Sunday, February 5, 2012
11:00am-5:00pm
Miles Nadal JCC (750 Spadina at Bloor)

Includes a delicious, vegetarian, culturally-inspired lunch catered by Aviva Allen R.H.N, author of The Kosher Organic Cookbook.

Evening lecture featuring Aaron Gross, Founder of Farm Forward
7:00pm East Common Room, Hart House, University of Toronto

Read about sessions and presenters and register today.

(Superbowl kickoff time is around 6:25 pm so you have plenty of time to get to your Superbowl parties.)

Welcome to “Toronto: Down Under”, a celebration of Australian Cuisine.

Luke Hayes-Alexander will be coming down from Kingston for THREE DAYS ONLY to cook some of the great cuisine he experienced on his two week trip to Australia, where he staged in some of the best restaurants in Sydney. Australian John Placko, one of the most knowledgable and skilled modernist chefs in the Toronto will be there. Rounding out the team will be Matt Kantor, of Secret Pickle, Little Kitchen and Ghost Chef.

It was announced today shortly before 10am and within two hours tickets were 50% gone. Don’t miss your chance! Get more information and buy tickets here. Do it now before they’re gone. They make a great holiday gift for you and your significant other, or for that Aussie-lover in your life (which, if you and/or your significant other are Aussie is the same person).

(Then come back and read around my blog some more. I like when people stay.)

Edit: I forgot to hit “send” on this yesterday and as of about 10:30am Thursday there are fewer than 10 tickets left.

Executive Chef Morgan Wilson of Trios Bistro was awarded the Judges’ Choice and crowned the 2011 Ocean Wise Chowder Chowdown Champion. Chef Shaun Edmonstone of Bruce Wine Bar in Thornbury received People’s Choice. 3 judges vs. over 100 “people”? Weigh that.

All chowders were accompanied by Mill Street beer.

I’m happy, and validated, to say that the People’s Choice winner was one of my favourites. It was a tough call. I had five favourites. In the end I voted for Bruce. Chef Edmonstone’s Juniper smoked whitefish and charred corn chowder lured me in with its scent. He created a fennel roasted garlic crostini with fiddlehead creme fraiche, house-cured whitefish cavier (i.e. smoked by Chef Edmonstone). My friend who doesn’t like cavier liked this. I’m not a fennel fan (nor anise, nor licorice, nor sambuca, etc.) so that part wasn’t delicious to me but that was absolutely a matter of taste.

Chef Edmonstone’s chowder seemed quite similar to Pangea’s. He used to work with them. One of them inspired the other. Pangea was another one of my favourites.

Other favourites:

• Poached tuna, prawn and yucca chowder from Andrea Nicholson-Jack of Killer Condiments.
• Curried fish chowder with buttered Naan from Kristen Donovan of Hooked.
• Smoked trout and sunchoke chowder with honey foam from Epic‘s Chef Tim Palmer made mostly with local ingredients. The honey for the foam couldn’t have been more local, coming from the rooftop bee hives. His chowder also contained fresh thyme from the rooftop garden, Cookstown sunchokes, Perth County smoked boar bacon, Manitoulin smoked trout and Mill Street Stinger beer.

I didn’t have my real camera with me because I didn’t decide I was going until the afternoon. But, I did take a bunch of photos with my iPhone:

There ya go.
Wrap up of The Big Give to follow once I have some stats to share with you.

Eat well, be well.

Related articles

• Smoked whitefish & charred corn chowder (Toronto Star)
• Chowdah! (Sheryl Kirby)
• 2011 Ocean Wise Chowder Chowdown (Spotlight Toronto)

Tickets are no longer available online but they are available at the door for $40. All proceeds from the evening will directly support the Ocean Wise program. Ocean Wise is a Vancouver Aquarium conservation program created to educate and empower consumers about the issues surrounding sustainable seafood. Ocean Wise works directly with restaurants, markets, food services and suppliers ensuring that they have the most current scientific information regarding seafood and helping them make ocean-friendly buying decisions.

More event details:

Ten of Toronto’s top Ocean Wise chefs will heat up the Fairmont Royal York this evening as they compete in a cook-off for the title of 2011 Ocean Wise Chowder Chowdown Champion.

Guests will have the chance to taste the chowders paired with Mill Street Brewery beers, and vote on the People’s Choice Award, while a panel of four judges will determine the night’s champion.

