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

I am dedicated to supporting and mentoring emerging talent in the culinary and hospitality industry. Rising Culinary Stars are young, up-and-coming culinary professionals who represent the vanguard of the modern Ontario culinary scene and have a reputation for originality and creativity. They have exceptional, compelling culinary philosophies and are committed to fostering a cutting-edge farm-to-table culinary repertoire by sharing their knowledge with fellow professionals. Ultimately, it’s innovation, ambition, exquisite presentation and most importantly, delicious cuisine that combine to be awarded the distinction. Please send me your nominations for 2018. ethicalgourmet@yahoo.com

Chef/Co-Owner Donald Yuriaan  Kari Kol Ayam Bumbu By BRYAN LAVERY “Bistro,” a restaurant category that harkens back to the late 19th century in France and the early 20th century in England, is flexible in its connotations, but always refers to an establishment where one can have a meal as well as drinks. True bistros are generally small, and their menus are characteristically comprised of straightforward selections, often rustic in nature but not pricey. Dragonfly Bistro is one such place. For me, the name Dragonfly conjures up images of beauty and exotica. The adult dragonfly can thrust itself in six directions: downward, upward, forward, backward, and side to side, so the choice of the name Dragonfly for the restaurant intrigued me. Even though the restaurant has large and attractive windows facing the street, in some respects it remains hidden in plain sight at the north end of Richmond Row, housed in the premises once occupied by the Village Café next

Stratford Chef School Co-founder, Eleanor Kane & Chef Andrew George Jr. BY BRYAN LAVERY DigiWriting Book Marketing Agency (producers of the Stratford Writers Festival) launched Appetite for Words: A Literary Festival with a Culinary Twist! at Stratford Chef School at end of October 2017, with Chef Andrew George Jr. At the literary-themed dinners, food is paired with the author’s readings, so participants can taste the words they’re hearing. Canada 150 has been a year-long celebration of the sesquicentennial of Canadian confederation. Fifty years ago the Canada Pavilion at Expo 67, Canada’s centennial celebration in Montreal, contributed to strengthening a powerful cultural unity. At the time the pavilion’s two restaurants were seen as providing a national culinary narrative. Restaurant La Toundra, operated by CN Hotels, served a Katimavik (which means “meeting place” in the Inuktitut language) Special that included chilled Okanogan apple juice and “To

Making Pasta in Emilia- Romagna, Italy 1999 BY BRYAN LAVERY When I was a young teenager, our friends and family reacted like we were moving to Mars when we left Toronto to move to our cottage at Rice Lake. Our parents fulfilled a long-held dream when they purchased the cottage with a hilltop location and an acre of cedar forest backing on to the Ouse River. The site had previously been part of much larger farm acreage. The cottage was a prefabricated shell with no amenities, in my unformed mind a zeitgeist in the back-to-the-earth spirit of the times, a handyman’s special that we idealized and had the potential to be transformed into our dream home. At first, I thought we had landed in paradise, taking a cue from my parents who behaved like we had inherited heaven on earth. It was a convincing gambit that betrayed no hint of the hardships and sacrifices ahead. We briefly emulated the type of television family that enjoyed the solidarity of breaking bread

Manisay Visouvath and Fouzan (Rafael) Beg are the proprietors of Thaifoon, downtown London’s upmarket Thai restaurant. The restaurant remains a family affair. Visouvath is the youngest sister of Eddy and Alex Phimprhrachanh’s mother, Arounvaty, who is the head chef at Thaifoon and the matriarch of a Thai food dynasty in the city. Several of Arounvaty’s sisters have opened successful Thai restaurants in the city after being mentored in the kitchen by her.   Visouvath was born in the Southeast Asian country and came to Canada with her parents in 1980. Rafael is from Hyderabad India.  (Hyderabadi cuisine comprises a broad repertoire of rice, grains and meat dishes and the skilled use of various spices –  Indian cuisine has a longer, slower burn, rather than the sharper, built-up spiciness of Thai cuisine .)  Thaifoon’s with-it and tasteful take on the ancient Thai culture, with a décor that honours the past while embracing modernity, has earned both raves and admiration

