet with the anticipated flavours husband Paul Child was about to eat - pure culinary theatrics!

TO MASTER THE ART highlighted the culinary cultural differences between the French and the American. So if you’ve read this far, I’m going to guess that you’re like me – living in between the French and American culture. We’re a different breed you and I, we have a undying passion for food like the French yet we live in North America - specifically Ontario. It’s the passion for food that inspires us to be particular about the quality of food and about its origins, we want to meet the people who grow our food and learn everything about it from how to judge the best to preparing and sharing it. It’s not enough to eat to fill our bellies, we want it to mean something to our lives and our world and we want it to be the best it can be.

These are the qualities that inspired The Ontario Table. It’s a do-it-yourself eat local cookbook, but that’s North American talk. What I really wanted to call it was Mastering the Art of Ontario Cuisine. If it were called Mastering the Art of Ontario Cuisine would you think of it differently? Nah, this is North America after all.

Back to the play, perhaps some may see TO MASTER THE ART as a chic flick but to me it represents so much more. It’s a lifestyle to aspire to, a palate to cultivate and through these lessons we begin to indulge in the finer things in life. Julia – you still have it girl!

The Grand Theatre, TO MASTER THE ART is a must-see play for everyone!

A Bite of Heaven in St. Thomas

2011-10-29T14:59:00.000-07:00

I was at the Horton Farmers’ Market in St. Thomas, Ontario and someone handed me what looked like a flat sugar donut. It was almost hot and the insides squished warm cream into my mouth while the soft apple inside caved so lusciously to my bite and it all finished with a sweet and crunchy ending of the coarse cinnamon sugar outside – oh, yummmmmm.

They call these little pillows of heaven apple fritters - somehow that just doesn’t do this amazing market pastry justice. The young girl selling them doesn’t understand my over excitement as she stands over dozens and dozens of them, ready to sell them to market shoppers. It’s a local delicacy and they’re well known to those who live in St. Thomas.

Baker Jacques Vanrign takes pride in being the inventor and his process is rather labour intensive. As the girl describes it I’m reminded of making ravioli.

Large sheets of sweet dough are rolled out, slices of fresh apple are placed inches apart across the entire dough surface. Next a spoonful of Bavarian cream and a dab of almond paste is placed on top of each apple slice and a top layer of dough is placed overtop. Next the dough is gently pressed down to separate the apples and they’re cut out with a large, round cookie cutter. The apple fritters are then deep fried and covered with coarse sugar with just a kiss of cinnamon.

They sell for $1.25 each, wrapped in a napkin and customers walk around the market shopping, visiting and eating the fresh, seasonal, heavenly apple treat. Other than market day, you can buy them at The Dutch Bakery in town.

It’s the season for Vanrign’s exquisite bites of heaven so get to St. Thomas and buy them by the dozen.

It's Apple & Fruitcake Season

2011-10-23T16:31:00.000-07:00

It’s mid autumn and I’m at the St Mary’s Farmers Market. The colours are brilliant orange, crimson and green. Apples, pumpkins and squash amuse the children while moms walk around with bouquets of fresh kale to make the latest delicious, kid friendly kale chips. The sun is shining, the air is brisk and Joan Brady of Smoky Hollow Farm Market offers up steaming cups of coffee, tea and hot apple cider for market shoppers.

As I stood there warming my hands around a porcelain mug (yes, Joan is happy to do the dishes!) of hot cider a little 4-year old boy came up, ordered 2 chocolate chip cookies and handed over his loonie. “He comes here every week and buys the same thing,” Joan smiles, “it’s their family’s tradition to come to the Saturday morning market.” The boy takes his purchase and runs back to his mom who is chatting a few yards away with neighbours. Farmers’ markets are great community gathering places.

Mary Szabo of The Nutty Baker and her daughter Anna are at the St Marys Farmers’ Market every Saturday morning. A former hog farmer, Mary is now an avid baker and each week her loyal customers look forward to her scones, mini loaves, cheesecakes, muffins and cookies. She’s sells quickly.

In the far corner of her table I notice a pile of dark, almost black, mini loaves. The sign says Christmas Cakes. I could hardly believe my eyes. Just over Thanksgiving and deep into Halloween party planning I’m looking at Christmas cakes – like the summer harvests from the fields, I’m feeling like I just can’t keep up!

Yes, along with apples, pumpkins, squash, beets and leeks, Mary explains it’s also Christmas cake season. Mary, I’ve learned is the St Marys Queen of Christmas Cakes. The little cakes are dark brown and filled with loads of dried fruit, nuts and spices.

For anyone who loves making traditional Christmas cakes you know that this is the time of year to bake them because this little edible icons of holiday cheer needs time to brew, ferment and mature. So Mary’s customers buy them and take them home to finish them off. Some of them brush the little cakes every few weeks with dark rum, others prefer to drizzle it over top. Either way, it’s a secret ritual that starts now and ends when the cake is cut and shared on Christmas day.

To store fruitcake for the next 2 months it needs to be wrapped up tightly, placed in and air tight container and stored in a cold cellar or refrigerator until the holiday season.

Mary’s Christmas fruitcake is so popular she’s sold out by the end of market day and so she’ll bake another 2 dozen for the next week knowing some of her customers who were disappointed today will be back.

So what makes Mary’s fruitcake so delicious? She’s not telling, but would explain that she arrived at her recipe by blending the best parts of 5 or 6 (she can’t recall exactly) different tried and true fruitcake recipes. The best fruitcakes in Mary’s opinion has almonds, lemon rind, vanilla and rum. “You just can’t skimp on the quality of fruit and oh yea, lots of butter.” Mary also says you need to have patience for the longer you feed it and leave it, the better it gets. Happy fruitcake season!

A Fly on The Kitchen Wall

2011-09-26T13:45:00.000-07:00

The work that goes on behind restaurant kitchen doors is often taken for granted and why not? They make it look so easy! So I went behind the kitchen doors of the Idlewyld Inn in London, Ontario to see if it is indeed as easy as they make it look.

The Idlewyld is a stunningly beautiful Inn in the centre of London. Co-owners Marcel Butchey and Executive Chef Alfred Estephan run three busy dining rooms in the 23-room Inn and amazingly they do it in a postage stamp sized kitchen. Chef Estephan let me stand in a corner where there was the least amount of activity so I could watch first hand, what it takes to make it all look so easy.

A peoples’ chef and you can often see Estephan mingling with his guests when he’s not orchestrating his kitchen. Estephan has no choice but to run a tight ship in this small space. At any time there could be 4 white jackets scurrying around, flipping skillets, stirring saucepans, carving meat or hovering inches away from dishes constructing food like an artist creating a sculpture. Globes of lobster and shrimp pate are topped with butter cooked lobster meat and drizzled with vanilla lobster broth. Luscious pickerel fillets are perched strategically over sweet potato medallions and portions of ultra thick, juicy pork tenderloin are stacked on patties of crunchy potato rosti.

Waiters come in and out of the swinging door, bringing in little slips of paper with an unrecognizable language on them and they talk of table numbers and dishes to Estephan – it’s gibberish to me. Chefs take the paper slips and chatter about time and dishes and each word inspires a flurry of great activity. Maybe it’s me, but I notice the absence of the Gordon Ramsey language here.

The room is full of food. Pails of colourful heirloom tomatoes, small bins of sprouts and flowers, baguettes piled high on the top of a baking rack. Inside the rack are layers of sweet potato medallions and potato rosti triangles.

I watch as classic dishes are created by chefs who hover very low over the dishes. They’re so low I think they’re trying to read tiny words on the plate with bad eyes. In the centre of the work space are plastic bins, julienned vegetables on ice, slivers of fennel, fried cauliflower, fresh shucked corn, sweet candy cane beets and a bin of wheat berries. Large squirt bottles of oil and other coloured liquids stand next to them.

Everything in the kitchen is spotless. One of the chefs open the oven and with a pair of tongs, pulls out a skillet with the most seductive rack of lamb sizzling in its juices. He walks it to the carving station and leaves it. Then he walks back and shakes a skillet only to have the flames lap up and almost touch the hood above the 12-burner stove.

In between the dishes the chefs clean the counters and their workspace. They never stop moving, like a dance with a million miniature partners. Dishes are warmed under heat lamps, then they’re dressed with beautiful colour, bright zucchini slices, beets and a few blackberries. Then on top they lay slices of cherrywood smoked duck breast. The chef returns to carve the rack of lamb and he sits it, brick red insides showing to tempt diners – or me, and it’s working.

Waiters stream in and out with black notebooks, they rip pages out of them and call in new orders. Escargot with chantrels looks incredibly creamy and luscious, I just want to dip my finger into the sauce I’m swooning over this dish and I haven’t even tasted it. Pans of roasted tomatoes come flying out of the oven and like a symphony of movement, aromas and food coexist to perfection. Oil squirts into skillets followed by spoonfuls of butter and the pan begins to spit and sputter then smoke. This is where, as a home cook, I’d be intimidated, but not here, these guys are masters of their kitchen and to them, a hot sputtering pan is to be tamed not surrendered to!

The baker arrives from her downstairs bakery with cookies. She’d just baked over 800 of them for an event the next day – now there’s a job I’d love! The chef indulges – or as he puts it, tastes the cookies. Estephan admits to having a sweet tooth but has no interest in baking himself. Ok, the cookies seemed to distract the symphony long enough for the smoking skillet to burn and the chef tosses it into the sink and starts over again.

This busy kitchen changes by the minute. I stand in my little corner for over an hour and no one stops. Everyone just keeps going, faster and faster, reacting intuitively to the language that goes around the room, food moves faster than a freeway, juggling skillets with food flying through the air while whispers of “behind you”, “coming in front” are warned by moving chefs. This tiny little workspace is busier than Toronto’s Union Station at rush hour.

Chefs move around tasting dishes on the stove, offering suggestions for improvement, although there’s little room for movement on perfection. Food safety stickers line the refrigerators, I think I just spotted a culinary secret – you know one of those moves a chef makes that he never tells you about but it makes the dish ultimately better than you could make at home. I saw a squirt of honey in the poaching liquid – or was it honey? It was so quick, now it’s gone forever. Should have never doubted what I saw.

More food is created on a dish and put on the steel shelves with an order for Estephan. He takes the dish and inspects it for presentation. He takes a rolled up towel and wipes away fingerprints and anything else that splashed on the rim of the dish, next he garnishes with something fresh, crisp and brilliant green – pea sprouts I think.

The chef approaches with a small dish and I notice something foamy. He holds it up to me – yum, I run my finger through the foam that feels more like a cloud. I feel nothing in my mouth except a delightful airy texture on the palette and a huge vanilla, cream, lobster flavour in my mouth – wow I’m speechless and utterly excited – excited enough to lick the plate, but how embarrassing for me if I did. He takes the dish from my hand and puts it into the sink. OMG - I have this uncontrollable urge to dive into the sink after it…aughhh this liquid gold shouldn’t be wasted!!! I notice my notepad has a few smudges on it, perhaps I can lick it later tonight.

I’m getting to understand some of the language and lingo of the kitchen. I now know when to duck and when to pivot. I can’t help but admire the dishwasher, he hasn’t stopped all night. He washes dishes and puts them away, waiters bring in more dirty dishes and pile them on top of the pots and pans the chefs contribute. He keeps on going the entire night. The pile of skillets on top of the stove goes up and down as does the dishes and silverware – this guy is just as amazing as the chefs!

It’s now 8:30 and I’ve been here since 6 o’clock. I’m exhausted just watching and writing, learning and tasting. The line begins to slow and the cleaning begins. They call this the calm before the next storm, the time to catch their breath. I look around and they don’t really stop, the work just changes. I suspect if they did stop, they’d collapse.

Throughout the evening the chef disappears periodically. He’s smoozing the guests in the dining rooms. A waiter comes in and announces one appreciative guest wants to order a round of drinks for the kitchen staff. Smiles widen across the kitchen – hey I’d never thought of doing that after an amazing meal! Dessert orders begin to come in and the chefs are busy hovering over sweet smelling syrups and sauces. They flambé crème brulee and scoop ice cream. Talk turns from dishes to planning the next days business – tomorrow will be twice as busy.

Ok, this is my queue to exit. I’d much rather be a diner, being pampered by an amazing dish – perhaps I’ll order the lobster. Part of the pampering of dining out is having the establishment make you feel like your meal is effortless, it contributes to your relaxation. But having spent a few hours in the Idlewyld kitchen I now am so much more appreciative of my dining experience and I will never again, ever complain about restaurant prices!

Why Eat Local?

2011-09-23T12:38:00.000-07:00

I think the biggest issue with local food is people’s understanding and attitude.

We live in an international food world where super large quantities of food are produced cheaply and many people will tell you, efficiently, then it’s shipped around the world. This so called efficient system presumes food is a commodity where numbers and business plans make more sense than the quality of food. Here is where the system begins to break down.

Food is not a commodity. Yes, we need to eat to live but high quality food that is living and vibrant gives our bodies vibrancy, health and energy – dead food does not and therefore compromises the quality of our lives on many levels.

Think about it, food produced and consumed locally can stay on the plant, vine or tree for a longer period of time because it doesn’t have to be shipped or warehoused. When it stays longer, it ripens further developing nutrients and flavour along with colour and texture. It’s the difference between a dry, tasteless cantaloupe and one that is ultra sweet, juicy, soft and exciting in clean, clear flavour. Therefore, local food not only nourishes better but it pleases and excites as well.

Food is far from a commodity, it’s a personal experience. With food produced locally we can meet the people who produce it. These are people who live in our community and chances are you have something in common. Either a passion for food, perhaps you discover your children go to the same school, many times you have common acquaintances, but always you live in the same community and have opinions on community issues that can be discussed and shared. You discover you both pay taxes and thanks to the both of you, your town or city has services that enhance your lives. You’re linked to a farmer more than you know.

Local food is not only personal, it’s seasonal. We live in Ontario where the winters prevent us from growing fresh produce year round. Our ancestors would preserve and fill their root cellars to keep themselves fed throughout the long winter months. The root cellar was stocked with winter vegetables, sausages, flour, wine, preserves and more. The root cellar held foods that were both seasonal and year round.

Today we no longer fill our root cellars because grocery stores fill their shelves with all foods at all times of the year. This modern, convenient, access to food successfully strips the seasonality out of our food cycle and we forget what seasonality is all about. But seasonality comes natural to all of us. Take for example the way we crave lighter salads in the hot summer weather. This is when the growing season is prime for tender, delicious salad greens. Then in the frosty winter days we crave a slow roast in the oven with savoury root vegetables to fill not only our stomachs but our soul as well. Isn’t it amazing how Mother Nature is right there to feed our cravings at just the right time? The reality is that as humans, we’re much more connected to our environment than we remember.

Grocery stores are definitely convenient places to buy food but remember that they’re called grocery ‘stores’ because they were meant to ‘store’ food. To store fresh produce, special varieties have been bred to withstand rigorous transportation and to extend shelf life. This benefit of designing food for international markets compromises it’s integrity, quality and most certainly flavour. That’s why a tomato purchased in a grocery store in January can’t hold a candle to a tomato picked from your own back yard in September. The flavours are as different as black is to white.

People who love local food, love it because of the mouthfuls of bursting flavour and the joy and excitement it offers; artisan sausage with savoury herbs; rich and beefy butcher steaks; free roaming chickens with robust flavour; candy sweet and finger staining strawberries; tender just picked sweet corn, crunchy, snow white apples and soft, juice dripping peaches. People who love local food shop at their farmers’ market for fresh garlic that oozes with juices or crunchy peppers that spit back when you slice into them. The world of local food offers all this and more.

So how do you begin buying and eating local? First, remember it’s about doing the best you can. Eating local is not about only eating local food at the expense of any other foods. Eating local is about supporting your community, about finding a safe source of food, about discovering healthy, flavourful food and it’s about preparing and sharing the local harvests.

Start out on your eating local journey by doing the best you can and deal with the challenges as they arise. Start by taking an inventory of the local foods you have in your kitchen right now. Eggs, cheese, milk, chicken, butter and more; these are most likely locally produced. Pat yourself on the back for a great start. Now plan to shop at the farmers’ market or an on-farm market regularly, buy what you can there and discover new things. Remember, local food is personal so ask the farmer about foods and how to cook them. You have now grown your local food purchases.

Check the grocery store for local foods such as meats, dairy products, tinned tomatoes and bags of beans. Once you can identify locally produced foods, you’ll find a grocery store to offer more selection than you thought. The Ontario Table can help identify more grocery store foods in the chapter called, The Ontario Pantry.

As you grow your inventory of local foods, remember the seasons change and so will the amount of local foods you buy each season. But as you become more and more confident about buying local, the dance will be one of anticipation and hedonistic pleasures.

Vote on Food & Farming - Foodlink: Find Healthy Local Food in the Waterloo Region

2011-09-23T11:41:00.000-07:00

Vote on Food & Farming - Foodlink: Find Healthy Local Food in the Waterloo Region

In Search of the Best Lake Ontario Pickerel

2011-09-12T16:21:00.000-07:00

Another great weekend in Prince Edward County. Pizza on the crush pad at Norm Hardie Winery, sipping some great wine at Wapoos Winery and now it’s dinner. I’ve followed chef Michael Potters over the years, tasted his food and now, I’m wanting to dine at Angelina’s so I can once again, be pampered by his flavours.

But it’s just not meant to be, Michael and I – the restaurant is full! Not a seat to be had, pity. I was here on Canada Day and it was closed, now it’s full. Oh well, third time a charm? Sure I’ll try another time, but he’s leaving for Hockley Valley so it must be before the end of the season.

All is not lost because East on Main Street Bistro in the trendy little village of Wellington is a fantastic place to dine, but right now I’m now in Bloomfield so I’ll go around the corner to The Carriage House where there’s none better pickerel than chef Scott Rapitan’s. It’s uber delicious; sweet, juicy, flaky flesh with the thinnest, crispiest, and tastiest skin ever! OMG!

In front of The Carriage House is the Marshmallow Room, an amazing bakery cafe with seductive pastries, crispy bread with doughy insides and high quality coffee and tea. It's a great little place for a leisurely, pampered breakfast or just for anytime your hungry!

There are those who claim the pickerel at Portobello’s in Picton is the best – I look forward to trying it soon. Lake Ontario pickerel is one of the most amazing fish when fresh and while it’s a delicious debate to claim the best in the County, all I know is that Prince Edward County has cornered the market on the absolute best pickerel to be had in Ontario! Get out there, try them all and let me know which is your choice. Check out The Ontario Table facebook page for more pictures.

