Keith Froggett, executive chef of the Forest Hill fine dining fortress Scaramouche, is creating an “unforgettable” four-course meal for a special evening fundraiser to benefit The Stop Community Food Centre. The event is planned for Jan. 24 at Scaramouche, with a ticket price of $250 that includes wine pairing.
Getting crafty with your Crock-Pot
This tiny two-tiered Kensington eatery makes a great date venue for me and my four-year-old son, a wiggly and high-energy kid who devours anything that can be dunked in ketchup. As the name suggests, owner Rob Youill’s endeavor focuses on just one kind of grub, but his fare of fancy — grillies — is done up right, rounded out by just two selections of daily soup. Opening three months ago, The Grilled Cheese follows on the heels of the burger-resto trend, whose success is due in part to society’s addiction to eating out combined with economy-forced pinched pockets.
Torito Tapas Bar has long been a favourite restaurant for me to enjoy wonderful Spanish and South American influenced cuisine. To begin, we enjoyed the classical tapa of tortilla, a classical Spanish omelet, often served warm or at room temperature. This well rendered combination of thinly-sliced potatoes, onions and egg was slightly spicy and reminiscent of my recent trip to the Basque country of Spain. A truly delicious, somewhat spicy, chestnut and chorizo soup followed.
It’s January, when thoughts turn to New Year’s resolutions, gym memberships and healthy eating. We decided it was time to find out what’s in the local restaurant food we love to eat.
Noodles are a food group in my family. With two small anklebiters under four to please, and with two parents working full-time, the most successful meals tend to be speedy and simple — and pasta plates meet those criteria. Although Liberty Noodle doesn’t cater specifically to families, the restaurant’s design formula and noodle-focused menu have a lot going for them in terms of surviving a lunch out with the kids.
Anyone who thinks that an international chef leads a glamorous life should have travelled with me for the last month. I cooked for 18 days straight in Los Angeles, flew to Singapore for five days and worked non-stop on 80 recipes for the new restaurant there, Chinois by Susur Lee, flew back to Washington for three days to set up a tasting menu at Zentan, and then flew to New York to cook a Chinese banquet at Shang for 300 media foodies and chefs to celebrate the restaurant’s first anniversary. Now I’m back home, concentrating on my New Year’s menus at Lee and Madeline.
While most will be trimming the turkey and ham, I’ll be doing my traditional Christmas lobster supper. I make a salted stock of Chateau le Lac ’09, add a few veggies and a bottle of beer, and bring it to a boil. I then place the lobsters head first into the rolling stock, and let them cook for about seven minutes per pound. If you want to try this, please take the rubber bands off of the claws first — rubber band stock is not tasty.
There have been a number of Chinese restaurants at this location and when one enters the new Crown Prince, it has become truly grand. Overall, having enjoyed dim sum at many of the great Chinese restaurants in the GTA, I would have to say that this dim sum experience for me was certainly one of the very best — very close to being on par with Lai Wah Heen. We began with deep fried octopus tentacles. This was a very successful version as the spices were complementary, the outside was crisp and the inside relatively tender. The lacy cupola made an elegant attractive presentation for a humble dish.
The Christmas holidays have a way of not being much of a holiday. At least they don’t feel like that for those of us in the restaurant business or in retail – or both, like me. And I know that they don’t feel like holidays either for whoever it is at home who gets stuck with the job of putting all that food on the table day after day. To help, here’s three great recipes for the perfect holiday dinner.
I am not a morning person. I like to think it has much to do with the fact that by the time we close the restaurant, manage the paperwork and turn out the lights, the sun is set to rise in a few hours. However, around this time of year, I do like to make an exception and force myself to rise at the crack of dawn to accompany Marc and his apprentice Scott on their weekly travels to Mennonite country, centered around the village of St. Jacobs, in Southwestern Ontario.
THE START OF the holiday winter season brings with it fun, food and most importantly, feasting.
