Gold Medal Plates 2011

Gold medal plates is the big fundraiser held across Canada to raise funds for the olympic athletes. This year, Langdon Hall chef Jonathan Gushue was the winner.

Jason Bangerter, Luma

Confit of chicken liver terrine with liver parfait, shallots and port wine.

 Rob Gentile, Buca

Tortelli d'oca: goose offal and delicate porcini filled pasta with cured goose breast, hazelnut, crisp rosemary leaves and 13th Street merlot vincotto. A liquid butter/egg yolk and merlot reduction surrounded the pasta on which were scattered chopped nuts.

Jonathan Gushue, Langdon Hall (Winner)

Garden brussel sprouts, white salsify, black salsify chips, preserved oysters, duck's egg and smoked trout caviar. This was a remarkably satisfying dish: the brussel sprout leaves still had texture and a slight firmness to the bight; the salsify added and earthy taste; the oyster had a soft texture that matched the firmer texture of the other elements and the briny flavour enhanced the flavours of the sprouts and salsify.

Tom Brodi, Toca

Palacsinta wrapped veal cheek, braised cabbage and pickled Cinnamon Cape mushrooms.

Tony De Luca, De Luca's Wine Country Restaurant

Ice wine roasted Ontario venison tenderloin with chestnut tuile, blue cheese mousseline and celery root puree with vanilla.

 Ted Corrado, C5 Restaurant

Beef short rib, parsley root puree, toasted barley and roasted grape jus. This was a hearty satisfying dish.

Lorenzo Losetto, George

Veal blade, harvest vegetables, chestnut potato.

David Lee, Nota Bene

Roasted squab, David's tortiere ( pastry was filled with a mixture of ground moose, duck and black pig), black pudding sauce. The squab was perfectly cooked and the tortiere gamey and delicious.

Patrick McMurray, Starfish Oyster Bed and Grill and Ceili Cottage Restaurants

Organic chicken liver pate served with a fabulous organic cherry compote that had a bright tangy taste that went so well with the rich tasting chicken liver.

Weathervane scallops which had a wonderful sweetness which combined well with the rich taste of the roe.

Patrick McMurray presents his wonderfully fresh tasting sea urchins.

Peet smoked steel head trout and peet smoked salmon.

Cured steel head trout.

Jason Carter, Centro 

Bison cooked sous vide with fried moss and salsify. The cooking rendered this bison incredibly tender and juicy.

Michael Steh, Red's Bistro and Wine Bar

A play on "bacon and eggs"...... there was no bacon: scallop mousse in a piece of brioche topped with a duck's egg yolk and coffee cured, smoked (with Henry of Pellham oak), chewy duck breast; sided with sweet onion and cheddar soup topped with a thin slice of smoked crispy apple; accompanied by an egg shell filled with lavender and soy custard, diced northern kiwi, crunchy coconut "bacon" and riesling gelee. This was a complex and interesting dish, but the standout was the fabulous brioche "sandwich".

The brigade of the chefs enters the main hall, holding the bottle of wine that was served to match their dish.

Gold Medal Plates Food Event

At the VIP reception, former Gold Medal Plates Winner Chef David Lee greeted everyone with a reprise of his winning dish from last year, crispy chicken skin topped with soft cartilage and a small piece of mildy hot pepper, as an app and also a dish of beans and blood sausage with pigs trotter ragout de boulettes (meatballs).

Frank Dodd, chef of Hillebrand Winery Restaurant, presented soft unctuous pigs head terrine  terrine, plated with a crunchy bacon sugar crisp in a creamy ice-cold bacon ice cream ball and also hot pastry covered soup, a lovely broth with cubed squash, ham hock and white beans. A very interesting and palate provoking juxtaposition of elements. The pastry crust was the only weakness, not flaky enough.

Anne Yarmovitch, chef of the Art Gallery restaurant, Frank, presented melt in your mouth corned beef tongue with exceptionally tender braised beef cheek, all mounted on potato and parsnip pureee accompanied by zippy and tarte horseradish puree, beet and horseradish relish, pickled baby beet and a crisp horseradish chip. This was my favourite dish for intense flavours and texture.

Chef Anthony Walsh, of Canoe Restaurant, presented cumbrae farms turkey "a la king", pieces of pulled turkey with spaetzle, edamame and small chunks of lobster (would have preferred larger). Protein liquid from the lobster and turkey stock along with creme fraiche, was put through a creamer under pressure, to create  a very tasty foam that was placed on the top of the ingredients.

Chef Jonanthan Gushue of Langdon Hall Restaurant presented "pickerel under pressure". Pickerel was combined with butter and thyme and cooked sous vide (but not "under pressure") and plated with heartnut creme fraiche, thinly sliced black radish, celery hearts and black pepper honey. A delicate combination of subtly flavoured ingredients for the mild taste of the perfectly cooked fish.

Chef Lora Kirk of Ruby Watchco Restaurant presented delectable slow braised, extremely tender short ribs, mounted on a shallot puree and all topped topped with bone marrow and caviar. What a wonderful combination of flavours. My number 2 dish.