Ottawa, Oozing with Good Taste

2011-08-31T07:30:00.000-07:00

There’s a culinary movement happening in Ottawa and it’s not where you’d expect. Inventive artisan food business are springing up the likes of Pascals All-Natural Ice Cream that I found at the Ottawa Farmers’ Market; Stone Soup Foodworks is a food truck you’ll find on the street serving up amazing soups; making celebrities out of farmers is the Michael’s Dolce line of jams – there’s even a Peach & Cardamom Jam made with Torrie Warners (Beamsville) fresh peaches; The Piggy Market specializes in delicious charcuterie and meats using every part of the pig and; The Red Apron.

Two ladies Jennifer Heagle and Jo-Ann Laverty had a lot in common when they sat next to each other on the bleechers to watch their sons play sports - food! Both passionate foodies, these ladies now run a unique food business called The Red Apron (www.redapron.ca) on Gladstone Ave in Ottawa.

It all started out by wanting to help friends and family with fresh, wholesome meals so they could spend the time communing around the dinner table at the end of a busy day.

In the 5-short years they have moved 3 times, each time growing into larger facilities. Now, they're in an open, state of the art kitchen facility with a retail storefront that fills with irresistible savory aromas that make their customers swoon. So welcomed is their concept of home cooked, comfort food meals that their sales have tripled in their new location.

The menus are seasonal and their ingredients are made from local and organic ingredients. They buy beef from Fitsroy Farm, Berkshire pork from Perth Pork Products, chicken from the Eastern Townships of Quebec, trout from a neighborhood trout farm and fresh organic produce from 5 different local suppliers like the Vegetable Patch. They're urban gardeners that manage 12 gardens in the city. One third of the harvest goes to the homeowner for letting them use their land and the rest is sold to eager customers – another unique food business.

As much as the girls love to play in the kitchen with new recipes and different flavour combinations, their customers often insist on their favourites. The Mid Week Dinner club is the full meal delivery program that runs from Tuesdays to Thursdays and they definitely hear from their customers if Braised Beef Shepherds Pie with 2 Year Old Raw Milk Quebec Cheddar is not delivered on Tuesday or if Thursdays meal is anything but Pulled Berkshire Pork with Organic Macaroni & Cheese. Over all 20 different dishes are made each week and sold either through their Mid Week Dinner Club, the Savvy Single Service or through the retail store.

"It's just as easy to make a dinner for 20 as it is for 2, just scale it up" says Jo-Ann who in a single day actually feeds 500 people – that’s more than any chef in a fancy restaurant.

So who buys upscale comfort foods that ooze with flavour? It seems almost everyone from empty nesters to career professionals, single people, pregnant women and superwomen who try to do it all, people who are convalescing and the elderly. I know if The Red Apron were closer to my home, I’d be right there enhancing my week day meals not only because it saves my cooking time in the kitchen but it would take me weeks to source all those amazing local ingredients. It seems that Ottawa is brimming with good taste these days.

My $92 Breakfast

2011-08-18T06:16:00.000-07:00

It started out as any other casual summer weekend away. Jon and I were in cottage country, we love Muskoka. I love to shop in the upscale shops in Port Carling, stroll the quaint and beautiful little village of Bala, Huntsville is home of the Deerhurst Resort (my favourite) and Bracebridge is a great food town.

On the main street of Bracebridge is a small, very unique eatery called Marty's. The 'cottage-style' eclectic decor immediately welcomes and pampers. I say pampers because one look at the pastry counter and you know you're somewhere decadently special. Giant pies made of light butter rich pastry, super deep and loaded with glistening, luscious fruit. The lattice strips are, like the pie, super thick. I've never seen pies so seductive and exciting they make you want to do an immediate face plant.

Below the pies is a shelf loaded with over sized butter tarts. Inside the buttery soft pastry is a light brown filling that doesn't at all look sicky-sweet, but curiously sexy. I looked at the few tables with customers seated sipping on mugs of coffee and most had small plates of pastry with an oozing light brown filling puddling around the pastry like gravy dripping around mashed potatoes - they were all indulging on butter tarts.

It's easy to read this place - the owner is obviously obsessed with making great food, over-the-top better. So, who is Marty?

Marty Curtis (www.martysworldfamous.com) is described by chef Micheal Smith as the "Michelangelo of butter tarts". He Won the Toronto Star best butter tart competition and people began flocking to his cafe - butter tart fanatics from around the world keep coming to Marty’s.

So there we were, hungry for breakfast and the breakfast place two doors away had a line up out the door. So our choice was to drive to the outskirts of Bracebridge or indulge at Marty's - we choose the latter.

Towering over his small workspace was Marty. I’m guessing - 6 foot 8 inches tall; a big, intimidating man in love with his pastry. Marty says, “if you’re making pastry for butter tarts, go big! If you’re making pastry for pies, go big ass!” It made sense with what we were seeing and the intimidating part – well, it was fleeting.

Marty’s doesn't serve breakfast but the chicken wraps were calling to us. We sat down and Marty brought over our wraps with a side salad. It was wonderful! Ordinary, sensible food made extraordinary with superb quality ingredients. Succulent chicken, fresh, ripe juicy tomatoes fresh from the field, cool crisp cucumbers and a savory flavor created with a feather light sauce.

We sipped on our cafe au latte and leafed through Marty's World Famous Cookbook (Whitecap Books, ISBN 978-1-55285-9-292, $29.95). Then our desserts arrived. One beautiful butter tart and one slice of giant cherry pie. The butter tart was super light and buttery with a lusciousness that luxuriated across the palate in an angelic sort of way, yet it was sinfully delicious!

A short while later we went to the counter to pay and I lingered to read the notes written to Marty by celebrities on photographs hanging on the walls. There were Marty’s special ultra deep pie plates for sale along with stacks and stacks of Marty’s cookbooks.

That's when I heard trouble. "I'll give you a receipt so you can write this off", said Marty to Jon. Who says that when you're paying for breakfast I thought? How much of a write-off did I just eat?

Jon and I left the restaurant without saying a word, but half way across the street I couldn't stand it any longer and I asked the question I really didn't want to hear the answer to - $92!!!

Ok, so I bought Marty's cookbook; deduct that. Now I know what you're asking - was it worth it? Well, the place is certainly excitingly unique and authentic, the food, while sensible, is extraordinarily delicious and unbelievably sexy, hmmmm.

The best breakfast I’ve ever had in my life was in Miami. Jon and I were staying at the amazing Viceroy Hotel and the restaurant was run by none other than Michael Psilakis – one of the worlds top chefs. Our breakfast was amazingly delicious and exciting. It was a bargain price of $55 for the 2 of us. It’s one of those meals we all have to have before we die and the fact it was breakfast just blows me away.

Yes, Marty's will be one of those delicious memories filed away with the handful of other over-the-top food experiences. I’ll recommend it to everyone, but with a warning that you don't do what we did and order with complete abandon. The best plan is a coffee and butter tart and it will be less than $10.

Foods of Norfolk County

2011-07-30T07:27:00.001-07:00

Wellington Park in downtown Simcoe is a beautiful space with flowers cascading, cooling shade from mature trees and lots of green space - perfect for a giant tent and stage. This was July 29th and it was the celebration of local food and farmers throughout the county.

Right on the cusp on Food Day Canada, over 200 people gathered and enjoyed a menu like none other. Thirty six dishes on the buffet table, each dish was created from the produce of a local farmer. It was an event put on by the Norfolk Rotary and Lions Club and the money always goes to a good cause.

I was there selling The Ontario Table and all of the profits from my sales was going to the Norfolk Children's Nutrition Network.

The buffet table read like a geographical listing of Norfolk's farmers. Dishes like Spicy Kernel Peanuts Hummus and Wagon Wheel Diakon Salad caught my attention. I took a bit from McClung's Vegetable Platter, Kitchan's Cabbage Salad and Fett's All Red Fingerling Baby Potato Salad. The Lake Erie Perch from Knectel's was deliciously fresh and the V.G. Packer's Flattened Chicken was yummy. On the sweeter side there was a Norfolk Crisp that included apples from Cleaver's, peaches from Matz's and Saskatoon berries from Harmony Farms. Melons were from the Cider Keg and the star - Sweet Potato Bread Pudding was made from Ven Berlo's sweet potatoes. Of course it all came together under the brilliant direction of Chef Heather Pond-Manorome of the Blue Elephant in Simcoe - great job Heather.

The event is in it's second year so look for it next year. By the end of the 3-hour dinner, I'd raised over $300 through the sale of The Ontario Table for the Norfolk Children's Nutrition Network. A great example of how local food works!

Road Trip with Cheryl

2011-07-25T06:51:00.000-07:00

Went for a ride with Cheryl Barnes of Inn The Pines Market, in St Catharines. Cheryl runs one of the more popular farm markets in the region. She grows lots of vegetables on her 14-acre farm and for the rest, she gets fresh produce directly from large farms - right from the sorting tables, now you can't get much fresher than that!

On her farm, Cheryl grows garden veggies like celery, 30 types of tomatoes, 10 types of peppers, cauliflower, zucchini, and more. In addition to her vegetables, Cheryl raises chickens for eggs, cattle for beef and pigs for pork. Her friend, Dale Cable fishes and Cheryl sells fresh frozen perch from her stand.

Cheryl’s a great foodie. All summer long she’s putting food away like corn for winter corn bread or corn chowder. She has her pork bones smoked for winter dishes like soups and stews.

Today I’m shopping for the market with Cheryl and our first stop is at Pleasant Berry Blueberry Farm in Brantford. Tony and Grace Gdyczynski run the 2.5 blueberry patch. He's been growing blueberries for too long, he thinks 16 to 17 years. I have refrigerator of blueberries at home and I can't resist buying more, They're ultra sweet and bursting with blueberry flavor. It's both a U-Pick as well as ready picked. It's a very neat and pretty little patch. We load up Cheryl’s truck with blueberries before heading to the next farm.

Next stop was Welsh Brothers. Peter and brother Wayne are 3rd generation to farm this land with their children. We go from the office barn and drive out to the corn patch that is being harvested. We pass asparagus fields and pumpkin patches and more corn fields. They grow 500 acres of premium sweet corn and pick 5 acres a day. Planting different varieties of corn at different times insures a continual corn harvest until - weather permitting, Thanksgiving.

Out at the field, the picking machine is hard at work. We climb on board. Five to six workers pick furiously in the field and throw the corn into a suspended hopper that leads through the field. From the hopper a conveyor belt moves the corn to the sorting and packing line where another eight workers sort the corn and bag it. The bags are then piled high in a trailer that is pulled behind the sorting line.

The full trailers now go to the barn that houses 6 cooling rooms. Three to four trailers fill one room and the corn is rained on with ice water until the internal temperature reaches a very low temperature. This stops the conversion of sugar to starch and keeps the corn tasting fresher longer.

We pass another cornfield that's being irrigated with well water. Peter loves sweet corn but admits to being a traditionalist. He likes to boil it, but if he's hungry in the field, he’ll eat it raw. Of course the only corn you can eat raw is fresh local corn. For Peter, sweetcorn can be an entire meal and he loves eating it cold the next day.

Both Peter and Cheryl lament consumers tendency to pull back the corn husks and leave the corn because the rows of kernels aren't perfectly straight. In fact corn kernels are seldom perfectly straight and when striped corn is tossed aside, no one else wants it either and the farmer looses. Food, like people is far from perfect, but it's still good! Both encourage their customers to know their food and their farmer.

Next stop was Steve and Paula Fett, Fett Farms and they grow lots of potatoes; red, white and yellow. Now they’re growing gourmet fingerling potatoes from Russian, Pink and French to All Blue and White Creamers. Fett is a large enough farmer to sell to grocery chains so look for them in the grocery stores.

It may be a simple thing but Steve puts his red potatoes in red bags, yellow flesh in yellow bags and white potatoes in white bags. It’s a great way to spot Fett potatoes.

On the Fett farm they have a sorting table, washing station and cold storage for their potatoes are available year round – or until they last. Steve explains one of the biggest potato myths is if you wash potatoes, they won’t keep. They do, the secret to storing potatoes is a constant cool storage temperature. They’ll keep very well in a cold cellar but rarely will they keep under a sink (apparently this is where most people store potatoes).

With a quick lunch at Harmony Bakery we were off to Berkel’s Greenhouse for beefsteak tomatoes. The 8-acres of greenhouse Ted Berkel grows some cocktail and yellow tomatoes as well as his mainstay – beefsteak. Cheryl buys the large tomatoes that don’t fit into shipping flats. I guess you could call them the rejects, but they’re the perfect size for a thick slice of crusty Italian-style bread. Rub the bread with garlic and lay one thick slice of tomato on top with a bit of salt. Options are a bit of mayo and shredded basil leaves – it’s the quintessential summer meal!

We were done our day of shopping at farms, Cheryl had enough food to stock her shelves and I had enough to share with my neighbours. There’s lots of fresh produce out there right now, get out there and find your fill.

Muskoka Delicious!

2011-07-07T13:28:00.000-07:00

When I think of Muskoka my mouth automatically begins to salivate for some of Ontario's most succulent beef, luscious maple syrup and of course a martini made with one of chef Rory Golden's pickled wild leek stir sticks. Golden is the executive chef of the Deerhurst Resort in Huntsville (www.deerhurstresort.com) and one of Muskoka's most vocal local food advocates.

Chef Rory is the talent behind the Field to Fork event held August 14th (www.savourmuskoka.com). The format is quintessential farm and country with gourmet food tastings on a farm for the country low price of $65 a head.

There is an amazing farmers market in Gravenhurst at the Muskoka Warf. A double row of market vendors form a giant circle and shoppers meander around smelling the freshness and scooping up the seasons bountiful harvests. I was there promoting local food with my new book, The Ontario Table. Every book purchased earns a signature on the Ontario Table-cloth. As I travel across Ontario collecting signatures, it will surely be the longest tablecloth in support of local food. Chefs sign in red, farmers in green and locavores in black. At the end of the season I will roll it out and plan a huge feast where we'll all sit around and read what everyone has written about local food. Keep posted on my blog for more info.

There is T & R Family Farm from Niagara-on-the-Lake with the seasons first cherries. Muskoka doesn't grow cherries so the giant table of red and white juicy berries go quickly. It’s garlic scape season and you can overhear many conversations about delicious garlic scape dishes.

Today is a special day and Savour Muskoka is offering tastings of what is growing in Muskoka. Reed of Muskoka Meats is serving up delicious venison sausages, Black River Food Co is offering a beer, bacon and sausage soup. Strawberries play centre stage with mini strawberry shortcakes - fresh from the fields.

Huntsville seems to be the regions hot spot for resorts. In addition to the all season Deerhurst Resort, Taboo (www.tabooresort.com) is a luxury resort, golf course and spa. The new chef there is Andy Dymond, former chef of the Prince of Wales Hotel in Niagara and another chef in love with food that grows near and around him. Can't wait to visit and try his version of Muskoka cuisine.

While there is no competition among the great chefs of Muskoka , there is great fun for foodies to graze around Gravenhurst, Bracebridge, Huntsville, Bala and Port Carling tasting and experiencing it all.

I love the little town of Bala, so pretty, so quaint. It’s the cranberry capital of Ontario and it’s worth taking in the festival every October (www.balacranberryfestival.on.ca). If you can’t make the festival, drive to Johnston’s Cranberry Marsh for everything cranberry you can imagine from fresh (frozen) to dried, juice – yes even wine from Muskoka Lakes Winery.

In Bracebridge, Marty's is the hip place to be. Find a table among the locals and feast on his take out counter. I've never seen pies so big and abundant with juicy fruit that it inspires a direct face plant. The ice cream is just as exciting.

Gravenhurst is home to Muskoka Meats, also known as the 100 Mile Store. Owner Dave Purdon stocks a great selection of small artisan food products from within 100 miles – or 160 km. Their specialty is local meat and a look in their meat counter has you drooling over ultra thick cuts of well-aged beef. Best to ask for what you want because most of the meat is out back reserved for the local carnivors who know exactly what they want.

On the way home I discovered Fairdale Farm, went and met Kim Leatherdale who professes to be a new farmer in love with her new business and success. They sell beef, lamb and chicken. Freezers in the farm retail store carry a great selection of cuts and the honor box speaks to the trust in farm and country conviviality. You can find other farms across Ontario to visit at www.ontariofarmfresh.com.

Eating up Stratford!

2011-06-26T19:26:00.000-07:00

If you’re looking for something delicious to do this glorious summer weekend, take off for a few days and explore Stratford. Sunday is the day for the Stratford Slow Food Farmers’ Market. What a fantastic market and what a fantastic marriage of a farmers’ market and the international Slow Food organization. Stratford has one of Ontario’s strongest Slow Food chapters and this is their market run by food blogger Steve Stacey local-come-lately.blogspot.com.

Antony John of Soiled Reputation is there selling his amazing greens and radishes so fantastic Jon couldn’t resist taking pictures.

Farmer, Brendon Lyoness of Caveman Crops is at the Slow Food booth along with Fred de Martines of Perth Pork Products. Fred raises the Tamworth, Berkshire and Wild Boar that all the restaurants go crazy over. There is Bizjak Farms from Beamsville with load of fresh strawberries and apples and of course Lindsay the baker who surprised me with a real croissant. Says it’s easy to make them for the market because people love a treat on Sunday mornings.

The market is right in the heart of downtown Stratford and if you know the beautiful town with the Stratford Chefs School and Stratford Festival Theatre at its heart, you know that it’s a great foodie town filled with farmers and folk that appreciate the finer things in life.

I met Shawn Hartwell of the Simple Fish Co. He also owns a restaurant called Simple Fish & Chips, with a twist and while his place may be casual and welcoming, it’s anything but simple. Shawn started out like many restauranteurs planning according to numbers on a business plan but soon decided to take a different turn with his restaurant, upping the quality by buying only seasonal river fish from trusted sources.

Hartwell tells me that perch and pickerel from Lake Huron are in season. He’s also buying any fish that runs up river right now meaning salmon from the Frasier or Stikine Rivers in British Columbia. Soon he says he’ll get fish from the Columbia River. Hartwell knows the seasons for fresh fish, like I know my vegetables.

Shawn is at the Slow Food Farmers’ Market offering a wide variety of fresh fish – pity I had no way to keep it cool until I got home, but lesson learned. I’m traveling with a cooler and ice pack in my car from now on!

