Culinary Design Solutions
On the edge culinary trends and news.Right Some Good…..World Class Culinary Event in Cape Breton
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Sorrel
Sorrel
84 Yorkville Ave
Toronto, Ontario, M5R 1B9
416 926 1010
Diana and i were thrilled that the weather was finally nice enough that the patio tables and chairs were out in Yorkville yesterday. One of our favorite spring and summer activities on the weekends after my long runs is to take the subway down town and stroll around Yorkville “people watching” and grab a bite to eat and a glass of wine ( Diana the wine, me lots and lots of water)
Our usual place was full, and the patio at ONE is shaded until about 5 PM. we happened along SORREL a restaurant which only opened in September 2010 and took the only vacant seat on the Patio.
Sorrel is one of my favorite herbs as it’s the first to poke up in the spring after the long winter without fresh greens. Its sour green leaves were made famous in high-end dining by the Trois Gros brothers of the Eponymous Restaurant in Roanne France whose Salmon Sorrel was copied by many.
This seemed like a good selection for our first Springtime lunch as well.
The owner Faro Chiniforoush was there actively greeting guests and busing the occasional table as any good chef owner would/should be.
Faro, the former chef of Prego, a high volume chic restaurant which used to be the popular hangout at the edge of Yorkville.
We had a simple lunch of White beans with Chorizo, Fried chicken livers with balsamic glaze and fennel and apple salad, a steak frits and a rendition of a Caesar salad with shrimp. All excellent. All well presented and ultra fresh.
We had a great afternoon and the prices were very reasonable.
I fear due to the great service, delicious food that getting a seat here on a weekend afternoon will be extremely difficult. I certainly look forward to several more afternoons there this spring/summer.
Colborne Lane
www.colbornelane.com/ -
Pangea
1221 Bay Street Toronto
1 416 920 2323
Pangea is centered in Yorkville, which is probably one of Canada’s most affluent addresses. Its been there since 1996 and has weathered good and bad, yet still solidly remains as one of Toronto’s ( Canada’s) premier dining destinations.
What makes Pangea successful for so long?
Well there a lot of things but most certainly it would be Chef Martin Koupries drive for excellent, local ingredients and his ability to plate those items without altering the natural quality too much.
It could also be the personality of the most excellent Peter Geary ( business partner to martin) who is the consummate host resplendent in his colorful bow ties greeting everyone cheerfully at the door.
After a 43 km run yesterday morning Diana and i went to meet a friend and colleague there for a business lunch to discuss seafood.
As soon as we were seated in the beautiful, modern dining room we were informed that the restaurant had just received the first of Pacific Halibut from the new season. I didn’t need the menu after that. Fresh halibut is definitely a favorite and served on top of wilted greens……mmmmm………my body was saying YES after the long run.
The Halibut was perfectly seasoned and cooked ( although ive never been a fan of white pepper always preferring black) and served on a bed of a wilted asian style green not unlike kailan mixed with wild mushrooms and surrounded by a truffle jus. YUM! actually all 3 of us had the same.
The bread was great ( I had 4 pieces) and the butter served at the perfect temperature ( always a big point for me) with expert and attentive service.
Chef Martin came out for a visit and it was nice to get hic perspective on Sustainability of Seafood etc. A self-proclaimed Ambassador to ocean watch he is extremely critical and concerned with fishing methods and quite knowledgable. His passion/hobby is scuba diving so i guess he has a vested interest in maintaining healthy oceans!
We had him sign a copy of his new book which is a lovely book to add to my massive collection.
This restaurant reminds me so much of my former Seasons in Thyme, that it made me miss it quite a bit. Looking around the dining room at only 10-12 guests though didn’t make me miss the business of running a restaurant!!!!
I can assure you i will be frequently going back for a piece of excellently prepared fresh fish. In fact they should call me when the fish comes in! hmmmm…perhaps they could Tweet the arrival of the Catch of the Day!
Lovely restaurant, excellent service, extremely nice staff, and a fantastic chef. Fantastic
Death of a TradeShow
- In my job as a culinary consultant for several of Canada’s, the worlds, biggest food companies I have the opportunity to travel to dozens of countries and have attended 100′s of trade shows. Some of the shows I am so busy I only see the exhibitors booths directly beside and in front of me, but normally I get to have a walk through by the last day of the show.
- Most 2 day shows should be one, and most 3 day shows should be 2…………………that being said working a trade show booth is one of the most exhausting things i do in my job. The lugging and setting up of gear and equipment. The logistics and planning how to cook “gourmet food” in a make shift kitchen are staggering. it never gets easy.
- Recently i had the opportunity to attend the Cater Source show in las Vegas, nevada, and was quite pleased with the level of innovation and booth set ups.
- there was a good mix of small and large companies and i found there was a lot of effort put into making the booths look nice. I was extremely busy there and served about 1500 bites of food. then again i was preparing Scallops, Lobster, Clams and Shrimp so not too hard to get busy.
