Langdon Hall, Cambridge Ontario, Lunch and Dinner.

The extraordinary aspect of any experience eating at Langdon hall, in the summertime or early fall, is that virtually everything on the plate is from their gardens or the immediate surrounding geographical area. All of the vegetables, flowers and herbs are freshly picked just before the dinner and just before the lunch services, bringing a unique flavour experience to each dish. Please keep this fact in mind when you read the constituents of each dish. For me, the colourful presentation and fresh bright flavours of the freshly picked and exceptionally varied ingredients, so well composed and harmonized, made this experience as great as that in any great restaurant in the world.

Lunch

The ingredients to which the beet borscht below, was added: pickled beets, whipped chevre, fennel fronds.

Beet borscht, created a la minute, for my lunch partner as a surprise. The soup was incredibly refreshing.

Pressed baby carrot terrine set in herb and carrot juice was accompanied by coconut milk, pickled ginger, coconut milk, ginger, yellow and orange carrot purees, mint oil, garden herbs, all dressed with a carrot vinaigrette. The carrot flavour of the terrine was intense! 

The beginning of the spring onion soup. The soup (added below) was placed beside a dollop of very concentrated, jelly like, onion consomme, wild garlic mustard, baby leeks and crispy sour dough crumb. 

 The onion soup added to the dish above.

Jerusalem artichoke agnolotti with sweet peas, baby turnip, radish, nasturtium leaves and topped with shavings of mimolette cheese. The flavours of the dish were fabulous but the pasta could have been a touch more delicate. 

Baked halibut with asparagus, hen of the woods mushrooms, chopped crispy chicken skin and champagne cream. I found the fish, a tad overcooked for my liking, but the texture was still pleasant.

The delicious clementine cake topped with a slice of candied clementine and sided with spiced yam sorbet (another huge hit!).

Hazelnut pot de creme was deliciously rich and flavoured with Frangelico and topped with a praline shard.

Dinner 

Our "ameuse", I had a very small baby red carrot buried in the "dirt" and my partner, a very small baby turnip. This was uniquely chef Bangerter's inspiration and not an attempt to copy chef Rene Redzepi's idea. The "dirt" was very different in composition than chef Redzepi's, in fact, from my perspective and experience, more interesting in texture and flavours. The dirt was composed of kaniwa grains, vinegar and finely chopped blanched beets

Poached white asparagus accompanied by cured goose egg white and yolk, chive flowers and hazelnut gribiche.

Poached green asparagus with early garden sprouts and caviar and squid ink aioli. The flowers and herbs were lavender, Anise hyssop, wild hemp flower, marigold, rose petal and thyme. Brilliant flavours (you may hear me say this a lot!)

This glass "pitcher" is filled with chilled spring vegetable juice consisting of lavender, angelica, cucumber, wild leek and mint. The juice was pored into the glass below to be sipped through the freshly cut and fragrant angelica straw. It was to be enjoyed with the dish below.

The chilled angelica broth and angelica straw.

A "salad" of snap peas, radish pods, brassica, pureed celery root, puree of brassica flowers and peas, purple bean, pickled wild leek and mint

This plate was made with the image of the hands of the head gardener, Mario. The dish is called "terroir", consisting 27 ingredients from the garden, including foraged leaves, burnt shallot and wild berries. The "dirt" component consists of fine mix of black walnuts, brown sugar and roast onions. There was also a sorbet consisting of gooseberries, raspberries, currents and wild strawberries, incorporated in the dish. The whole dish was garnished with edible leaves, hemp, daisy, etc.

Spring salmon, a dish consisting of salmon just fished out of the water 2 days ago and cured, young vegetables such as tiny zucchini, runner beans, sweet sicily, coriander seeds and lemon "candy". Warm consomme was then added to the dish, made of garden vegetables and herbs, coriander seed "punch" and a touch of white balsamic vinegar. The flavour of the broth was intense and so well complemented the cured salmon.

"Jerusalem artichoke", consisting of pureed, creamed and roasted jerusalem artichoke with a pepper-honey glaze, smoked nut crumbs, pickled radish and baby turnip. 

Halibut and spot prawn accompanied by chanterelles and sweet peas. The prawn was perfectly cooked (slightly under as it should be), but the fish, was a tad over. Still, the textures and sublime flavours, were fabulous. The cooked shrimp was finished with a shaved piece of berkshire pork lardon. The sauce was prepared from the bones of the halibut and the shells of the shrimp and made into a light beautifully flavoured bisque. The sun had gone down by the time this photo was taken.

