Get Inspired to Taste Canada

INSPIRED TO TASTE CANADA

EVENT:  Taste Canada Event HBXTasteCanada at Hudson’s Bay Queen Street

                176 Yonge St., 7th floor (Housewares dept)

DATE:     May 12, 19 and 26th, 2016

WHO:     Taste Canada's Renowned Cookbook Authors and Chefs,
                Matt Basile (Lisa Marie, Fidel Gastros),         
                Mairlyn Smith Cookbook author & television personality, 
                Derek Damman (Maison Publique) and writer Chris Johns.

HASHTAG:  #HBxTasteCanada

I attended 2 out of 3 of Taste Canada's events and I am sorry that I missed Mairlyn Smith's session because I heard she was hilarious as I knew she would be.

The events were hosted by Taste Canada's English Language Chair Jennifer MacKenzie who I had the pleasure of meeting on last year's Farm Food Tour.

The event was to showcase some of the recipes in a few of the cookbooks submitted to the Taste Canada Awards which will be held on November 14, 2016.  It is open to the public if you want to purchase tickets.  It is held at the Bay as well.

The shortlist will be announced on September 13th and I hope to see some of these cookbooks on the short list.
Last year they introduced Food Blogger Awards and for the second year I have submitted my Blog for the Award.  I know it's a long shot but you never know if you don't buy a ticket as they say.  Last year the bloggers were also invited to be red carpet correspondents which was really fun and a great way to finally meet some of the other bloggers and cookbook authors.

I attend the first session just for fun since it was my birthday and wanted to have something to do after work.
Matt Basile made his popular Sriracha Maple Syrup Cauliflower and I think there was other stuff but I didn't get a chance to try it.  The first session was a bit more chaotic because I was trying to figure out all the stations for Beer, Wine, Coffee, Godiva chocolate covered strawberries, Flow water and Kale Chips.
By the time I went to the one with Derek Damman I knew where everything was and already tasted a few of the things so I had more time and a better view of Derek's demo of some amazing fresh Wild Garlic (Ramp) pasta with Wild garlic sauce.  Derek wasn't used to the induction stoves and had a bit of a challenge trying to get them to the temperature he wanted and he said he never used the pasta attachment on the Kitchen Aid Machine but that never stops a true Chef even though he was a little flustered by it he still produced the most amazing pasta.  Imagine the freshest pasta with a full flavour of fresh garlic.  Simple but amazing.  He also made potato croquettes that were passed around and they were fantastic too.  I could have eaten a half dozen of those.

There were deals on products from All Clad and lot's of different beverages to try.  After the quick cooking demo the Chefs sat down to sign their cookbooks and meet everyone.

I have all 3 of these cookbooks and I can tell you that they really represent all that is Canada.  Matt's book is wild and decadent with recipes from all over from his food truck travels. Matt likes to go BIG.  Mairlyn Smith is a people person so her cookbook is just that.  A collection of recipes from fellow Home Economists from across Canada and some are healthy and there are Canadian classics like Butter tarts.  Derek and Chris' cookbook is a superb collection of local ingredients from the West coast to the East Coast of Canada and it could be a lovely coffee table book with the photos from their seasick photographer.  For more info on these Cookbook Authors here is their info:

Matt Basile

Thursday, May 12, 2016 

Featuring Matt Basile, author of “Street Food Diaries” 

Twitter: Matt Basile @fidelgastros 

Presented by Penguin Canada @PenguinCanada

FB: https://www.facebook.com/pages/Fidel-Gastros/180390048709936

IG: fidelgastros 

Website: fidelgastros.com

Thursday, May 19, 2016 

Featuring Mairlyn Smith, author of “Homegrown” 

Twitter: Mairlyn Smith @MairlynSmith ; also @OntarioHEA

Presented by Whitecap @whitecapbooks

FB:  Mairlyn Smith Author 

IG: MairlynSmith

Website: mairlynsmith.com

Derek Damman

Thursday, May 26, 2016 

Featuring Derek Dammann & Chris Johns, authors of 
“True North”

T: Derek Dammann @maisonpublique 

Chris Johns @chrisandvinegar

Presented by HarperCollins @HarperCollinsCA

FB: https://www.facebook.com/maisonpubliquemtl/?fref=ts

IG: maisonpublique 

Website: maisonpublique.com

http://chrisjohns.tumblr.com/

To find out more info about the Taste Canada Awards:
http://tastecanada.org/awards/

Please follow Taste Canada and these other sponsors on Twitter: 

@TasteCanada

@hudsonsbay

@AllCladCanada

@GODIVA 

@HealthyCrunch

@CraftBeerGlass 

@sawdustcitybeer

@jamieoliver 

Taste Canada at the Bay with Basile, Smith and Damman

Taste Canada is bringing a series of 3 Chef demos to the Hudson's Bay this May.

I will be spending the 1st of this series of cooking demos on my Birthday on May 12th with Chef Owner of the Restaurant Lisa Marie and the Food Truck Fidel Gastros own Matt Basile.  Matt is a fun guy so I know it will be a fun way to spend my birthday.

On May 19th the 2nd in the series is with Home Economist and hilarious television personality Mairlyn Smith. She has a new cookbook out called Homegrown, that she put together with a group of other Home economists.  Mairlyn is a lot of fun and although I am not able to attend this session I know it will be great fun too.

On May 26th Chef Derek Dammann, and Chris Johns owners of Montreal's Maison Publique which is also partially owned by Jamie Oliver.  I have seen Chef Dammann once in Stratford and I am really looking forward to seeing what he has in store for his demo.  His restaurant is very highly regarded and he doesn't often come to Toronto so this will be a great opportunity since I haven't had a chance to go to Montreal yet. Their cookbook is "True North" and I am looking forward to checking it out.

