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My chef at Joy Bistro, David Chrystian is very tight with "Oyster Boy" Adam (a.k.a. Adam Colquhoun), one of the most well-connected and well-loved guys in the world of Toronto restaurants. One night Adam and David were hanging out, Adam said he wanted to get some people together to come to Joy and check out the new menu. Adam kept inviting friends until the guest list was close to thirty. It became a night for chefs and other people in the business, a dinner for people who hardly ever go out to dinner. People who prepare and serve but haven’t got the coin or the precious time to enjoy the fruits and meat and veg of their labours.

The Toronto fine dining scene consists of a number of restaurants that are like isolated islands in the stream of consciousness of the faddy, foody fashionistas and isolated too from each other. Adam is a maven maverick, a bridge builder, making his rounds delivering oysters and charming the pants off everyone he meets. Adam is like Kenny and Dolly singing to the overworked chefs of this city, ‘come away with me to another world where we rely on each other….unh-huh’

The evening was planned for a Monday when most industry people have the day off and are able to let their hair hang out, my day off. I’m a real stickler about my days off and despise being asked to interfere with my life outside of the kitchen. David asked for my help, I hemmed a bit, but before I could haw he asked that I come in and help with the prep then get changed and join the dinner, taking pictures and notes to write about this inspiring night. I quickly agreed.

I showed up around three pm to help David and two of Joy’s kitchen superstars, Jeremy Akeda and Latcho Deonaraine, with some last minute prep for the night. I cut up some tenderloin for the steak tartare and made the mix of capers, shallots, Worcestershire and various other ingredients to dress the tartare à la minute before it was placed on top of Mallet oysters, one of three varieties of gorgeous, fresh oysters Adam had provided. I sliced petals of scallop which were to be tossed in a mix of lime juice, cilantro, chiles, sugar and salt. These petals would lay across a Caraquette oyster, then be topped with some chive jelly David had made the day before. I shucked thirty Cortesan Gems ( briny beauties from the West Coast) and strained the juice to use in an Oyster Cream Sauce. Once the cream sauce was reduced to the proper consistency I pureed and strained it. The Cortesan Gem shells go through the dishwasher and are then laid out on rock salt on a tray. Each empty shell waiting to be filled with a twirled linguine that is bathed in oyster cream sauce with some crispy prosciutto and topped with the previously shucked Gems and sea-kelp caviar. All three oyster preparations will be passed as h’ors d’oeuvres.

I ask David about his plans for the other courses. “When I tasted one of the wines we were looking at for the dinner I got cream soda and I thought, ‘What do people want to eat with cream soda? Something fried maybe?’ So I decided to make fish and chips. Then the wine for the pork course made me think of mincemeat all those flavours of cinnamon and clove. The wine had jammy fruit and some fatty beef suet flavours so I’m braising some pork belly with those tastes and making a mincemeat scented jus.” He asks me to taste the jus, it’s good – very meaty, but not very mince-y.

“Just wait until you taste all the components together.” he says knowingly. David has poached some sweetbreads and let them cool, now he cleans them and wraps them in caul fat with some braised lamb, he plans to sear this off and braise it with some lemon-thyme jus then serve it over mashed potatoes. “Well, all chefs like mashed potatoes, but I think I’ll add some sautéed hedgehog mushrooms to make it more earthy.”

Roger Martelli from The Small Winemaker’s Collection assists with the wine-buying at Joy. I asked him how he chose the wines for the evening. “I brought what I thought would work and ignite interest. I wanted varieties that would match David’s innovative cuisine. I’m confident with the first course, a 2004 La Tunella "Selenze" Ribolla Gialla. It's a very obscure varietal, it should be a wonderful match with the fish.”

People start to arrive and I’m chatting with Toby Nameth, head chef at Jamie Kennedy Wine Bar. She asks about the topping on the oysters. I tell her that David laid chives in hot chive gelatin and rolled them into bundles, let them cool then cut them to look like a little circle of cut chives that stays together with the gelatin. They are charming and adorable and we’re talking about a chive garnish like it’s a two year old child in a sailor suit but there’s no embarrassment. In this environment you can wax rhapsodic about salt and no one would care, in fact they’d be thrilled to wax with you.

Martha Arima, head chef at Oyster Boy, and I sit under the romantic glow from the chandeliers by the fireplace and try the oyster carbonara on the half-shell. It looks to be quite a mouthful. Erika Karnilavičins, our bubbly Lithuanian bombshell server runs to grab us some forks. Too late. Martha has already got hers in one bite, no small feat, and is praising the choice of oyster. “An East Coast oyster would be too small and sweet, it would be overpowered by the creamy pasta, the briny mineral taste of the Cortesan Gem is perfect.”

