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

A Taste of Honey at Garlic's Garlic's, From Scratch - Upscale Rustic Cuisine with Local, Sustainable Ingredients In the sense that the smart money today is on chef's and restaurants that wear their values on the menu, Garlic's leads by example and with plenty of style and a cutting edge culinary vision. The menu exemplifies a culinary philosophy that promotes the economic, environmental and social benefits of our local food community. This is some of the most superb farm-to-table cuisine in the city. The cooking has a contemporary edge, made from scratch with inspiration from local and signature ingredients and seasonal products. And, Chef Wade Fitzgerald's cooking repertoire just keeps getting better, the presentation more sophisticated and artful. Garlic's commitment to supporting local and sustainable food and agriculture has been instrumental in helping to raise the bar for intelligent dining in London. Five years ago, Garlic's owner, Edo Pehilj, recogni...

Promoting The Recognition of Cuisine as a Manifestation of Culture. The Raja Fine Indian Cuisine   Indian cuisine is a vast and sophisticated subject. India’s states and territories differ, cuisine-wise, as much if not more than the regional cuisines of other countries. Caste, culture. religious doctrine, geography, and climate have all played an immense role in preventing the emergence of a truly definitive national Indian cuisine. Despite the diversity, some coalescing threads surface on closer inspection. However, most of what we consider authentic Indian cuisine is a product of the British imperial influence, which resulted in a prolific Anglo-Indian restaurant cuisine that panders to the global masses. I initially became familiar with this style of restaurant cooking while living in England on two separate occasions. Going out for an “Indian” or a “Curry” or getting an Indian “takeaway” was a national pastime. The idea of a curry is, in fact, a definition that the British imposed ...

Stratford Tourism Alliance 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 community. Stratford has a long history of being a hotbed of culinary talent, including farmers, growers, chefs, culinary instructors and restaurateurs. Hospitality and the culinary arts are an important and integral part of Stratford’s creative and theatrical community. Stratford is internationally known for the Stratford Shakespeare Festival, which runs from April to November. 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 has contributed to the formation of a distinctively idiosyncratic dining culture and restaurant ...

By Bryan Lavery I am an ardent reader of Sarah Elton, food columnist for CBC Radio’s Here & Now, who writes regularly for the Globe and Mail, Maclean’s and the Atlantic’s Food Channel, and is also an informative blogger and tweeter. Her new book, Locavore: From Farmers’ Fields to Rooftop Gardens, How Canadians are Changing the Way We Eat, was officially launched at the Green Barns Market in Toronto at the end of March. The New Oxford American Dictionary selected locavore, a person who seeks out locally produced food, as its word of the year in 2007. Since the term locavore entered the culinary lexicon, it seems to be on the tip of every culinary-minded person’s tongue. Originally, the term was coined in San Francisco by Jessica Prentice, for the 2005 World Environment Day, to describe consumers who choose locally produced foods over other high-carbon-footprint options. As the emphasis on local food, sustainability and terroir continues to gain momentum across Canada, Elton’s b...

Promoting The Recognition of Cuisine as a Manifestation of Culture. Woodfield Community Cookbook For the past year, Ann McColl Lindsay has been working as editor (with Hazel Desbarats and Ulla Troughton) on a collection of recipes representing the lives of those who live in the Woodfield community. There are seventy-three contributors, 337 pages and drawings by Ann's artist/husband David Lindsay. The cookbook is really a culinary/cultural snapshot of London downtown living at its best. Most of the participants have city garden plots at Carling Heights, shop at the local Markets and ride bikes etc. A public launch of the book will be at the Covent Garden Farmers Market on Sat. May 29.

Promoting The Recognition of Cuisine as a Manifestation of Culture. Aroma – A Pervasive Characteristic or Quality Felipe Gomes’ Aroma Mediterranean Restaurant and Adega Wine Bar A restaurant’s location is as crucial to its success as good food and service. Restaurants come and restaurants go, and sometimes it’s the space that helps define the experience. One location that has always managed to produce appealing restaurants is the one in an old heritage building on the southwest corner of Richmond and Piccadilly Streets. The building has a distinctive, intangible quality; an aura: the aroma of success. In its early days as a restaurant, the site was occupied by famed London restaurateur and the original owner of the Auberge du Petit Prince, Ginette Bisaillion. After selling the Auberge du Petit Prince to the incomparable Chef Chris Squire in 1976, Bisaillion later opened the elegantly casual but upscale French-themed Café du Midi where Aroma is now. With delicious French offerings, air...

