ETHICAL GOURMET / Remind me to Tell You About the Time I Looked in the Heart of an Artichoke

Rione X1 and "Roman-Jewish Ghetto Cuisine" in Wychwood Park/Hillcrest Village BY BRYAN LAVERY   As anyone who reads my columns regularly is aware, I have been a student of the Italian kitchen for the last thirty years, so genuine regional Italian cooking resonates with me. Until the unification of Italy in 1861, one could not speak of a national cuisine. The reality of Italian cookery is an amalgamation of distinct regional cuisines more diverse than anywhere else in Europe. Like the rest of Italy, Rome is made of many districts, each with distinctive traditional specialities. Additional subsets of cuisines remain both strongly regional and localized. The self-proclaimed "Roman-Jewish Ghetto” cuisine, a form of cucina povera (literally meaning the impoverished kitchen) distinguishes the newly opened Rione X1, from   a number of other Italian-inspired restaurants on the Wychwood/Hillcrest Village restaurant strip in Toronto. The

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Celebrated author and New York Chef Hamilton will be in residence at Stratford Chefs School from January 11th to January 23rd, 2016. The Gastronomic Writer in Residence program began in 2007 is named after Joseph Hoare, former food editor at Toronto Life magazine. The program is unique to chef training in Canada and allows students to broaden their knowledge of social media and food writing.  Launching her Canadian visit on January 11th 2016 , Chef Gabrielle Hamilton will be in conversation with fellow Joseph Hoare Gastronomic Writer In Residence and notable author Ian Brown at the Toronto Public Library Appel Salon Series. The two acclaimed authors will discuss Hamilton’s life as a chef and writer, exploring her award-winning memoir Blood, Bones & Butter: The Inadvertent Education of a Reluctant Chef and her cookbook, Prune. This event will be held at the Appel Salon in Toronto Reference Library. While in residence at the Stratford Chefs School, Chef Hamilton will

We are at a literal “tipping point.” Ontario is prohibiting restaurant owners and managers from sharing in tips that are meant for servers and other hospitality staff. Restaurant owners will no longer be allowed to take a cut of staff gratuities under provincial legislation that passed in December 2015. Liberal MPP Arthur Potts said his Private Member’s Bill 12 Bill 12, or the Protecting Employees’ Tips Act — an amendment to The Employment Standards Act, 2000 — must still be proclaimed into law, was designed to prevent employers from dipping into the restaurant employees gratuity pool. The Protecting Employees' Tips Act, passed third reading, making it illegal to withhold their employees' gratuities. The plan was initially put forward three years ago by Michael Prue, an NDP MPP, who lost in the 2014 election and re-introduced by Arthur Potts, the Liberal MPP who defeated him. The proposed legislation has been amended to allow employers to provisionally withhold gratuities

    New Year’s Eve Restaurant Reservation Etiquette BY BRYAN LAVERY Dining out always seems to top the list of New Year’s Eve plans. It is the night top chef’s will be pulling out all the stops. New Year’s Eve has always been an opportunity to do something a just a little more special. Celebratory evenings can often be very exasperating for chefs and restaurateurs. It is not uncommon for a restaurant to be booked days, even weeks in advance and on the last day be flooded with cancellations due to inexplicable illnesses or undependable babysitters. As it happened, there was a time when it was not uncommon for establishments to purposely retaliate by overbooking tables. This ruse inevitably results in a host of disagreeable experiences and disappointments. But diners be wary. New Year’s Eve is among the busiest nights for dining out. This is the night that restaurateurs may know they have a captive audience. On the other hand, it is also the night patrons assume busin

Food Literacy and Growing Chefs! BY BRYAN LAVERY   Food literacy when taken literally means a person’s ability to correctly read food labels and Canada’s Food Guide – and the aptitude to comprehend basic nutrition well enough to apply that knowledge to food preparation. Food literacy also includes understanding how food is grown and produced, where it originates, how production affects the environment and who has access to what types of foods. The need to introduce food into school life is the most compelling at the primary level, when children are just starting to establish food preferences, make independent choices and influence their friends. Growing Chefs! was conceived in Vancouver B.C. by chef Merri Schwartz in 2006, as she identified a need to articulate the story of the food we eat. Believing in greater engagement between chefs, farmers and the general public, she set out to educate children, families, and community members about nutrition, sustainab

Toronto Christmas Market 2016 For a sixth year, the Toronto Christmas Market is showcasing all the romance and splendour of a traditional European Christmas market. Selected as one of the World's 10 Best Holiday Markets by Fodor's Travel and Jetlegs, the Toronto Christmas Market at the Distillery Historic District is the ideal place to rediscover the romance of a Dickensian-inspired Christmas Market. Christmas Markets, known as Christkindlmarkts, have been a German tradition for 700 years. Christmas markets are an especially festive, anticipated event, bringing light and merriment to a cold, dark time of the year. Each town traditionally had a unique and distinctive street market to celebrate the season. Local tradesmen sold their wares at these markets, giving each market an individual flavour and personality. The food and beverages being offer were traditionally regional, so each town's offerings were truly unique to the area. Tradesme

Hot Foodie Trends for Culinary Enthusiasts in 2016  BY BRYAN LAVERY For over a decade, I have been a food trend chronicler of sorts. Keeping tabs on the trends requires being an avid reader of menus, cultural cookbooks, restaurant reviews and scrutinizing a wide variety of food and drink publications and, of course, reading other food writing. I am interested in how food trends became part of the culinary landscape and shape both the restaurant industry and the consumer at large. To keep up-to-date on the latest culinary developments, I frequently dine out, attend food events, preview dinners and engage with culinary innovators, early adopters, chefs, farmers, food artisans and “culinary visionaries” in fields like nutrition, food policy and the environment. Professional tastemakers and trend analysts use a variety of ways to gauge what’s hot and what’s not.   I always keep in mind that there is a distinction to be made between tr