Had lunch at the York Street Kitchen. It’s where I always go when I’m in the mood for something that packs a simple explosion of flavour. This little sandwich place should never be underestimated. Here a simple smoked turkey sandwich creates as much excitement, surprise, contentment and satisfaction as one would expect from high-end gourmet restaurant run by celebrity chefs. Plan on a long wait during lunch and dinner so do what I do, go mid-afternoon!

Downtown Stratford has more to do than one can pack into a weekend including perhaps a rare Bieber sighting, so go directly to the tourism office on Downie Street and they’ll help you narrow down your options.

Market Hopping

2011-06-15T03:55:00.000-07:00

Some people like winery hopping, I love market hopping. I don't know why I love the unexpected discoveries, the tastes of the season and the people you meet that you remember forever.

It was a Tuesday and so I headed to the Kitchener Farmers Market - what a blast (and hey, they have free parking!). It’s a permanent market with loads of ethnic food stalls from Caribbean to Mexican and Croatian lots of food made with local produce. It was lunchtime and I ended up wearing some of my chicken wrap on my shirt, but worth every bite.

Then off to Hurrley's Market just outside Kitchener where they promote local with their 100-Mile map of suppliers. What a great market, they preserve a lot of summer fruit in jars, how beautiful to see the fruit suspended in syrup. I bought some of their sweet cherries and couldn’t resist a cup of delicious strawberry sorbet, it was a hot day - yum!

By the time I got to Martin's Family Fruit Farm in St Jacobs I noticed a bit of pink sorbet on my shirt right next to the lunch stain- evidence of a great day. I met owner Steve Martin and had a great discussion about the cost of food. Martin’s sells premium apples as well as seconds because he believes that food should be affordable for everyone – good man.

Feel free to ask Steve any farming question and he's never shy to give you more than the answer you expected. They’re little store is filled with apples of all varieties. Martins is also an apple sorting facility so they have the freshest and best apples. Besides the apples, they have lots of other produce that they source from across the province. Picked up a few apples to eat in the car – I’m amazed that this is June and the apples are still so crunchy and fresh.

Got home and made dinner from the things I found – yummy sausage from Hurrley’s and fresh peppers from Martin’s – dessert was a bit of yogurt drowned in the most luscious sweet cherries in a not-so-sweet syrup. Country markets are never far from home and I love eating food from people I meet along the way.

OMG, OMG, OMG, San Francisco just keeps getting better

2011-05-25T08:48:00.000-07:00

On the advice of a San Francisco university student, Jon and I met at dinner last night, we got up early and made our way to the Mission District of San Francisco. The concierge of the Grand Hyatt Hotel told us the easiest way was to get to the BART which was right next to the giant Apple store on Stockton Street.

I had visions of Bart Simpson or some guy who would give us our next clue once we found him – what the heck is the BART! Ok, so you may know it as the subway, underground, metro or tube, but in San Francisco it’s the Bay Area Rapid Transit – BART.

When we arrived, Guerrero Street was beautiful with a giant boulevard that ran down the middle of the wide road and thriving businesses. Tartine Bakery was suppose to be right here but it wasn’t. Instead there was what looked like a bakery with people lined out the door and others sitting at tables sipping on coffee and pastries. No sign anywhere on the outside but somehow we just knew this was the place. We walked in and the aromas were warm and yeasty. The little bakery had seating for maybe 20 inside, another 6 at a small window bar and 12 outside - they were all full. Still no name anywhere, not even a napkin. Then Jon spotted a white cloth bag hanging from the wall and on it was the word TARTINE.

Everyone was lining up to buy pastries so we joined in and noticed the bakeshop was in full view from an open doorway. Inside must have been 6 bakers all crafting pastries and kneading machines humming away. The pastry counter took my breath away; lemon tarts and croissant, seasonal bread pudding and morning buns, chocolate croissant and Gruyere, black pepper and fresh thyme gougier; asparagus crocque monsieur and half a dozen sweet breads. We began to order, 1 chocolate croissant, 1 bread pudding, 1 croissant and 1 morning bun and to wash it all down, café au lait.

We were lucky to spot an empty table and took our overloaded plates with us. I pulled apart the croissant and it exploded with flaky, wet, buttery, crispy, crustiness with fluffy dough underneath. It billowed on the palate with air light sweet, eggy, butteryness – omg, this is definitely the best croissant I’ve had. The morning bun was a rolled cinnamon bun covered with coarse sugar. As I pulled it apart it began to unravel into millions of layers of paper-thin pastry that had been smothered in more butter. This was described to us as “one of those things you must eat before your die”, and it was.

The chocolate in the chocolate croissant was creamy, soft, black, bitter and an amazing contrast to the sweet butter – yum. The bread pudding was moist brioche soaked in cream and egg and smothered with fresh picked strawberries that exploded spring flavours on the palate and luxuriated with the moist, juicy bread pudding – omg!

Owners Elizabeth Prueitt and Chad Robertson have produced their own cookbook to encourage others to make their amazing pastries but no one was really interested in the cookbook, they just wanted the ready-made pastries.

A woman sat down at the next table obviously holding their spot while her husband stood in line to order. She motioned to him every so often pointing to she wanted. They were visiting from Vancouver and come to San Francisco often. Her husband dropped off some poppy seed sweet bread and a bowl of muesli, a few minutes later he turned with a croissant and more muesli, a few minutes later he came back with a lemon square and 2 coffees. As their table was obviously full of pastries we laughed at the reputations we were creating as Canadians at Tartine. Obviously we were pastry deprived in Canada and needed to overload on a good thing.

We left and walked past Delfina Restaurant and Delfina Pizzeria. This is the best restaurant in the neighbourhood with Napolenese pizza that inspires foodies to cross neighbourhoods for. We were full so all we did was feast on the casual menu. The restaurant decor definitely speaks to those who are looking for good food in an organic atmosphere.

On the same block is Bi-Rite grocers. What attracted our attention was their commitment to neighbourhood farms. They call it a community of farmers and Bi-Rite is one of them. They own and operate a few farms in and around the San Francisco area and their store signage offers up origins of produce. We found yellow signs above the lettuce that meant the food was within 50-mile radius of the store. The green signs meant the produce was organic and the white signs meant the produce came from a Bi-Rite farm. Many of them had pictures of the farmer complete with the farm location.

The philosophy at Bi-Rite is to showcase small quality farms that are fighting to produce good food. Owner Sam Mogannam grew up in this store that was once owned by his dad. Then it was sold and Sam opened a restaurant. After years of frustration in sourcing good local produce, he bought back the store and changed it from a typical corner store into a source for great produce and foods from artisan craftsmen. Sam has this wild idea that if you present food in a transparent way, consumers will be able to make informed decisions about what they are buying.

Inside the store you’ll find plenty of ready-made foods such as salads, meats, one-dish meals and roasted foods. This is the chef in Sam coming out. We chatted with Mike who tells us that behind this small 2,300 square foot grocery store are 93 employees who are all trying to make a difference in their food supply. They are happy to buy from local producers whether that is honey or jam and from any producer who is producing safe, healthy food and sustainability is huge for this company, so big that it even extends to their staff who are all paid a fair wage and health benefits. It’s a policy that goes in as well as out.

San Francisco is an intense city with people all living on top of each other so costumers are plentiful. This has made their expansion on the street possible. Bi-Rite has a creamery across the street where they buck the traditional ice cream trend of copying common, pedestrian flavours in favour of true ice cream pleasure such as strawberry balsamic (btw is omg fantastic!) and caramel and sea salt. Traditional flavours are exciting because the ice creams are all natural and incredibly luscious.

Besides the creamery, their farms and the grocery shop, Bi-Rite owns a not-for-profit art gallery called 18 Reasons and it’s here they hold special farm themed dinners to promote the community of food in the Mission District. It’s a fantastic food place and as we left, I overheard staff discussing the Fast Food Nation with one of the customers. I was shaking with excitement at the progress Bi-Rite has made on the local front and it’s inspiration for the rest of us as we spread the word back in our own communities.

Inside Tips of San Francsico

2011-05-25T08:25:00.000-07:00

We’re staying at the Grand Hyatt on Stockton Street. Jon and I are here for a US travel conference called Pow Wow. It’s the largest travel conference in North America and when travel people set out to have an annual conference, you can bet they pull out all the stops to put on a great show – they do an amazing job of it.

Tonight we decided we wanted to experience San Francisco like the locals so we went to the concierge. She pointed us to a side alley of restaurants just a few blocks away. The alley is called Belden Place and it’s just off Bush. In between the Hyatt and restaurant row was Chinatown and so we walked through it. The street was colourful with stores overflowing with bling, brilliantly coloured lanterns hanging across the streets and beautiful buildings painted in bright colours.

Our recommended restaurant was Plouf, a French inspired bistro with a reputation for fresh, amazing seafood. We walked into the alley and passed a number of restaurants, Brindisi, Café Tiramisu, Café de la Presse, B44 and Plouf. The alley was full of small tables and chairs with diners sipping from large wine glasses and waiters busily scurrying around with large and small plate of food. It was more casual and organic than trendy; it was more European than San Francisco.

Like Europe, all of the menus were displayed at the front so we could read them and we did. Instead of Plouf, we were drawn to the Spanish influence of B44. A menus of tapas and unlike the cool, light flavours of seafood, we were seduced by the warm, savoury Catalan-style dishes. It was a cool night and we dined outside under the heaters on Ceviche and Sauteed Aqua Gem Clams with chorizo Rioja, Anchor steam beer over baby white beans. We sipped on Spanish wine and ordered more tapas; Warm Octopus with fingerling potatoes and pimenton oil and Gambas al a jillo, White Gulf of Mexico Shrimp with sauteed garlic and adobo.

The seating in B44 is quite tight which lead to great conversations with people on either side. There was the couple from the Silicon Valley who come into the city for great food. Charlene Yiju Han and her husband love to dine out and her husband tell us she’s also a great cook – there’s nothing Charlene has ever made that he didn’t like. They recommended a great little restaurant in Chinatown called R & G Lounge and there we must try the deep fried crab. Then there was the little restaurant on the pier with the best oysters in the entire city; Swan Oyster Depot, it’s where all the local go and be prepared to wait because there’s usually a long wait time, but the oysters are the freshest and the cheapest. For the best Vietnamese cuisine we should go to the Slanted Door.

On the other side of our table was the University of California student who just graduated and her friend was from Seattle, Washington who was in to help her move back home. She only had 3 more days in San Francisco and while she was excited to embark on the beginning of the rest of her life, it was a bitter sweet dinner celebration as she was leaving San Francisco, a city she’d fallen in love with. These young ladies recommended the Mission District. They describe it as having a restaurant or food shop every 10-feet. There was a bakery called Tartine that was famous for they’re morning buns. They said they were one of those things you have to eat before you die, then there was Delfina food shop, Pizzeria Delfina for the most amazing thin crust, wood fire oven in the city and Monks Kettle on 16th and Valencia who have 200 different craft beers available and 30 of them on draft, but it was their pretzels they raved about most. Then they talked of Bi-Rite and their sustainability philosophies - ok we were going to the Mission District tomorrow.

After we’d all finished our dinner, our server, Geronimo came by and wished me a happy birthday – it just so happened to be my birthday! He had no idea, it was just something he said! He brought a Spanish version of crème caramel with a candle in it and 2 glasses of cava – yum!

Chocolate - the San Francisco Way

2011-05-25T08:17:00.000-07:00

Jon and I jumped on one of those iconic San Francisco trolley cars to do a bit of sightseeing. Jon sat on the outside and I on the inside. By the third stop the trolley car was overflowing with people and Jon ended up hanging off the side and having the ride of his life. Inside, it was so crowded when the trolley car climbed up the steep roads and down, we all crushed against each other. It was a great ride and a fantastic way to see some of the city amazing and unique architecture.

We got off the trolley car and we found ourselves at Ghirardelli Square. Ghirardelli is the oldest chocolate company, proudly crafting chocolate in California for over 150 years.

Born in Italy in 1817, Domingo Ghirardelli was the son and apprentice of a celebrated chocolatier. In 1837 he left his homeland of Italy with dreams of selling chocolate abroad. After spending 10 years in South America, he immigrated to the USA during the California Gold Rush to see if he could strike it rich. He was immediately successful and in just 3 years, Domingo had created the Ghirardelli Chocolate Company. In the early 1900’s, Ghirardelli Chocolate found a home in San Francisco’s historic piers. The giant, 15-foot illuminated Ghirardelli sign welcomed ships passing through the Golden Gate and they still do today.

Today, the chocolate factory has moved into larger facilities and what remain is the retail store, ice cream shop and the conversion of the factory into dozens of artisan shops and condos. We walked into the Ghirardelli chocolate shop and were greeted with a sample of chocolate – it was a caramel filled milk chocolate –yum!

The room was filled with the sweet, creamy aromas of milk chocolate. The shelves were loaded with chocolate bars, hot chocolate, truffles, small bars and a whopping 5-pound solid bar, there was mint chocolate, strawberry filled chocolate, chocolate studded with hazelnuts or almonds, baking chocolate and souvenir chocolate trolley cars. There were giant litre bottles of chocolate sauce – wow, now you don’t even have to chew your Ghirardelli! What I like about Ghirardelli is that they haven’t lost their way by dipping all sorts of candy into chocolate – they have a very simple line of fine, high quality chocolates with a few classic options and their main focus remains as it has been for generations, to craft fine chocolate using time-honoured, hands-on manufacturing processes.

There was so much chocolate in the Ghirardelli store, I began to shake. The sample of chocolate just served to tease us and the aromas wouldn’t let us go without a shopping bag full of chocolate. Back home, I’ve purchased their baking products in high-end grocers, but can’t say I remember their chocolate bars available anywhere – so I bought enough to keep me in chocolate for a very long time.

We left the store and the wind blew my hair across my face and I realized it smelled of chocolate. If you’ve ever dreamed of living in chocolate, the main factory building has been converted into personal residences. What more can a chocoholic ask for?

Ghirardelli Square is at the end of Pier 47 next to the Maritime Museum and The Cannery with their own dozen shops, indoor square and art galleries. Walk down Beach Street filled with beach stores, art galleries, souvenir shops, restaurants and more. Back at our room at the Grand Hyatt Hotel our chocolate sits on the dresser and every time I pass by, the aromas of chocolate remind me of the day Jon and I stumbled across a world of chocolate.

A San Francisco Breakfast

2011-05-22T17:59:00.000-07:00

Breakfast this morning was in the San Francisco Ferry Building Marketplace, an historic Beaux Arts landmark along the Embarcadero waterfront. It’s a food lover’s haven with lots of little food shops from bakeries to a charcuterie shop, a mushroom stall complete with local and imported truffles, a chocolatier, an Italian gelato bar and small grocer.

Just above all this delicious activity on a terrace was an amazing brunch. Fifth Floor Restaurant was serving Foie Gras French Toast and MarketBar & Far West Fungi served a soft scrambled egg bruschetta with Slow Cooked Mushrooms & Chimichurri. There were 31 food stations in total and we walked around eating and sipping on either locally brewed craft beers, wine, sake, taquila or vodka – what a great way to start the day!

One of my favourites was Gotto Roadside’s Crispy Ahi Poke Tostades with Spicy Sambal Mayo, Avocado Crema and Cilantro. The tuna was tossed in a Ponzu sauce (citrus soy sauce). It was OMG delicious!

Joel and Duncan Gotto have been serving up mouthwatering classics inspired by childhood memories and made from quality ingredients that draw people from miles around. Some of the produce used in the restaurant comes from their St. Helena farm where they harvest tomatoes, zucchini, lettuce and more, all organically grown. They use recyclable, renewable or compostable packaging whenever possible including their menus that are 100% recycled with 100% post-consumer waste.

Their popularity was born from their Ahi Tuna Burger, a 5-ounce patty of fresh Ahi tuna seared rare with ginger wasabi mayo and Asian slaw on a toasted egg bun. Everyone should experience these light yet bold flavours dancing around their palate at least once in their lifetime.

Their Niman Ranch beef patties contain no antibiotics or added growth hormones and are made from vegetarian-fed beef raised on family-owned farm and are ground fresh daily. What a great place and all of this comes with down to earth prices that range from $15 for their famous Ahi Burger (most expensive dish on the menu) to $14 for their Ahi Poke Crispy Tacos.

I walked around and tasted crab cakes and freshly shucked oysters from Scoma’s Restaurant then stopped dead in my tracks when I came face to face with the 8-foot, 70 pound Red Tailed Boa named Bethesar. He was very well behaved, thank goodness.

Distracted only momentarily from the fantastic food offerings I fell in love with E & O Trading Company’s (restaurant) Sake Braised Pork, Pickled Rhubarb, Micro Greens on Scallion Coriander Biscuits – wow! For a slider, it was luscious and melt in your mouth with earth succulent flavours. I noticed how many of the flavours were added with a flavoured biscuit. What a simple technique instead of using plain white bread that adds no benefit to a traditional slider. It was fantastic. Chef Sharon Nahn has a talent for Asian fusion cuisine and her specialty is Indonesian Corn Fritters, so famous that they’ve been featured on the Food Network. With a full belly we walked back to our hotel. This was just one meal, stay tuned for more.

San Francisco is tasting pretty good

2011-05-22T12:34:00.000-07:00

It’s my first day in San Francisco and it’s a delicious one. Jon and I checked into the Grand Hyatt on Stockton Street, unpacked, washed up and set out to explore. We wandered around and found we are next to Union Square, right smack in the heart of the city’s upscale shopping and dining scene and home to virtually every designer label; Saks Fifth Avenue, Neiman Marcus, Macy’s. There’s an Apple store, Ferrari (the car) store and what caught my eye was a food shop called Ferrari Fine Foods.

Not at all related to the car, Ferrari Fine Foods has been around since 1911. Started by Annibale Ferrari, it’s on Mission street and run by the grandsom Paul Ferrari. Inside is a to-die-for deli counter with roasted and grilled meats and luscious salads. There are a few bistro tables in front of the large windows but my guess is that it’s mostly for take out gourmet food.

The shelves are stocked with high end extra virgin olive oils, aged balsamic vinegars, imported artisan pasta and hard to find Italian culinary ingredients. Store manager, Vince or ‘Firefox’ as he called himself was behind the deli counter and eager to help. He was wearing animal ears and a bushy tail; he was in costume but it’s not clear what character. Firefox, as he explains, is a fire dancer in the process of developing his stage persona and was working at Ferrari while he was being discovered.

