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

Dining Al Fresco in London, Ontario Summer 2015 There is nothing like dining al fresco when the weather heats up, and London has great outdoor dining options. There’s a very strong café culture in this city, with outdoor culinary experiences for everyone. During patio season, you can enjoy dining at a sidewalk café, in a private garden or secluded courtyard setting, under a pergola, on a roof-top patio, or on a charming side-street terrace. Sometimes windows that open to the street, like the ones at Abruzzi and The Works on King Street, make the indoor-to-outdoor experience feel seamless. Here are just a few recommendations for al fresco living in London: Gregg and Justin Wolfe’s red-hot Early Bird diner , with casual farm-to-table cooking, has a quirky charm and a hotchpotch menu of updated retro diner classics and new generation comfort foods. Signature dishes include the king-sized “turducken club” sandwich. You can’t get much more hi...

By BRYAN LAVERY Elaine Sawyer and her son, chef Josh Sawyer, take comfort food to new heights at their “proper sandwich shop,” Wich is Wich. The shop is essentially homage to the diversity of the sandwich. With global flavours, exotic ingredients and textural contrasts they become edible works of art. Like the artisanal grilled-cheese shops, the gourmet sandwich shop has become a culinary subgenre that is booming in urban centres. Elaine Sawyer is familiar to Londoners as a former morning radio co-host, who was successfully paired with Rich Greven on Q97.5, for many years. Elaine’s road to the on - air booth was circuitous. She worked in radio and television marketing, eventually ending up at CKSL, where she and Greven became good friends. After a format change, Greven moved to Q, and the station embarked on a search for a co-host. That is when Elaine got the call. For years the high-profile duo could be found at local community functions from charity fun...

The Red Rabbit has progressed since this photo was taken, but we think it's a great photo of Jesse Larsen. Stratford, Ontario, is not only a cultural haven for world-class theatre, but also for a world-class creative community which includes actors, artists, playwrights, writers, musicians, and many uniquely talented professionals, all of whom contribute to the vitality of the city. Stratford has a deserved reputation for being a hotbed of culinary talent, including farmers, growers, bakers, chefs, culinary instructors and restaurateurs. Stratford is known internationally for the Stratford Shakespeare Festival which runs from April to October. The Festival’s primary mandate is to present repertory productions of William Shakespeare’s plays, but it also produces a diverse variety of theatre, from classic Greek tragedies to more contemporary works. The Festival and the renowned Stratford Chef School have contributed to the formation of a distinctively vibr...