Eatdrink #67 September/October 2017 "The Decade Issue"

By BRYAN LAVERY
№ 52 | March/April 2015
№ 58 | March/April 2016 www.eatdrink.ca 11
By BRYAN LAVERY
By BRYAN LAVERY
№ 43 | September/October 2013
№ 60 | July/August 2016 www.eatdrink.ca 11
By BRYAN LAVERY
offered à la carte for easy sharing. 74 Wellington Street
(front), 105 Erie Street (back), 519-273-5000, www.bijourestaurant.com.
The rooms are chic with comfortable squarebacked
upholstered chairs and settees and the
propriety of white-linen dining. Chef Arron
Carley served as sous chef to Jason Bangerter at
Luma. (Bangerter
is now the
executive chef at
Langdon Hall.)
Carley interned
with Chef
René Redzepi
For many years the culinary opus at Bijou has
at Denmark’s
been a front-runner in Stratford for inspired,
Noma, a Michelin
locally-sourced cuisine. The bistro has built
two-star
a following as a destination restaurant for
restaurant that
providing a good local taste experience.
has been named
Mark and Linda
best restaurant
Simone purchased
in the world on
the legacy
four occasions.
restaurant last
Returning to
year and added a
Canada, Carley
new entrance on
worked as a
Wellington St. and
sous chef under
a small bar in the
John Horne, executive chef at Toronto’s Canoe
front area.
restaurant before being head-hunted by The
The farm-totable
inspired
Bruce last year.
His aim is to add his voice to the culinary
blackboard pretheatre
dinner
narrative of New Canadian cuisine by
integrating only indigenous ingredients into
menu is prix
his culinary repertoire. Think wild Haida Gwaii
fixe, offering
ivory salmon with Wabigoon wild rice, morels,
three courses for
nettle purée, fennel kelp oil and wild ginger
$58.00. Chef Max
broth, or opt for Quebec Cerf du Boileau venison
Holbrook and
striploin with charred and brined carrots,
his team offer
golden beets, reindeer moss, Saskatoon berries,
a globally-inspired menu of small plates that
green alder jus and beet purée. The Bruce has
is available after 8:00 p.m. Duck confit with
dispensed with the prix fixe menu offered for the
gnocchi and fresh Monforte Dairy curds is a
last two seasons. At the time of this writing there
knock-out, as is the house-made lobster ravioli.
is a four-course tasting menu for $95.00 and sixcourse
tasting menu for $115.00. Wine pairings
There is a superior cheese plate of Monforte
Dairy selections. Bijou also serves an excellent
are an additional $49.00 and $55.00 respectively.
“Global Dim Sum” Sunday brunch that is
Breakfast, lunch and Sunday brunch are à la
By BRYAN LAVERY | Photography by NICK LAVERY
№ 59 | May/June 2016
16 | September/October 2017
an innovative Food Education Centre. www.
eatdrink.ca/food-literacy-and-growing-chefs/
4
London Training Centre: Local
Food Skills: The true essence of the
LTC narrative is that it achieves the whole
seasonal cycle of our
local bounty. The LTC
faculty are not only
culinary educators and
employment specialists,
they are also farmers,
retailers, caterers, food
artisans, restaurateurs,
funders and local food
advocates. The Local
Food Skills program
provides solid foodbased
knowledge and
provides participants
with the opportunity to explore of working with
food as a job or a profession. www.eatdrink.ca/
local-food-skills
5
Ann McColl Lindsay and David
Lindsay – A Road Less Traveled:
Hospitality and the culinary arts have always
10 www.eatdrink.ca
ospitality and the culinary
arts have always gone hand in
hand. In London, Ontario, we
have a history of exceptional
restaurateurs, chefs and culinary retailers.
Among the latter are Ann McColl Lindsay
and David Lindsay, the former proprietors
of the legendary Ann McColl’s Kitchen Shop,
one of Canada’s finest cookware shops.
