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| Fresh Food | Donna Dooher's Ontario Food Terminal, |
More (Archives + Search) * Contact * Please Subscribe (it's free) * About Us * Wine Agents * NEW: Gremoblog | ||
| Browse or Search All of Gremolata  Gremolata; gremolada: [greh-moh-LAH-tah] A garnish made of minced parsley, lemon peel and garlic. It's sprinkled over osso buco and other dishes to add a fresh, sprightly flavour. (Source: Food Network Encyclopaedia) (Sponsored)
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| Donna Dooher's Ontario Food Terminal Ever wonder what it would be like to shop like a chef? Up at the crack of dawn, browsing through fruits and vegetables long before any mere shopper will see them Gremolata's Malcolm Jolley got up very early on a recent Thursday morning to find out. Celebrity chef Donna Dooher took him to the fabled Ontario Food Terminal - where the OPP ensures the riff-raff stay out - to find out what it's like to buy a box of vegetables right off the truck...[more]. | Recent Gremolata Interviews & Profiles
Bob Blumer's Surreal Gourmet Series:
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Mel Watkins' Big Green Egg Mel Watkins is one of Canada's best known political economists, but few who follow his work know about the new great passion in his life: his Big Green Egg. Part barbecue, part oven, part smoker, Watkins revels in the BGE and delights in his new role as someone who can cook. Even better, he explains, the Big Green Egg has given him a brand new story for his grandchildren...[more] | ||
Cusumano Syrah Alberto and Diego Cusumano are two young winemakers who are very much behind the Sicillian wine revolution. This earned them a place in The Wine Spectator's list of '50 Top Producers'. Earlier this summer, Gremolata featured their 2003 Angimbé, which blended the indigenous insolia grape with ubiquitous Chardonnay. The Angimbé is one of their labels that is from a specific property, but they also have a line of wines made from single varietals sourced form across their holdings on the island. At $13.95 the 2003 Cusumano Syrah is a great example of a New World-style wine from the old. Rod Phillips gave it four out of five stars and writes: "A big Syrah from Sicily that's competition to Shiraz from that bigger island down south." Indeed: a great alternative to your regular Friday night Australian. The Cusumano came out in the August 20 Vintages Release. You can find a bottle near you at the LCBO's website by clicking here. In the GTA, the following stores are stocking large inventories: Summerhill, Bayview Village, Queen's Quay, Bloor & Royal York, Dupont & Spadina, Leaside, Yonge & Davisville, Avenue & Lawrence, to name just a few. | ||
| From Gremolata 038 | ||
Gourmet Woodbridge There are as many, or even more, people who live in the belt of developments surrounding the city of Toronto than who live in it. In this update, Michele Chandler explores one of the more vibrant food scenes in this area, colloquially known as "the 905". Her first stomping ground: some of the gourmet stores in and around Woodbridge, just northwest of Toronto and known for it's dynamic Italian-Canadian community. Exploring with resident and dedicated foodie friend Andrea Peric, Michele discovers everything from fresh Mediterranean fish to proper Italian pastries...[more]. | ||
Bob Blumer is The Surreal Gourmet Bob Blumer may be Canada's best known chef. His Surreal Gourmet TV show is currently shooting it's fifth season in and around Toronto, and is seen by millions of the hungry and curious around the world. His cookbooks - starting with the breakthrough The Surreal Gourmet: Real Food for Pretend Chefs, which he illustrated himself - continue to challenge and amuse us with their combination of fanciful high concept presentation and no-nonsense technique. All of this is more remarkable since Blumer is self-taught and describes his celebrity chef career as "accidental". Gremolata's Malcolm Jolley caught up with Blumer recently to discuss what he's up to now and how he became the Surreal Gourmet...[more]. | ||
Crémant de Loire: Yves Lambert's Brut Rosé Legend has it that the great economist John Maynard Keynes was asked on his death bed if he had any regrets. "Just one," he replied, "I wish I had drunk more Champagne." And don't we all. But at $60 for a lesser bottle from a well known brand, and at least $40 for a smaller producer (if and when they come through the LCBO), our bottles-drunk-to-death-bed-regrets ratio will remain unsatisfactorily low for most of us. So we look for bubbly alternatives like the charming Crémant de Loire Brut Rosé Yves Lambert (NV - LCBO# 656488) at rather reasonable price of $17.95. This is a great aperitif and it's salmon pink pallor (from Cab. Sauvignon and Cab. Franc grapes) makes it fun to drink as much as its crispness. A perfect wine to end the summer. In the GTA, look for it at Bayview Village, Sherwood Forest, Queen's Quay, Leaside and Queensway & 427, among others. You can look for a store near you that carries it at the LCBO website by clicking here. | ||
