Iron Chef meets Michelin Star Chef

Last night in Toronto Iron Chef, Food Network personality and Montreal restauranteur Chef Chuck Hughes,  hosted a sit down interview with 3 Star Michelin Star French Chef Alain Ducasse at George Brown College in Downtown Toronto.

These two men couldn't be more different.  Chuck Hughes is a fun loving and friendly, laid back kind of guy who loves seafood, tattoos and the Montreal Canadians.  Chef Alain Ducasse likes "drinking water, eating small amounts of food and would be an architect or world traveller"  if he wasn't a chef.  He said he feels like he is doing all three with the design of his newest restaurant in England.

Chuck Hughes likes to have fun and is constantly cracking jokes and making silly mug faces for all the selfies people line up to take with him.

The polar opposite of Chef Ducasse who doesn't seem to get Chuck's jokes and doesn't seem very fond of the selfie.

 Most people in the audience who were comprised of George Brown Culinary students, media people and food industry types.  They laughed at Chuck's jokes and listened intently while Chef Ducasse answered Chuck's questions in French and then translated to English by an interpreter.



While they look different, eat different and have a different sense of humour, the one thing they have in common is the love of food and trying to cook local food as much as possible.

Chef Ducasse does not serve any meat in his restaurants, I don't think Chef Hughes will ever do that, but they both believe in serving sustainable fish.  Chuck loves all things seafood and won his Iron Chef title cooking up some Lobster Poutine.   When Chef Ducasse was asked what his last meal would be he responded by saying "a piece of Red Mullet fish cooked with little fat or salt" ' I would need a fisherman and not a chef".

The other culinary connection both chefs have in common are vegetables.  They both believe in cooking the best local, organic, sustainable vegetables simply.  While Chef Ducasse adds with little fat, sugar or salt.  Chef Hughes is all about flavour so I don't think he is there yet.

Chef Ducasse coined the term "GLOCAL"  Global and local food.  That is what he is trying to do in the restaurants he has in 9 different cities.  He works with the area that the restaurant is located to cater to a local food scene instead of trying to convert the locals to imported products.

When asked if Chef Ducasse would open a restaurant in Canada he replied "too much competition".

He also spoke about restaurants stating, "The restaurant is not an anonymous place. It is what it is http://www.chuckhughes.ca/because of the people that work there."

When asked about the future of food and restaurants he said "Nature will provide you with the ingredients and you need to use your expertise to prepare them simply".

That's a philosophy that will change the future of sustainability of food in the world.

After the sit down chat everyone moved into the atrium area where there was wine and cheese set up for attendees.  But this was no little cheese board set up.  It was the most elaborate cheese table I have ever seen in my life.

 If you were lactose intolerant this wasn't the place for you, but if you are like me and live for cheese then it was heaven on 2 rectangle catering tables.  I don't know where the cheese came from but it was hundreds of dollars worth of high quality cheese.  I piled my small plate high with cheese and grabbed a couple of slices of the delicious bread supplied by fellow French Chef bakery Petite Thuet.   A Whole table of assorted loaves of bread.  Probably the thing I eat the most is bread and cheese.  That stems from my mother's French heritage where it was an everyday food to have bread and cheese.  That cheese spread was my dinner.   My friend and I were so focused on trying all the amazing cheeses that by the time we got into the book signing lineup we were at the back of the line.  It ended up being not such a bad thing because we got photos of Chef Hughes, Chef Ducasse and George Brown College's own Chef Higgins after most of the people had already left.

I picked up a copy of Ducasse's book NATURE that I will peruse later today.

While I believe Chef Ducasse has the right idea about sustainability and eating less and eating less fat, sugar and salt, I think it's a hard sell for a lot of people.  For me the fat and sugar are the toughest ones.  I have already been reducing my salt intake for a while.  I am not ready to give up meat yet either but I know that it's not a sustainable product but I am enjoying it while I can because I know things will change in the future.