Ann and David met, married and taught
school in Windsor, Ontario from 1961 to 1968.
They resigned their positions, sold their red
brick bungalow, and embarked on a yearlong
food pilgrimage across Europe while
camping in a Volkswagen van. Travelling in
the van with a gas burner allowed them to
truly enjoy the local terroir.
The first six months of their trip, which
ended at the French border, is described
in Ann’s memoir Hungry Hearts — A Food
Odyssey across Britain and Spain. The second
volume, Hearts Forever Young, includes their
travels in France, Italy, Austria, Switzerland,
Germany, Belgium, the Netherlands and
Denmark.
This formative trip introduced the Lindsays
to small independent grocers, hardware
stores, street markets and antique stores
jammed with domestic serving pieces. It was
during this time that they started to collect
the one-of-a-kind utensils that would comfood
writer at large
Ann McColl Lindsay & David Lindsay
A Brief History of a Road Less Traveled
H
6
Original Dundas Street Location
Richmond and Hyman Street Location
prise a useful
and saleable
batterie de cuisine.
Of a foray
to British food
writer Elizabeth
David’s
Kitchen Shop,
Ann says,
“This innocent
morning’s
shopping
expedition
turned into
a lifetime
obsession”.
Former Massey Harris Showroom on Talbot Street
#52 — March/April 2015
The Foodie’s
Place in the
Culinary Pecking
Order: It should not
surprise anyone with
a keen interest in all
things culinary to
learn that there is a
gastronomic pecking
order. At the bottom
of the gastronomic
hierarchy is goinfre
(greedy guts), then
culinary education
Local Food Skills
and the LTC Culinary Pre-Apprenticeship Program
S
ince 2002, David Corke has
been the Executive Director
of London Training Centre
(LTC), an award winning,
non-profit social mission driven
organization, which applies marketbased
strategies to self-fund programs
and initiatives that help people have a
positive impact in the community.
Corke is a highly-respected and
fervent food educator with a rocksteady
commitment. He is a long-time
proponent for local and sustainable
food systems, from both a civic and
London Training Centre’s Chef instructor Steve James with a
economic development viewpoint.
student in the Culinary Pre-Apprenticeship Program
When it started in 1987, the LTC
helped disenfranchised young people find the industry we believe that the staff of
employment in the food service industry. an operation should be considered much
Since then, however, LTC has morphed more than a labour cost on the profit and
into a cutting-edge and multifaceted
loss statement. Our point: the restaurant
organization providing food skills training, business is about people so if the goal is a
advocacy for careers in food service, and dining room full of guests having incredible
other services that range from computer food experiences, owners need the best
training to banquet staffing.
people working for them. If restaurateurs
Corke’s work in the non-profit sector was want their operations to be “exceptional”
influenced by a successful 20-year
then they have to be the
career in the private sector. He
“exception” — and pay more
owned and operated
for the best.”
restaurants, as well
The Ministry of
as being employed
Training, Colleges
by a large foodservice
and Universities has
corporation in the highly competitive
funded the LTC, for a second year, to
Toronto market.
provide a Culinary Pre-Apprenticeship
I asked Corke his thoughts on why he program. The course, taught by expert chef
thinks the restaurant industry is struggling instructors Steve James and John Fisher,
so hard to find talent.
examines in depth safe knife skills, kitchen
“I think the short answer is twofold. sanitation and safety, fundamental cooking
Speaking locally about the London and principles, menu design, pastry baking
region market — one where many customers and bread making practices, nose to tail
are looking for consistency of product and butchery, identification and use of seasonal
price point, there are a limited number produce, stock and sauce making. Limited
of restaurants where skilled chefs do not enrollment and small class size offer a
quickly become bored. At the same time, better opportunity for an exclusive student
as culinary educators and advocates for learning experience. The first session began
gone hand in hand.
In London we have a
history of exceptional
restaurateurs, chefs
and culinary retailers.