It’s time to begin the dinner and people finish their champagne and take their seats, David comes in and gives a little talk about what we’ll be enjoying this evening then introduces Roger to talk about the wines. The first course arrives, a little fried cod cake on miniature brioche buns served with lentil tartar sauce, fried fingerlings and tempura haricots verts. Heather Pollack, from Bonjour Brioche (formerly Pastry Chef at the Drake under David’s Zen-like tutelage) is sitting across from me, she provided the brioche buns and I’m watching her to see if she will pick it up like a sandwich or use a knife and fork. It’s reminiscent of the scene in Babette’s Feast when all the old coots stare at the General to see how to eat the quail dish. She picks it up and the rest of us follow suit, then follow with a taste of the wine. It is a fabulous combination; fried fish and cream soda, everyone loves to be reminded of their childhood when hitting the bottle.

Adam and Anthony Walsh are behaving like two little brats in the playground as they tease each other with “Brokeback Mountain” jokes and generally crack us all up. Adam caresses Anthony’s hand, then delivers the coup de grace by pulling open Anthony’s shirt and licking his chest. “I haven’t had a guy lick my chest like that in a long time.” Says Anthony winking. You certainly wouldn’t expect this behaviour at a dinner party for accountants or stockbrokers, but with a bunch of chefs around it’s par for the course. Of course, it takes all types: to my right Tom Brody, head chef at Canoe, is talking with Scot Woods, head chef at Habitat. “So what’s in your arsenal these days?” Scot replies with a lengthy description of a knife he just purchased. Conversations about blades on one side and chest-licking on the other, I love it.

The next course is the braised Berkshire pork belly with green onion strudel and mincemeat jus served with a Southbrook's Triumph Chardonnay (1998). Roger gives a little introduction about the wine and we dig in. The wine definitely brings out the mincemeat flavours and the pork belly is so perfect: crisp skin, fatty succulence and juicy meat. chefs love pork and there’s a lot of moaning going on. Every chef I’ve ever worked with is a pork freak and who can blame them, the magical creature that gives us so many takes on it’s humble carcass. Heather tries the strudel, “It’s so great getting to know David’s food over the years, to see the things he sticks to like this strudel, he’s crazy about strudel.”

Next up is the lamb and sweetbreads with the hedgehog mushroom mashed potatoes and a 1999 Gattinara Bianchi. This course is like a Hungry Man dinner for the upper crust. It’s rich and carnivorous with some hints of the forest and as I take a swig of wine I feel like Paul Bunyan. The caul fat hasn’t melted into the package as it should, so it is a bit tough and the sweetbreads need a bit more time on the heat, but this is what happens when you work out of your head with no recipe. In this particular case I think it enriches the experience, makes it more human and shared. Like Olivier tripping over a word or Ben Hepner’s voice cracking. Everyone here knows David’s skill level; most are on par with it. They know that you go into your kitchen and you try things out and they usually work beautifully, but sometimes they just need a bit of tweaking.

Everyone races out to the patio for some chain-smoking and insider gossip.

“These women said they worked in the industry, they tipped thirteen dollars on one fifty!”

“Were they in the industry during the Depression?”

David appears and is given a glass of wine, his friend Ann drapes her black, lamb’s wool boa over his shoulders and we all raise our glasses in cheers.

We head back inside for a cheese course provided by Yasser Qahawish, head chef at the Law Society. The cheeses are all from Italy, made by Occelli, a big name in the slow food movement.

“It’s good to have a night on the other side for once.” Says Scot Woods. I’m glad he enjoyed it because he’s back in the firing line for the next dinner which will be held at his joint in April. Don’t think about trying to get tickets either, as Adam told me, “This is the inner, inner circle. It’s for insiders to sit around and make fun of each other. Very exclusive.”

Ivy Knight is a Toronto-based writer and chef. She is currently Tournand at Joy Bistro with Chef David Chrystian.

READ MORE IVY AT GREMOLATA:

Blind Wine Tasting: Ivy Gets the Critics to Guess

Moonshine Island: Ivy brings more than potatoes back from PEI

Anthony Walsh, You’re My Hero: Ivy profiles her favourite chef

Toiling in Chocolate Trenches: Ivy tries being a pastry chef

Parkdale is the New Black: Ivy defends her 'hood from latte drinking yuppie scum

The Perfect Sandwich: Ivy finds out how good two pieces of bread and a filling can be

Email Ivy at ladyslenderlegs@gmail.com