Of course we were only seeing the customer service side to this odd but friendly guy and if his fire dancing skills were anywhere near his customer service skills, he’ll do well - although something tells me he shouldn’t give up his day job just yet.

On the shelf I spotted a magnum bottle of prosecco that was selling for the bargain price of $35 dollars. It was a custom bottle named after the original owner Annibale, cellered in Venuto, Italy just for them and it was sitting there screaming ‘party’! Firefox tells me it’s a beautiful bubbly with citrus and green apple notes and streams of lovely bubbles. It was late in the afternoon, but if we came by earlier tomorrow they’d open a bottle for tasting.

Jon and I left Ferrari empty handed, planning to return to taste the procecco. We were getting hungry. The streets were thick with people, mostly shoppers and we needed help to find a really great restaurant. We ducked into the Westin Hotel and had a brief chat with Frank the concierge. I’ve always found that hotel concierge are your best friend in a new city and you don’t need to stick to the one in your own hotel, any hotel has friendly concierge who’s job it is to help. The trick I’ve found is in the asking.

Jon and I asked for a good seafood restaurant. Now ‘good’ is a relative term but Frank had a sense about us and stayed away from lower end chain restaurants, instead he sent us about 8 blocks away at a place called Anchor & Hope. Knowing it would be difficult to get in on a Saturday evening, Frank called the restaurant. Sure enough they were booked solid but Frank used his influence to score a spot at the bar – we were in!

We found Anchor & Hope in a side alley, a place we would never have ventured. The building was previously used by an auto mechanic shop; it was one large building with most of the rustic elements still intact. The opened ceiling was dotted with skylights, rustic beams and metal duct work. It was bustling, noisy and crowded.

The menu wasn’t at all pretentious or elaborate but reasonable and more than reasonably exciting. We started off with oysters. Wanting a true San Francisco experience we ended up with Canadian oysters. Seated at the bar gave us a front row seat to the work of garmange di partie David Reynolds. David shucked 2 oysters from British Columbia and 2 from New Brunswick, the NB oysters beat the BC hands down with fresh flavours of sea water and brilliantly clean, slithery light oyster while the BC oyster had less juice, a denseness to the oyster with an earthy flavour.

Our server Sarah Wright brought our bread, still in it’s brown paper bag. We opened the bag and found a beautiful artisan baguette. We watched as David prepared our next appetizer, salmon tartar. It was served on a bed of guacamole and topped with subtle salmon roe. We piled it on crisply fried won tons and smeared wasabi over top. It was uber delicious and David was fast becoming my new hero chef.

Dinner was large pieces of cod, lightly battered, fried and served with rosemary and thyme fries. The thick chunks of cod fish, flaky, crisp and cooked to perfection. The rosemary was predominant on the fries which constantly reminded me of chicken (funny how we associate certain flavours). The flavour play was fun and it was the absolute best fish and chips I’ve ever had!

An Asparagus Tour

2011-05-10T15:15:00.000-07:00

It was a tour to beat all tours; an asparagus farm tour. Yes, it’s asparagus season. Our cool spring slowed things down a bit but then we had a few warm days and wow! Asparagus is one of those plants that grows so fast, you can almost see it growing right before your eyes; tall, slender, green and irresistible.

The Fruit Shack on Niagara Stone Road in Niagara-on-the-Lake has a small asparagus patch behind the retail store. The store is only open on the weekends until the season picks up and then they’ll be open 7 days a week, but for now, they had a few minutes to tour a small group of eager foodies around the farm.

We walked into the cherry orchard in full bloom. The trees were in full bloom and filled the air with the floral aromas of sweet, delicate blossoms; then we past the plot of garlic before arriving at the asparagus patch.

Asparagus patches are pretty drab and unexciting to look at. The brown earth is interrupted only with a straight line of drab green spears; no leaves, no bright colour. But as soon as we focused on the row of spears standing straight like a line of soldiers, we could hardly wait.

The Fruit Shack is a family run farm and Frank and Steve Pohorly, father and son, were on hand to teach us a bit about asparagus. Steve took a knife and began cutting the spears and placing them in a basket as he talked about the high demand he has for his crop that was originally just suppose to be enough to feed him and his family. But an asparagus patch is not something you can keep secret for long and now everyone is hungry for their just picked asparagus.

Steve was neat and tidy in his picking, you could tell these were his prize possessions, but I bent down and snapped a spear off at the base and popped it into my mouth. I knew what to expect, I’d done this before. The juicy spear exploded in my mouth with the ultra sweet flavours of fresh sugar peas and the freshness of cold, pure spring water. It was full of life and crunch; who could not become addicted to the ultra fresh and uber delicious flavour of asparagus just seconds from harvest!

Others in the group followed and moans of delight began to ring through the crowd like a symphony of joy. No I’m not exaggerating, picking and eating asparagus in the patch is one of life’s greatest joys. Those who never liked asparagus were astonished at how good it was and others delighted in the discovery of the freshest flavours they’d ever eaten. It was like a feeding frienzy in the field.

We left The Fruit Shack and took our just picked asparagus to Escabeche Restaurant at Queens Landing Inn. The chef prepared them simply with lots of sweet, creamy butter. In the centre of the table was more fresh asparagus (raw) standing straight up in a flower vase. We feasted on the buttery asparagus and the fresh. It was an amazing lunch.

My Sage Tumbleweed

2011-05-01T05:55:00.000-07:00

It uprooted my sage bush. The fierce windstorm we had last week didn’t spare my yard. In the sandy, damp soil, my beautiful sage bush that I have been nurturing for years simply uprooted and rolled down the street like a tumbleweed. Sage is one of my favourite herbs not only because it livens up an otherwise boring chicken, but I like to deep fry them. Sage chips are yummy and I use them for garnish on fancy dishes. Oh, who am I kidding, I love to munch on sage chips just as they are, a big bowl of them – they’re delicious! My beautiful big bush gave me enough sage leaves that I could indulge in sage chips whenever I wanted, but that’s not all.

We had a beautiful old tree at the back of the house. It was taller than the house and spread out to shade our deck, especially the area around the patio table and chairs. On any hot summers day we could sit and enjoy lunch or dinner under the cool, comfort of that big tree. It was so big it also provided shade on our upper deck; a favourite place for morning coffee that usually ended up in long, Sunday afternoon conversations – a great tradition.

But with a shaking of the ground it simply fell over and with it, it took another 2 smaller trees. One was a wild dogwood that my neighbours friend brought over one day in a cut down orange juice carton. That was over 20 years ago and that dogwood, while it took a few years to establish itself, was a blaze of beautiful big white saucer-like flowers every spring. It’s a pity it won’t get a chance to bloom this year. It’s just buried under the massive trunk and mound of branches that is sprawled across the yard, over the hedge and into the neighbours.

While my sage bush took the brunt of the force, my entire herb garden looks like it barely survived a stamped of elephants; so the clean up begins. The best way to revive an injured herb garden is to begin snipping and trimming away so it begins to grow back.

Herbs are the first garden harvest each year. Almost all food and herb pairings such as dill with pickles or oregano on pizza are international transplants from one European country or another. While I may eat bowls of crispy herbs, I’ve noticed that even with the culinary revolution focusing on fresh-from-the-earth ingredients, there still seems to be a certain hesitation regarding the liberal use of herbs. In my opinion, using herbs sparingly is like not using any herbs at all.

As a general rule, basil, rosemary, oregano, thyme, sage and tarragon are the more dominant herbs that require frequent tasting before increasing amounts. Often times they don’t mix well together but don’t shy away from blending strong and subtle herbs because work very well together. A bit of basil, marjoram, oregano and parsley livens up a traditional tomato sauce for pasta.

For myself and others whose yard was ravaged by the force of Mother Nature, the clean up begins. Friends and neighbours gather to help each other as the unmistakable symphony of chain saws buzz in the neighbourhood and the aromas of good meals seasoned with plenty of herbs float through the air.

Thuet's hands did not touch my quiche

2011-04-03T10:25:00.000-07:00

This morning I slept in. The Royal York Hotel is such a spectacular hotel, who wouldn’t want to take advantage of the beautiful surroundings. I snuggled under the pouffy duvet, the billowy pillow soft on my cheeks and ran my legs across the luxuriously silky sheets. Now this is heaven.

I lazily got up and went for a walk on the warm spring Sunday morning. I walked up Front, to Bay then King and decided to walk east. I had no idea where I was going but was hoping to find a great coffee house for breakfast. What I found was Petite Thuet.

It was an inviting little pâtisserie with painted concrete floors, small dark tables and soft, upholstered French chairs. Behind the pastry counter were piles of artisan bread. On the back wall were dozen of mason jars filled with preserves and other amazing ingredients.

The pastry counter was filled with dozens of mini tarts holding French custard and fruit. Everything was mini from the lemon meringue and apricot frangipane to the chocolate mirror tart and chocolate éclairs. There was succulent quiche, buttery warm croissant and many other French pastries such as millefeuille, brightly coloured meringues and Mama Thuet’s Alsatian apple and almond torte. There were Madeleines, macaroons and other things I didn’t recognize with layers of sweet cream, chocolate ganache and other sinfully delicious things.

It’s the kind of place that naturally inspires a face-plant right in the middle of it all. I’m secretly doing the face plant in my mind while trying to look like I’m still pondering my decision.

I smile at the young guy behind the counter who is trying not to look too out of place. He’s looking much more like a rough and tumble hockey player than a young preppy coffee barista. After a brief conversation with the hockey player, I opt for the quiche lorraine and – oh no, first strike, no chai latte. I ask for an herbal tea.

That’s when I notice a lone cookbook in a basket by the cash register and I recognize the face of celebrity chef Marc Thuet. It was his cookbook, French Food My Way. What’s the connection between Thuet and this pâtisserie I ask, knowing what the answer would be. I’m told this is Thuet’s pâtisserie and that he even made some of the pastries in the shop today. Wow, I thought, some of the delicious pastries I see could have actually been touched by Thuet. I ask which ones. The hockey player begins to stumble and quickly saves himself by telling me the quiche I ordered was made by Marc that morning.

Oh, yea right I thought. I took my tea that was served in a paper cup (oh, yuk) and my china plate with my microwaved quiche and a – what is this? A plastic fork! Aughhhhh. I asked if I could read the cookbook, took it to a small table and began to leaf through it while I ate my delicious breakfast. Halfway through I looked at the quiche. It was warm on the outside but stone cold on the inside. I know for certain the hockey player will only nuke the heck out of it so I eat on. I have to disagree with the hockey player, Thuet didn’t make this quiche. But someone did because it certainly wasn’t processed and it was delicious in spite of the temperature.

I watched as people came in and out buying specialty pastries. It seems brownies are the most popular; but then again this was Toronto not the Thuet Boulangerie in Alsace.

If you happen to be in Toronto, I highly recommend Petite Thuet and buy lots of pastry to bring home (I did!).

Shopping With A Chef

2011-04-02T12:45:00.000-07:00

Six in the morning is David Garcelon’s favourite time to shop at the St. Lawrence Farmers’ Market. David is executive chef of the Royal York Hotel in Toronto and today I was going shopping with him.

We met in the lobby and began our short walk to the market. Toronto seems to be alive no matter what time of day and the market was in full swing by the time we arrived. It’s customary to walk about with a cup of coffee so chef with his coffee and I with my tea made our first sighting. On one counter we found jars of Forbes Pickled Spruce Tips and Milkweed Pods. The chef chatted a bit about wild foods and we moved on.

We reached the meat section with lots of vendors competing for business. Chef, inspired by the ultra thick, glistening pork chops began his appreciation of Ontario pork. “It’s the best in the world,” he starts. Like a walking, talking billboard for Ontario Pork, his heart is in every word.

We moved on to the fish section and chef asked to see a large Lake Erie Pickerel on ice behind the glass. The fishmonger placed it on a sheet of brown wrapping paper and handed it over. “It’s really fresh when it has no smell, there’s still blood in the gills and the eyes are glistening,” explains chef as he examines it closely then holds it up for me to smell the fish that has no smell.

Someone from behind us yelled to the chef that fresh spring salmon should be in next week. I turned to see who it was when a sign caught my eye. It said, “We will not sell Chilean Seabass.” Hum, a fish monger with ethics – the appreciation is not lost on me.

Next stop was Golden Orchards Fine Foods where we met owner Murray Graziano. Murray worked with his mom in this shop since he was a small boy. He shows us information on the local farmers he’s working with and tells the chef he’ll soon have bags of local shelled sweet peas for him. “There are nights I don’t sleep,” says Murray. “If we don’t support local farmers today, they’ll all be factories tomorrow and it will be too late.”

All this talk of food is making the chef hungry and I follow him like a little puppy to Carousel Bakery where he buys two internationally famous, Peameal Bacon on a Soft Country Bun. He hands me a my sandwich wrapped in white paper and quickly runs off again. We end up at the Kozlik’s mustard stand where he pulls out 4 of his favourite mustards and asks me to pick one for my sandwich. We eat in the hustle and bustle of the market, washing the sandwich down with more tea.

With no time to waste, we’re off passing another meat place before he stops abruptly. He picks up a few bags of bones explaining, “these are the best deal in the market.” At $1.50 for a giant bag of bones, I agree. Then as if distracted by the calling of succulent slabs of savoury, fresh beef, chef begins to teach me all I need to know about buying the best quality beef. Like a good student I soak it all in studying the examples he points to as he talks.

Next we head across the street to the north market. Unlike the main building which is open all week, the north market is only open on Saturday. We meet John Rowe, founder of Rowe Farms who has partnered with Niagara grower Paul Moyer to growing red fyfe wheat. Together they mill it and make delicious pasta that he sells fresh at the market. John starts to talk about lessening our carbon footprint with farming when chef realizes he needs to get back to his kitchen. “Dinner, seven tonight, don’t be late,” he says as he leaves me at the market.

No, no I wasn’t dining with the chef, he’d be busy in the kitchen. Although I would have given anything to cook with him, but he was gone before I could ask.

The Royal York is a grand hotel and they offer a Shop With Chef package that anyone can book. The package is best taken from the time the Niagara orchards are bursting with their bounty to the fall harvest of Ontario’s fertile soil and through the holiday season when the best of free range poultry and festive meats are in demand. It’s a great opportunity to meet one on one with some of the people who produce the best food in Ontario. It includes an insider’s tour of the market with the chef, 2 nights accommodation, dinner in EPIC and a culinary tour of the market with historian Bruce Bell (1.800.441.1414, www.fairmont.com).

Bruce shares stories enthusiastically on the buildings previous incarnations. Once town hall only to be repurposed many times until what we see today as the St. Lawrence Farmers’ Market. It’s a captivating and brilliantly executed tour (www.brucebelltours.ca).

Not How, but What to do with Social Media

2011-03-10T08:04:00.000-08:00

Scott Stratten has over 50,000 twitter followers and had more than 60 million hits on on his video nooooooooooooooo.com. Scott recently spoke at the Travel Media Association of Canada's annual conference in Ottawa and here are just a few of the things I found so great, I just have to share.

Stop marketing in the same old ways we've done it for decades - it's too hypocritical and customers know it.
Marketing is not a task - marketing is. It just is. It's a way of being. Everything we do from smiling at a stranger we pass on the street to a phone conversation to talking to customers - everything we do and say is always increasing or decreasing our impression to others. We are our front line to our customers/followers/friends. So, what is your brand impression?

Am I talking about on-line or in person? Both. In fact, we tend to be passive in person and aggressive on-line - think about it, there is a false sense of privacy when you can't see a person face to face, but the marketing power is still the same. Not to worry though, Scott explains, "To be great at customer service you just have to be average." Which means there are too many people not paying attention to customers, if you do, you win.

It's all about, Know - Like - Trust

With social media you can get to know and trust people, but with that comes some caution. Social media is not the place to flog crappy advertising. I you use the same concept as tele-marketing on social media, people will tune you out and you loose the trust. That means no pop-ups, commercials or anything that will get in people face. It also means - don't post your events or commercial messages on other peoples facebook!!! For all those who post on my wall and I've always found it annoying, now's my validation to tell you - stop it!

So what do we do? Well, ask yourself what you do every day to get people to like and trust you? - you talk! and talking is tweeting. But another caution - don't tweet about garbage! Who cares if you had tuna for lunch? Well, now I'm feeling bad because I shared my lunch experience with all my friends yesterday, but - in my defense I can say that I certainly wasn't expecting a meal on a VIA Rail train to be right up there with deLuca's Restaurant or On The Twenty or other fine dining eateries. I think my meal was awesome! And that's what your suppose to tweet about - only the awesome! SPRED THE AWESOME! You don't have to change what you talk to people about - just the way you talk to them.

So if you would not normally tell anyone you had tuna for lunch - DON'T TWEET IT! If you don't want your words to appear on a Billboard, don't tweet it!

If you tweet about awesome, people will retweet and share your tweet.

So how much time should you spend on social media? Well, how about only when you have something awesome to say? That's how you get people to trust you and want to follow you. Don't have a strategy of frequency because you end up saying stuff people don't really care about and you become one of those people at a party that no one wants to talk to.

So what media platform should you use? Connect them all together. It's not your job to tell people how to consumer your messages, it's only important that they do. Everyone is different so you'll get some who follow you on twitter, some on your blog, others on facebook, etc. Connect them so you're available to the largest audience. Now mobilize yourself with something like wetouch or wptouch (didn't hear very well). It's a free program, just download it and you'll be mobilized to reach a greater audience.

Did you know about TROLLS. they're not complainers, they spread hate. Don't reply to them, you're time is far too valuable building great relationships than to try to win someone over that has no interest than to spread hate. Make it your business to build good relationships.

Remember, people thrive on interaction but only the kind that makes them happy. Don't make them fill out a form with any personal info at all - you'll loose them. I know this because when faced with a stupid form - even if it is to send a simple email from a website - I refuse and go to another website. I know collecting demographics sounds like something you might like to do but remember what I said in the beginning - Stop marketing in the same old ways we've done it for decades. Social media is about trust and relationships.

So build your platform in what ever way you want, say only awesome things and build it one person at a time. Those that have thousands of followers started with one and don't believe them if they say it didn't take time and patience. If you want to get something out of this, you need to put something into it. Social media doesn't change the fact that relationships take time.

You must be PRESENT on social media and CONSISTENT. Reply immediately, if it takes longer to reply than to mail a letter you're not doing it well.