Among the latter are
Ann McColl Lindsay
and David Lindsay,
the former proprietors
of the legendary Ann
McColl’s Kitchen Shop,
one of Canada’s finest
cookware shops. www.
eatdrink.ca/a-roadless-traveled
8 www.eatdrink.ca
food writer at large
The Foodie’s Place in the
Culinary Pecking Order
P
#58 — March/April 2016
ecking order is the colloquial term With the simultaneous escalation of the
for a hierarchal system of social food media, food apps and camera phones,
organization. For the record, the I try to keep my mind open to change.
original usage referred to the Expressions that seemed to have no root in
expression of dominance in chickens. With our culinary lexicon are suddenly ubiquitous.
the keen interest in all things culinary, it Some people self-identify as foodies to
should not surprise anyone to learn that avoid being characterized as the type of
there is a gastronomic pecking order. At food snob they associate with old-school
the bottom of the gastronomic hierarchy is gourmets. When people say to me, “You’re
goinfre (greedy guts), then goulu (glutton), such a foodie” it makes my skin crawl. I
gourmand, (one who enjoys eating), friand don’t want to be categorized or lumped in
(epicure; one who with discriminating with foodies despite their clichéd glory.
taste takes pleasure in fine food and drink), The term sounds too much like groupie,
gourmet (a connoisseur of food and drink), and groupie, to my way of thinking, has
and finally the gastronome (one with a the implication of being obsessively
serious interest in gastronomy).
indiscriminate. For some
Let’s not overlook “foodie,”
goinfre reason the word “foodie” has
a contemporary term that is
always seemed too gung ho,
frequently and incorrectly used goulu
too disingenuous and more
as a synonym for gourmet or
about status than anything
gourmand
epicure. Most people are blind
else. Several people have told
to the fact that there is a distinct friand
me that I am mistaken, that I
difference in their meanings.
am a food snob.
The foodie is an amateur or
gourmet Writing in the Guardian,
hobbyist and a gourmet has the gastronome Paul Levy, who claims
educated palate and refined
paternity of the term foodie
taste of a professional.
with colleague Ann Barr,
Foodie, like the expression eatery, is a admits that American restaurant critic,
relatively new term in our modern culinary food writer and novelist Gael Greene may
lexicon. Both of those terms have given me have coined the term foodie at about the
a lot of flak. The word eatery I am only now same time in 1982. “What started as a term
shamefully surrendering to after initially of mockery shifted ground, as writers
finding the term not only loathsome
found that “foodie” had a certain utility,
but unappetizing. My complaint is that describing people who, because of age, sex,
“eatery” is being used inaccurately; it is income and social class, simply did not
an interloper on the culinary landscape, fit into the category ‘gourmet’, which we
evoking images of cheap, usually inferior insisted had become ‘a rude word’.”
restaurants with undiscriminating all-youcan-eat
offerings and other unspeakable legendary satirical sketch on the IFC series
We can see how far we have come by a
horrors. Recently, I have begun to hear Portlandia (you can watch it on YouTube)
the term eatery to describe fine dining caricaturing foodies and called, “Is the
establishments. I am seeing the expression chicken local?” The episode goes like this:
bandied about in venerated pages of
A waitress approaches a man and woman
prestigious publications.
seated at a table and asks if they’re ready to
foodie?
#43 — Sept/Oct 2013
eatdrink.ca |@eatdrinkmag
goulu (glutton), gourmand, (one who enjoys
eating), friand or epicure (one who with
discriminating taste takes pleasure in fine
food and drink), gourmet (a connoisseur of
food and drink), and finally the gastronome
(one with a serious interest in gastronomy).
Let’s not overlook “foodie,” a contemporary
term that is frequently used as a synonym
for gourmet or epicure. www.eatdrink.ca/thefoodies-place/
7
Where to Eat in Stratford/ Stratford’s
Changing Gastro Scene: The Stratford
Festival and Stratford Chefs School have
contributed to the
formation of a distinctively
vibrant culinary
culture and restaurant
community, featuring
a chef-driven approach
to sourcing locally and
cooking from scratch.