You can register to attend these demos for free but SPACE IS LIMITED so you need to try and get in right away.   Here are the details.

RSVP here:  http://www.thebay.com/registry/events/tastecanada

Hashtag #HBxTasteCanada

Follow:
Matt Basile IG and T @fidelgastros
Mairlyn Smith T @MairlynSmith  IG @MairlynSmith
Derek Dammann T@MaisonPublique
Chris Johns @chrisandvinegar  IG @maisonpublique

Websites:
www.fidelgastros.com
www.mairlynsmith.com
www.maisonpublique.com

Thanks and follow:
@hudsonsbay
@TasteCanada
@AllCladCanada
@GODIVA
@HealthyCrunch
@CraftBeerGlass
@sawdustcitybeer
@jamieoliver

Road Tripping - Savour Stratford

Stratford is a happening place these days.  Home to former resident Justin Bieber and the Stratford Festival where current shows include King Lear which stars the great actor and Stratford resident Colm Feore.

Stratford is also home to some great artisan food producers including Cheese Makers Monforte Dairy.  Monforte Dairy sell their Artisan cheeses at many of Toronto's farmer's markets and are very popular in the markets.

I recently went on a road trip to Stratford for the day with some friends to check out the annual Savour Stratford Festival.  It runs all weekend long but I just drove up for the saturday.  I have been to Savour Stratford before a few years ago and was lucky to win a weekend stay and some Savour Stratford vouchers.  I enjoyed my weekend very much as I was able to spend the weekend hanging out with an old friend that lives in neighbouring St. Mary's.  I was lucky that the weather was beautiful and sunny that weekend.  Not like the day I visited this time around.   The drive to Stratford this time was grey and  drizzly.  I have to say that half of the festival is held outside where there is an Artisan Market.  That's what I went there for this year.  When we arrived the weather seemed indecisive, it drizzled then stopped then drizzled again and stopped while we were walking the Artisan Market street.   So it was open umbrella, close umbrella and so on for about an hour.  I was a little sad that there didn't seem to be as many vendors as there were the last time I visited.   There were vendors spread around the grass as well as the street last time and there were quite a few fresh produce vendors with spectacular produce.  This time there were more food truck and preserves vendors and less creative and quality produce vendors.   The last time I brought back a huge bag of amazing produce.  This time I didn't purchase anything.

After we walked through the Artisan Market we went to the Toronto Star sponsored cooking demos.  This year they were held in a Community Centre but the last time I visited it was in a tent on one of the main streets.  I think this was a good change because as it happens it poured while we were in the building watching the demos.  Good timing on the demos.

We watched Rich Francis who was one of the finalists from Top Chef Canada.  He made a Bison recipe and talked about Aboriginal native foods and techniques.  In this photo Alison Fryer, former owner of the Cookbook Store in Toronto introduces him.  It was great to see Alison and have a chat about what she's been up to since the closing of her store recently after 30 years in business.
I was able to sample a bit of the Bison and I liked it, although my friends didn't enjoy it as much.

The next demo was Derek Dammann who owns a restaurant called Maison Publique.  Jamie Oliver is also a part owner of this restaurant.  Derek worked with Jamie in the past and Jamie was instrumental in helping Derek open his very popular restaurant in Montreal.

In this photo the man on the left was a man from the audience and Derek on the right is preparing fresh Salmon.   He made a caviar type of thing that I have never heard of before.  He used Basil seeds that he said popped in your mouth like fresh caviar.  We left before the sampling because his Salmon was raw fresh Salmon and my friends weren't the Sushi loving types.  I would have tried it but we moved on before any samples were handed out unfortunately.  I guess I will have to go to Montreal to try his food.




After the demos we decided to walk around on the main streets and pretty much got stuck in one really great store with great things for the home.  I picked up some great plates that were discounted.  My new obsession is plates and placemats for my photos so that I can change up the style of what my dishes look like when I cook at home.

After a bit of shopping we decided to go and get something to eat.  I suggested a couple of places and we agreed to go to the Montforte Dairy restaurant on Wellington.
















 It's a small cozy space and when we arrived all the tables were filled in the restaurant so we headed to the patio.
Keep in mind that it had been drizzling and raining all day but it stopped when we arrived at the restaurant.  We sat down at a table with a large umbrella and just after we ordered our food it rained again.  We had the over head umbrellas and still popped out our umbrellas to make sure our backs didn't get wet.
Luckily I didn't get wet but it made for an interesting dinner for sure.

The Monforte Restaurant features all of their locally made cheeses.  I tried the Chicken liver mousse with a red pepper jelly and a goat cheese and pea crostini.  I also tried the stuffed Zucchini blossoms.  They were a bit tiny but tasted good.  Everything was very tasty but we didn't feel stuffed afterward. Most of the dishes were small lunch size plates.  

We decided to end our day after our dinner as the shops were already closing down and there was only ticketed dinners left at the festival.   We would have liked to walk around the waterfront but with the weather being dark, rainy and just gloomy we skipped that.  So we decided to head home while it was still light out,  after traffic headed out of Stratford but before traffic picked up in Toronto.  A rainy drive back to the City.  

It was a nice day but I have to say I didn't enjoy the festival as the first time I went because the weather was really a downer on the event and unfortunately my friend that lives in St. Mary's was out of town for the weekend so I didn't get the chance to visit with her at the same time this time around.

We hope to return to see King Lear and hopefully the weather will be nicer and my friend will be around to join us next time.