By BRYAN LAVERY № 52 | March/April 2015 № 58 | March/April 2016 www.eatdrink.ca 11 By BRYAN LAVERY By BRYAN LAVERY № 43 | <strong>September</strong>/<strong>October</strong> 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. <strong>The</strong> 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. <strong>The</strong> 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 <strong>The</strong> <strong>The</strong> 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. <strong>The</strong> 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 <strong>The</strong>re 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 | <strong>September</strong>/<strong>October</strong> <strong>2017</strong> an innovative Food Education Centre. www. eatdrink.ca/food-literacy-and-growing-chefs/ 4 London Training Centre: Local Food Skills: <strong>The</strong> true essence of the LTC narrative is that it achieves the whole seasonal cycle of our local bounty. <strong>The</strong> LTC faculty are not only culinary educators and employment specialists, they are also farmers, retailers, caterers, food artisans, restaurateurs, funders and local food advocates. <strong>The</strong> 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. <strong>The</strong>y 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. <strong>The</strong> 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. <strong>The</strong> 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 <strong>The</strong> 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 <strong>The</strong> 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. <strong>The</strong> 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. <strong>The</strong> 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 <strong>The</strong> 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), <strong>The</strong> 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. <strong>The</strong> 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. <strong>The</strong> 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?” <strong>The</strong> 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: <strong>The</strong> 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, <strong>The</strong> Red Rabbit, <strong>The</strong> Prune, Revival House and <strong>The</strong> Restaurant at <strong>The</strong> 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 <strong>The</strong> Bruce Restaurant #60 — July/August 2016 Down the Rabbit Hole – <strong>The</strong> Red Rabbit in 14 www.eatdrink.ca restaurants Stratford: “A locally Down the Rabbit Hole at <strong>The</strong> 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 <strong>The</strong> 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 <strong>The</strong> 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, <strong>The</strong> Red Rabbit’s ownership group raised a percentage of the capital up <strong>The</strong> Red Rabbit’s they needed to finance their project. <strong>The</strong>y 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. <strong>The</strong>y 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, “<strong>The</strong> 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, “<strong>The</strong> 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 <strong>The</strong> Red Rabbit
a step closer to Italy... <strong>The</strong> LOCAL Food & Drink Magazine <strong>September</strong>/<strong>October</strong> <strong>2017</strong> | 17 Family-owned & operated, siblings Tina and Len are celebrating 10 years of bringing a genuine taste of Italy to Chatham. In homage to their mother Maria, they insist upon from-scratch cooking using the best of local ingrendients. <strong>The</strong> restaurant is sophisticated yet approachable. A beautiful patio overlooks the Thames River. Catering and well-appointed private function rooms are available. 231 King Street West, Chatham 519-360-1600 Open for Dinner Daily / Lunch Monday-Saturday www.mammamariasristorante.ca Frendz is run by the creative team of Brenda Boismier and Chef Marc King. <strong>The</strong> warm, cozy Resto/Lounge is designed for friends to gather for good food and good times. Weekend entertainment features local talent. <strong>The</strong> upscale yet affordable menu features international cuisine, prepared from scratch, from Spanish tapas to steak and seafood. Craft beer is on tap, an extensive drink menu is on offer, and this may be the best patio in town. 216 King Street West, Chatham 519-436-1313 Open Tuesday–Saturday for Lunch & Dinner a step closer www.frendzlounge.com to home...