"Groundhog Day": A 7 Chef Competition at Cava Resto, Toronto

Groundhog Day is a competition of invited chefs for the best pork dish of the night. The annual competition has 2 prizes, one, a trophy and the second, a $250.00 gift certificate to The Cookbook Store.


The present competition had the following chefs: Ted Corrado of Compass Canada, formerly chef at C5 of the ROM; Teo Paul of Union Restaurant (www.union72.ca); Ryan Donovan of Marben Restaurant (marbenrestaurant.com; Ryan Crawford of The Stone Road Grill (www.stoneroadgrille.com) Niagara on the Lake, Ontario; Mark Cutrara of Cowbell restaurant (www.cowbellrestaurant.ca); Guy Rawlings of Lucien restaurant (www.lucienrestaurant.com); Albert Ponzo of le select restaurant (www.leselect.com).


Non-competing host Cava's pork and beans by chefs Doug Penfold and Chris Macdonald. White navy beans with picked chunks of pig's trotters.

Spicy pork sausage in a tortilla, accompanied by fermented celery. My 3rd fave dish of the night.

Different parts of the pig presented as rilletes, chicheron, sauteed and liquified and fried terrine.

Pig's head and cod terrine, roti and saucisson. My second favourite dish of the night.

Albert Ponzo's (Le select) wild boar head cheese imbedded in foie gras terrine, with quail egg and guanciale en gelee, duck skin walnut crumble, brioche, prune and pear mostarda and pickled beet.

Chef Ryan Donovan's pork en croute with radish, pickled turnip, grainy mustard and verjus. The best visual presentation of the night.

 

Chef Mark Cutrara of Cowbell Restaurant presented a delicious heritage pork cotechino sausage flavoured with allspice, cayenne and nutmeg, and was accompanied by lentil du puis and pickled cherry "bomb". From a taste perspective, tied for my second fave dish of the night.

Chef Ryan Crawford's "fat-tastic dessert": "The Barnyard": smoked maple bacon ice cream "pig" with crispy "pig" tail; bacon "trough" with bacon caramel mousse; bacon caramel corn; cinnamon sugar crackling "dirt"; confit apple compote. All pig elements came from "home grown" Berkshire pigs. This dish was a triumphant success in every way...execution, flavours and presentation! The photo really does not do it justice. A clear winner for most of us and the grand prize winner at this event.

Cava Restaurant Dinner Highlighting Spanish Wines

Cava is an outstanding restaurant to experience regional Spanish flavours influenced by highly acclaimed chef Christopher Mcdonald and his partner and co-owner chef Doug Penfold.


We began with suquet (a Catalan style seafood stew) of Pacific halibut with wild Irish mussels, Fanny Bay oysters, sea asparagus and sea urchin alioli. The highly flavoured dish was briny and redolent of the smell and taste of the sea.

Then, we enjoyed corn and chanterelle soup with bits of Nova Scotia lobster. This was a bit of sweet heaven.

A fabulous paella of Chanticler chicken, Quebec's version of poulet de Bresse, a standout, no expense spared ingredient in chef's version of paella that also included okra and snails. The texture of the paella was a dream. It was so moist and full of complex and earthy flavours. For me, the best paellas that I have experienced in Canada, are enjoyed at Cava.

Finally, lamb presented 4 ways: very tender, medium rare loin; succulent pickled tongue; tender braised cheek; squash blossom lamb's brain fritter (the brain nor the blossom do not justify each other as the flavours are lost) accompanied by smoked pimenton sauce, a very sweet and tender carrot and braised dandelion greens which most of us felt was overdone to an extreme bitterness ( the idea was right but the execution taken to an extreme). 

The dessert (no photo) was Spanish trifle with Pedro Jimenez soaked prune and seville orange sabayon. The perfect ending to a terrific meal.