Yue Minjun  (born 1962) is a contemporary Chinese artist based in Beijing, China. He is best known for oil paintings depicting himself in various settings, frozen in laughter. A couple of prints of his work hang in the dining room at Wing's Kitchen. BY BRYAN LAVERY Brief Overview Nov8 Nov8 Nov8 is a brand new, contemporary Chinese restaurant in the premises formerly occupied by Nov8 Sushi, located in the Costco plaza at Wonderland north of Oxford.  The owners of Nove8 are expanding the definition of Chinese food by skillfully combining traditional and contemporary sensibilities – in the décor, cooking and presentation. Try the stewed pork belly over onions with roasted garlic. Ask for the hot, salty and crispy chicken sparked with ginger, sesame oil and dried hot chilies. The combination works beautifully especially if you like heat. Crisp-tender baby bok choy with meaty, earthy shitake mushrooms glazed in oyster

Kitchen Smidgen  is a small bakery — a smidgen of a spot along the beautiful Thames in St. Marys operated by Cindy Taylor. Stop by for sweet and savoury treats; perhaps pick up some C’est bon cheese or Transvaal Farm preserves. Taylor’s cinnamon buns and scones have a bit of a cult following.  www.kitchensmidgen.com BY BRYAN LAVERY To bond with the rural charm that defines Perth County, consider day-tripping by car and staying in farmhouses or farm guest houses. Agritourism, as it is defined most commonly, constitutes any agriculturally-based operation that brings visitors to a farm. Many agro-tourists have a strong interest in all things culinary. They want to meet the local farmers, artisans and processors and talk with them about what is involved in food production while getting an authentic taste of rural life.   In Perth County, culinary entrepreneurs continue to develop fresh takes on the farm-to-table ethos while examining the roots of local cuisine and de

By BRYAN LAVERY Although the ethnic cuisines of Yunnan province may not be particularly well known in the West, they are touted as being among the best regional eating experiences in China. There are 25 ethnic groups in this southwestern Chinese province, all contributing within their cultural cuisine subgroups. Agrarian by nature, Yunnan is the birthplace of tea. Yunnan’s northwest corner is said to be the inspiration for Shangri-La, as described in James Hilton’s utopian classic,  Lost Horizon . A recent surge of interest in ethnic and regional Chinese cuisine is reflected in the growth and popularity of Yunnan restaurants in both Beijing and Shanghai. Encouraged by an explosion in cultural tourism the boom is a result of China’s modernization strategy which has put Yunnan on the gastronomical map. In downtown London, Five Fortune Culture Restaurant proprietors W enbei and Jie Liang Yin (Jeff) are part of the groundswell of restaurateurs offering an authentic "pur

Yixing Tang and Michelle Pierce Hamilton. Photo: Spencer Drake BY BRYAN LAVERY Tea sommelier and nutritionist Michelle Pierce Hamilton and her business partner Yixing Tang opened The Tea Lounge in a small charming house on Piccadilly Street east of Richmond. They recently launched a menu of cold drinks, iced teas and vegan-friendly lattes. Matcha, London Fog and cinnamon-orange spiced tea lattes are available hot or iced. There is afternoon tea service one Sunday per month. Book a sitting at the monthly Tea Flight Nights to experience a comparative tasting. A small in-house scratch menu and baked goods and healthful snacks from Petit Paris Crêperie & Pâtisserie, Boombox Bakeshop and Bliss Specialty Foods add to the experience. tealoungelondon.com London may be part of the explosion of indie cafés serving small-batch coffee roasts, which are part grab-and-go café and part bakery, but we’re a community of dedicated tea enthusiasts too. And now, with the ris

By Bryan Lavery This sleek and urban-chic downtown hot-spot has a sophisticated palette and an upscale mix of contemporary Asian-inspired motifs, art, cuisine and ambiance. Chefs combine the freshest ingredients with traditional flavours to create a unique menus designed to promote communal dining. From a design perspective, the attention to detail is carried through in many small but striking ways such as the design of the cutlery and dishes, seasonal exotic floral arrangements and the various choices of seating arrangements. The mosaic tiles around the bar have a chameleon-like ability to change into a myriad of palettes, creating a swanky, sexy cocktail lounge vibe with a colour changing remote control. Lighting can also be adjusted to set the mood particularly in the far end of the dining room, where private booth seating provides an intimate and comfortable dining experience. The cuisine is sophisticated and pushes culinary boundaries without breaking the tenets of