The following local Ocean Wise chefs will go head-to-head, creating delicious, sustainable Ocean Wise chowder paired with local craft beers:

• Shaun J. Edmonstone – Bruce Wine Bar
• Ted Corrado – C5
• Tim Palmer –  Epic The Fairmont Royal York
• David Friedman – FishBar
• Kristin Donovan – Hooked Inc.
• Andrea Nicholson-Jack – Killer Condiments
• Shabbir Chowdhury – Mill Street Brew Pub
• Martin Kouprie & Derek Bendig – Pangaea
• Shawn Hartwell – Simple Fish & Chips
• Morgan Wilson – Trios Bistro

Judging panel:

• Chef Anthony Walsh (Oliver & Bonacini)
• Ivy Knight
• Mio Adilman and Micah Donovan (Food Network’s The Food Jammers)

The Ocean Wise Chowder Chowdown takes place tonight (November 2, 2011), at 6 p.m., at the Fairmont Royal York. Chowder Chowdown is a 19 + event.

Check it out if you can.  Also, download the Ocean Wise iPhone app.

Event Details:

Where: The Great Hall: 1087 Queen Street West Toronto, Ontario
When: Tuesday November 1st, 7:00 p.m.
Cause: Look Good Feel Better, helping women with cancer face their illness with greater confidence.
Tickets: $40
Website: http://dothebiggive.com/
What to wear: Organizer Margot says, “whatever you want to wear that makes you feel fabulous and to keep you there for the night!”
(Cheekily challenging that, I asked if I could come in my pajamas. She accepted that as an option, saying “…if thats what makes you happy then I am happy. I want people to literally be however they want to be to party the night away”. I won’t. I’ll likely wear a comfortable skirt.)

Highlights:

• Hosted by Mike Chalut of Proud FM
• Theme: Circus
• Entertainment: Be entertained by cabaret ensemble Les Coquettes (cabaret burlesque), musicians The Little Black Dress and DJs Bangs & Blush
• Food: Provided by The Food Dudes (I’ve had their food, liked it a lot). There will be specialty beverages.
• As is customary at fundraising events, expect prizes in the form of auctions & raffles. Prizes include a trip to Mexico and a trip to the south of France.
• Other fabulous prizes: $100 gift card to Enoteca Sociale, 1 year membership & personal training sessions from Body and Soul Fitness, gift card to The Ten Spot, $100 tattoo gift card from Black Line Studio (I sort of want that one – it’s been over 11 years since my first tattoo), Ultimate Baseball Fan Experience with the Toronto Blue Jays, Gucci pieces from Berani Jewellers, Paloma Picasso pendant from Tiffany & Co., and more!
• Swag bags. Gotta love swag bags.

The event gives 100% of the proceeds back to the Look Good Feel Better foundation, an organization dedicated to helping women and teenage girls who have been diagnosed with cancer.

All that for only $40!

More about Look Good Feel Better

Launched in 1992, Look Good Feel Better is Canada’s only cancer charity dedicated to empowering women to manage the effects that cancer and its treatment have on their appearance, and often on their morale. Over 100,000 women have been helped through our workshop and services.

LGFB holds free two hour hands-on workshops for women and teenage girls who have been diagnosed with cancer. The seminars teach these women how to maintain their self-confidence and elevate their self-image through their battle with cancer. The Look Good Feel Better workshop brings women with cancer together in a safe and supportive environment where they can share stories, insights, laughter, and feel “normal.”

Tickets:
Buy yours. I bought mine weeks ago.

• Find them on Twitter @TheBigGive
• Use the hashtag #BigGiveTO
• Facebook

I didn’t get photos of all of them. I was busy eating & keeping warm.

The people voted and so did the judging panel. Both agreed: Congratulations, Frida Restaurant!

No surprise. They do have some of my favourite churros in the city and Frida’s churros get props from many other people. One Mexican I know didn’t like churros until he tried Pepe’s.

The judges bestowed other awards too: Luis Valenzuela Robles of Torito won for best Churro Texture and my friend Rossy Earle won for overall best flavour. Her sauce had coffee and salt in it with a bit of spicy heat at the end.

Congratulations to all the competitors and winners!

mmm… churros.

As Dr. David Katz writes in today’s Huffington Post: [In the U.S.] “The intent of Food Day is to highlight the importance of food to health, to the planet and to our fellow species. It is intended to showcase what is good in the world of both personal action and public policy, and to point a spotlight at what is bad — such as the persistence of large-scale subsidies more in the interests of food suppliers, than of we the people — the food demanders. Food Day is an opportunity to demand better!”

While Canada has been celebrating Food Day for nearly a decade, the Center for Science in the Public Interest (CSPI) has revived Food Day this year after a 34-year hiatus to raise awareness about the industrialization of the American food supply, the declining quality of our diets, and the potential for a more sustainable, health-promoting food system. Food Day Canada is a locavore event, for Canadians to share their food and their stories with each other while leading other nations in cultural diversity, food ethics.

