Jamie Oliver's Italian Restaurant opening in Toronto

Jamie Oliver is opening his first Jamie's Italian Restaurant opens in Toronto on Sunday December 6th, 2015 but I got a special preview tasting invite from my fellow Food Revolution Ambassador,  friend Denise,  owner of Petits Chefs Academy in Vaughan to join her and her staff for lunch at Jamie's Italian at Yorkdale Mall today.  The restaurant is training it's staff this week and they have invited a few people to sample the food and give them feedback and get their staff used to the menu and the operations of the restaurant.
The staff are extremely exhausted as they have been working night and day training and getting things ready for the official opening on the 6th.  Appropriate date for the 6ix don't you think?

The sign out in front of the restaurant isn't up yet but there is a huge photo and sign at the side beside the entrance to the mall.  The interior is completely ready and is gorgeous and spacious.  With the bright teal blue bar seats contrasting the rustic wood interior, the 2 story feels both warm and airy with the light spilling in from the large storefront windows.  We were seated at the back near their pasta making station which doesn't have natural light so my photos are a bit yellow from the lighting so it doesn't do the food much justice so you will have to take my word for it that it looks much better in real life.

The staff are both exhausted and excited for the opening.  They are all very friendly and accommodating.  Denise and I briefly spoke to Jamie's partner Chef Rob Gentile of Buca and Bar Buca and the person responsible for making sure that the restaurant runs at Jamie's standards.  We also met Chef Francisco and the General Manager who were all interested in feedback to make sure they get everything right before the general public walk in the door.

There were 5 of us there to sample some of the menu and we decided to all pick different things so that we could all share and try a lot of different items on the menu.  We pretty much ate about 75 percent of the menu I think.

Some of the things we tried included:

• Rabbit Cassarece
• Fried Polenta,
• Shrimp linguine
• Pear and Prociutto salad
• Mushroom Fritti
• Arancini
• Chicken puttanesca
• Steak and frites
• Jamie's Italian sausage Tagliatelle

and we demolished the whole dessert menu of:

• Tiramisu
• Sorbetto Gelato
• Panna Cotta with Blueberry and raspberry sauce
• Affogato
• Lemon Meringue cheesecake pie
• Extreme Brownie with ice cream and popcorn

My favourite dishes were the Chicken puttanesca with a great smokey flavour.  I didn't try the Arancini but they looked good.  Jamie's Italian Sausage Tagliatelle had great flavour too.

My favourite dessert was the Extreme Brownie which tasted kind of like a flourless chocolate cake.  Not too sweet but full dark rich chocolate flavour.  I also really liked the Lemon Meringue pie.

Denise pretty much inhaled the Affogato so I think she liked that too.

There were a couple of menu items I would have liked to try but they had sold out already but I hope to return to try some other things in the new year.

They are still working out the kinks of a new restaurant and are extremely focused on getting quality control right at this time and they want to have everything perfected by the weekend.  They have 150 staff who have been working really hard during the training period and I hope they all get a bit of rest before the opening because it's going to be an extremely busy place.  It's pretty much the best restaurant choice at the mall and as Chef Gentile put it he has been eating at the food court during the building process and he is really happy that the restaurant is finally up and running.  

Jamie's Italian Canada is located beside the Crate and Barrel at Yorkdale Mall (Dufferin Street) in Toronto, Canada.  It's the first Canadian restaurant chain for Jamie Oliver.  

I don't think Jamie will be around for the opening as he was just in town recently but the staff are all pretty excited at the fact that he might show up at any time when he comes to town.

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*Disclaimer:  Our meal was complimentary but all of the opinions and photos are my own.  

Celebrity Chefs Dish at the Delicious Food Show

I spent the whole day of Day 1 of the Delicious Food Show because some of my most favourite Celebrity Chefs were there doing Cooking Demos so I didn't want to miss any of them.

I started my day at 8am at a Media Breakfast and Press Conference with US based Celebrity Superstar Chefs Mario Batali and Tyler Florence and our own Iron Chef winning superstar Chef Chuck Hughes and also up and coming Toronto Chef Rob Gentile who owns 3 popular Toronto restaurants, Bar Buca, Buca and Buca Yorkville and soon to be partners with Jamie Oliver in his 1st Canadian Jamie's Italian restaurant that will open in the spring at Yorkdale Mall.  I chatted with Chef Gentile and he said that it will be located facing the Dufferin Street side near the TD Bank.

