Zakkushi Izakaya, Toronto

Izakayas are a very popular Japanese style "bistro" featuring Japanese comfort food. Many new izakayas have recently opened in the Toronto area. Zakkushi is one of the recent entries, a crowded, noisy bustling place. There are a lot of skewered items offered on the menu. For the most part, they are "ok", but not special enough to make me want them again. The exceptions were the wagyu beef and the tongue.

Takoyaki, deep fried octopus balls topped with slightly smokey, shaved bonito flakes. They were not crisp enough and there was a dearth of octopus bits so the texture was not what I like.

"Premium" skewers of wagyu beef, chicken thigh and beef tongue (but they forgot the eel that I ordered).

More skewers for us to try: chicken gizzard, heart, skin (not crispy enough) and liver ( a touch overcooked) and very good "crunchy/juicy" pork belly skewers. Also, very good chargrilled chicken thigh with yuzu and chili.

Crispy, tasty shisito pepper skewers topped with bonito shavings.

Kinako mochi ice cream with soy powder. I have enjoyed much better mochi elsewhere.

Kuro gama/black sesame ice cream with raspberry sauce, a big hit for everyone at the table.

I also enjoyed the annin tofu, house made almond jelly with strawberry sauce.

Staff Reminsces from Deborah Wightman

(Note: Deborah was the first employee hired by Alison in 1983)

    Wow 30 years, hard to believe that it has been that length of time since I first knocked on the door of The Cookbook Store to apply for a sales position in 1983. I remember having a great conversation with Alison who would be the manager of the store and recall wishing them all the best as it looked like it would be a fun place to work!  A few days later I got the call that I was hired as Alison's first employee ever and so began a flurry of work to get the store ready to open its doors on a cool Easter Monday in April 1983.

     The store and the friends and acquaintances that I met have been a part of my life ever since and I have vivid memories from my time working in the store and then being out with my colleagues at various book, food, travel and wine inspired events.

     How can I forget the time on a busy December morning, being on the phone with a customer, only to look up and see a car coming slowly and inexorably towards me through the front window.  To this day Alison likes to joke she doesn't know how I jumped backwards so far and then calmly told the customer on the phone I would have to call back as we had to deal with a car in the store.

     Then there was all the food when we started hosting book signings.  At first we didn't keep a camera handy so unfortunately we don't have those early photos of our first signing - Rose Murray's Vegetable Cookbook or the fabulous feast that Jan and Jennifer put on when Martha Stewart came to town to promote Entertaining.  Martha was lovely to chat with as this was before the whole domestic goddess / convicted felon thing and yes I still keep my autographed copy of Entertaining in my kitchen though I haven't made anything from the book in about 25 years.  I am much more likely to make something from a Rose Murray cookbook as much more practical for me!

      I also loved how The Cookbook Store staff would go out to restaurants with the goal to try almost everything on the menu and then pass the plates around to share. Today I am envious, as being mom to two teenaged kids with busy schedules and a member of a golf club with a food & beverage minimum to spend, this has severely cut into my restaurant hopping time, sigh.  Instead I now have to live vicariously through Alison's retelling of great restaurant meals!

     Through the years while my visits to the store have lessened as life keeps me busy, I still  come in before Christmas to buy my fix of cook books and if I am in the area shopping I love to stop for a chat with Alison and Jennifer, and best of all Alison and I have been friends ever since she first hired me on, though she does tell me the other candidate she was considering would have likely worked out as well!

     So back to my comment about my first impressions of Alison being great to talk to and The Cookbook Store being a fun place to work? As accurate today as they were 30 years ago!

      Congrats Alison to you, Jennifer, Josh, Barbara and all the other great folks in the last 30 years who have made the store the great experience that it remains today.

Deborah Wightman 

Cookbook Store employee #2 from 1983 - 1985

Currently working in the banking community

Staff Reminisces from Gina Alderman

     In the fall of 2008 I was a a few months away from beginning the Baking and Pastry Arts program at George Brown, when my friend John told me his workplace was looking for some seasonal help. I was already working full time as an admin at Health Canada but I had been so interested in (and jealous of) John’s job at The Cookbook Store that I put together an application faster than I ever had in my life. Needless to say I got the seasonal gig but afterwards they couldn’t get rid of me; I didn’t say goodbye until mid-summer 2010. Even now I have ties to the store, occasionally helping out with some online work, volunteering at some of the bigger events, and last spring teaching a macaron making demonstration in the beautiful new Kitchen Studio space.