Related articles

• Food Day 2011 (friendseat.com)
• It’s FOOD DAY!! (planithealthier.wordpress.com)
• What to Cook for Food Day, Happening Now (esquire.com)
• Join Us for a Supermarket Tour on Food Day (Monday 10/24, 2pm) (fooducate.com)
• National Food Day and a carrotmob boost healthy eating (philly.com)

Also read

• Any Day but Food Day (Huffington Post)
• Guess Who’s Coming to Dinner? You, on Food Day (Rodale)

I went to the Delicious Food Show today. I arrived during Padma Lakshmi’s book signing but missed her demo. Wandered around, caught the end of Matt Kantor’s demo, watched a presentation about butchering a pig.

Here are some photos. Photos are unedited and I haven’t added descriptions.

The Delicious Food Show is open tomorrow until 6 at the Better Living Centre at Exhibition. (On Dufferin end)

On Tuesday evening I attended Eat to the Beat at Roy Thompson Hall. 60 of Canada’s top female chefs donated time and talent to make and serve food for this event which benefited Willow Breast Cancer Support Canada and which focused on locally grown, sustainable, seasonal foods while 22 corset models, each wearing a corset designed to celebrate women, food and life, circulated. The Cake Lady, Vanessa Le Page, dressed for the occasion with a costume of “spaghetti and meatballs” while serving caramel macchiato crunch cake.

The event begin at 7 and people were prompt. I got there just before 7, then ducked out to find an ATM. That half hour cost me. One caterer, who was told to make food for 600 people, ran out by 8:45. I intended to get to her booth on my second pass of the event.

My favourite Thai restaurant, Kao San Road, made what was not surprisingly one of my favourite bites of the evening: Mae Hong Son Loong – Northern Thai style meatballs served in a Papaya salad nest.  Some of my other favourites: Marlene Carreio of Woodbine Entertainment Group made a sweet bread and Bershire pork strew with sun dried cranberries and blueberries simmered with wine in a puff pastry. Jayne Dunsmore of Jayne’s Gourmet Catering served a mini pate au choux with lemongrass chicken, chili cilantro mayo, jicama and carrot. Melissa Fox-Revett of Blue Plate served House-made pork & smoked apple sausage will in puff pastry with mustard. Great meat but too messy to eat standing up.

Some of my favourite sweets: Wanda Beaver’s (Wanda’s Pie in the Sky) sour cherry tarts, which I was told I MUST try by Daily Apple founder Lesley Stoyan. Hubbard squash cheesecake with cardamom roasted pearl pear with vanilla chantilly created by George Restaurant’s Tracy Wong, who chose squash because it’s in season. Suresh of Spotlight Toronto strongly recommended that one. Kyla Eaglesham from Madeleines Cherry Pie and Ice Cream, who was one of the judges of the blogger bake off that I participated in last October, made a dark chocolate fudge with dried cherries that I enjoyed because it wasn’t too sweet, and because I like berries with chocolate.

There were few fails that I recall. The first thing I ate had bread that was so tough that it made my gums hurt. A prosecco tasted so bland that in my hastiness to dump it I accidentally poured it into an ice bucket instead of a dump bucket (embarrassing).

I enjoyed wines made by Colio Estate Wines and Closson Chase. Closson Chase only makes two wines, and only 301 cases of chardonnay are produced. Hockley Valley Brewing poured their beers. I tried and liked the Black and Tan.

Whitney Munro of Tipicular Fixin’s served Wild Heritage Apple Punch with Victoria Gin which is hand made in from a wood-fired still on Vancouver Island, and heritage apples foraged near Midland Ontario. It was my favourite beverage of the night. I went back for more but two bloggers had gotten the last of it.

Image from @victoriaspirits on Twitter

What I thought of the food shouldn’t eclipse the purpose of the event. 60 chefs volunteered their resources – time, skill, ingredients. Ticket sales ($150) plus raffle, silent auction and change jars will add to the $3.1 millions raised over previous annual Eat to the Beat events.

Every penny counts

Miss the event but want to contribute? Find out how on Willow’s website. If you’ve got a jar full of change you can participate in their Every Penny Counts Campaign. I just may. I have a paint-your-own “piggy bank” in the shape of a sheep.

Eat well, be well
(And help other while you’re at it if you can.)

Over 25,000 guests (final number to be announced).

Fire, country air, rain, mud, food.

I’ll do a full wrap up later this week.*

Kudos to the chefs who cooked in rain and hauled gear across mud.

Where you’ll find me in the next couple of days:

• 86′d at The Drake Hotel on Monday. James Beard nominated author Hank Shaw, free h’or d’oeuvres courtesy of Hooked, 100′s of hot bartenders and a possible late night appearance by chef Michael Smith.
• Eat to the Beat fundraiser for Willow Breast Cancer Support Canada.

*I decided not to do a full wrap up. Here’s what others wrote:

• Chefs rally against southern Ontario mega-quarry (ctv.ca)
• Foodies unite en masse to oppose land excavation (Toronto Star)
• Foodstock draws thousands against mega quarry (BlogTO)
• Fiesta Farms event recap & Fiesta Farms does video
• Saving The Land That Feeds Us (The Source)