Chef Ted Corrado of C5 Restaurant  at the ROM presented Cumbrae Farms flavourful, tender lamb neck, cooked sous vide, with garlic peppercorns and thyme, anchovy, porcini confit and chanterelles, sprouts, charred onion sauce all topped with finely shaved white truffle.

Lorenzo Loseto of George Restaurant presented very tender Tamworth pork belly, ricotta cavatelli, artichokes, matsutake mushrooms, red pepper sauce with marsala jus and elderberry sauce. A very complementary presentation of flavours.

Chef Martin Koupre of Pangaea Restaurant presented perfectly cooked rare duck breast with wild mushrooms, pearl onions, shaved duck liver, lingonberry sauce and shaved yellow beet root. Another wonderful assembly of complementary flavours for a dish.

Chef Jamie Kennedy of the Gilead cafe presented a "celebration of poultry", a delicious terrine of hearts, gizzards, fois gras and confit combined with both a Hillier wine onion soubise and a mignonette sauce. I took a photo, but somehow, it was not stored. But, a lovely colourful presentation.



Chef Michael Steh of Red's Bistro and Wine Bar presented saddle of rabbit stuffed with Slovenian blood sausage, smoked rabbit kielbasa, crisp fried rabbit confit, verjus glazed baby veg (carrots, scallions and beets) and armagnac poached prunes. Sauce of chanterrelles and grainy mustard. There were perhaps too many flavours and textures happening together in this dish, but a very ambitious effort.

JAMES BEARD BOOK AWARDS 2010 WINNERS

The annual James Beard Awards were given out last night in New York for the best cookbooks of 2009. One Canadian winner David Sax for Save The Deli. Also in the media broadcast awards, Laura Calder takes home honours for her Food Network Canada show French Food at Home.

Cookbook of the Year
The Country Cooking of Ireland by Colman Andrews


American Cooking
Real Cajun by Donald Link and Paula Disbrowe


Baking and Dessert
Baking by James Patterson

Beverage
Been Doon So Long by Randall Grahm


Cooking from a Professional Point of View The Fundamental Techniques of Classic Pastry Arts by the French Culinary Institute and Judith Choate

General Cooking
Ad Hoc at Home by Thomas Keller
  

Healthy Focus Love Soup by Anna Thomas


International The Country Cooking of Ireland by Colman Andrews


Reference and Scholarship Encyclopedia of Pasta by Oretta Zanini de Vita

Single Subject Pasta Sfoglia by Ron Suhanosky

Writing and LiteratureSave the Deli: In Search of Perfect Pastrami, Crusty Rye, and the Heart of Jewish Delicatessen by David Sax 

Photography Seven Fires: Grilling the Argentine Way by Francis Mallmann and Peter Kaminsky


Cookbook Hall of Fame
A Book of Middle Eastern Food by Claudia Roden

Gold Medal Plates Chef Competition

I am a bit late filing these observations, but have been away at a well known "fat farm" to lose all of the excess baggage I had put on after 2 months of non-stop travel. As everyone may be aware, chef David Lee won the Toronto Gold Medal Plates competition, qualifying to compete in the Canada wide chefs final competition, all in the interest of helping to raise funds in support of the Canadian olympic athletes. Chef Lee won with his well executed Feran Adria (chef at the world's #1 resto, El Bulli, in Spain) inspired crispy chicken skin topped with it's cartilage, flavoured with plum hoisin and sour apple compote. Having tasted the El Bulli version, I can say, that in some respects, his version was even better because how he brought new flavours to the dish to enhance the pure chicken experience. This was one of my top 4 favourite experiences of the night.

Chef Mark McEwan presented braised rabbit with apple caponata gnocchi and a roasted squash puree. Chef Donna Dooher of Mildred Temple Kitchen created one of my top 4 experiences of the night, a dish reflective of some of the new texture taste experiences I enjoyed in Spain, potted dungeness crab salad with chopped heirloom winter radishes, mache, jellied butter and Dijon ice cream. Chef Teddy Corrado of C-5 restaurant at the ROM presented an ambitious smoked mackerel and hokkaido scallop with barley, tatsoi, speckled trout roe from Prince Edward County, pickled gooseberry all topped with a sauce mornay. Chef Jason Bangerter of Auberge Du Pommier created a very flavourful roasted venison loin on golden nugget squash puree with port wine glazed onion tarte, braised chestnuts all topped with a vanilla game jus (one of my top 4 favourites). Chef Anne Yarmovitch of Frank Restaurant in the AGO presented roasted glazed pork belly with purple cabbage sauerkraut, brandied blue prune plums, plum cardamom and blue potato chips.

In all, a wonderful evening of great tastes for a worthy cause.

Gold Medal Plates Chef Competition

The chef of Lai Wah Heen created a varied presentation of several tastes on the plate, one of which was bbq beef.

Gold Medal Plates Chef Competition

Chef Jonathan Gushue of Langdon Hall presented a torchon of foie gras, black pig cheek with lentil de puy, lobster pudding, honey picked chanterelles, parsely root with Warsaw apple cider jus.