      To this date working at the store has been my favourite job. I started at the store thinking it would be fun and give me access to great books - which it did. But what the store also gave me was a network of support, friends for a lifetime and so many experiences I would never trade for any dollar amount: An en eye-opening job shadow at Anna and Michael Olsen’s Olsen Foods at Ravine Winery; Assisting in a molecular gastronomy demonstration with the talented Chef John Placko; Access to amazing events with phenomenal chefs and writers like Ferran Adria, Gordon Ramsey, Thomas Keller and Ruth Reichl; The pleasure of meeting personal heroes like Elizabeth Baird, Nigella Lawson and most recently Deb Perelman of the blog Smitten Kitchen. (Many people still don’t believe me when I reveal I’ve met all these people!)

      I was introduced to new foods, new authors, new restaurants and greater knowledge of how the food and publishing industries work. I’ve become devoted to certain cookbook authors I would not have even known about had I not been at the store. Life would be less delicious without the ladies from The Canal House and the boys from Ottolenghi, to name a few. I had the pleasure of REALLY becoming intimate with the world of Julia Child during the Julie & Julia phenomenon, and I was positioned in a place to realize the exciting shifts in food culture that has occurred over the past five years with the farm-to-table, artisanal and online food community movements taking the helm.

      As for relationships - I am forever indebted to Alison and Jennifer, and my other friends from the store, for being an amazing emotional support for my family. In the spring of 2010 I realized that I was surprisingly “with child” (hilariously Jennifer and Alison had deduced this way before I told them - and perhaps before even I realized what was going on with me!). Needless to say it was a stressful time, capped off with my beautiful little girl arriving at 25 weeks gestation. The help I received from the store was, honestly, some of the most valuable I have ever received. Happily little Hannah is now a healthy, adorable and infuriatingly independent 2 year old - who loves baking and cooking with mommy and in her own play kitchen. I can’t wait to have her pick out her first cookbook - at The Cookbook Store, of course!

Gina Alderman

Cookbook Store employee 2008 - 2010

Gina Alderman is currently located in Kitchener-Waterloo, ON where  her primary role is chasing after 2-year-old Hannah and Hannah’s dad, Jesse. On top of that craziness she wears a variety of hats as a social media consultant for small business, an independent consultant with Arbonne (http://www.facebook.com/ArbonnebyGinaAlderman) and a freelance baker. She continues to be an avid cookbook reader and collector (though some use the term “addict”).

How it all began in 1983......

Reminisces from Barbara Caffery........original co-founder of The Cookbook Store

    

      I have a confession to make. I am a recipe girl. If truth be told, there is very little creativity in my kitchen, unless you call an extra tablespoon of Worcestershire in the pot roast creative. Perhaps this is a product of childhood where all good things came from recipes on the back of boxes: Lipton soup meatloaf and Duncan Hines cakes. Perhaps it was natural that I should want to surround myself with thousand of recipes, millions of recipes and those who knew how to make them.

     The making of The Cookbook Store was completely haphazard. I have a strange habit of hitting on projects that I cannot drop. An idea will strike me that seems so natural and exciting that it just has to happen. I sense that I have been let in on a preordained secret, a calling that is mine to fulfil.  This happened in 1983 when I headed towards my favourite store, Books for Cooks, and found locked doors and a sign with a receiver’s phone number that I scribbled on a stray piece of paper. During my day I had occasion to ask a lawyer what a receiver was. “Just call the number and ask them what the deal is” was the reply and so I did. It seems that I was the only one who called as they gave me the lease and the few remaining books and suddenly, with the blessing and support of my husband, an original foodie, I was a book store owner. As with many of my impossible projects in life, I was faced with the now what?

     The now what turned into a whirlwind of cracking open the yellow pages and calling each publisher from A-Z, asking for help from family and friends and putting an ad in the Toronto Star for a store manger. And there in the glow of the empty shelved store I interviewed a girl, yes she was only a girl, who convinced me of her capabilities. I had choices: middle aged women with book store experience, young chefs with business backgrounds, experienced editors. But this girl, this blond Alison, was the one for me.  And from this fortuitous choice came the wise, white-thumbed Jennifer, the tattooed OCAD girls, the cooking school wonders and the serious law students, food lovers all. And over those many years we saw each other through real life: births, deaths, marriages and their endings, celebrations. This store was as warm as its raspberry wallpaper. It welcomed you.