Promoting The Recognition of Cuisine as a Manifestation of Culture. The Morrissey House The Mo’ — “Where Every Day is Like Sunday” Traditionally, the pub that people frequent most often is referred to as their local. Despite its etymology, the fundamental nature of a local would seem to be only partly geographical. A local is the neighbourhood pub nearest to your home. However, some denizens choose their local for other reasons: proximity to their workplace, convenience as an informal meeting place for friends, the availability of a unique selection of beers, innovative pub food offerings, or perhaps the traditional pub game: darts. More often than not, the idiosyncratic nature of a local will lend itself to organized events several times a month, ranging from pub quiz/trivia nights to live music, as is the case of the Morrissey House on Dundas Street. Proprietor Mark Serré, a 12-year veteran of the Spoke at UWO and an 8-year veteran of GT’s, wants to make The Morrissey House f...

Promoting The Recognition of Cuisine as a Manifestation of Culture. Hats off to Chancey! Chancey Smith’s Steak and Seafood House at Covent Garden Market I still love a great hamburger or a big, juicy steak, even though I’ve been trying to cut down on my red meat consumption. trü on King Street used to make a superb mini-hamburger with foie gras that melted in your mouth, and you could order it at the bar until midnight. Waldo’s on King makes a truly outstanding burger with organic beef from Field Gate Organics, which is served with generous garnishes and condiments. I swear it is the best hamburger in the city, hands down. Chancey Smith’s Steak and Seafood House has always been a carnivore’s dream because of its great steaks. Chancey Smith’s also has its own delicious ½-lb beef burger, and the twist here is it comes with a suggested beer pairing: Cameron’s Auburn Ale, Paulaner, #9 IPA or India Pale Ale. Chancey’s also has a more upscale ½-lb. buffalo (read American bison) burger, stuf...

Zuccotto is an Italian dessert with origins in Florence. Our popular version of Zuccotto is a dome-shaped, semi-fredda, made with liqueur-soaked vanilla sponge cake and a trio of flavoured whipped creams.Zuccotto can be kept frozen, then thawed before serving.The shape is said to have been inspired by it's resemblance to Florence's Duomo. Others allude to its shape as closely resembling a cardinal's skullcap. This delicious Tuscan-inspired bombe was a signature dessert at my former restaurant, La Cucina, on King Street in London Ontario in the early 1990's. Another variation of Zuccotto is made with layers of homemade ice cream and is known as a Bombe glacée or simply a Bombe in English. Escoffier gives over sixty recipes for bombes prepared in spherical moulds in Le Guide culinaire. Variations of the bombe have appeared on restaurant menus since 1882. Zuccotto Vanilla Sponge Cake (recipe below) and bake in a 13"X9"X2" pan. Cool. Cut into strips 13" ...

This is the classic butternut squash dish, also often made with hubbard squash or fresh pumpkin.. You can also substitute canned pumpkin if you’d prefer, but we love the flavour and the texture of fresh butternut squash. How to Make Fresh Pasta Fresh pasta is made with 1 lb. 2 oz. of flour and 5 whole eggs. In many regions of Italy only 4 eggs and a little water are used; in others, 2 eggs and more water. In some regions only the egg yolks and a little oil are employed. Regardless of these regional variations, the dough must be well kneaded – that is, until little bubbles are visible in the dough – before being stretched with the rolling pin. Ingredients 1 lb. 2 oz. flour • 5 whole fresh eggs • semolina for sprinkling on pasta (optional) Pour the flour on a pastry board in a cone-shaped mound. Break the eggs into the center of the cone and blend the yolks with the whites, using a fork or fingers, then begin gradually mixing the egg with the flour. When the dough has a thic...

Whatever Lola Wants… Tania Auger’s Lola’s Lounge in Sarnia By Cecilia Buy and Bryan Lavery Drive down Christina Street in Sarnia, and you can’t miss it: a narrow building, with the front of its second floor covered by the outsize signage, “Lola’s Lounge” in flowing neon script, voluptuously crimson. Red is Tania Auger’s signature colour, and the owner of Lola’s has put her unmistakable stamp on every facet of her restaurant, from furnishings to food, from the window treatment to the wine list. The bones of the old building show through. Operating continuously since the thirties, the shade of the former diner lingers. The swivel stools at the counter have been replaced with metal-framed barstools, but the curved bulkhead above the liquor shelves remains, now backlit with red neon that casts a speakeasy glow over the bottles and Tania’s collection of vintage Canadian and Italian art glass. Down one side of the room are the original booths, seats now reupholstered, each booth with its ...