If you are your authentic self on social media, you will have no competition!

There's a Twitter Guide Book free on-line - get it! Read it!

Another Day in the Big City

2011-02-07T07:24:00.000-08:00

So I seem to be in Toronto an awful lot these days. Don’t mind it, for someone who works from their home, these trips seem like the only time ‘off’ from work – or at least it separates me from my work, so they’re very welcomed.

This time my son Jordan had a concert to go to at The Opera House. It started early and ended late so Jon and I had plenty of time to relax in the big city.

First we took the kids to Chinatown for lunch and a bit of shopping. Lunch at Pho Hung on Spadina was really bad. The food came out dry and we were given giant bottles of cheap processed sauce that was watered down. I don’t recommend it at all. We did a bit of shopping, mostly for the boys. From Chinatown to Honest Eds to Sonic Boom.

Dropped the kids off at the concert and Jon and I went to the Riviera Bakery on College for a rest, coffee and decadent pastry. We had a window seat to people watch and had a Zeppola.

Zeppola are the Easter pastry or the pastry Italians eat to celebrate S Giuseppe. It looks like a giant donut sliced horizontally and filled with luscious whipped cream and topped with a cherry or two. For those who know it better, it's feather light egg dough, deep fried and dredged in sugar, stuffed with whipped cream and decorated with special Italian preserved cherries - beyond delicious!

I asked why they’re making Zeppoles so early and the owner said there is such a frienzy a few weeks before Easter – people were lined up down the street and they just couldn’t manage the onslaught of business around that time. Now they start making Zeppole a few months early and that has helped as people now come in early for the favourite Easter treat.

It was early evening, we went to the Manulife Building and shopped in Chapters for a while. This is probably the largest Chapters anywhere and it was opened until 11 pm on Sunday. Decided to go up to the Panorama for a drink. The Panarama is a beautiful, sultry bar on the 51st floor of the Manulife. We sipped on wine and watched the lights of the city come on.

On our way up to the Panorama we noticed the cinemas. We wanted to see the King’s Speech but were too early for the late show and too late for the early show. But there was a showing in between at the VIP theatre. We’d be out in time to pick up the kids.

VIP is a much smaller theatre (probably holds 36 people) with larger, plush, very comfortable seats that rock and have plenty of leg room. There are small coffee tables on ether side of a pair of chairs and it’s a licenced theatre with full service. You can order wine, beer, popcorn, anything the theatre offers. The concept was great so we paid the extra $5 per ticket.

When we arrived the theatre was dirty; popcorn scattered everywhere and we had to pick the clean seats as many of them had sticky pop over them. We found 2 good seats and sat back; this was nice. We ordered popcorn and it came in it’s traditional paper bag – not very VIPish at all.

For service you need to be in your seats 10 minutes before the show and that was doable, but waiting for a movie is like watching paint dry, it’s simply not convenient.

The movie was fantastic, but the VIP theatre concept needs a bit of rethinking to get it right. Don’t think it’s worth the extra money unless it’s a clean space, popcorn comes in a bowl and the movie starts when you’re ready.

I love impromptu trips into Toronto, not everything works as you'd like or expect but it's a break for the ordinary and it's all good.

A Foodie Weekend in Toronto

2011-02-01T07:50:00.000-08:00

Had a wonderful weekend in Toronto – it was a last minute thing to escape – just too much going on and don’t feel like I’ve recuperated from the holidays. So Jon and I ran away. Saturday morning, we got up early and went to yoga at White Oaks – if you’ve never been, I think it’s Niagara’s best fitness club, it’s certainly the most luxurious.

After yoga we headed up to Toronto and checked into the Hyatt Regency on King St. I book this the night before because of the rate. They were giving away rooms at $119 per night. I almost didn’t book it, thinking it was going to be a bad experience, but the Hyatt has a great reputation so I took a chance. We checked in and it was beautiful! Our room was very contemporary – just the way we like it and our stay was fantastic.

We dropped off our bags and bundled up. We headed east on King stopped into Roy Thompson Hall to see what was playing – a Mozart concert! I love classical so we bought a couple of tickets and headed over to Queen for a bite to eat.

Queen street certainly has changed from my memory of it. No longer is it flooded with trendy restaurants, but more clothing shops have taken over and the restaurants are fewer and far between. We walked by one and it was packed with what seemed like locals, not tourists so we went in. It was the Queen Mother Café, the décor was very pubby, menu incredibly eclectic with healthy salads, Asian and Indian dishes. The food was great, the ambience bustling and noisy – perfect for big city dining – a great place with even better prices.

We walked the Toronto streets for a while going in and out of shops and found ourselves at the Art Gallery of Ontario. It was closing in less than an hour so we didn’t go in, but found the gift shop fantastic! This is where I’m doing my Christmas shopping this year.

We went back to the hotel, got out our iPads. I brought a bottle of Nyarai Cellars Sauvignon Blanc (it's my favourite these days!) (www.nyaraicellars.ca) so we poured a few glasses and headed downstairs. The hotel charges for internet service but Starbucks doesn’t so we picked a plush corner of the lobby close to Starbucks and sure enough, the internet worked. We sipped on wine and surfed the net in search of our next travel destination - dreaming of a warmer destination.

Still full from lunch, we headed to the concert – it was fantastic! No better than fantastic! Music Director Peter Oundjian did a great job and the symphony was stunning. I listen to classical all the time and don’t claim to know much about it except I like most of it, but listening to it live, it really takes you in and vibrates right down to your soul – amazing!

On our way back to the hotel we stopped into Oliver Bonnaccini’s new eatery O & B Canteen at the TIFF Bell LightBox Centre. The atmosphere is sleek and modern with a casual ambience. It was lively and while the menu was small, the choices great and the food delicious. I had the beet salad with salmon which was great but Jon had the steak which was a bit disappointing – a tough piece of overcooked meat even though we’d asked for medium rare. Oh well, all was still good.

The next morning we bundled up and headed over to Spadina for coffee. We stopped into a little place that I won’t mention. It was a bit dirty and their idea of Chai Latte and mine don’t really agree. We walked up to Chinatown and did some shopping in the many grocery stores that spill into the sidewalks with foods, flavours and smells as foreign to me as a trip to China. It’s an exciting discovery and we bought lots of stuff for Jordan, our vegetarian son including green papayas for one of our favourite salads.

Chinatown is getting ready for the Chinese New Year with all sorts or decorations and firecrackers. In the midst of the grocery stores I found Tap Phong Trading Company. It’s a giant store filled with kitchen utensils, dishes, pots and pans, machinery from toasters to restaurant quality mixers and ovens. We spent the better part of the afternoon just in Tap Phong’s and left with loads of new stuff for our kitchen. It’s really cheap too! – I mean dirt cheap!

We loaded the car and headed for new Longo’s on York street in Maple Leaf Square. Everyone in Niagara is talking about it so I just had to go. Parking is free if you spend more than $30 and if you’ve ever bought groceries, you know that’s no problem. The store really focuses on ready made foods, but Longo’s makes them themselves. They look wholesomely good and delicious. You can buy ready made take out or eat it in their cafe. The store is a little short on staple cleaning supplies, but that’s ok, we can shop at cheaper bulk stores for those items and shop here for fresh and delicious food. My only complaint is that I wished they’d offer more local foods. They also have a wine shop, kitchen for cooking demonstrations and a café.

But here in Niagara I’m loving my Commisso’s Food Store in Niagara Falls, it’s the closest thing to the new Longo’s with ready made foods. At Commisso’s they have in-house chefs that cook up delicious dishes all day and you can take them home or eat in their trendy, modern café.

Anyway, I’m home and in case you’re wondering where the pictures are – there aren’t any; my camera is still in for repair. A great foodie weekend!

Wine Books for Local Food Donations

2010-12-13T15:37:00.000-08:00

Tis’ the season for giving and that’s exactly what Niagara Cooks is hoping to do. Author Lynn Ogryzlo has purged her wine library of over 100 titles and offering them up for a donation to The Craig Award.

Here’s how it works. You pick a title you’d like and it’s yours for a donation. Some titles have a $10 price attached to them and that’s the least amount of donation accepted, others with no amount you can have for whatever you’d like to donate.

The books are lovingly read and lightly handled so most of them look as good as new, there are however, a few with a look of being thoroughly loved.

Choose from the eclectic pile that includes anything from The Oxford Companion to Wines, by Jancis Robinson to Wine Tastes, Wine Styles by Andrew Jefford. There are books on South Africa and others on health, like The Save Your Heart Wine Book. There are some by Simon & Schuster as well as William & Sonoma. There are books about cooking with wine, tasting wine, learning about wine and lots of coffee table style books from the experts; all great for holiday giving for an aspiring student, an eager enthusiast or a winetasting pro.

The Craig Award is a new research scholarship program funded by the Ogryzlo’s and run through Niagara College. It’s to financially encourage students and farmers to work together on innovative agricultural projects that have a positive outcome for Niagara’s local food culture.

Please join the Ogryzlo’s this holiday season, give the gift of wine and food reading while creating a stronger local food community in Niagara.

For a listing of the books, go to www.NiagaraCooks.ca

Niagara's Saffron Harvest

2010-12-04T09:08:00.000-08:00

It’s saffron harvest season in Niagara! Robert and Melissa Achal of NOEB Lavender on Niagara Stone Road in Niagara-on-the-Lake are in full saffron harvest. Over 400 pots, each with one crocus bulb bloom intermittedly and Robert has to hand harvest each one.

The harvest runs from mid November to mid December, these little pots burst with beautiful blossoms. It’s Robert Achal’s job to pick each flower, open it up and remove the 4 stamens waiting inside each one of them.

Robert is originally from Figi and everything he does from growing his exotic plants and making them into lines of cosmetics are traditions he learned from his home country and from his grandmother who is an herbalist in Figi.

The worlds largest saffron production comes from Iran. It’s where Robert got his crocus bulbs. Every second year the bulbs are divided and there are waiting lists of companies waiting for the division of the bulbs so they can begin their own saffron production. Robert put his name on that list and in October, they arrived. The new bulbs usually take a year to flower but amazingly, they began to bloom in November. “They must like their new home”, says Robert.

The saffron harvest runs approximately 4 weeks. It starts when the flowers begin to bloom and ends when they no longer bloom. Each bulb can give off 3 to 4 flowers during harvest. Robert himself hand harvests his crop every day. He refers to the crocuses as a fall crocus. It’s is not the kind you grow in your garden, if you use the wrong kind of crocus stamen it could be very poisonous.

To harvest saffron, the entire flower is pinched off the stem of the plant, then each flower is opened and the stems removed very carefully. If a saffron thread is broken upon removal, it is useless, so each one is handled very delicately. A saffron stamen goes from red at the bottom to orange at the top and the redder the saffron, the higher the quality.

To cook with saffron you must soak real saffron in water before you use it then pulverize it with a mortar and pestal. Then you’re ready to add it to dishes for amazing colour and flavour. It’s great in a saffron curry sauce, you can make a saffron cake, it goes well with lamb and seafood pastas and of course the quintessential saffron dish is Bouillabaisse.

Robert is happy to be growing the real thing. For a few years now he’s been growing what is known as a “poor man’s saffron” or Egyptian saffron. This is really a Calendula flower and not a crocus. It doesn’t bleed like real saffron so it doesn’t colour a dish as well. The flower petals are dried and cured and as it does this, the petals shrivel into threads that look like saffron. It’s a great substitute, but it’s not the real thing.

Crocuses are beautiful, delicate little flowers and as I gaze at them in Robert’s greenhouse, appreciating their beauty, I wonder who thought that removing the little stamens, drying them and pulverizing them would make a great ingredient in seafood dishes. I don’t know who had such an amazing mind, but I’m sure glad they did.

NOEB Lavender, 758 Niagara Stone Rd, Niagara-on-the-Lake

Catching some Silver Bass

2010-11-21T10:17:00.000-08:00

If you live in Niagara s I do it’s there’s always something new to eat, something special to discover. This week I got a call from Rod Minor in Port Colborne.

Rod is fisherman and he fishes the waters of Lake Erie. There’s nothing better than the fresh, clean flavours of lake fish. I tend to prefer them to the oily, density of salt water fish. I find them easier to cook with because you can add some verjus and no matter what accompanies with lake fish, it all offers clean, fresh flavous.

This week Rod pulled some beautiful Silver Bass from Lake Erie. So I told Rod I’d take 3 whole ones – no filetting, just clean them and I’d cook them whole. I was feeling like a little dinner presentation was in order.

Wow, when I got to Minor Fish (176 West St) the 3 fish were so large I began wondering who I’d have to invite for dinner. One of the Silver Bass alone would feed both my husband and I.

On the way home I sorted out what I’d do with them so I made a quick detour to the grocery store for a few boxes of coarse salt.

I washed the fish inside and out, put a few herbs and bit of verjus in the cavity and laid them on a 2-inch bed of salt. Then I covered them with an inch of salt. I left the heads and tails exposed for presentation, then I roasted them for almost an hour.

When they were ready to serve, I chipped away at the salt crust, brushed away any remaining salt, peeled away the skin and began eating the flesh. Oh my gosh!! This fish was succulently juicy, the tender meat flaked beautifully and my husband and I devoured one in the blink of any eye. It was a big one though, so we were very full.

Tonight we’re taking the other 2 to my uncles house for dinner. I’m taking the pickerel cheeks also. I just couldn’t resist, when I was waiting for my Silver Bass to be packaged up, I saw these silver-dollar sized pickerel cheeks. I’m going to bread them and cook them up with some bacon and herbs – perhaps I’ll fry up some sage chips. Them I’ll make a spicy aioli to dip them in – they should be good.

If you live in Niagara I highly recommend a beautiful drive out to Port Colborne to Minor Fish. The 3 large Silver Bass only cost $6.75! A feast to last 3 days and at shockingly low prices – get out there before Rod reads this email and contemplates raising his prices.

Farmhouse Grill

2010-11-15T11:59:00.000-08:00

On Saturday Jon and I found ourselves in Keene, Ontario with a few minutes on our hands. If you know Keene, you know there’s not a lot to do, so we looked for a place to have coffee and in the middle of a not-a-lot-happening place, we found the most amazing diner.

There it sat on the crosssroads of Keene’s main intersection – Farmhouse Grill. For 2 lovavores, this was the perfect place to sit and have our coffee. Jon turned off the road to park and out of the diner came a group of rather rough looking guys, they were a motley crew of hard core farmers for sure, almost made us city folk want to just drive by.

We parked the car next to a large tractor and more people came out of this little diner. We walked inside and it was packed. People were lined up at the counter ordering take-out coffee and more were seated, eating large platters of typical breakfasts of sausages, eggs and homefries.

We found a table and sat down. It was a busy little place, decor was exactly what I’d expected – I figured it would have to be casual and rustic to make its patrons comfortable and it was. The longer I sat and the longer I watched the activity, I found myself relaxing and warming to it. This place definitely had charm; at the very least it was completely organic.

Jessica, our waitress finally had a minute to come over. She brought menus and a cloth to clean the table. We decided we’d eat because the menu was absolutely irresistible! The Famished Farmer Special was the large meal we’d noticed when we arrived. Jessica tells us it’s popular, especially the homefries that are made from potatoes they peel themselves.

Jon was wavering between the Barn Raising Omelette and the Farmers’ Daughters Choice. I went for the Traditional Farmer’s Breakfast. All of the meat used in their restaurant is local. I’m not surprised, we were in Keene to meet a cattle farmer; this seems to be cattle territory.

I hear they’re famous for their Traditional Back Kitchen Burgers that Eva makes. Eva works the kitchen and often comes out to serve customers the meals she’s made them. Being totally unprepared for this place, I wrote my notes on a napkin.

If you’re looking for the real deal in country conviviality, then take a Saturday drive to Keene for lunch. Make sure your GPS takes you through the backroads and along the Trent River system for a great drive.

Farmehouse Grill
Located at the 4 corners in Keene
705-295-4242

2010-10-31T16:37:00.000-07:00

O & B Canteen
I'm in Toronto at O & B Canteen, a casual eaterie on KIng St West. What a great place! WonderfuL atmosphere! Casual, refreshing. Ordered the Thai coleslaw and it was eye popping good. Israeli cous cous was a bit boring, my take is that if it was just slightly warm the flavours would be much much better. Actually, I predict they would be eye-popping great! Entree was lamb gnocchi another really bland dish but the Calabrese pizza hit a home run. Dessert could't be better, light as a cloud, freshly lemony perfect!

Check it out it really is a fantastic place and my guess is that they will have the food sorted out soon enough.

Tomorrow is the Ontario Culinary Tourism Summit and I'm looking forward to discovering what's new in local food across the province!

The Best Greek Memories

2010-08-27T16:39:00.000-07:00

Well I think I left you all in Santorini didn’t I? The thing with blogging is that when you’re really busy, you just can’t leave to share it. There were rays of sun to catch, bottles of wine to sip, amazing dishes to savour, quaint little villages to explore and stunningly beautiful scenery to bath in. Now that I’m back and almost caught up (are we ever caught up!!) I am reminiscing the best parts and it’s the perfect time to share.

After my rude beginning with bad food and exorbitant prices I wised up – come on, tell me you’ve all been there! Santorini is simply an amazing island. For a winter population of 2,000 it has the most sensational restaurants. Here are my 3 favourites…….

Perivoli, (www.perivoli-restaurant.gr) Exo Gonia beach. They’re calling it Greek creative cuisine, but I call it nothing short of the best culinary experience I’ve had so far. It’s a blend of amazingly light textures, bursts of flavours and surprising presentations. Many say that 1800 in Oia is the best restaurant on the island and while I think it’s great, it can’t hold a candle to this new restaurant that is leagues ahead of anything else on the island.

Seleni (www.selene.gr) in Pyrgos. This is Santorini’s quintessential farm to table fine dining restaurant. I first discovered Selini about 10 years ago when it was in downtown Fira, now it’s on a high point on the island in a little village called Pyrgos. The bus will take you there and with Santorini’s new more modern buses you can dress up for one of the best meals on the island.

Sea Side by Notos (www.seaside-restaurant.gr) Perivolos Beach. This is an exciting place to be with white washed benches and boat-lounges, extreme design and even more extreme food presentation on the plate – and it’s extremely delicious! Just to sit on the beach lounges and sip on a chilled cocktail surveying the sea is a job I wouldn’t pass up.