- Having just returned from that show to Toronto in time to attend the CRFA show i must say i was let down. I have felt the CRFA show has struggled the past several years and had hoped that when it moved back downtown it would “pick-up”, sadly this year was its worst in a long time.
- Immediately upon entering you could see it was a smaller show then normal. Attendance wasnt helped by having major booths such as McCain Foods not attend with its gigantic 20 booth space presence. However what i found disappointing was the lack of innovation. There were lots of small companies which i always enjoy but the offerings were same old………………
- What was appealing in the last few shows i have been to was the new and exciting things i have seen.
- What is amazing is that the CRFA is Canada’s “biggest” and best food show!!!!!! have you been to the Food and Wine show or Gourmet Cheese and Wine show these past few years!? OMG….you can walk through in 20-30 minutes!
- The thing is our sister city Chicago has the NRA…which is the equivalent to the CRFA, and even though its size and grandeur has decreased these past 5 years and was especially noticeable two years ago in the economic recession, it is still so much more of a show then what we have here in Toronto. Toronto is the 5th biggest city in NA……..Mexico City, NY, LA, Chicago, Toronto……..so one would think that we should be able to host a decent size show……………..I am wondering if we simply have too many shows and dilute our market?
- At any rate, i did enjoy several stage presentations from Chefs Ray Bear, Anna Olson, and Mark McEwan. although the stages aren’t very attractive or well set up for demos! i also think its crazy there are 3 stages inside such a small show.
- Even more than the food, i enjoyed hearing Marks take on Food Trends and where the restaurant market is in Canada today…….he should know as he runs several successful restaurants in the GTA as well as a food store and a catering company. He definitely was focused on comfort foods or as he said foods with the “Yum” factor. He was saying he doesn’t want a beautifully presented plate where the food doesnt actual taste good! I can t agree more.
- The next generation of chefs coming into the industry are light years ahead in plate presentations then I was when I started out…….(they also have far more plates to choose from!), but in some cases the depth of flavor is lacking. I imagine this stems from the fact that the young culinarians for the most part do not have to spend several hundred hours on one task but move through the ranks quickly to satisfy the demand for “chefs” in our growing industry. But this is another topic for another day………….
- I am interested to see how the SIAl show will do here in Toronto this fall…………..after attending in Paris where I find it to be one of the worlds best food shows i hope i am pleasantly surprised.
- One of my favorite food finds of 2011 is the FOMZ pictured above and found at www.fomz.net
- bon appetite
STACK
Mirage Casino and Resort, 3400 Las Vegas Boulevard South, Las Vegas, NV, United States
The other day, a friend commented that i talk a lot more about running then i do about food these days. Well yes that is true. The fact of the matter is i worked 28 years in kitchens. 20 of those years were 60-100 hour work weeks which left me with absolutely no time for friends, family, hobbies etc. I lived and breathed the food business and i have done reasonably well in that field. I also became somewhat disillusioned and burnt out in early 2000 and started to look for something to do completely away from that business as a hobby and to promote better health and i have found that in distance running. Oddly enough the hobby of running has actually made me look more closely at how i cook and what I serve.
I havent turned my back on my true passion and vocation but I needed to focus on something else to avoid burning out further………..There is plenty happening in the food world and some very large projects looming of which i will make publicly known by summer.
For the past year I have been lazy at best at keeping up this blog. there doesn’t seem to be enough hours in the day. I have a bunch of blogs started on various topics and also a few recipes and cooking videos to post if I can get focused here in the next little while.
I’m not the biggest fan of Las Vegas, it’s really not my thing…gambling and heavy drinking….BUT…..there is the greatest concentration of great restaurants in the world. You can dine at a celebrity chef driven restaurant every night of the week at reasonable prices. You can take in stunning shows like La Cirque du Soleil…………
The above photos are from my recent trip to STACK restaurant in the Mirage Casino. A beautifully designed restaurant with a very natural look using a lot of wood. Plenty of beautiful staff who are attentive and friendly.
We ordered the Kobe beef appetizer which comes with a pre heated Rock to the table and you take the ultra thin slices of the Kobe and “grill” it on the hot rock at the table….fun and delicious. We had to try the famous Lobster Tacos which were absolutely excellent, i had some yellow fin sashimi which with its jalapeno and ponzu was almost identical to a dish found in Nobu restaurants. The stack of house made onion rings with an excellent tamarind heavy ketchup were fantastic!
All in all an excellent restaurant with reasonable pricing………….not a celebrity chef in sight.
We also went to the PALM steakhouse while in Vegas. We went for “Happy Hour” and i was blown away to have any choice of the sliders, for $4.95 a plate! regular price for 3 sliders is between 12 and 15 dollars for chicken parm, Kobe burger, or Lobster sliders………………………need less to say we had a slider fest all of which were superb. I highly recommend the PALM at the bar between 530 and 700 weeknights! Top quality at an amazing price! And the Lobster meat is from Nova Scotia….Clearwater Seafoods!
Yes although Vegas isn’t “my cup of tea” it certainly has good eats!
