Michelin Star Chef Paul Cunningham brings a bit of Denmark to the Bay

 Chef Paul Cunningham a Michelin Star Chef from the Copenhagen restaurant The Paul,  paid a visit to the Hudson's Bay on Queen Street in Toronto to talk about modern Danish food and his new cookbook Paul Food.  Also stopping in for a quick lesson about Danish desserts was HRH Crown Princess Mary of Denmark.  She was the first to sample the delicious lemon, blueberry meringue dessert that Chef Paul prepared for his demo.  She was only there briefly but had a huge entourage and a whole lot of media people there who were eager to see her.  She was only there for about 10 minutes and after she left it was back to food with Chef Paul.  The Bay welcomed Chef Paul and other Danish designers to feature their Danish Design Obsessed exhibition for 3 weeks in September and October.

Chef Paul is an Essex, England born chef who moved to Denmark and received his Michelin star from 2003-2011 at The Paul restaurant.  He has written seven cookbooks. He is married with 2 children and admitted he suffered from burn out and didn't realize it until it was reflected in his children's eyes and concern for his health.  He has made some lifestyle changes to spend more time with his family.   Being a Michelin star chef takes a toll on your personal life and sometimes health with the constant pressure of living up to the high standards and pursuit of perfection.

After Chefs Pauls dessert demo and a lot of selfies with fellow bloggers we all went down to the Lower Level of the Bay to Foodwares, a personal favourite place of mine where the food always changes and reflects the global world of Toronto. We were treated to some Smorrebrod open face sandwiches and Pork Loin, mashed potatoes, caramelized onions, braised red cabbage and of course some gravy to bring it all together.  Although it was cold by the time I ate it after taking a whole lot of photos.   The food is great but the lighting was a challenge.   I was able to take home some of my favourite desserts of fun and incredible marzipan and coconut macaroon desserts.  Pictured below.

I thoroughly enjoyed my lunch with my fellow bloggers.  I am finding there is a secret club of bloggers that follow each other and know who each other are but have never met in person.  I have been meeting a lot of them lately.  It's great to finally meet them in person instead of just being an instagram or twitter friend.

Unfortunately I didn't get a chance to pick up one of Chef Paul's cookbooks as I didn't realize there was limited copies available and I wanted to try the food first.

If you are around the Bay go check out the Danish exhibition and try some Danish food at Foodwares in the lower level until October 1st.

HRH Princess Mary was very beautiful and I found that Chef Paul was very approachable, friendly and a lot of fun and his dessert was amazing.