Nichteri at Kamari beach was recommended to me but I never made it there. I'm planning to back in the summer of 2012, if anyone is interested incoming along, I know the best places to stay, eat, drink - and oh yea, shop!

Blogging not an easy thing to do

2010-07-25T02:05:00.000-07:00

I'm trying to take the time to write about my culinary adventures in Santorini but there just doesn't seem to be enough time in the day.

Responding to a tip from the locals, Jon and I took a bus to Akrotiri. Melina's Taverna was on the water, the first taverna on the beach. In Greece, if someone has a taverna, it's not long before a 2nd, a 3rd, a 4th and so on open up and before you know it there is a string of taverna's all competing for the limited customers. But in a country who's main industry is tourism it kind of makes sense.

Melina's is the first taverna. The tables were covered in brilliant lime green table cloths and the chairs were painted in the same fresh colour. It was beautiful against the white building and the stunningly blue sea. The owner, Niko opened this little taverna almost 16 years ago and named it after his first daughter.

Melina's boasts a very traditional menu and claims his food comes from the island, the fish is fresh daily (from the waters your sitting by) and any frozen fish is noted with an * so his customers don't get confused. Wow, claims of food origins and pride in local food exists in the smallest, most remote place in the world.

Jon and I ordered the catch of the day which was Santorini Balls (more like pancakes made with very ripe and delicious red and yellow tomatoes grown on the island). They were amazing! Next came a fava dish. It was more like a hummus made with fava beans grown in Niko's fathers garden. Drizzled with a bit of lemon, it was full of luscious flavour.

Next came a dish Niko claims is his signature dish. It's called egglpant salad but I find the Greeks use the word salad where we would use the word dip, sauce or salsa. The eggplant dish was like an eggplant salsa with garlic, vinegar and onions. It was charred on the barbecue so it had smoky flavours to add to its dimension. This is the most amazing way to eat eggplant I've ever tasted - wow!

Next came the entire red snapper on a platter. Niko had carved it up and removed most of the bones. This is what I live for - fresh fish! It was clean, light and delicious - we at the whole thing!

If you're ever in Santorini, this little taverna that has been written up by Bon Appetite Magazine is worth the bus ride from any place on the island. If you don't know it's there, you'll miss the best Greek meal on the island!

If I have time, I'll share my next day of delicious fun on the island with you....... if not, know I'm having a better time than if I were blogging......

Eating in Santorini Day Three

2010-07-23T09:26:00.002-07:00

I come to Santorini for the view – it’s spectacular! There was a time when you could buy a greek salad and beer for one or two dracma, then they joined the European Union and prices went up. Well, I’m in shock how expensive it is to eat in this little, rustic island. Our lunch on day one was 2 Santorini salads, a beer and water came to 32 Euros (translates into more than $50 dollars!).

We tried to have dinner at a restaurant that came highly recommended. Koukoumavlos Restaurant is not far from our apartment, maybe a 2 minute walk. They’re said to have a great chef, but get this. A gourmet burger is 28 Euros, duck burger with fois gras 28 Euros (that’s a whopping $44 for a burger!!!). I looked down the menu, beef carpaccio was 22 Euro ($35), gyros of veal cheeks 20 Euros ($32), pasta Carbonara 25 Euros ($40 for a plate of spaghetti!!!!). Desserts ranged from 12 to 14 Euros each and that’s for dishes of ice cream, chocolate mousse or tiramisu – not exactly exciting stuff. Wine by the glass was anywhere from 10 to 18 Euros a glass ($16 to $28 for a glass of wine!!) and the kicker – a 3 Euro cover charge (about $5).

As I walked around Fira, these prices weren’t uncommon, even the lower end restaurants serving traditional food is charging way too much for what you get. Last night we went to the grocery store and bought everything we needed for a Greek salad – it cost approximately $15. We had a top quality extra virgin olive oil (tasted a few before we bought), amazing feta cheese, fresh, fresh, fresh olives, island ripened tomatoes, chilled cucumbers and a few large shallots that worked in place of a red onion. Oh yes, a loaf of bread, a bottle of wine and we ate like kings.

Today we took a bus to Kamari Beach and the prices were much more reasonable. We ate beachside (Kamari is a black volcanic beach – beautiful) on fresh, fried calamari, marinated octopus, a large plate of tzatziki, beer and more water for 23 Euro ($37). Not bad for 2 for lunch and the quality was quite good.

It’s a pity because Santorini has become a combination of contradictions. Prices for food and accommodation rival the best places in the world, yet the accommodation, food and towns are very primitive. What I mean is the prices have gone up exponentially but the quality of the tourism offering has not………… pity.

Add to that they’ve allowed dozens of late night bars to blast music across the cliff until all hours of the morning and they’ve allowed out of control development that blocks the public view of the most beautiful view in the world.

I still love Santorini, but it may be the last time I come. For the prices I’m paying I could easily explore more sophisticated and equally beautiful destinations where my vacation would be much more comfortable and positively pleasurable.

For now, I’ve figured it out and can now live a little more sensibly in my remaining week here but I have to say my first few days were a shock.

Santorini Day Two

2010-07-22T06:17:00.000-07:00

After searching all day yesterday, I finally found a loose, long sleeve, gauze blouse to keep me protected from the sun. Then I bought a paper, sun umbrella, ok maybe that wasn’t the wisest move spending 5 Euro on a paper umbrella that was destroyed by the sheer number of tourists you bump elbows with here.

We had done some unofficial research and identified some of the best restaurants on the island. Tonight we would start our taste testing. We went to Koukouuavolos just to the right of Hotel Atlantis. The prices were shocking. Considering that I ate at Gordon Ramsay’s restaurant, MAZE just last week in London England and the prices didn’t come close to these shocking numbers. We left for a nice looking seafood restaurant just down the street for more surprises.

There was only one thing to do until we had these numbers under control and that was to go to Nicholas. It’s a tiny, authentic restaurant in the heart of Fira. It’s communal dining here as people are seated next to each other regardless of them knowing each other. We started off with tzaziki (3 Euros), marinated octopus (11 Euros) and half a carafe of unnamed local white wine (4 Euros). It was chilled, I was hot and we got along all too well.

After dinner we went to Georges place; George is my jeweler. When I come to Santorini, Jon and I always have another date inscribed into wedding bands, the very bands that George made for us over 20 years ago. We had drinks with George, picked up our rings, cleaned and inscribed with 2010, then made our way home about 10 pm. It’s a much quieter night than last; the bars are not as loud.

This morning I got up, opened the shutters and the sun, the sea and cool breezes streamed through the window. This is a glorious view and a wonderful reason for getting up in the morning. It’s a day to take it easy, don’t know if it’s the sun, the heat or the copious amounts of Greek wine I consumed last night, but today is a day to take it easy.

We had our traditional breakfast of Greek yogurt and honey and made our way to the market. The market is just to the left of the main square in Fira. It consists of 2 fishmongers with boxes of fresly caught fish, mostly sardines and some sea bream and 2 vegetable sellers. Fresh food on the island is difficult to come by, the climate is too hot to grow much and by the time other vegetables make it to the island, the heat has wilted them. It’s pretty slim pickings. We looked at the Santorini tiny tomatoes and decide they looked better at the grocery store.

It wasn’t a total disappointment though. We found the village baker and ventured down to the lower level of the street. Here there were racks of freshly baked bread cooling off in the alley and inside they were packaging up bags and bags of baguettes, probably for some of the restaurants just above.

I’ve just heard of a fantastic restaurant in Perivolos Beach called Sea Side at Notos. It’s a bit out of town but I’m thinking the prices will be a little more realistic.

We walked over to the bus station and made note of the schedules for later exploring and inquired about car rentals. We made our way back to the apartment. We had found a really, really great Greek olive oil, some vinegar, salt and pepper. Now we needed the vegetables, olives and feta and our Greek salad would be ready to make in our tiny kichen.

The sun is way too hot and we settle down on our fantastically large and shaded balcony for an afternoon of heat, shade and cool breezes that come off the sea. Today, it’s me, a few jugs of ice cold water, some fresh pistachios from the island and a lot of sleep. Santorini life is pretty slow……. Oh my gosh, my feet have swollen in the heat……….

Looking for the Best Greek Food

2010-07-21T08:18:00.000-07:00

I’m sitting cliffside in the village of Fira in Santorini, Greece. I have a small apartment that hangs over the Santorini cliff. It’s not my first time here, I’ve been many times before so I know the lay of the land. For instance most of the beautiful and affordable hotels, suites and small apartments aren’t widely publicized so the only way to make sure you’re where you want to be is to book one or two nights accommodation, then set out on foot to find the perfect place.

I arrived late last night and did the touristy thing. I went to the square and ate an gyro – to me it’s like the flavours of home – Greek comfort food. I’ve been coming here for almost 25 years and the view, climate and people have remained constant. Usually I come in the off season and it’s quieter. This time it’s July and I don’t like how the village rocks with too many bars blasting music off the cliff and across the sea – it’s a disgrace and it cheapens this place - most beautiful and magical place in the whole world.

Today is a new day and Jon and I walked up the street, picked a nice restaurant from the hundreds that exist on top of the cliff and sat - cliff side again - and had a cool and crisp Santorini salad. It's the only thing to do on this deliciously hot, hot day.

I’ve got some leads on the islands best chefs so in another day or two Jon and I will rent a car and venture out to meet them. Traditional Greek food is not what I’m here for, although that’s all the restaurants here seem to think the tourists want. It’s the new food of Greece, the taste that’s a reflection of who the people are today – sophisticated, brilliant and beautiful.

I'm here for another 10 days so keep in touch and I’ll keep you posted.

A friend of mine is coming to town

2010-07-02T10:29:00.000-07:00

It was almost a decade ago when I went to Greece courtesy of the International Olive Oil Council. There was a large group of journalists from around the world but very few from Canada. Every day for the 10-days they held us captive so we could experience the healthy benefits of the Mediterranean Diet. It worked – I felt amazingly great!

But when you spend 10-days in captivity you get to know your fellow culinary colleagues pretty well and that’s when I met Ricardo Larrivee of Ricardo & Friends (Food Network TV).

During our 10-day stay we attended olive lectures, olive oil cooking demos and olive tastings in the ancient part of Athens called the Plaka. We were bused out of the city into the countryside to tour olive groves, cheese factories and little villages. We were divided into small groups to spend a day in the mountains with a family learning to cook the traditional ways – with copious amounts of olive oil. These people with beautiful skin use olive oil as liberally as I drink water.

We were in a tiny little village so remote that they rarely see visitors. In the corner was a group of curious neighbours who came to see the strange visitors who were here to learn to cook.

It was at the end of dinner when we had all eaten an incredible meal and drank their home made wine (and they could drink us weak Canadians under the table any day!) when the trouble began. One of the neighbours wanting to show us another custom; stood up and began to sing, dance and smash plates on the floor.

The host immediately jumped up from her chair and screamed at the plate smasher – it was all Greek to us. As it turned out, she had used her good china for her special guests. She disappeared only to return with a large stack of plain white dishes – the plate smashing began again.

Since Ricardo was the only male in this little group, he was chosen to participate in another ritual – the gun shooting celebration. Outside he was handed a large rifle. It was his first time with a gun in his hands and as you may know, Ricardo is not a large man, so when the rifle kicked back it spun him around and we all hit the floor.

It was last year when Ricardo and I bumped into each other again and this time we kept in touch. So when he decided to visit Niagara-on-the-Lake this year, he called and that’s when I asked him to host a harvest celebration to raise funds for the Niagara Culinary Trail.

On Saturday, August 21 Ricardo and I along with many new friends will dine at one long harvest table in the Kurtz peach orchard on the Niagara Parkway. After Ricardo’s cooking demo, we’ll feast on a 5-course dinner that features peaches and then – a big surprise (I can’t tell anyone!). Get your tickets now ($125/person) by calling Kurtz Orchards at 905.468.2937 and be one of Ricardo’s friends for the evening while supporting Niagara’s local food movement.

A delicious day in Niagara

2010-07-01T15:07:00.000-07:00

Niagara’s best cherries are in!

When a farmer calls, I go running like a puppy. Sue Pohorly, farmer and owner of The Fruit Shack in the Village of Virgil called, “the cherries are in”.

On the Pohorly farm there are two giant hoop rows and inside are beautiful cherry trees that bear the big, black, juicy, ultra-sweet cherries at farmers in Niagara don’t grow because they split with the least amount of rain. But the Pohorly’s protect them with their own hoop house so they’re guaranteed to be big and beautiful.

I went running down and sure enough they were on the counter; I wasn’t the only one there for the cherries, the line up was out the door!

The Good Shepherd is back!

As I stood in line I saw freezers stocked with frozen meat; chicken from the Poultry Barn in St Jacobs and beef from Gerber Meats – this is the meat from Franz and Denise Gerber formerly of the Good Shepherd! If you’re a Niagara foodie, The Good Shepherd will need no explaining.

It’s as close as we’re going to get to the Good Shepherd, Sue and Frank Pohorly were standing in the room talking to customers and explaining the quality of their chicken and meat products. It’s barbecue season I thought as I put some incredible looking tenderloin in my basket along with some bone-in chicken breast (I think boneless is next to flavourless!), packed up my cherries and headed home – window open of course, so I could spit my pits.

Once home I began unpacking and found a little brown bag. Sue is known for her amazing butter tarts and inside the brown bag were two of them. Wow, I went outside under the shade of the large maple tree and sat down. I was ready. I sunk my teeth into the overly large tart and the insides oozed out. There were soft raisins, yummy pecans and caramelized bits around to top of the flaky crust. These are the best, but you’ll need to get to The Fruit Shack before noon because there’s never any left after that.

How are you enjoying your summer?

Excited about Sourdough!

2010-05-12T09:55:00.000-07:00

Went to a bread and wine tasting at The Old Mill Inn yesterday staged by Puratos. If you’ve never heard of this company before it’s because Puratos make bread ingredients and sellw them to the baking industry. Today we were to sample breads made from various sourdough starters. If you’ve ever thought sourdough was all the same, I’m about to introduce you to a world of variances and textures of sourdough bread to get excited about.

First tasting was a crusty roll made with Sapore Tosca. A typical Italian durm wheat sourdough made from fine hard semolina. This sourdough lends a nutty, slightly malted, strong wheat taste. The wine was the Niagara College Sauvignon Blanc. The lightness of the bread and wine went beautifully together. In fact all the wines were from Niagara College, it seems that the College is working with Puratos in market research of their products.

I noticed Puratos make about a dozen sourdough starters, some originate from small villages in Europe and they all produce bread with various resulting flavours just as wine yeasts all lend different flavours to wine.

Second tasting was Sapore Traviata,

a typical French sourdough with a subtle nose of rye, nuts and raisins that contribute to the milk and fine acidic flavour. The wine was the Dean’s List Pinot Noir. The cooked cherry, vanilla and toasty flavours of the wine stood up well to the hardiness of this sourdough.

Third bread was my favourite, a San Francisco sourdough produced with authentic sanfranciscensis culture. The assertive sour possesses a sharp acidity with undertones of sour cream and white button mushrooms. It was paired with a fruit forward and lush Meritage. Even though the San Francisco sourdough gave the impression of being a lightweight, it actually had a full weight of sour cream and a rich, chewy, often times sweetish texture. They paired beautifully together.

There is a method of tasting bread just as there is with wine. First you tap on it, check the colour of the bread and then the crumbs. Next is to blow on it and take a deep smell. Now break it open and stick your nose in to smell the soft, lush bread – oh yum! Now dive in with some freshly turned, whole milk butter – nothing but the best will do. Ok, that last part wasn’t encouraged, but sometimes you just can’t resist!

You can’t tell which sourdough started your neighbourhood baker uses or if they even use Puratos products, so my best advise is to get out there and try all the sourdough breads you can find and begin tasting the differences. Your favourite is out there for you to discover!

In Defence of Local Food

2010-04-20T13:30:00.000-07:00

I am beyond concern now. It’s another dark day for Niagara’s food scene. If you’re a regular at the Good Shepherd in Vineland you know more than anyone, it’s about more than buying meat. Franz and Denise Gerber are Mennonite farmers who converted their barn into a retail space so customers like you and I can buy good, organic, safe meat.

In their coolers you’ll find various cuts of beef, pork and chicken. From these animals they also make cutlets, pies, rolls, pepperettes, kielbasa, sausages and cheese. There are lamb roaming in the pasture and turkeys to be ordered for holiday seasons.

When you arrive at the Good Shepherd, Franz and Denise know you by name – a remarkable feat considering the abundance of loyal customers they have. You can sit at the table (a welcoming site when you arrive), or shop the coolers and know that when something comes off the stove, it will be offered to you.

Some say it’s good marketing to have your customers taste your products, but to know Franz and Denise is to know that it’s about taking care of their friends. At the Good Shepherd they encourage you to eat as much as you want and stay as long as you like, believing it’s the least they can do to make your life a little bit better.

For those of you who don't know what I'm talking about, it's about a connection to our food. It's about knowing and trusting people to provide good quality safe food. All of the animals are raised naturally, butchered carefully and sold lovingly. The meat is free of chemicals, hormones, nitrates or any unnatural ingredients. The fact that Denise and Franz are great people is just a bonus.

So why is it a dark day you ask? Because on May 1, the Good Shepherd is closing its doors – and it’s not by choice. It’s a complicated story but I think it’s safe to say our government regulations have become so blind, restrictive, obscure and expensive that they felt closing was the only option.

For a couple who’ve spent their entire business life cultivating loyalty and trust, this decision is a sad and painful one for them. For thousands of current customers and countless future customers, it means we are loosing our choice. In Niagara we cannot buy this great food any longer - this is a crisis.

We are loosing our right to shop and buy what we want and where we want – where will it end? Being stripped of our local food choices is not what safe food is all about and we need to send a message that we don’t like it. Enough is enough!

Let’s all dress in black and meet at the Good Shepherd on May 1. Black to represent the death of one more of our food choices. If you’re with me on this one, email back!

The Flavours of Greece on a Plate and in a Glass

2010-04-18T09:44:00.000-07:00

Treadwell’s in Port Dalhousie does regional cuisine superbly! So when they were approached by the Kolonaki Group of Toronto and WineSavvy Consultants of Niagara to organize a special (trade only) Greek wine tasting, it was way over the top in flavour and authenticity. It became a delicious, palate lead journey to Greece.