Crab boudin en courgette with a warm saffron water vinaigrette. The water vinaigrette was made with basil, fennel and leeks. The zucchini flower was stuffed with a mousseline of crab. 

"Heritage hen" from a local farmer, consisting of sliced breast and leg presse. The breast was a touch over brined so the texture was a bit dry but barely so. despite that, the flavour of the meat was wonderful. The leg meat presse was a terrine of perfect texture and very juicy. The dish was accompanied by fresh morels, baby leeks and garlic scape and surrounded by a sherry jus made from the bones, dripping and skin.

"Coconut ganache", coconut "paper", raspberries, Mario's flowers, pistachio cake crumble, cocoa cake crumble, a powder of violet leaves with lavender, sea salt and a rich chocolate ganache. Remarkable!

From left to right, honey crumb cookie, cherry brandy pate de fenouille and white chocolate macaroons. 

Coast to Coast Chef Series at Stratus Winery in Niagara-on-the-lake

A beautiful night in Niagara-on-the-Lake at Stratus Winery for their first event in the Coast to Coast Series. Billed as not your usual winemakers dinner and it certainly was not! Host Charles Baker and Suzanne Janke of Stratus pulled off an incredible event, balmy weather included. Their intention of bringing in talented chefs from across the country who are friends of the winery and share the same philosophy of food and wine got off to a relaxed, informative and engaging start.

Vikram Vij from Vancouver's Vij's was the guest chef, with me to do the interview, which with Vij means I asked "so what's new Vikram?" and then sat back and watched him regale us with stories, anecdotes and lots of Indian culinary wisdom.

Appetizers on the terrace with naan being baked in the "portable" tandoor oven. The oven having been popped in the back of a mini van and trekked down the QEW by the wonderful folks at Amaya. I doubt the 800 degree oven went home in said mini van that night!

Stratus wines for the terrace reception were two whites, Viognier, and the Semillion. Terrific sippers for the sultry evening.
Dinner was served at one long table in the "press alley" amongst the stainless steel and oak casks with fabulous table decorations and lighting. 

Chef Ryan Crawford (Stone Road Grille) and Chef Joshna Maharaj (trailblazing hospital food reformer) were there to help Vikram, and oversee the Niagara College culinary students, in an impossibly small kitchen. Amazing what chefs can produce in such confined, overheated spaces!


Dinner (and wine pairings) involved Spot Prawns ('11 Stratus Riesling), Vij's family chicken curry ('11 Wildass Rose), lamb popsicles ('08 Stratus Red or '08 White) and rice pudding with silver leaf, no not gold leaf! ('08 Stratus Icewine White). 

Sitting next to winemaker J-L Groux we both concurred that reds do not pair well with Indian food and whites rule the roost when matching Indian cuisine.

Interesting news Vikram's wife Meeru is opening a new restaurant in Seattle in November. And Vikram has just launched a new food line which can be purchased at All the Best Fine Foods in Toronto as well as Mcewan's. He also was surprisingly complimentary about the availability of spices and condiments at large grocery stores!

This was a wonderful evening to be amongst the vines and the casks in a very relaxed atmosphere. 
Saturday's event sold out so don't miss the next event in the Coast to Coast Series at Stratus, September 8th with chefs from Stephen Beckta's latest restaurant Gezellig in Ottawa and November 3rd chef Jeremy Charles of Raymond's in St John's.
And yes I will be back as well with all my questions. 
See you there!
For more details on Sept & Nov Coast to Coast events visit the winery website.
http://www.stratuswines.com/

Mugaritz Chef Andoni Aduriz: Buca Restaurant, Toronto, Entertains.

When the chef of the #3 Resto in the world comes to your city, where would you choose to take him? That was THE MAJOR question dangling on everyone's mind. Here is a chef with impeccable visual and oral aesthetics, at the top of his game. We decided to entertain him at Buca restaurant where chef Rob Gentile creates dishes that are both rustic and sophisticated ethnic representations of his roots and travel experience. Rob Gentile is a talented, fastidious perfectionist whose execution of a range of rustic dishes makes a strong impression on his diners. This rustic, ethnic aesthetic would provide chef Andoni Aduriz with a contrast to his usual experiences visiting other cities, such as New York, where he recently experienced elevated cuisine as a guest of chef Thomas Keller's Per Se and chef Wiley Dufresne's WD-50.