     This inviting, energetic place became a haven for chefs, home cooks, restaurateurs, babies in strollers and stumbling toddlers. There was always laughter inside when you opened the door, even on the coldest days. There was always someone who knew the best beef Wellington recipe. As time went along there were glory days: the gracious Julia Child not once but twice, Martha Stewart with her footrest pillow, Joshua Wesson of Red Wine with Fish fame ruminating over the Zen aspects of curling.

     This store has staying power. You cannot count the number of hairdressers, coffee shops and sandwich joints that have come and gone in the neighbourhood. And yet this store lives on in these uneasy times of bookstores turned gift shops, of online recipes, of paperless books, of cooking shows and takeout. But here in the shelves of a beautiful idea you can browse the many recipes, get advice from the experts, chat about the new restaurants in the city, share a great meal that you are proud of. And if you fear that this may be a dying entity, take time to listen to the whispers of those young people who believe in well made local food, farmer’s markets and truck food made fresh. This is the future that holds our hopes and The Cookbook Store is a very real part of it.

How it all begain in 1983.......

Reminisces from Josh Josephson original co-founder of The Cookbook Store and present owner.

     I am an unabashed lover of cook books as is Barbara Caffery. My partner in starting in The Cookbook Store back, way back in 1983.

      The Cookbook Store began because there was an opportunity for Barbara and I to take over from the existing "Books For Cooks", which was struggling. I loved the idea of establishing a wonderful store that would be a major resource for cook books. Barbara simply loved the idea of being in the book business and cook books added a note of excitement for her, as well as fueling her passion for baking.

      Once we had committed ourselves to the idea, Barbara became seriously involved, first looking to hire someone to operate the store day to day. She discovered Alison Fryer and was delighted to be working with Alison. Right from the beginning they were always on the same page. I remember the early excitement in our planning the design and the colours of the store, especially the lengthy time choosing the "Cookbook Store red". And the logo of the chef's hat sitting on top of books which I came up with on a dinner table no less! We still use an updated version of the logo to this day.

     In the early years, I was busy traveling extensively because of my work in the eye care field, and then busy with patients when I was in Toronto at our practice, so at the start I was giving financial support and encouragement. In the beginning Barbara and Alison did all the work of running the store and coming up with ideas for events and promotions. On one of the few free days she had from her practice Barbara would put in a full day Saturday, at the store, where she loved engaging with customers and talking about food, cooking and books.

     Those early days were exciting times, especially when we had the chance to enjoy the company of many emerging special chefs and authors, such as Martha Stewart, Gordon Ramsay, Jacques Pepin and our times with the icon, Julia Child.

     Now we entertain international superstars such as Rene Redzepi, Feran Adria and Thomas Keller but we always remember those early days and never forget those who made it all possible.  

30th Anniversary Staff Reminisces

       Today we launch a new feature on our blog and it comes from our staff past and present. I can say in all honesty we have had the most interesting, engaging and fun staff over the last 30 years. Many have gone on to careers in law, publishing, teaching, film, medicine and of course the restaurant and culinary world.
 
          Sometimes I hire because of a person's personality even though they have no retail experience. Sometimes we take on students because they need a break from their studies once a week. Once we hired a delightful gal from New Zealand on condition she brought her Westie dog with her, a mascot for the store if you like, and our blood pressure went down! We've taken those on work visas from Ireland, Scotland, England, and enjoyed watching them explore Toronto.

          Most importantly we all have one common denominator, we like food, we like to eat, and we like to talk about it.

          To all the staff over the last 30 years thank you for you commitment, your sense of humour, all the edible treats, your lifting of heavy boxes; you make coming to work not seem like work at all.

          Over the next few weeks we will be rolling out reminisces from former staff that we have been able to track down, so keep checking in with us and see who is talking about their time working at The Cookbook Store and where they are now.

Alison Fryer
Cookbook Store employee #1 since March 1983

Staff Reminisces from Kevin Jeung

      In a perfect instance of how The Cookbook Store became a huge part of my life and career, and continues to do so; a month after I had been hired, I found myself in face-to-face conversation with Anthony Bourdain!

       To be a part of the bricks and mortar building at the south-west corner of Yonge and Bloor is to be presented with unbelievable experiences and personalities. Whether I was walking Gordon Ramsay down Jarvis St. to St. Lawrence Market, sharing a Fernet Branca with Fergus Henderson, or running over from Splendido mid-mise-en-place on a Friday to beg Andoni Aduriz of Mugaritz for a stagiaire position (He said yes, and I am writing this piece from the stagiaire residence in Spain right now!), every day held the potential for something new, exciting and usually, delicious.  When I took a job in the kitchen at Splendido, I maintained employment at The Cookbook Store by working Sundays; my only day off. 

