The Chef's Summit

Is there something new in food? It is hard to find out.  It doesn't seem to be a premier 'topic' on google - one retrieves food near me and other take-out sorts of topics.  With a little digging, though, I find out there is a Canadian Pizza Summit each year with a competition for pizza chef of the year. In 2018  two winners shared the title of Chef of the Year. Chef of the Year (Traditional) is Giuseppe Cortinovis of Ignite Pizzeria in Vancouver. Chef of the Year (Open) is Dean Litster of Armando's Pizza in Windsor, Ont. Cortinovis' pizza is called The Queen, a twist on the Margherita, while Litster's winning entry was a creative pizza he dubbed The Dean Martin. The award chef of the year (around the world) is covered on finedininglovers.com.  The Le Chef compilation of the 100 best chefs in the world for 2019 has been released with chef Arnaud Donckele from the La Vague d'Or restaurant in Saint-Tropez named the best chef in the world. You can see pictures of his 18 dishes HERE. And you can see the menu at the end with prices - 295 Euro is over $400 Canadian. The Red Rose dessert is 44 Euro. The world restaurant awards announced their shortlist of nominees on January 17th.  You can read about it HERE. There is the list of Big Plates:  These are the short-listed restaurants in categories like Original Thinking, Off-Map Destination, No Reservations Required, House Special, Event of the Year, Ethical Thinking and so on. Then there are the small plates - the short list categories (tongue in cheek) are:  tweezer-free kitchen of the year, trolley of the year, tattoo-free chef of the year, and so on.  Wouldn't that be wonderful to see a chef without tattoos! For the rest of us, the top 2019 trends don't have this razzle-dazzle.  They seem straight forward:   Sri Lankan cuisine Burmese cuisine Meat-free Kefir Ugly fruit and veg Hidden vegetables Food halls Eating where you shop... and so on. Our pictures today come from Powell Garden in Kansas City.

Table 54 on Floor 54

Google wishes me "Happy Birthday, Marilyn"  this morning.  This may or may not be a good thing, given the Big Brother headlines these days.   So I have found some Birthday Quotes from the resources available to us -  that speak to the Birthday Wishes for the older recipient. Age is an issue of mind over matter. If you don’t mind, it doesn’t matter. – Mark Twain Birthdays are good for you. Statistics show that the people who have the most live the longest. – Larry Lorenzoni Old age is like everything else. To make a success of it, you’ve got to start young. – Fred Astaire Do not grow old, no matter how long you live. Never cease to stand like curious children before the Great Mystery into which we were born. – Albert Einstein Brian and I visited Canoe yesterday for our Birthday Lunch.  We first checked out The Assembly.  This is the opposite of Canoe - an 'assembly' of independent chefs and artists creating a food hall.  It is located on Richmond Street at York Street.  I don't think there are concerns there about treating the power broker just right.  You can check the Assembly out HERE.   You can meet the chefs HERE.   You can meet the artists HERE. Canoe is located at the top of the TD Tower - Floor 54.  As we got our bill we found out that sitting at the chef's counter overlooking the kitchen is Table 54.  This seemed very fitting and most entertaining.

When Canoeing is Really about Eating

Wake Up on the Bright Side   Lunch at Canoe.  This is a highlight of being so close to Toronto.  We'd been to a few restaurants in the last few weeks - celebrating Canada Blooms at Merlot in our west-end neighbourhood, then to The Good Earth last week, and finally Canoe yesterday. Canoe has never disappointed and always amazed us beyond our imagination.  Yesterday's meal was a wonder of culinary creativity and complexity.  T We particularly like to sit at the 'chef's table' - the counter that overlooks the kitchen.  We watch as appetizers are composed and we guess which ones they are.  Our lunch chef came over and talked with us.  We are interested in their sources of the ingredients - the special crab and salmon from sources in New Brunswick, the purple potatoes from an Ontario farm.  And then there are the processes - the purple potatoes were slightly smoked then cooked, and the salmon was maple-syrup smoked/cured. During our lunch, we found out the benefits of Canoe being located on the top floor of the TD Bank Tower.  They had TD Bank name badges on and were wearing old-fashioned waiter uniforms.  They gave the TD executives' orders to the chefs, then came over and had a chat with us.