The Cookbook Store event with chef Aduriz, left to right, Alison Fryer, store manager, Chef Aduriz, Annie Sibonney and store owner Josh Josephson.

 
I must thank Annie Sibonney, food network show host and owner of Relish Tours, who made it possible to give chef Aduriz a full range of personal experience here in Canada. This connected experience was made possible by Annie's wide ranging personal relationships with some of the finest chefs in europe, extensive travels and her time living in Spain. Her good taste, flawless command of the Spanish language and her entertaining and lively personality all made it possible for Chef Aduriz and his english speaking hosts to have such an enjoyable social experience. Annie with chef Aduriz, below.

We began with bocconcino, gnocchi fritto accompanied by burro di lardo and Tuscan pistachios. We broke open the gnocchi "puff" and spread the lardo and chopped pistachios.

Crudo di mare

Raw B.C. spot prawns with coriander, unrefined citrus herb salt, Terre di San Mauro olive oil and crisp rosemary leaves. The head was minimally deep fried to perfect doneness so that the soft interior was enjoyed with the crispy shell of the head, legs and antennae, a potato chip of the sea!

Ricci, fresh shucked sea urchin with wild ginger, impeccably fresh!

Antipasti

Salumi di Buca, a selection of house cured salumi served with seasonal preserves, including 1 1/2 year aged elk leg, thinly shaved off the bone, beef tongue, lardo and pork heart sausage and a horse meat bresaola. The elk was particularly noteworthy for it's subtle, complex nutty flavours. Below, chef Gentile proudly displaying the elk leg for slicing.

The sliced elk.

The rest of the charcuterie, from left, beef tongue, lardo and pork heart sausage and the horse meat bresaola.

Nodini, bread knots with olive oil, rosemary, garlic and sea salt (no photo).


Orecchio di Maiale, crisp pig's ears with wild fennel salt. These were addictive, comparable to trying not to eat more than one chip when presented with a bag of truly great potato chips....but better!!

Noteworthy culture columnist of the National Post, food loving Shinan Govani, distracted for a moment....but, not for long!

Pizza alla Romana, Tuscan style porchetta with mostarda, mascarpone and agliata (a Sicilian herb). We were given scissors to cut the pizza. This pizza has a wonderfully addictive flavour/texture combination.

Pasta

Sciallatelli, fresh, hand cut pasta, zucchini soffrito, raw spot prawns and bottarga di riccci (a bottarga made with urchin roe). The pasta was tossed after presentation. A great combination of flavours of the sea.

Orecchiette, saffron infused, hand made pasta with baby octopus, cherry tomatoes and fava beans, finished with fresh chili and bone marrow. Another wow of a dish that filled one's palate with exploding flavour.

Carne

Polenta with smoked pork blood sausage, finished with wild leeks, moscato grapes and cacio di fossa cheese. This from a chef infused with local traditions whose passion brings together the flavours of the region.

Smoked mozzarella cheese foam (spuma), with a texture like hollandaise sauce, but made with olive oil rather than butter, and also scamorza cheese melted into this and mixed together. The top was caramelized and morels, rosemary leaves and a liquid reduction, was added. This was a mouth watering dish, with mild, smokey, rich tasting flavours all enhanced by the wonderful morels.

Sorbetti

Nespole (loquat) sorbetti with boreal honey to which passito (a late harvest wine)was added all topped with coltsfoot flower. This was a truly refreshing, palate intriguing dessert, with wonderful, subtle, complex flavours. The flower contributed a mild mellon like flavour.

Sapori di Sicilia, a tasting of Sicilian cannoli with a filling of buttermilk, riccotta cheese and bergamot; briosche with a pork blood, pistachio and red current wine gelato sandwiched in the briosche; and baba 'al rum soaked with balsam fir gelato and spiced rum, the baba drizzled with maple syrup.

Cafe Polonez, Toronto

This Polish resto has been around for YEARS, but, I have not been for YEARS, so revisited.

How to begin!

Very good beef tripe soup.

Polish sausage topped with fried onions and served with crispy crunch fries dusted with bread crumbs, grainy mustards and garnishes.

Pork schnitzel with a wonderful horseradish laced beet root salad, good sauerkraut, dilled potatoes and cole slaw

Potato dumplings (made with raw potatoes) filled with pork, topped with goulash sauce and sided with carrots. This serving was made for one but serves 3!!