Summer Peas in the Pod Pity the poor pissum sativa, or common pea in the pod. The traditionalists around here get all worked up every August at the prospect of fresh sweet corn. And Ontario foodie credentials must include a devotion to properly picked heirloom tomatoes (see Sasha Chapman's excellent feature in this month's Toronto Life). By the time the first peas in the pod appear on the shelves, our veggie attention is in danger of being exhausted. But this late summer treat has a noble pedigree and should not be ignored. Doubters need only read M.F.K. Fisher's An Alphabet for Gourmets for the finest tribute to sweet round morsels ever written. But if there's no Fisher on the shelf, then ten minutes of picking the peas out of their pods (taking care to deposit more peas into the pot than into the picker's mouth), followed by a biref boil in salted water, and a quick dressing in butter, salt, pepper and mint form the garden will convert the most ardent resister. | ||
Alain Besré and the Quebec Cheese Revolution From his perch at Montréal's famous Fromagerie du Marché Atwater, Alain Besré has watched Quebec's artisan cheese scene explode into dozens of makers, producing some of the most acclaimed cheeses in North America and the world. On a recent trip to Toronto, Gremolata's Malcolm Jolley sat down with Besré at the Cheese Boutique, where they were joined by two of the city's food luminaries: restaurateur, teacher, TV chef Donna Dooher and James Beard Award winning author Gina Mallet. The four of them discussed what went so right in Quebec and what could happen in Ontario...[more]. | ||
Old Cookbook Outsells Harry Potter Visitors to Amazon's UK website, who check the list of top selling books, will discover at its top an 11 year old cookbook, written by a professional chef who hasn't been in a commercial kitchen more than 10 years. Simon Hopkinson's slim 1994 book Roast Chicken and Other Stories (co-authored by Lindsay Bareham) has long been a cult favourite. As a young chef he became one of Elizabeth David's favourites in the early 80's, capturing the attention of Terrence Conran, who installed him as chef at Bibendum when it opened in 1987. There he cooked for seven years, until he had a nervous breakdown on a New Year's Eve service and gave up his toque for good. The book was named The Most Useful Cookbook Ever this month by Waitrose Food Illustrated, a popular glossy magazine published by a British supermarket. Within a day Roast Chicken has bumped J.K. Rowling's Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince off their top sellers list...[more at Gremoblog]. | ||
Réserve de Gassac Mas de Daumas Gassac has been called the 'Lafite of Languedoc' back when the region was known mostly as France's 'wine lake' and most producers simply sold grapes to big industrial concerns. Proprietor Aime Guibert was a Parisian glove maker (!) who bought the property as a vacation spot. Only after a visit from a Bordeaux professor of oenology was he convinced to plant vines, which he did in the mid-70s. The rest is more or less history, and Guibert is probably best known now as one of the irascible artisan-stars of Jonathan Nossiter's film Mondovino. In the film Guibert rails against the Mondavi wine corporation, who had planned to develop a winery on a neighbouring hill. Guibert and the local townsfolk successfully fought the Mondavi's off by electing a Communist town council! Whether Guibert is a genuine fighter for small wine makers or a shrewd capitalist who beat off the competition is still a source of controversy in the wine world. Anyway, the 2003 Réserve de Gassac Rouge (LCBO# 608760) is a second wine from the Mas and a fun way to try one of the Mondovino products. At $18.95 it's not exactly a steal, but offers good value in the just under $20 range. It's actually a relic of the February 5th release, and at the time Rod Phillips gave it four stars and said "the fruit is complex and generous, beautifully balanced..." Click here to do an inventory search at the LCBO website, to find a bottle near you. There's lots Réserve around, but it's spread throughout the LCBO chain. GTA stores that are reporting decent sized inventories include Bayview Village, Queen's Quay, Laird & Eglington, Manulife, 401 & Weston, Sherwood Forest, HWY 10 & Eglington and Bloor & Royal York, among others. | ||