Gold Medal Plates Chef Competition

Chef Patrick Lin, last year's winner of the Gold Medal Plates competition created 4 outstanding small plates for the VIP reception: a wonderful creamy rich foie gras creme brulet  flavoured with chinese 5 spices; duck rillette with crab meat, topped with black truffle and espresso sauce; duck breast peking style with green onion, celery and home made hoisin sauce, all rolled up in a spring roll cone (this was one of my top 4 dishes of the night); an elegantly presented candied walnut rolled with foie gras, topped with orange flavoured lotus crisp (see below).

CUISINE CANADA BOOK AWARDS

Well it was a star studded affair at the Cuisine Canada Book Awards, held for the second year at the Royal Agricultural Winter Fair on Friday November 6th. Publishers, authors and media types, mingled discussed food, and The Royal, as well as the other Royals Camilla and Charles after their earlier morning visit to The Royal, and of course ate! With Jurgen Gothe hosting, Anna Olson, Lucy Waverman in the audience along with man about town, well Vancouver town, Whitecap publisher Robert McCullough, it was the A list foodies out in full force for a standing room only event.

The audience positively gasped when Company's Coming took home gold in the Cookbook Category for Small Plates for Sharing, beating out Fat in the category, a James Beard Book Award winner. Anita Stewart's Canada took home gold in the Canadian Food Culture category and Beyond the Great Wall, by Naomi Duguid and Jeffrey Alford, took gold in Special Interest category.
Ricardo positively beemed and was genuinely humbled in his speech to have won in the French category for his book Ricardo.

Three additonal awards were given. Culinary Landmarks Hall of Fame, is a new award and this year was given in honour of Elizabeth Driver's tome Culinary Landmarks: A bibliography of Canadian cookbooks 1825-1949. This is an incredible book and took Liz 17 years to complete!

The Edna Award is given in memory of Edna Staelber long time writer and champion of food. The award is given to an individual who has contributed to the promotion of regional cuisine and who exemplifies the region through his or her work This year's winner is the amazing Robert Arniel from Newfoundland.

Probably the most touching moment came with the announcement of The Founder's Award, given on occasion to those Canadians who have achieved a lifetime of service to the culinary community of Canada. They may come from any field of culinary endeavour. Judy Creighton, of Canadian Press, is only the second recipient and received a standing ovation from the audience and gave a funny and endearing speech. 

The awards are in their 12th year and this year's short listed books seem to have outstripped the awards criteria, which in itself is a great indication of the today's terrific Canadian food writing. Hopefully a few tweaks here and there will bring everything in line.

The reception afterwards was a wonderful meeting of people and food. Jeff Crump's, (Ancaster Old Mill) mushroom cauliflower risotto was sublime, made all the better when I went to Chef David Garcelon's (Royal York) table and topped it off with the crackling from his pork roast. Yummy! Garcelon's dark honey was delicious,drizzled on just about anything but especially Monforte cheese; the honey came from the wonderful roof top garden of the Royal York Hotel. Accompanying wine from Niagara Teaching College Winery was a pleasant surprise and I've put their Pinot on my list to buy after tasing it at the awards.

All in all this is a growing event, and with a strong list of books in 2009 next year's awards ceremony should be even bigger and better.

WCN & The Cookbook Store Honour Jennifer McLagan, Naomi Duguid & Jeffrey Alford

Posted by Alison

Foodies, media and friends gathered at Pangaea on Monday June 22nd for a party thrown by the Women's Culinary Network and The Cookbook Store to honour authors Jennifer McLagan, Naomi Duguid & Jeffrey Alford(who alas could not attend), for their books, Fat and Beyond the Great Wall.

This Spring these local Toronto authors took top prizes in their respective categories from the prestigious International Assoc. of Culinary Professionals and the James Beard Foundation Book Awards. The Beards are The Oscars of the food community, I kid you not, right down to the black tie and a who's who of chefs, tv personalities, writers and probably the best stand up food afterwards!

Naomi & Jeff's latest book Beyond the Great Wall swept both awards from each organization as did Jennifer's book Fat. Not only is this a great accomplishment in one year to have two Toronto authors so decorated, but Jennifer's book also won Cookbook of the Year from the Beard Foundation.

On hand to speak were Bonnie Stern on behalf of Beard Foundation, Dana McCauley (IACP), Anne Collins (publisher - Random House Canada), and Doug Pepper (President of McClelland and Stewart), as well as Chef Martin Kouprie of Pangaea. Needless to say Alison had a few words as did Nettie Cronish of WCN before raising a glass to toast the honorees. A great time was had by all and hopefully there will be lots of opportunity to honour Canadian food writing in the future.

L-R: Jennifer McLagan, Naomi Duguid, Alison Fryer, Nettie Cronish, Doug Pepper, Anne Collins

L-R: Bonnie Stern, Nettie Cronish, Jennifer McLagan, Naomi Duguid

L-R: Jennifer McLagan, Naomi Duguid, Alison Fryer

L-R: Anne Collins, Nettie Cronish, Jennifer McLagan, Naomi Duguid, Doug Pepper, Alison Fryer