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

Windsor Eats and Eat Your City On a recent trip to Windsor with the new Ontario’s Southwest Culinary Tourism Guide ( http://www.ontariossouthwestculinary.com/ ) in hand, I was not surprised by the vibrancy of the culinary culture in Windsor. Here is a bit of an update. It’s time to celebrate Windsor’s and Essex’s culinary community. From August 1 to August 7, 2011, you can visit any Eat Your City participating restaurant and indulge in a prix-fixe 3-course meal at lunch or dinner. Each participating restaurant will offer a unique Eat Your City menu. http://windsoreats.com/eatyourcity/ The menus will showcase the diversity of dining choices in Windsor and around Essex County. The prix-fixe menus are priced per person and do not include beverages, taxes or gratuities. Here are three participating restaurants that offer local, seasonal fare and are committed supporting local farmers and culinary tourism : Rino’s Kitchen Located within The House (formerly the Nesbitt Inn), Chef Rino Bort...

Janine Bratt’s Taste Bud Bistro at the Art Gallery of Windsor Located inside the Art Gallery of Windsor, entry to this delightful riverfront bistro is accessible from the front without entering the gallery. There is an outdoor patio with comfortable wrought iron chairs for al fresco dining, and 14 foot windows inside the restaurant that also highlight a stellar view of the Detroit skyline. The dining room is minimalist with comfortable black chairs with white-clad tables that create an attractive domino effect against a dramatic raspberry coloured wall. The wall is enhanced by a blackboard featuring the menu. On the tables are small pitchers of perfect pink hydrangea blooms. Chef/owner Janine Bratt, a 2006 graduate of the Stratford Chef School and a former chef at Caldwell's Grant in her hometown of Amherstburg. Bratt spent three seasons refining her skills at Rundles in Stratford. Bratt also spent time at Oliveto in Oakland, California; The Sooke Harbour House in Sooke; Fresco Res...

The Modernist Gourmet Burger at Motor Burger This high-energy, gourmet hamburger hot-spot is a departure for Little Italy or “Via Italia”, (Erie Street East’s restaurant row), and perhaps even more poignant because it replaced the ultra-sleek, sophisticated and highly touted Noi, that closed in late 2009. “There was a time you had to fight for a table at Noi – but the recession sent a chill through Windsor’s Little Italy.” Never ones to rest on their culinary laurels, savvy restaurateurs and business partners Jay Souillere and Gino Geusale responded to the change in Windsor’s lingering economic climate. They re-imagined the Noi premises and conceptualized the chic and funky, cow and car décor- themed Motor Burger. The fresh and original take on a contemporary burger joint was fashioned as a survival plan to the recession, and an intentional way to pay homage to Windsor’s automobile industry. The result was a stream-lined operation with a recession-friendly, gourmet menu that appeals to...

The Local Food Connection — Yes, We Have No Bananas The Southwest Ontario Local Food Connection: Farmer / Food Buyer Networking Event and Taste it! Gala were an unprecedented success. The well-attended event, many months in the planning, exceeded expectations and identified many future opportunities for collaboration and cooperation in both the agricultural and culinary communities. This present era is, both sadly and ironically, characterized by an alarming ignorance about agriculture, environment and the standardization of our food products. The Local Food Connection was intended in part, to counteract this problem and shine a light on farmers and producers and the availability of local products. Representatives of restaurants, culinary retail, educational institutions and other institutions talked about what they like to buy and the challenges of sourcing local products. This networking event successfully showcased the region and helped further define the area as a whole, w...

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...