To say Greece is the new up and coming wine region is not quite accurate. Greece has been producing wines like these for a few decades now, but without the giant marketing budgets other wine growing regions of the world have, they become the treasures of those in the know. For those of us who love Greece and its food and wine culture, these are the wines we surprise our friends with and these are the wines we enjoy at restaurants the likes of Treadwells who know better than any, how to create amazing culinary experiences that we all yearn for.

Tselepos Amalia Brut (100% Moschofilero, $24.95, available through *The Kolonaki Group)

First Course

Steamed PEI Mussels with Fennel Pollen Cream and Spring Chives

Ser

ved with 2008 Antonopoulos Adoli Ghis ($21.95, blend of Lagorthi, chardonnay, Roditis Alepou, available through *The Kolonaki Group)

Second Course

Grilled Mackerel with Oven Dried Tomatoes and Poached Free Range Egg

2008 Sigalas Santorini ($21.95, VQPRD Santorini, 100% Assyrtiko, available through LCBO Vintages starting May 1)

2003 Sigalas Santorini ($34.95, VQPRD Santorini, 100% Assyrtiko, available through *The Kolonaki Group)

Third Course

Steak Tartar with Potato Chips

2007 Skouras St George Nemea ($16.95, VQPRD Nemea, 100% Agiorgitiko (St George), available in LCBO Vintages)

2005 Estate Papaioannau Nemea ($19.95, VQPRD Nemea, 100% Agiorgitiko (St George), available in LCBO Vintages Sept 18)

Fourth Course

Roasted Belly of Pork with Wild Mushrooms and Red Wine Reduction

2004 Boutari Grand Reserve Naoussa ($17.95, VQPDR Naoussa, 100% Xinomavro, available through *The Kolonaki Group)

207 Kir Yianni Ramnista Xinomavro ($19.95, VQPDR Naoussa, 100% Xinomavro, available through LCBO Vintages Oct 16)

Fifth Course

Rosemary Crème Brulee with Lemon Sorbet

2008 Muscat of Limnos ($11.95, Appellation Limnos, 100% Muscat of Alexandria, available through LCBO Vintages)

2003 Sigalas Vinsanto ($44.95, 375 mL, VQPRD Santorini, 75% Assyrtiko/25% Aidani, available through *The Kolonaki Group)

* Kolonaki Group, Steve Kriaris

www.kolonakigroup.com

steve.kriaris@kolonakigroup.com

WineSavvy Consultants, Evan Saviolidis

www.winesavvy.ca

Facebook- WineSavvy Consultants

Twitter- Evanwinesavvy

Feasting on the Best in the World

2010-04-11T13:21:00.000-07:00

I love openings, especially of great food shops! And he did it just for you and me. Lino Collevecchio is owner of Woodland Imports, an import company that brings in the most exquisite food products from around the world – and he’s just opened up his warehouse to retail sales.

Born and raised in St. Catharines, Collevecchio became a chef at George Brown College, worked in some of the best kitchens around the world and opened Woodland 15 years ago in Ancaster. Just last year he moved his business to Niagara and this past weekend (April 11, 2010), launched his retail division with a gastronomic opening that has been unmatched to date.

Woodlands supplies the best retailers in Canada from Whole Foods, Bruno’s, Pusateri’s and other like them. He flies in fresh cheese every 2 weeks and today, he opened most of them to try. My favourite by far was the Italian Rochetta ($20), an earthy, creamy, decadently rich cheese. The irresistible Ribiola ($15) is a blend of sheep and cows milk, triple cream and how could it not be decadent! He has fresh Italian Buffalo Mozzarella ($12) and Vento D’Estate, a sheep milk cheese aged in grass.

Along with the cheese, he also flies in fresh made ravioli in flavours of Arugula and Ricotta, Buffalo Mozzarella and Aged Asiago cheese, Pumpkin and the fourth is Porcini ($7).

Collevecchio still travels the world but now he’s not cooking, now he’s looking for amazing products to bring back to Canada. He inspects every producer he represents – what a job!

There was Chianti salami, one made with Rose and another with Pinot Grigio ($8). You can find Pingue meats there and an impressive collection of balsamic vinegars that are priced from $7 all the way up to $300 for the 100-year old balsamic.

Cases of Italian tomatoes ($22), fresh baguettes ($3), alborio rice ($4) and an amazing Calasparra rice from Spain ($8). One shelf held a collection of salts and another some juice; 100% organic pomegranate juice or black mulberry ($9). I munched on some sweet potato chips from New Brunswick ($4.50 for a large bag!) and mixed root vegetable chips ($3).

I found truffles, whole, chopped and sauced and the best collection of olive oil from bottles that ranged from $15 to $90 (great gift!). In between there are gourmet products that range from fig balsamic, marinated artichokes, black olive paste, dried porcini and Niagara’s Ice Syrup.

Woodland Imports, Gourmet Food Specialists is on 330 Vansicle Road in St Catharines and it’s only open Saturday and Sunday

from 11 to 3. It’s too bad you missed the feast of the best in the world, but drop in the shop - it’s a feast for the eyes!

The Season Has Begun

2010-02-25T04:08:00.000-08:00

It’s Niagara’s first agricultural crop of the season. Harvesting maple syrup starts around mid February and depending on the weather, lasts until the end of March.

“We need 3 days above freezing to get the sap running”, explains Ann Bering of White Meadows Farm in beautiful Effingham. The freezing and thawing temperatures starts and stops the sap many times.

Maple syrup starts as a sticky sap from the insides of a maple tree and is then transformed into a lusciously sweet nectar that is irresistible to all who try it. White Meadows Farm is in full maple syrup swing right now. You can visit the farm every Saturday and Sunday (holidays as well) from 8:30 am to 4 pm from now until mid April. Bring the kids for a wagon tour of the sugar bush and see how the trees are tapped, learn how its boiled down into maple syrup and end in the Pancake House with a full pancake breakfast complete with loads of sweet, fresh maple syrup.

throughout Niagara more chefs are using maple syrup in their dishes because it's a more complex sugar with more depth of flavour and has more nutrition than regular cane sugar.

White Meadow offers different grades of maple syrup; light, medium, amber and dark. The different grades have more to do with the time of the season than it has to do with processing. Traditionally, at the beginning of the season the sap is light and as the season progresses, the sap gets darker and richer. You'll find all four grades of maple syrup in The Sugar Shack, the on-farm retail shop. The dark syrup is almost black and the taste is reminiscent of molasses, but not as thick as molasses. The Sugar Shack is the only place you’ll find this rare and unique maple syrup.

If you’re looking to eat local this winter and you’re thinking nothing is happening in Niagara in February, think again. Not only is the sugar bush in full harvest, but White Meadow is also a cattle farm offering frozen beef in boxes with mixed cuts; ground hamburger, wieners, hamburger patties and pepperettes.

There’s even farm made baked beans (Ann’s own secret recipe!) and popping corn. From just over 2-acres of popping corn planted last summer, the Berings have more than 5 tons of popping corn in storage, ready to test, package and sell. Their popular maple kettle corn is made from their very own popping corn.

Inside The Sugar Shack you’ll also find the Berings famous maple barbecue sauce – perfect to glaze a winter roast or rack of beef ribs. There’s maple salad dressing, maple vinegar, maple mustard and red pepper maple jelly. They blend and mix their own pancake mix in two varieties; Buttermilk and Gluten Free and have a trio of fruit sauces all laced with maple syrup; cranberry, peach and wild blueberry.

They have maple granola, maple sugar candy, maple butter, maple tarts and of course with a barn brimming full of popping corn, you can pick up a big bag of fully popped maple kettle corn.

Get out to White Meadows on the weekends and enjoy the regions first of many harvests to come and don’t forget to bring the kids for some good, wholesome, family, farm and country fun.

Zeppola are here!

2010-02-25T03:50:00.000-08:00

In the donut capital of Canada, it’s amazing how little Niagarians know about pastries.

Zeppola are tiny (about 2-inches), fluffy and rolled in granulated sugar. Commonly deep-fried, these dough balls may be filled with custard, cannoli-style cream or a butter-and-honey mixture. Their consistency ranges from light and puffy to bread-like. They’re delicious, addictive and warming.

Zeppola are the pastry of La Festa di San Giuseppe (Saint Joseph's Day, March 19). So from now, through to the patron saint’s day and the Easter weekend, this is the season to find these delicious little pastries.

In Niagara Falls, the famous Criveller Cakes & Pastries (4435 Portage Rd) keeps with tradition, but pastry master Giovanni Priore (the man responsible for all their heavenly pastries) creates his own exquisite versions of zeppola.

Crivelliers Zeppola de St. Giuseppe are baked cream puffs made from choux pastry. The airy little puffballs are filled with Zabaione cream (a frothy cream made by cooking egg yolks with sugar and spiked with marsala). They’re not quite small enough to pop into your mouth so you have to bite it in half; the Zabaione cream oozes over my fingers. The pastry is ultra light with a dreamy, sweet, airiness about it, very moist, light and elegant. As it sweetly floats in my mouth, I try to get it between my teeth and the rich, cream slides across the layers of sugar dusted pastry. Oh yum, ok these are the best zeppola I’ve ever tasted!

I can’t explain how donut hungry Niagarians have missed out on the most decadent, elegant, upscale, delicious pastry donuts in the world, but that just means there are plenty more for those of us who know where to find the best food Niagara has to offer – it’s the season for zeppola, enjoy.

A Local Merry Christmas

2009-12-25T08:26:00.000-08:00

If anyone ever thought shopping local wasn’t fun and exciting you just have to get out there and know each experience is a personal reflection of the owners – and they’re all different!

Jon and I dropped into a bakery in Niagara Falls the day before Christmas thinking we were going to buy a loaf of bread. Surprisingly, inside there was a whole host of Italian food items so I began to browse. I wasn’t impressed with the style and quality of bread but I did get a few other things including some cheese. I stood in front of the deli counter and the girl at the cash yelled to another in the back room to come out and serve me –heaven forbid she’d walk the 3-feet to do the job herself.

Out from the back came a rather husky, robust woman, olive skin, dark hair tied back, twice my size with a rather nasty disposition that she was being very careful to keep in check – no doubt for my sake.

“How much is half that block of mozzarella,” I asked and was immediately shown cheaper balls of mozzarella in the cooler in the centre of the room. It wasn’t what I wanted so I bravely challenged her orders and ordered the mozzarella from the deli counter. She grunted as she took it out, claiming it was more expensive. She was a women of definite food opinions and not afraid to show them.

She wrapped the cheese, walked past the girl standing at the cash register and placed it with my other purchases. Then she reached under the counter and pulled out a hand calculator – pushed a few buttons while visually scanning my purchases. “Ok, gimme twenty bucks”, she said.

Jon handed here a $20 bill and she stuffed it into her back pocket before she began to bag my food. I stood there wondering how I could get a receipt since she didn't use the cash register – our eyes met, she smiled rather sinister-like and wished me a Merry Christmas in a firm, deep voice.

The visual signs were all there – ask for a receipt lady and you die! Jon and I left the bakery with our goods and once in the car, burst into laughter. Who knows, she’s probably a very nice lady, just stressed because she hadn’t finished her Christmas shopping – hope we helped.

Merry Christmas and may it be a delicious one…

Wildflower Market and Restaurant

2009-12-10T14:06:00.000-08:00

Want a great place to buy local food and to enjoy it made for you? You have to go to the Wildflower in Fonthill. The retail section of the restaurant is full of organic, local and natural products. The restaurant has two identities; first a gourmet deli counter with sexy sandwiches and super salads and then the restaurant with it's relaxing spa-like atmosphere.

Restaurant Chef Joel LaBute's cuisine is heavy on the local. I had White Meadows Farm Pork with The Apple Bin Apples and Just Veggin' Parsnip Chips. It was served with Dave Irish's Greens - yum. I followed that up with Goeshen Farm Lamb Meatloaf, Tree & Twig Parsnip Mashed Potatoes, Dave Irish's Curried Carrots and Victory Gardens Winter Mint Pesto. The menu reads like a culinary geography map of Niagara. LaBute's cuisine is very Jamie Kennedyish and its presented in sexy, clean, very appetizing ways. Ya gotta go!

The Talk of Local Food

2009-12-10T13:59:00.000-08:00

Hey, what a great day in Guelph at Ignatius College. Ontario Farm Fresh ED Cathy Bartolic put together an amazing group of Ontario's local foodies to talk about the challenges and opportunities in local food. When lunch was served it was full of vegetables from Ignatius' on-campus gardens - delicious! Ontario Farm Fresh is an organization that assists farm marketers so I can tell you there's plenty of good things to look forward to in the 2010 season! Check them out www.ontariofarmfresh.com.

Culinary Inspiration from My Ethnic Heritage

2009-12-02T06:52:00.000-08:00

I’m reviving my Italian grandmother’s recipes at a special cooking class on Dec. 13. My grandmother would make the old Italian traditional wine cookies, the hard ‘moscotte’ style cookies. I know no one knows what moscotte are but I’ve revived the concept into modern versions that you're sure to recognize.

Black Chocolate Cabernet Cookies

Toblerone Icewine Shortbread

Niagara Baco Noir Crescents

Chardonnay Curd Meringues

For the class, I’ll be splashing a bit of Cabernet into some black chocolate fudge cookies, a few drops of Niagara icewine in Toblerone shortbread and a smear of Chardonnay curd on light meringues.

The event to be held at Southbrook Vineyards in Niagara-on-the-Lake, will also feature a cookie exchange. For all who come with their own favourite Christmas cookies, they’ll leave with a beautiful assortment.

The event proceeds will go to the Craig Award, a scholarship program at Niagara College which helps fund innovative agricultural projects so consumers have food choices and agriculture becomes sustainable.

I started The Craig Award with my husband Jon in the name of our late son Craig, who died 10 years ago at age 22. Funds for the award are also being raised from sales of my cookbook, "Niagara Cooks: From Farm to Table."

For on-line reservations, go to www.NiagaraCooks.ca or email ogryzlo@sympatico.ca or call 905-262-4941.

Christmas Cooking the 100-Mile Way

2009-11-30T04:12:00.000-08:00

On Saturday December 5, 2009 at 1 o'clock Niagara Cooks, from farm to table author Lynn Ogryzlo will be at Chapters in St. Catharines signing copies of Niagara Cooks, perfect for the locavore on your Christmas list.

In addition to showing off the latest edition of Niagara Cooks, Lynn will be talking and telling the stories of local farmers, how to shop for local ingredients, how to make a 100-Mile menu for the holidays and she'll be serving up delicious Niagara Christmas cookies complete with complimentary recipes.

Come out, do some shopping, enjoy some holiday cheer and be inspired to do some of your own holiday baking - after all, it is the season!

Holiday Cookies

2009-11-27T10:39:00.001-08:00

My mom was an excellent baker; every Christmas she would put out a magnificent display of her culinary talents with impressive trays of holiday cookies. She always made her famous shortbread that everyone fought over, there were never enough of her mini pecan tarts or thumbprint cookies; her iced cut out cookies was sheer holiday decadence and everyone would wrestle for her mincemeat tarts.

Sometimes she would make her luscious chocolate and mint squares, her festive dried fruit icebox cookies, Italian pitzel’s or anything else that caught her eye that season. She would even craft the most beautiful gingerbread house that adorned our table, begging to be nibbled at throughout the season.

My favourite holiday gift from her was a tin filled with her cookies because it represented a gift from the heart. Holiday baking is more about sharing than about eating. At this time of year these irresistible cookies become icons of enchantment, perfect for gifting, decorating the tree and of course, leaving for Santa.

I try my best to bake during the holiday season but her shoes are big ones to fill. My house is filled with my moms traditional cookies and I’ve also added my own cookie traditions with the Toblerone Shortbreads, Niagara Biscotti and Cream Cheese Sugar Cookies. For younger children, nothing says Christmas more than sugar cookies cut out into holiday shapes and iced with different coloured icing and sprinkled with red and green sugar or multicoloured little candy beads. They’re not only great for eating, but can you imagine anything more festive than a beautiful Christmas tree decked out with sugar cookies?

The kind of cookie you bake is not as important as the flavour. If you like that “melt-in-your-mouth” burst of flavour decadence in a cookie, nothing gives that to you better than butter. I’ve discovered through trial and error however, that cookies made with shortening hold their shape better. It must be because butter melts at lower temperatures, body temperature in fact and that makes the cookie spread out over the baking time. I don’t use margarine, but if you do, never use a whipped margarine, the solid sticks are much better for baking and besides they’re easier to measure anyway.

If you’re a fan of chewy cookies you can melt the butter before adding it to the sugars and of course, cook them a few minutes shorter than the recipe calls for. Brown sugar will give you a chewy cookie while white sugar makes them crisper. If you like your cookies crispy, try using two egg yolks instead of a whole egg.

As children grow up holiday cookies evolve from iced sugar cookies to gourmet and chocolate renditions. A new trend in cookies is making their way into the holiday season; they’re the small round one-bite sandwich cookies with creamy filling mounded between two little puffy cookies. They come in hundreds of flavours and colours. All around the world there are upscale little boutique stores that sell nothing but these little pillows of deliciousness simply called meringues.

Wine in holiday cookies should be a natural for Niagara home cooks who spill a little Chardonnay into a saucepan or Merlot into a roasting pan. Cookies with a vinous flair include Black Chocolate Baco Noir Cookies, Lavender, Raspberry Cassis Cookies and Cabernet Crescents. Even the trendy pillow cookies take on a Niagara flair with framboise cream between two little raspberry coloured cookies and champagne cream in light gold cookies.

Christmas is a hectic time of year, a time when people who usually don’t bake find themselves in the kitchen trying out new recipes. If you are new to baking you can start with some of these easy recipes.

If you don’t have time to bake perhaps this years festivities will include a cookie class. Southbrook Vineyards in Niagara-on-the-Lake and the Niagara Culinary Trail have teamed up to offer a cookie class creating some delicious holiday cookies that include fine Southbrook wines, delicious fruit wines and some cookies that just taste good with wine. Adult Cookies for the Holidays takes place December 13 at 1:30. I will be teaching the class and will be giving a few lucky people beautiful boxes of holiday cookies for enjoying or gift giving. For more information call Southbrook Vineyards at 905.641.2548.