        It goes to say a lot about the kind of environment I was lucky enough to call a workplace for my two year tenure under the big red awning that after working 80+ hours in 6 days, I would happily step behind the cash register and help eager amateur cooks and experienced professionals find what they needed. It goes without saying that working in kitchens sacrifices the majority of opportunities you have to meet people outside your own restaurant. Working at The Cookbook Store provided me countless acquaintances and friendships, whether it was Alison introducing me to some of the biggest chefs in the city (to which many, I am now on a first name basis), or meeting cooks whom I watched grow from working electric stoves to running entire kitchens in my time at the store. Some of the people I met while shelving books and unpacking orders have gone on to become some of my best friends. 

        This is not to say that the only great people at the store were on the clients’ side of the counter; it has been an utmost pleasure to have worked beside so many bright, friendly and like-minded people. It takes a special kind of folk to convince me to cheat the transit system to bring back a workplace porchetta sandwich lunch from Dundas West, or brave sleet and snow to retrieve a bounty of griddle-smashed Americana from this super-popular burger place with a secret menu on Queen Street East. 

     To Alison, Josh, Jennifer, Young Jen, John, Amit, Kim, Jessica E., Jessica B, Justine, Adrian and Lisa (and all the other wonderful people I met along the way; there are too many to list!) it truly was a memorable and special 2 years. Thank You.

Kevin Jeung  

Cookbook Store employee 2010-2012

Currently doing a stagiaire at Mugaritz in Spain ( # 3 on The World's Best Restaurants list)

Kevin's P.S.  I was there when a 50lb cookbook was published, listed at $599.99 and sold out instantly (Modernist Cuisine). Books are not dead, people!

Nota Bene: Suckling Pig Wednesdays

Suckling pig is the Wednesday special. It is served with napa cabbage braised in the juices of the pig. Not only is this an extraordinary dish, but, for me, it is as good as suckling pig ever gets, anywhere I travel. I can't wait to come back for more! Juicy, wonderfully flavoured meat, delicate, but crispy skin.....a masterpiece! 

Opus Restaurant, Toronto

Opus restaurant is renown for having one of the very greatest wine cellars in Canada. But when it comes to the food, this restaurant is no slouch!

A remarkably good celery root puree soup with sea urchin, shiso, apple and brioche. I love sea urchin and each element of this dish was a complementary counterpoint to the sea urchin.

Perfectly cooked pink, guinea hen with black trumpet mushroom ravioli, rutabaga and parmesan jus. A most pleasing dish.

Beef tartar with crispy coated, perfectly undercooked oysters sided with sauce gribiche and topped with frites.

Dark chocolate molten cake with caramelized banana. A luxurious dessert and a pleasing finish for the meal.

Terroni, Yonge Street, Toronto

Terroni and sister restaurants have a longstanding rather vaunted reputation in Toronto. In it's earliest days at the original restaurant, I very much enjoyed the pizza. 

I do not choose to write about negative resto experiences. I prefer sharing my very enjoyable resto experiences and have no wish to be a "critic". But, by writing about this experience, perhaps someone with the Terroni organization may get wind of this review and try to get this restaurant's act together. It has a great location and a seemingly devoted clientele that keeps it packed most of the time.

Terroni opened a branch resto near the Summerhill liquor store on Yonge Street. I had eaten at the bar on the main level. The food was fine, but not exceptional and perhaps for what this resto does, the food does not have to be. It has taken me a long time to eat at the upstairs resto as it is often hard to get in at a reasonable hour at the last minute. This time, I tried booking a few days ahead and was only offered times of 5:15 or 9:15. I tied to ask the reservationist to allow my party of 2 to come in just a touch later, like even 5:30. I received a firm "no". You might imagine my consternation after being seated, looking at an almost entirely empty resto, which still had the odd empty table at 6:30, including a table for 2 right near us, which was still empty until just before we left.

And, there are absolutely no special requests permitted for the food. We ordered pizzas, at one time a reliable Terroni specialty. The pizzas arrived unsectioned/uncut. This might not be an issue for some pizzas, but, for these pizzas, the lack of attention to this detail just added to the pizza disaster.

