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Too many cooks in the kitchen

  Too much wine, limited ingredients, one dull knife and too many cooks in the kitchen. A recipe for disaster? Think again.  It was a riotous night that led to the best vegetarian quesadillas I’ve ever had. Of course they were the only vegetarian quesadillas I’ve ever had, but they were darn good quesadillas at […]

Rice Paper Rolls with Sweet Soy

Chef Terry Geretta of Mise Bistro shared this recipe at the MLCC chef series course I attended. It’s an easy to make and crowd pleasing appy I’ve served to many friends over the years: Ingredients Rice Paper Wrappers Chow Mein noodles (prepared) Fine julienned carrot Fine julienned red bell pepper Fine julienned green bell pepper […]

Perfect pairings at MLCC chef series

There’s been a ton of renos and rebuilds at the Madison Square shopping centre near Polo Park lately. No exception, the Liquor Mart has undergone a face-lift and is now one of the swankest in the fleet. The biggest change is the addition of a state-of-the-art education centre, the second in the city (the other […]

Pet peeves, personal preference

Bistro to bar, greasy spoon to haute cuisine, every restaurant has a way of doing things that they’ve made part of the experience. Some of these practices I like, others I hate. The other night my server poured me wine directly from the bottle. Like. But he drained it to the last drop and dumped […]

Top Chef takes the big apple

Season 5 of Bravo’s award winning reality show Top Chef premiered this week. Seventeen hopefuls attempt to take Manhattan, home turf for the show’s tough-love judge Tom Colicchio. The first two contestants to get chopped went to the same culinary school together! Yikes. What does that say!? If one hour of drama isn’t enough to […]

Is there really a world beyond Cognac?

Legend has it that a group of Dutch exporters and French vintners thought to maximize shipping (and profit) by distilling their wines. At the final destination they would reconstitute the product, approximating the original. They were mistaken. Shipped in oak barrels, the wine’s flavour was irrevocably altered. However, they had quite by accident discovered a […]

Getting familiar with the f-word

  Food Network’s plug for Gordon Ramsey’s latest show totally suckered me. I actually asked the question, what does the f-word stand for? Could he be that audacious…that transparent to name his show after his favourite expletive? “In case you’re wondering what the f-word stands for,” he says later in the promo, “it’s food, of […]

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