La Chaine Des Rotisseurs at Cava Resto, Toronto

It is always a great comfort for me to return to food inspired by a gent I consider one of Canada's great chefs, Chris Macdonald and his extremely able partner, the executive chef of Cava, Doug Penfold. The excuse this time was a dinner organized by my confreres in La Chaine des Rotisseurs.

We began with duck thuringer sausage with a fig tapenade and a pincho (pinxto) of sea urchin with lardo and spicy pickled cabbage. These apps clearly demonstrate the originality and creativity of these chefs, apps that are inspired by the chef's travels and well grounded knowledge of cuisine. The duck sausage was nicely gamey, well flavoured and the sweet aspects of the fig were such a good complement. I have enjoyed sea urchin with lardo in 2 of New York's great restos, but this execution was my favourite. Both the lardo and sea urchin have creamy qualities, but different textures and the more savoury lardo is an interesting match for the urchin's intense flavours of the sea. The pickled cabbage set both off both of these ingredients so well.

Our first course was salt cod composition, salt cod carpaccio with garlic chips and pequillo peppers, salt cod custard topped with chopped chives and caviar and a deep fried, Fanny Bay oyster Wrapped with cod puree and a bread crumb crust on a bed of sauteed leeks. And what a composition this was! 

Next, we were served Lois Lake steelhead salmon with jamon iberico. The fish, was perfectly cooked medium rare with a very delectable and crispy skin, was placed on the ham and a wilted purple cabbage slaw and all surrounded by a lovely beurre blanc.

The main was milk braised Texas red wattle pork loin with roasted Kawartha root vegetables with a nutmeg flavoured cream sauce. This was truly delicious pork, rounded, complex, strong pork flavours with a creamy textured fat that demanded to be eaten despite one's elevated cholesterol issues (I just had a bight!).

We were then presented with a selection of Spanish and French cheeses, courtesy of the exceptional purveyor, The Cheese Boutique. They were in wonderful condition and perfectly ready to be enjoyed at their best.

Creamy ash rind cheese from the Loire valley.

A fabulous french cow and goat's milk cheese wrapped in chestnut leaves and ideazabel, a firm smoked, unpasteurized sheep's milk cheese.

The cheeses were enjoyed with perfectly matched traditional Spanish quince jelly and house made fig nut "cookies".

Our dessert was an exceptional milk chocolate bergamot bombe topped with a wonderful dark chocolate croqueta. 

Cava Restaurant

1560 Yonge St (just north of St. Clair)

Toronto, ON
416-979-9918

Cava's Paella VQA Wine Pairing Event

A crowd of enthusiastic wine industry people and passionate foodies gathered for this evening of Spanish cuisine created and prepared by the very talented chefs Christopher Macdonald and Doug Penfold at Cava Restaurant. I will not speak about the wines as many wine writers attended this event and will report about the evening.

We began with "tapas": a single mussel covered with a salsa of chopped, wild pickled leeks, oven roasted tomato, hominy corn, mint and olive oil. A wonderful combination of textures and flavours that  complemented the mussel; a combination of chicken liver mousse and tripe with arbol chilies, the smokey, spicey flavours combining so well with the rich liver; crispy, crunchy deep fried smelts with an herbal mayonnaise dipping sauce; nutty flavoured, delicate, very thinly sliced La Quercia green label organic ham.

Our main course, paella, was made with snails, pulled roasted duck, sliced chorizo, saffron, orange zest, garlic and bomba rice. This was great Spanish comfort food. Very moist with a terrific combination of flavours: the smokey chorizo, earthy snails, rich tasting duck meat, the bright contrast of the orange zest giving dimension to the layered flavours and the wonderful background flavour of saffron.

A slice of manchego cheese, a wedge of mildly tarte membrillo (quince paste) and mini rolls refreshed my palate.

Dessert was pistachio nougate served on a semi-freddo of seville orange cubes and candied orange zest, all surrounded by Mexican porcelana chocolate(one of the world's highest quality) sauce. This wonderful dark chocolate mellowed the bitter aspect of the seville orange and well complemented the pistachio nougate. I wanted to lick my plate!