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Category: Restaurants

The unglamorous life of an international chef

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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.

Crown Prince serves up delicious dim sum

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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.

Three recipes for the perfect festive dinner

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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.

The Taste of Tuscany

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Eureka! I may have found a neighbourhood eatery, in my own neighbourhood, that is worth the walk. Opened only three months ago, by Ned Spahic, after eight successful years as executive chef at Sette Mezzo a few blocks away, Balsamico is the latest addition to the Yonge stroll north of Davisville.

Midday meal as modern art

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Marc Thuet’s Summerhill experiment, Petite Thuet, dovetails seamlessly into the Rosedale neighbourhood — with its high-end breakfast pastries; lunches of boxed sandwiches, soup and salad; prepared dinner staples for reheating at home; and desserts.

Sip a molecular masterpiece at barchef

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Craft breweries are one thing and wine bars another, but if you’re looking for a new adventure in alcohol, take to barchef — part science lab, part lounge and the leader of Toronto’s burgeoning molecular cocktail scene. Push through the heavy double doors on Queen West (just east of Bathurst), let your eyes adjust to the low light and pull up a stool in front of Frankie Solarik, executive barchef and owner.

On a wing and a player

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With the Bills in town Dec. 3, we asked NFL Hall of Famer Thurman Thomas to rate our city’s best Buffalo wings

It's all about local at Corktown's Gilead Café

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The Gilead Café has an obscure location, in an alley south off King Street, but what a charming and casual venue. Here Chef Jamie Kennedy is doing what he loves to do: selecting the very best local fare from farmers and food producers, crafting the products in his long established creative, minimal way, and adding culinary touches that are all about harmonious and complementary flavours and textures.

Origin to open New Year's Eve (hopefully)

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For the past year, Claudio Aprile has faced the same question over and over and over again from friends, foodies, and anxious journalists: “When are you opening Origin?” Aprile, the celebrated chef and owner of Colborne Lane, is still hesitant to give a specific launch date for his new restaurant but we managed to get something out of him.

Ready for the main event

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IS THIS A restaurant with an identity crisis or is it an allpurpose eatery? These burning questions bring us to the latest outpost of Le Gourmand or LG3 as they call this Midtown location at Yonge and Eglinton.