Gourmet Food & Wine Show - wine it up

I just got home from the Gourmet Food and Wine Show at the Metro Convention Centre. Well for a person that doesn't drink wine it's an odd place for me to be hanging out I guess. Don't get me wrong, I have nothing against wine but I really only like to cook with it but the big reason for me going to the show was to see Chuck Hughes from Chuck's Day Off on the Food Network. Even though he says he isn't very good at doing the standing up in front of an audience and talking and signing autographs don't believe him. He is great at it. He cracks jokes and answers questions all the way through his cooking demos, although on his second demo his assistant Tracy pretty much did all the cooking while he was like a moving target roving around the audience answering questions. He is one of the most entertaining chefs I have seen at one of these food network demos, the only other one that comes close to the same humour and warmth is Chef Lynn Crawford. They both entertain while cooking amazing food. Chuck's Day Off is one of my favourite food network shows at the moment because Chuck pulls back the curtain on the restaurant industry and shows all the people it takes to run a successful restaurant, from the suppliers to the regular customers to the prep cooks and even friends that support him. Chuck is a very tough on the outside but big heart on the inside kind of guy who doesn't take himself too seriously and enjoys every minute of his culinary career. He cooks and lives with a lot of Passion and it translates into his cooking and to the people he meets. Even though Chuck didn't win The Next iron Chef he is going to be one of the chefs to look out for because I believe he is going to be a Jamie Oliver, Rachel Ray kind of big time celebrity chef. Loads of fans and trying to do good things. He will be coming back to Toronto on Nov 26-27 for Bobby Flay's Chef Challenge a huge Charity Event for Mount Sinai Hospital for Cancer research. You have to raise $2500 in donations just to be at the Challenge to compete. I would enter if I could raise that kind of money. Maybe next year.

So Look out for Chuck on a TV or at a show near you again soon.

You probably want to know about the rest of the Food and Wine Show too right? Well I only tasted one wine that was a sangria and it was the Barefoot something wine. It was good but I am no wine expert so I don't even want to try and give you any wine information. But what I did love was the Margarita mix. Great lime and Strawberry slushi margaritas. It was so hot in the convention centre that it went down so well.

Food to note that I really enjoyed was at the Barbados booth. Great Fish cake and they had sorrel and rum drink. I tasted a bunch of cheeses, my favourites being the goat cheeses with herbs and red peppers on them. I had some nice chicken curry as well.

The most fun food item was a huge sub that the chef from the Drake Hotel made. You name it and it was in it. I got a sample of that and it was packed with flavour.

Early in the day when I arrived the show was very subdued but by the time I left at 8:30 it was like a wild night in a club on a friday night. Friday and Saturday nights are quite the party so if you are looking for somewhere to go and drink instead of a club this would be a good choice for you.

The show ends on Sunday so it's not to late for you to go and check it out.

Chuck Hughes has probably already gone back to Montreal but there's lots of wine to be had if you like to try all kinds of different wines from around the world.

A couple of things to note. Return your glass before you leave and $1 will be donated to Second Harvest and please don't drink and drive.

Enjoy.

Savour Stratford Festival

Thanks to Twitter I was able to win a Free Weekend Stay in Stratford for the Savour Stratford Festival. I entered this twitter contest for a few reasons. 1. A cool food event to check out and blog about on this page. 2. Chuck Hughes from Chuck's Day Off was there. 3. My friend lives in St. Mary's and a free weekend stay to visit with her would be a bonus. So what did I have to lose??? nothing so I clicked...and I got lucky and won the free weekend stay at the Festival INN and along with that I got tickets to Beerology101 but I am not a beer drinker so I passed on that but I did attend BBQ, Blues and Beer..but the BBQ was limited and extra so we didn't stay long. But the best part of the package was vouchers for something called the Chocolate Trail. The chocolate trail were businesses on the Stratford main strip that had all things chocolate and had chocolate items that were given out free in exchange of a voucher. I split the vouchers with my friend but I was able to get 2 bars of chocolate, 1 milk and one dark, some Chocolate Ginger Tea, Chocolate Mocha sauce and my friend got a chocolate sundae too. YUM.
On the kickoff day I watched Paul Finkelstein (Fink) orchestrate a Pass it On session to teach a bunch of kids how to make an egg wrap. Something Jamie Oliver does as well. The idea being teach a kid who will then pass on the recipe and become self sufficient in the kitchen.

Another fabulous thing that was a part of the Festival was their great Farmer's Market. I have been to many Farmer's Markets in Toronto but this one was exceptional. The range of food and the freshness was amazing. I picked up things that I am sure most people don't ever find in their grocery stores. I got yellow and candy beets, purple fingerling potatoes and some purple peppers. I have already cooked up the potatoes and beets...great and the colors are amazing.

The Most Fun I had that weekend was seeing Chuck Hughes (chuck's Day Off) do a Cooking Demo. He was trying to talk over a steam whistle and music playing all over and the odd passerby but handled it all with humour. He made some sashimi/ceviche style fish with pickled radish and also caramelized peaches for dessert. Chuck is a great chef but he is also down to earth and entertaining when he does these cooking demos. Chuck's Day Off was already one of my favourite shows because Chuck always cooks things that are accessible to most people and sometimes he puts his little spin on his food which keeps it fresh. I am not a big tattoo person but Chuck has food related tattoos that all have special meaning to him which adds a lot to his character.

Overall the Savour Stratford Festival is a great event and was voted Ontario Event of the year last year and I can see why. It's a foodie's heaven. People that love fresh, local, good food congregate in a small and friendly community where everyone says Hi and wants to share their food with you. What could be better? I hope to return again next year and savour more of Stratford.