Chef Batali just released a new cookbook called AMERICA - FARM TO TABLE and he and was here to promote it in a quick stop.   So quick that he did his book signing in record time... and unfortunately I didn't get a chance to chat with him but I hope he comes back for the new Food and Wine Festival that was announced at the morning Press Conference for the 1st time next September.  Mario is a very busy man, he owns 26 restaurants and is also one of the hosts of The Chew television show which airs daily on ABC.  Chef Batali also did a cooking demo of Veal involontini and fried eggplant and angel hair pasta.  I picked up a couple of ideas but wish I could have tried a sample of the food.
               
Tyler Florence was also in town to promote his yet to be officially released new cookbook INSIDE THE TEST KITCHEN.  I have been watching Tyler Florence on Food Network for a long time and have always really liked his cooking style but I have a new found respect for him after listening to him at the show.  He really is ahead of the curve on where food is going.  Not about the latest in molecular gastronomy but in how to maximize the taste and techniques of cooking by finding better ways to make already known foods and recipes.  He took inspiration from Instagram and twitter for his current book and took suggestions for things he should TEST in his newly built Test Kitchen.  He shot all of the photos on his ipad for the book himself.. a man after my own heart as I take most of my food photos at home with my Ipad because you can do it quickly and see the details of every shot.  He would sometimes spend a week perfecting a technique and developed a way to cook a Turkey in an hour and a half and Risotto in half the time without sacrificing the flavour or texture.   Tyler is really tapped into what people want and understands that it's now a process of a conversation on giving people what they actually want.  He tapped into the whole Food Truck scene years ago,  way before it exploded the way it has and he is probably directly responsible for bringing attention to it and spreading the word on what Food Trucks really are.  He said that when he tried to pitch the show years ago people thought he was crazy and that food trucks were gross and nobody was going to want to buy food off a construction site type of food truck.  Well he proved them wrong.  When asked about what trend he would like to see go away he said the reality star television chefs.  We had to laugh because my friend Mary just competed in show called Pressure Cooker.  She agreed with Tyler though because his point was that you have to learn your craft to be a Chef and you can't earn it over night.  

I was really excited to get a copy of his new cookbook at the show where they had a few copies on sale.  The cookbook hasn't even been released officially yet and won't be in the stores for another week.
I flipped through quickly and was really impressed by the layout and design, the clarity of the recipes and the photos.  I know I will be using this book.

On to my most favourite, Chef Chuck Hughes.. yes I have said this many times but he reminds me why he is my favourite every time I see him.  He always goes above and beyond most of the other chefs.  Here's an example of his day at the show.   At 8am he welcomed the media and talked about what he would be doing for the Executive chef series workshop.  Then he did a book signing at 11am,  he roamed the show talking selfies with the vendors and people at the show,  he did his Executive Chef series class and after all of that he closed the show with his regular 1 hour long demo on the Celebrity Cooking Stage.   He wasn't supposed to do a book signing after the demo but he hung around afterward and posed for photos and talked to every single person that wanted to meet him.  A real class act.    I did get to try a bite of the dessert he made at the demo and it was as delicious as I knew it would be.  His mom and aunt were also there and an audience member even asked his mom a question.  Oh and I forgot to mention he answered questions from the audience while he was doing the cooking demo.

He had help from his friend Tracy who always helps him with his demos when he is in Toronto and also went with him to do Iron Chef,  that gives him the freedom to wander around and talk to people during his demos.  He always stops to take selfies with kids in the audience too.  My friend stayed to see him with me and counts Chuck as one of her new favourite chefs too.

The best part is that I keep going to see him more for his "stand up" act than the cooking as he is as hilarious as some of the best comics.

Then there is the more serious Mark McEwan.  Chef Mark is kind of a perfectionist Chef.  He will take a seemingly simple dish like the Lobster Poutine recipe that he was doing a demo on and elevate it to the highest quality he can get it.  Perfectly cooked fries, butter poached lobster and a bernaise sauce.  Chef McEwan also did a book signing and one of the Executive chef series classes.  He doesn't get hounded for selfies as much as Chuck does though.  He invited some of the audience up to taste the poutine at the end of his demo... it was a frenzy and I went up at the tail end and got the last couple of fries left and dunked them into the Bernaise sauce and it was delicious.  I didn't get any lobster but that was ok.  Chef McEwan's next project is the opening of a Mini McEwan store in the TD centre in April.

I didn't try a lot of the food at the show this year and plan to try and go back just to try more of the food.  It's a great way to try food from restaurants you haven't had a chance to get to yet.  I did try the "pork belly taco" from Hudson Kitchen.  It was a spicy sweet taco style in a crepe like shell.  Hudson Kitchen is one of the Celebrity hotspots on Dundas St. West.  I haven't had a chance to go there yet so at least I got to sample a bit of their food.