Summer Corn and Other Veggies August in Ontario means fresh corn and this year's peaches and cream is about the sweetest ever. The hot, hot summer means typical cobs are a little smaller than usual, with kernels that are not as plump. But the natural sugar levels are through the roof! Just like a great vintage year, the weather has also meant some yields are low. Gremolata recommends getting in the car and finding a farm stand fast, before it's all gone (alternatively, visit any of Ontario's wonderful farmers markets)...Wyndym Farm has a new list of produce that they're picking from the fileds: see it at Gremoblog...Michelle Shabatura wrote in to say she's stocking baby chard, ornamental squashes, marrows, zuchinis and edamame at the Farmer's Daughter...many vegetables are ripening early because of the heat, so we may be in peak produce time earlier than usual. | ||
Malivoire Wine Company Gremolata's Canadian Wine Correspondent, Chris Willsher returns in this update to explore one of Niagara's most innovative wineries. Chris writes: "The lush foliage surrounding the entrance of the Malivoire Wine Company provides a sense of calm as you approach the winery and creates an oasis from the warm afternoon sun. It is also the perfect set-up for an experience in one of the most unique winery operations in the Niagara region. Driven by a singularly driven and creatively gifted personality, the winery has established itself as a leader in sustainable viticulture in the region while producing some exceptional wines...[more]. | ||
Kawartha Dairy Ice Cream Gremolata had to know. Why does the Kawartha Dairy's ice cream taste so good? So we called up General Manager, Blake Frazer at KD's World Headquarters in Bobcaygeon, to find out. The short answer is "cream". But there's more to it than that, or rather less. Kawartha Dairy eschews typical ice "cream" ingredients like "butter/oil/sugar blend" which multinational producers use to stabilise and preserve their frozen desserts. Frazer explained that KD simply uses the cream taken off when they skim their milk, which is freshly delivered from Ontario farms. This is what gives it that wonderfully old fashioned mouth-feel (that and the up to 15% butter milk fat content, compared to regular ice cream's 10%). Compare their ingredients list to what else is in your freezer and you'll get the picture pretty quickly. The good news is you don't have to cottage country every time you need a creamy fix. Look for Kawartha Dairy Ice Cream at All The Best Fine Foods, or visit www.KawarthaDairy.com to find an outlet near you. | ||
Sinclair Stewart Report On Business reporter Sinclair Stewart recently shared the National Business Book Award with colleague Jacquie McNish for their 2004 volume. Wrong Way: The Fall of Conrad Black. While it's doubtful that Stewart will be having a roast beef sandwich at 10 Toronto Street anytime soon (nor, Gremolata supposes, will the address' usual diners), Malcolm Jolley caught up to the business journalist and gourmet-about-town to discuss what corporate Canada has for lunch, among other things...[more]. | ||
Alain Besré (Sponsored by the Cheese Boutique) Montréal's famous La Fromagerie du Marché Atwater is quite arguably the most famous cheese shop in Canada. Since the explosion in artisanal cheese making in Quebec in the last 20 years, it may also be the country's most influential, since it has introduced us to milk-made marvels from the Gaspe to Abitibi. Alain Besré is LFdMA's man on a mission and the Chevalier de la Confrerie du Taste Fromage de France arrives in Toronto to introduce 12 Quebec Farmstead Cheeses, which will have their Ontario retail debut at 10AM, Friday, August 5 at the Cheese Boutique. Featured cheeses being brought to the Cheese Boutique by Besré include: Migneron de Charlevoix (Grand Champion – 2002 Canadian Cheese Grand Prix), Alfred (made from raw milk from organically fed cows), Riopelle (the award winning triple cream, named after the famous artist), Victor & Berthold (Quebec's pioneer in artisan cheese making), Allegretto (a sheep milk cheese everyone can appreciate), Fleurmier (a soft double-cream from Baie-Saint-Paul) and Île-aux-Grues Cheddar (Champion – 2004 Canadian Cheese Grand Prix). Gremolata will cover the event and report back, but if you can't meet Besré, you can always try these cheeses exclusively at the Cheese Boutique: Toronto's Quebec Cheese Hub. |
More Gremolata People: | ||||||
 David Miller |  Leah McLaren |  Matt Galloway |  Paula Wolfert |  Natalie MacLean |  Claudia Dey | |
Copyright © Gremolata Media Group Inc. 2005.