Black Chocolate Cabernet Cookies

1 1/2 cups (375 mL) all-purpose flour

3/4 cup (180 mL) cocoa powder

1 teaspoon (5 mL) baking soda

1 teaspoon (5 mL) salt

½ cup (125 mL) butter, softened

3/4 cup (180 mL) granulated sugar

3/4 cup (180 mL) packed brown sugar

1 large egg

1 teaspoon (5 mL) pure vanilla extract

1/2 cup (125 mL) Cabernet Sauvignon or dry red wine

1 cup (250 mL) dark chocolate, broken into chunks

Preheat oven to 375F (190C). Whisk together flour, cocoa powder, salt and baking soda in a bowl. In a bowl of an electric mixer combine butter and sugars until fluffy. Add egg, vanilla, and wine and beat until well mixed. Slowly add the flour mixture until just combined. Fold in the chocolate. Place a heaping tablespoon of dough for each cookie about 2 inches apart from each other. Bake 8 to 10 minutes. Makes about 3 dozen cookies.

Niagara Holiday Biscotti

½ cup (125 mL) butter

1 cup (250 mL) sugar

2 eggs

1 teaspoon (5 mL) pure vanilla extract

2 cups (500 mL) all purpose flour

1 ½ teaspoons (7.5 mL) baking powder

dash of salt

1 cup (250 mL) Niagara walnuts

½ cup (125 mL) dried cherries

Preheat oven to 325F (160C). Beat the butter, sugar and eggs in a large bowl of an electric mixer until light and fluffy. Meanwhile, whisk flour, baking powder and salt together. Add dry ingredients to the whipped butter mixture and stir only to incorporate. Add the walnuts and died cherries.

Shape the dough into 2 logs on a baking sheet. Flatten the logs into ¾- thickness. Bake for 30 minutes. Remove from the oven and reduce the temperature to 300F (150C). Slice the log into 1-inch slices and place each slice on its side. Bake for 10 minutes, remove from oven, turn the cookies over and bake another 10 minutes. Remove from oven and cool. Makes approximately 4 dozen cookies.

Butter Tasting

2009-11-27T07:30:00.001-08:00

If you've heard of wine tastings and cheese tastings, then it won't come as much of a

surprise to learn that food tastings are now the rage. A few months ago I did a Parmesan tasting and yes, I included the grated, fluffy white stuff you find in the grocers deli counters all the way up to the real Italian stuff and locally made. Yes, we do have a locally made Parmesan cheese. Paron Cheese is on Highway #20 about a mile from the Centennial Parkway intersection (but way on top of the mountain).

Anyway, Paron Cheese came out on top with not their Parmesan but with their grated Montasio! That's right, they beat out the imported varieties. The flavours of the top Parmesans are complex, earthy, robust and rich compared to the cardboard, gritty, pasty imitations. So when I did the butter tasting last week, it was no surprise to find the unexpected results.

In Canada we’re surrounded by a sea of commercial butter made with the milk of the high yielding, low fat Holstein cows. And why not? Canadians are obsessed with hating fat, but here lies the first problem. Canadian cream is a skinny 35% compared to the European 48% and it’s the butterfat content in cream that seduces us into loving butter. So how can our butter compare when we’re starting with inferior raw ingredients?

It's hard to find a selection of butters in any area in Canada. You can find imported French butter in Quebec and Belgian butter in Ontario, but butter doesn’t seem to spread itself across the country very well. For example you’d never find a pound of British Columbia’s delicious Foothills Creamers Butter in Ontario or a Quebec Lamothe Cremerie butter in Saskatchewan. So I gathered what I could from specialty food stores in Niagara, Toronto and Buffalo and this is what the results were.

Butter Tasting Notes

These butters were tasted blind at room temperature to encourage them to release as much flavour as possible. The Ontario prices are listed for comparative purposes only. They were rated out of a 10 point scale, 10 being the highest score (scored on aroma, flavour, body and price).

Unsalted Butter

President’s Choice Normandy-style, Cultured butter, Ontario, 26% fat, $3.99, ½ lb (7.98/lb). Rated: 10

Bio Organic made by Fromagerie L’Ancetre, Quebec, 27% fat, $5.39, ½ lb ($10.78/lb) Rated: 10

Lurpak, an imported butter from Denmark, 35% fat, $3.99, ½ lb ($7.98/lb). Rated: 8

Plurga, (red wrapper) an American made European-style butter, 35% fat, $5.99/lb. Rated: 8

Organic Meadow cultured, unsalted butter from Guelph, 26% fat, $9.99/lb. Rated: 6

Life in Provence, French imported, AOC butter, 36% fat, $5.99, ½ lb ($11.98/lb). Rated: 5

Lactantia. My Country, Swiss flavoured, cultured unsalted butter, 26% fat, $5.99/lb. Rated: 4

Salted Butter

Hasting’s Whey Butter from Sterling Creamery, Sterling, Ontario, 27% fat, $6.99/lb. Rated: 10

Peller Estate Winery Butter, Ontario, $ priceless. Rated: 9

D’Isigney Burre, French imported, AOC butter, 38% far, $7.49, ½ lb ($14.98/lb). Rated: 8

For the whole butter story with detailed tasting notes, look for the January issue of Tidings Magazine or go to www.TidingsMag.com - while you're there, click on the Paris story on the right hand side and read of my amazing award winning journey to Paris this summer.

CHOP LIKE A CHEF

2009-11-15T16:06:00.000-08:00

Dancing in the kitchen means leading with the left. That and plenty more sharp advise is what Knife Master and Chef Greg Willis of Kitchen Made (www.kitchenmade.ca) taught a small group in my home today. We learned how to chop, slice and dice our way through vegetables. And yes, at the end we all enjoyed the salad we'd made.

Ok, each of us had a cutting board and knives and we practised everything from how to hold the food and not chop off your fingers to preping techniques that included chiffonading, julienning and dicing. All we need now explained Chef Willis, is another 6 months of practice and we'll be wielding a knife like a master!

Topics of discussion between sips of the apricot-icewine cocktails focused around qualities that make a great knife for what you want to do, how to buy the best knife for the job your doing and fitting the best size for your hand. We chatted about the best cutting boards, what to look for in a steel, we even got into discussions on flatware versus holloware.

So what does dancing in the kitchen have to do with anything. Well, I've never really noticed it before but in the kitchen we lead culinary activities almost exclusively with the left. We hold food to be cut with the left, hold pots with the left, even wash dishes in the left hand side of the sink. What we do with the right is cut the food, stir the pot and dry the dishes. Everything starts - or leads with the left.

So for all you foodies that are reorganizing your kitchens, remember you need to organize so that you can easily lead with the left!

Want some help? Reach out to Chef Willis - www.kitchenmade.ca

Dazzling Vegetables

2009-10-12T16:40:00.000-07:00

What a fantastic weekend in the Waterloo region. The colours are turning brilliant, the air is brisk and the farmers' markets are filled with my favourite vegetables. I love fall root vegetables and so I was amazed to find Charbrie's Restaurant in uptown Waterloo. Executive Chef Lance Edwards does a killer job with my favourite vegetables.

I was touring around and met Trevor of Hurrle's Country Farm Market. This is a great market that let's you know where the food comes from with little signs. On the far east side of the market there's a giant 100-Mile map that pinpoints the source of the food. It was Trevor that recommended Charbrie's.

The restaurant has a calm, welcoming atmosphere and the prices are mid range. Jon and I started with the Charcuterie plate and a glass of wine. It was a great starter to wind down with, on the side there was pickled watermelon rind and pickled beet greens; wonderful tartness to counter the richness of the pork and pate.

On Charbrie's menu you'll notice a few odd red apples on some of the menu items. These apples identify the local dishes. Chef Edwards works with many of the local farmers in a loose co-op sort of way. He places a few orders, the farmers consolidate the orders and Edwards meets one farmer half way for his entire order. It's an informal network that's incredibly dependable and it works.

I had the Apple Cider Pork. It was wonderfully tender with just a touch of sweetness and fennel flavours on the outside and as wonderful as that was I pushed it aside for the vegetables. The smoked corn hominy was amazingly fresh and full of robust fall flavours and the roasted squash chimichanga was a great invention. Creamy, luscious flavours of feather light, sweet squash wrapped in a soft tortilla. These two vegetables are worth the trip to Waterloo.

Jon had the Lamb Piperade from Taylor Farm. Just as exciting was the braised red cabbage that sat on roasted sweet potato mash and served with ramp mustard that Chef says he picked himself from the back end of Hurrle's farm.

I love it when I discover a chef through his/her food. I'm not one to follow a chef because of his reputation, instead I love to seek out the great chefs that work behind the scenes. Those that deserve accolades because of their sheer, delicious talent.

Edwards claims that his kitchen is about 75% local and it's exciting to see that he can create such a delicious, inspiring, exciting and creative menu with local produce. His menu changes with the seasons; Sprin

g, Summer, Autumn and Winter. Can't wait to go back to try the Winter menu. Charbrie's Restaurant, 15 King St., Waterloo.

DELICIOUS AND EXCITINGLY LOCAL

2009-09-11T08:35:00.000-07:00

Have you heard about it? Have you tasted their food? Have you gone to Ballygiblin’s?

It’s a modern little restaurant with a boutique feel, casual attitude and some outstanding food. It’s in a beautiful little country village called Carleton Place just southwest of

Ottawa and if you’re inclined to take in the country, there’s a charming stone inn on the main intersection with a cozy outdoor patio that’s perfect for people watching in the sleepy little village.

It’s the quintessential country experience and Ballygiblin’s is located among the quaint shops on the main street decorated with pretty hanging flowers. Surrounded by farms and fields, Executive Chef Roger Weldon cherry picks the best producers and lines up his menu to reflect the best flavours the region has to offer.

He has an obsession for planning his menu’s from what he can find from local farmers. I met Roger at Alpenblick Farm where he introduced me to one of his food sources before dinner.

Alpenblick is a natural farm.

The animals roam freely so you have to close the gate behind you when your come or go. Roger wasn’t wearing the traditional white chefs jacket but a t-shirt that said “Eat Local”.

Thought he was a bit cheeky wearing that while he walked among the cows and sheep.Farmers Robert Oechsli and Petra Stevenson raise their animals in a safe, natural way and the resulting meat just can’t be compared says Roger.

Back at the restaurant the large black menu says Ballygiblin’s is “linking pleasure and food awareness and responsibility with agriculture and ecology”. What that means is that Chef Weldon not only knows where his food comes from, but that he selects farms that have respect for the animals and natural food production practices – it leaves a good taste in your mouth.

We started with maple planked brie with market raspberries. It was cheese from Alpenblick Farm, Robert himself makes a small amount of hand crafted cheeses and sells it to a few lucky customers. As far as I know, Ballygiblin’s is one of the few places you can get Roberts brie – it’s worth the effort – it’s not to rich and big in flavour. A refreshing change to the commercial types.

Next we all had burgers! Hand made 1 ½-inch thick beef patties, all natural, fully organic burgers made from Alpenlick farm beef. I had lots of hot peppers just picked from the field, cheddar and sour cream to help with the heat. Difficult to eat, it was piled high and sandwiched between two slices of thick artisan bread – yum! It comes with “made from scratch”, ketchup, maple mustard, sweet relish and house mayo.

Ask about the food and it’s like a guided tour to the neighboring farms. The menu includes interesting tidbits of info like, “Did you know that Roger went to Terra Madre in 2008!” and “Find locally produced foods that have traveled fewer miles from field – market – kitchen. These foods have a smaller carbon foot print or “FOOD PRINT”.” They’re just so in love with local flavours!

Make a reservation, I was there on a Sunday evening and the place was packed! It’s refreshing to find such a delicious locavore restaurant at a comfortable and reasonable price level. They don’t all have to be five-star dining establishments.

Ballygiblin’s – Eat Local, 151 Bridge Street, Carleton Place, ON, 613-253-7400, www.ballygiblins.ca

EATING LOCAL IN WOODSTOCK

2009-08-24T11:43:00.000-07:00

Six Thirty Nine is an exciting new restaurant on 639 Peel Street in Woodstock, Ontario. Chef and Owner Eric Boyar is young and deliciously talented. I found Eric in the kitchen on his day off, so I sat at the Chef’s Table and he treated me to a new dish he’s putting on his menu.

The Chef’s Table is a beautiful wooden bar much like a butchers block with 4 bar stools that face the kitchen and large window that brings in the beautiful outdoor gardens. I perched myself at the bar and watched as the chef made a local dish from some fresh rainbow trout he’s just picked up that morning.

Boyar has a passion for flavour and that motivates him to go beyond what many chefs would. The back pantry is filled with baskets and bags of fresh vegetables he just picked up from the market and I love it – his bicycle is leaning up against the cupboards – he’s a wholesome chef who treats his customers to his wholesome cooking! But don’t be fooled, wholesome in my world never tasted this amazing.

He served me a bowl of Truffled Mushroom Soup and Duck Confit, I suppose in a chef’s kitchen you can never be without food. He started to prepare his rainbow trout dish.

Six Thirty Nine Restaurant was a home transformed in 2005 into a modern 28 seat restaurant with a sleek sexiness and welcoming appeal. Boyar is classically French trained and inspired by farms and fresh farm produce from his childhood of working on farms. The duck in the soup came from Everspring farm, the pea shoots from Sleger’s Organic Farm and the mushrooms from a farm on County Road 54.

As Boyar moved around his extremely well organized and neat kitchen one task flowed into another with the grace of movement of a dancer. He was amazing to watch, dusting the skin side off the trout sharing some tips with me. “Don’t dust the flesh side of the fish because crisping up that side tends to dry it out”. He warms a mixture of butter and olive oil in a skillet and lays the fish, skin side down and leaves it to work on the rest of the dish.

He takes some previously blanched vegetables and warms them in more butter and olive oil. He adds some home smoked bacon, chantrel mushrooms and when he’s content with his flipping them around in the skillet, he finishes it off with a tiny bit more oil and a handful of Swiss chard.

For now the dish is jokingly called Trout a la Eric and it’s an impromptu dish of his favourite ingredients. He pulls warm dishes from his oven and spoons a large smear of cauliflower puree on the bottom. On top of that he adds the vegetable mixture and to my surprise he adds some green and yellow beans he had going in another skillet. On top of it all, he lay the trout fillet which was now cooked to perfection.

Now wouldn’t all of us love to have a chef cook amazing and brilliant dishes like this for us all. The meal was an interplay of textures and flavours that comforted the palate and soothed the soul. The beans were fresh and clean, the bacon veggies were savoury and warm, the cauliflower puree luscious and creamy and the trout clean with a bright buttery flavour. They all came together in one sophisticated mouthful.

As well as delicious the dish read like a geography lesson; trout from Goossens in Otterville, fingerling potatoes other veggies from Tim Creton’s Vegetable Farm in Tavistock, the beans and cauliflower from the market, pork belly for the bacon from Rudy’s Meats and the sprouts from Slegers.

Six Thirty Nine Restaurant is definitely work the trip to Woodstock. Book the Chef’s Table ahead of time and remember it only seats 4. In the summer they have a 16 seat patio in a beautiful garden.

Six Thirty Nine Restaurant, 639 Peel St, Woodstock, Ontario, 519-536-9602, info@sixthirtynine.com

LIFE IS GOOD, EAT IT UP!

2009-07-15T11:28:00.000-07:00

BERRY SEASON

I just picked up some cherries from the Fruit Shack on Niagara Stone Road and they're absolutely glorious! Big, blackish red, ultra sweet and brilliant. So many of Niagara's cherries fall short of being really good. Don't know why, I'm guessing it's the variety, but the folks at the Fruit Shack grow these beauties under hoops to protect them from rain and give them much needed extra warmth to ripen this variety. The sweet cherry season is almost over, so get them now!

I was walking with Diana DeMarco at Bluemin' Acres on Line 1 yesterday afternoon and she has a bumper crop of blueberries. The same bushes that produce the delicious blueberries in previous years are producing giant berries that are bursting with amazing flavour - they love this weather. While there, Kelly Nemeth from Toute Sweet came by for some berries. She's the ice cream lady in Jordan who mixes the best Niagara fruit with ice cream on a frozen marble slab. This is her with Diana picking out the best blueberries!

Bluemin' Acres open for the season so go down with your own containers and buy them by weight. They're very reasonably priced - in case you're comparing.

I just spent the morning in the kitchen working with these delicious berries. I made sweet cherry mouse and tuile that I thought I could use as a sandwich, but the tuile shrunk, so I'm turning it into sweet cherry pate with the tuile as toasts - it's amazingly delicious!

With the blueberries I made blueberry crumb squares - don't know about the recipe I put together - think I'll have to work on it - too crumbly. I may have to make some ice cream and turn it into a blueberry sunday.

I also have some blueberry cornbread coming out of the oven - yum!

It pays to find the best berries out there. Get some and let me know what you've done with it!

A LOCAL VICTORIAN WINERY LUNCH

2009-07-09T12:55:00.000-07:00

Niagara Cooks is celebrating local cuisine with a casual winery luncheon on the giant wrap-around porch of the beautiful Grand Victorian Inn in Niagara-on-the-Lake - right in front of Reif Estate Winery.

Come and join the fun!

July 18^th, the local lunch starts at 12:30 p.m. and goes until approximately 2:00 p.m. and is being prepared by Robin Howe based on recipes from Niagara Cooks. I will be there to tell the stories of the growers and after lunch enjoy a winery tour and tasting.

There are only 6 tickets left so hurry and get yours - call Reif Estate Winery at 905-468-7738.

Select Hors d'oeuvres featuring local produce paired with 2006 Reif Gamay Rose.

Niagara asparagus in individual puff pastry with a Riesling sabayon and parmesan paired with Reif 2008 Riesling.

Local pork medallions with a Merlot reduction paired with Reif 2006 Merlot Reserve.

Lavender crème brulee with Niagara rhubarb-strawberry compote paired with Reif Select Late Harvest Vidal.

$50 per person

CHERRY ALERT!

2009-07-09T12:50:00.000-07:00

If you love cherries, you have to go to The Fruit Shack on Hwy #55 in Niagara-on-the-Lake. This weekend they'll be picking their big, black, ultra sweet cherries! They're the only ones in the region that I know of that grow such delicious cherries. If you know of any others, let me know!

White cherries can be had at Peach Country Farm Market on Victoria Avenue in Vineland - they're also ultra sweet! If you find any other white cherries, let me know.

Happy eating!

Lynn

2009-05-13T18:04:00.000-07:00

For all you fiddlehead lovers, tonight was the fiddlehead feast at NorCliff Farm in Port Colborne. A fantastic chef flew in from New York City and cooked up dishes like coconut curry fiddlehead primivera - yum!