Whether the subject is
the evolving restaurant
scene, or where to eat,
I have enjoyed writing
about Stratford,
including features on
Monforte on Wellington, Bijou, Mercer Hall,
The Red Rabbit, The Prune, Revival House and
The Restaurant at The Bruce. www.eatdrink.ca/
where-to-eat-in-stratford/
8
restaurants
Where to Eat in Stratford
Summer Dining in Festival City
hen dining in Stratford, I
can’t help but be drawn to
restaurants that authentically
W support farmers, vineyards,
and food purveyors by featuring quality
local ingredients and products. I also like
to take note of the ambience, whether
the cutlery is polished, and the wine and
food knowledge of the service staff. Great
restaurants give a lot of thought and
attention to their wine and cocktail lists and,
most importantly, to genuine hospitality.
Bijou
The Bruce Restaurant
#60 — July/August 2016
Down the Rabbit Hole – The Red
Rabbit in
14 www.eatdrink.ca
restaurants
Stratford: “A locally
Down the Rabbit Hole
at The Red Rabbit in Stratford
sourced restaurant,
locally sourced restaurant, run down and agreed
run by workers, owned
by workers, owned by workers, that we didn`t
shared by the community,” pretty really want to do
“A much sums up The Red Rabbit’s this for someone
ethos. Chef Sean Collins is a Stratford Chefs else anymore. If
School graduate, instructor and previously we were going to
by workers, shared
head chef at Mercer Hall before its sale last work 80 hours a
year. Collins terms his cooking as “Flavour week and throw
First, Ingredient Driven.” He also says, “We our whole heart
cook food we like to eat.”
and soul into
One of Stratford’s most anticipated
something, we
by the community,”
openings last summer was The Red Rabbit, should do it for
which launched in mid-July. Stratford-born ourselves. It didn’t make sense to have a
Jessie Votary and Collins left Mercer Hall money man at the top taking all the profits.
to build the community-shared restaurant Nor were we interested in trying to squeeze
on Wellington Street with partners/workers an additional dime out of every plate that
pretty much sums
Jonathan Naiman (Sous Chef/Owner), comes out of the kitchen.”
With 100 shares at $1,000
each, The Red Rabbit’s
ownership group raised a
percentage of the capital
up The Red Rabbit’s
they needed to finance their
project. They then turned
to an innovative financing
model akin to community
supported agriculture
ethos. Stratford-born
(CSA), but in this case
adapted for the restaurant
business. They modelled
it primarily after colleague
Anne Campion`s business
Jessie Votary and
model at Revel Caffé which
itself is a spin on a CSA
Chef Sean Collins, Jessie Votary, and Kris Schlotzhauer
model that Ruth Klassen at
Monforte Dairy pioneered in
Adam Robinson (front of house), Tyson the Stratford area. Campion and Votary both
Chef Sean Collins left
Everitt (Doctor and resident soda jerk and believe in the importance of supporting new
fermenting specialist), Steve Walters (front models of community-centred businesses
of house) and Gen Zinger (front of house). that strengthen and help build communities.
Votary, who has been fittingly labelled Interested subscribers were invited to
the restaurant’s fearless leader and the purchase restaurant futures in the business.
Mercer Hall to build
mastermind behind the business, recently This raised an additional $57,000 in funds,
said, “The notion for the restaurant was born which helped them get the doors open
out of necessity and inevitability. We all sat by paying for opening wages and putting
the communityshared
restaurant
#59 — May/June 2016
with partners/workers. Votary, who has been
fittingly labelled the restaurant’s fearless
leader and the mastermind behind the
business, said, “The notion for the restaurant
was born out of necessity and inevitability. We
all sat down and agreed that we didn’t really
want to do this for someone else anymore.”
www.eatdrink.ca/down-the-rabbit-hole/
Photo courtesy of The Red Rabbit