Shopping With A Chef

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).

A Foodie Weekend in Toronto

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!

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!