I also tried a sample of Ontario Pork Kimchi taco, for some reason it seems to be a trend to make some kind of tacos at events because that's all I have seen lately and there was at least a half a dozen Tacos available at the show.

One of the other trends lately has been salted caramel everything and smores everything.   I tried both a salted caramel and a bite of a smores popsicle by Parts and Labour.

What else will you find at the show... well maybe some hot Toronto Chefs sending out tweets and checking their restaurant reservations maybe.

Rob Gentile (Buca) and Matt from (Parts and Labour)

Some of the other foods to check out are really pretty and will satisfy your sweet tooth like these Macarons from AG Macarons and cute little mini fun cookies from Teeny Tiny Bakery.  They were so cute and fun and would be great for parties and gifts.  Von doughnuts are also there with an assortment of interesting flavours and one Halloween inspired doughnut too.













Other vendors included Christine Manning of Manning Canning who is trying to crowd source a community kitchen in Leaside.   There was also Louise tomato sauce,  Foodie pages gift boxes,  Slow cooking sauces and sausages and drinks by Parachute coffee and more.

                   

 Don't forget to check out the Crazy Plate Lady too.  She does hand painted plates of your favourite Chefs, food and other familiar things.  Great for gifts.  She is very talented.

 There is so much great stuff to check out so I hope you get a chance to go and try some of the treats and sit in on a chef demo too.

Jamie Oliver gets Comfortable in Toronto

Jamie Oliver just blew through Toronto for a quick 2 day visit to talk about all things food and good things and Comfort Food.  He recently released his new Cookbook Comfort Food but that wasn't the reason he flew into Toronto.

He was here to launch a new charity initiative with Sobeys his Brand Partner and with the Free the Children organization to start a project that will teach kids cooking skills for the future.  It's Jamie's mission to get kids learning how to cook for themselves giving them "skills for life".   I dropped by the Sobey's on Laird to see what the Charity event was all about.  He is teaming up with the Keilburger brothers to have Sobeys donate money from grocery sales that will go to Free the Children programs and Jamie help to facilitate this project for kids.

While Jamie was in Toronto he had an exhaustive schedule.  I had to get up at 4:30 in the morning to catch one of his visits to the Marilyn Denis Show where he co hosted the hour with Marilyn and other guests were Charles the Butler and fellow Brit Debbie Travis.  They talked about all things British including food, decor, drinks and etiquette.  Jamie cooked up a Ricotta Gnudi.. from the former Naked Chef a plate of Gnudi balls... Jamie likes to make balls and buns as was evident in some of his Toronto appearances.   Because of Jamie's schedule Marilyn had to do a special taping at 6:30am so I had to get up very early to attend the show taping.

The previous day I also was lucky to attend the taping of the Steven and Chris Show where Jamie cooked up a batch of Mince buns.   I was lucky to get to try a bite of one of the buns and it was delicious.  Jamie was the master of inuendo on this show and had Steven and Chris in stitches and even got Chris blushing with the use of a lemon.  You have to watch the show to see what I mean.

Other events that Jamie attended in the whirlwind 2 days were a dinner for Indigo members at Buca Restaurant where Jamie's friend Chef Rob Gentile cooked up a special dinner.  Chef Gentile will be Jamie's Business partner when they open Jamie's new Jamie's Italian Food at the Yorkdale Mall.  It will open in the Spring of 2015.

One of my fellow Food Revolution Day Ambassadors was also a very lucky girl to be able to attend a special Sobeys Better Food For All winners Cooking Class where she got to meet Jamie face to face.  She has been waiting to meet him for the past three years that we have been Food Revolution Ambassadors.  Even though I have been a Food Revolution Ambassador for the past 3 years I haven't had a chance to actually meet him yet even though I have seen him at the Marilyn Show a couple of times and a couple of speaking engagements.  I have been in the same room a few times but haven't had the pleasure of actually meeting him.  There are about 90 Ambassadors in Canada so he can't get to everyone.

And I believe he also squeezed in another event after the Free the Children Charity launch at Sobey's but I don't know the details about that visit.

I got to see him at 3 of his stops and I can tell you that his schedule is crazy and he seems to have an endless supply of energy.   He looks good,  he has gotten a lot fitter and his hair is finally in control.  He has spent the past year working on his Comfort Food Cookbook and web series, tv show etc. but he has been mostly at home and able to catch up on some much needed rest and family time but I am sure that won't last long with all the multiple projects Jamie has on his plate.

He will be back in the Spring for the restaurant launch so I hope to be able to see him again then and maybe actually meet him face to face at some point.