The presentation of this white pizza, with mozzarella, gorganzola, sliced fingerling potatoes, house made spicy sausage and fresh rosemary, looked and smelled quite appealing. But, what a disappointment! The crust was rather tasteless and so chewy and tough, that we could not slice simple pieces with the serrated knives provided. Even trying to tear the pizza into reasonably sized pieces, resulted in a sloppy mess. The topping was tasty so we just scraped the topping off. The kitchen, not even deigning to pre-slice the pizzas, the pizzas were so much more difficult to eat.

The unfinished pizza, just too difficult to bother with eating and so unappealing after all.

My partner's pizza, mostly uneaten, the tasty top scraped off. Can you believe that the server cleared the dishes/pizzas, without taking any notice that the pizzas remained virtually uneaten!!?

Squid was properly cooked so the texture was good, but the breading, although light, was too oily to enjoy.

Garganelli gepetto with dandelion greens, house made spicy sausage, fontina and parmesan cheese and a touch of olive oil. This was the dish of the "night" for me. A very tasty experience, the slightly bitter greens complemented the earthy, slightly spicy, sausage and some of the sweeter aspects of the cheeses. The slightly undercooked crunchy textured greens were a pleasing experience with the coarsely textured sausage. The pasta was perfectly cooked and had good texture, a very good dish.

I did not care much for the texture of the crust or taste of the canoli filling. The crust was not crunchy enough.

Hazelnut gelato was rich and creamy and had a pleasant flavour.

Friday Lunch at Pizzeria Via Mercanti

Just when we thought we had had it with pizza, we decided to give Pizzeria Via Mercanti a try. Let's just say, pizza has us back in its grip again.

The pizza makers left Queen Margherita in Leslieville to open Pizzeria Via Mercanti in Kensington Market.  Thin on the bottom, but thick enough to provide some chew on the rim, this is excellent crust. Some people probably think the rim should be crisper but we disagree.  Thin though the bottom is, there is enough body to provide a sturdy foundation for the fillings.  There is some char but not so much that you feel you have bitten into a chunk of charcoal. Not only does it have good texture, this is a flavorful crust.

For those who are suffering tomato sauce burnout, the broccoli e salsiccia pizza, topped with fior di latte, sausage, and rapini,  offers welcome relief  plus bitterness to cut the richness of the cheese and sausage. The latter, by the way,serves up a good hit of fennel.

The Margharita is simplicity itself--basil, cheese, and one of the best tomato sauces we have sampled lately. A tomato sauce simmered up in the middle of tomato season could not taste fresher.

Two pies were more than enough for two people. Fortunately, the leftovers were just as delicious cold as they were hot!

Price: $29.38

Location: 188 Augusta Avenue

Phone: 647-343-6647

Edulis Restaurant, Once more: a Wonderful Gustatory Experience

I have written about my Edulis Experiences, more than once. And here I am writing about my experience again. But, each experience has proven to be so pleasing and so special, I feel obliged to give credit where such credit is due and to share my pleasure with those who might soon come to enjoy this restaurant. See for yourself. NB, Some of these dishes must be pre-ordered a week ahead.

A pre-order, that appears on the menu, from time to time. For me one of the signature dishes of this restaurant. Lobster with rice, assigned a Spanish name on the menu (arroz caldoso con bogavante). You will get a rice dish with chunks of perfectly cooked lobster, flavoured with an exceptionally intense lobster reduction/broth, which I find quite addictive.

"Celerisotto", cooked in the style of risotto, diced celery root with bone marrow and truffles. A creative dish with an amazing range of gratifying flavours.

Cuttlefish a la plancha with ajo blanco (a pureed soup of almonds laced with garlic) accompanied by pickled onion jelly and topped with sliced roasted almonds. Almonds, in this pureed rendition, gave flavourful structure to this soup. It is brilliant cuisine element that can be used to enhance other dishes if you love to cook.

Roasted veal sweetbreads with wild mushrooms and bay leaves, topped with shaved zucchini and heirloom carrot. Few chefs, from my experience, work so well with sweetbreads, other than chef Chris Macdonald.

Goat cooked in apple cider with smoked apple stuffing, accompanied by cider soaked prunes and cloves of roasted garlic. Perhaps the best goat dish I have ever enjoyed (or at least remember), not just because of the flavours, but because the goat was so sublimely, melt-in-your-mouth tender.

The signature dessert of Edulis, its baba au rum. The simple sweet cake is laced with a slightly salty flavoured rum, a liquid gold. At virtually every meal I enjoy here with friends, despite the complaint, "I'm so full", everyone tastes this dish, and finishes it!

The Grove Restaurant, Toronto

The Grove is a hot new restaurant. Jacob Richler, writing for Macleans magazine, named it the best new restaurant of 2012. The Grove was remarkably featured in part of a recent article concerning English cuisine, that was a feature in the New York Times. The English influence was present, but not overbearing, but, don't hold that against chef Ben Heaton. This was simply good cooking.

We began with "snacks":

Lobster butty, an English take on a lobster sandwich. Good, but not something that I would reorder.

Very good chips with curried ketchup. The house produced ketchup made the dish. The chips could have been a bit crispier.

Smoked mackerel and mussels on toast with tomato, sliced pickled cucumber and house made mayo. This was a very good dish, good flavours combined with the soft mussels and crispy toast.

Black pudding with devilled eggs, topped with a slice of radish. The flavour of the black pudding was lost with this dish. What we got was basically, pretty good devilled eggs.

Appetizers:

The beginnings of the soup, featuring snails, mildly smoky bacon and crispy fried bread.

Completion, parsley root puree soup was added. There were wonderfully pleasing flavours and textures in this earthy soup. This was my favoured dish of the night.

Beef tartar with marmite, celeriac, white onion and fried bread crumbs, with barley chips and "reverse hollandaise (more yolk than butter)

The mains:

Beef cheek with breaded fried bone marrow mounted on celeriac fondant, sided with gentlemen's relish. This was my other favourite dish.

Puddings:

Brown butter cake with caramelized brown butter crumble.

A delightful and refreshing rhubarb and goat cheese fool.

Kingyo Izakaya

Kingyo is a Toronto branch of the Vancouver restaurant, Kingyo, that serves refined Japanese comfort and bar food.

Raw chopped octopus and pickles marinated in a kelp/wasabi flavoured sauce, accompanied  by nori sheets. Tasting of the sea, the octopus is crunchy textured, with a bit of a bight.

Grilled, sweet saikyoi miso marinated black cod with a yuzu miso sauce. The flavours and textures were sublime.

Sea urchin "shooter" with shiso, sticky yamaino yam, sea kelp, sushi rice, yuzu and orange, topped with a raw quail's egg yolk. If you love sea urchin, this sea mist fragrant shooter will be an "eye opener".

Avocado, raw shrimp and raw tuna with garlic fragrant, buttered toasts. Another very pleasing dish with complementary flavours and textures.

Beef tongue served with cilantro dipping sauce and a dab of hot pepper paste. The fattiness of the pre-cooked tongue, grilled to one's liking on the very hot stone, was sublime.

Stone grilled Tajima beef, sourced from Australia. The beef although a touch tough, was wonderfully marbled and highly pleasing.

The hot pot before the sauce was added and heated.

Hida takayama style spicy chicken hot pot with sesame miso, chicken thighs, shredded cabbage, kimchi, chives and bean sprouts. A meal in itself.

"Flame seared" salmon oyako battera and salmon roe. Oyako (family) battera box sushi. The salmon was too salty, almost inedibly so and was not flame seared. This "flame seared" dish was a very inferior version of the Jabistro version.

O-sho kuragga with "magic pepper" blend powder, was boneless chicken battered and deep fried. A tasty dish, the chicken was juicy and not overcooked, but the breading was not crispy enough. Nevertheless, this was a pleasing dish.

Otana no pudding. Very soft, silky rich, egg based flan on a bitter caramel, liquid base.

Coloured almond tofu: almond tofu with berry sauce and jasmin sauce. This was a delightful refreshing dessert.

L'Unita Restaurant Revisted, Toronto: New Chef

L'Unita has gone through a few chef transformations, but, I found that the current chef is doing good things. I was glad that I had returned to experience the transformation. I sent a good friend, a resident of New York, a well known wine writer and former restaurant reviewer, to dine here, after my visit. He was truly impressed by the pizza!

Rich tasting, duck conserva bruschetta with roasted pear and radicchio. Well done!

N'duja sausage and potato pizza topped with kale pesto, red onion and piave cheese. This pizza was marvellously thin and crispy with great flavours. The texture/flavour composition was so addictive that I craved another.

Sweet onion and tomato soup with scamorza, crostini and olive oil. Another hit.

Ciriole and braised lamb ragu with rosemary and grana padano cheese. The flavour of sauce was ok, but was a bit bland. The texture of the pasta could have been better.

This was a good dish of seared scallops but scallop freshness must be pristine.

Mascarpone cannoli with candied orange and white chocolate cream. We fought over these.