Toronto Soup Festival at Fort York

I checked out a fun event recently at Fort York.  TORONTO SOUP FESTIVAL was an outdoor event with proceeds going to Second Harvest.  With a few soup vendors like Fidel Gastro's, Fat Rabbit, Ted Reader and Neruda there were a host of different types of soups.  I enjoyed the corn soup and Fidel Gastro's Leek and Potato soup.

 

There was also a Free to enter Farmer's market at the entrance that we stopped by on the way out.  I picked up an amazing loaf of sourdough bread that I ate every last crumb of.

I think my favourite thing to eat at the festival was Craig's Cookies though.  One was still warm and gooey.  Not soup but went so well after some warm bowls of soup.

A really cool thing they did was hand out spoons attached to lanyards that you could wear around your neck while leaving you hands free in between soups.

Fidel Gastro's Matt Basile

Fat Rabbit's Trevor Lui

 

Music by Corey Music

A popular place to hang out was around the fire pit. It rained for a bit so people left for cover but when it stopped they all flocked back to it.

There was fun entertainment for kids an adults with great music by Corey Music and a bouncy castle for the kids and games like Giant Chess and bricks to move around on the grass. 

A perfect place for a fun selfie was in front of the Huge Stock Pot that had steam coming out of it at different times.

It was the first year at the Fort York location.  It's a bit tough to get there but it worked out pretty well on the Saturday but not sure how it was on the chillier Sunday weather.

It's a bit pricey with a single ticket for $25 which includes the spoon and entrance and I think 2 tickets but there was a $45 price for a 4 pack which is a bit better.  Most items were between 3 to 5 tickets and each ticket was $1.   I don't know if they will do it at the same location next year but it's a fun event to hang out with a group of friends and family.

Website:  http://soupfestival.ca/

Harvest Wednesday at the Gladstone

What: Second Harvest’s Food Rescue Challenge Kick-off

Who: Bob Blumer, Celebrity Chef & Liam Lewis, 15-year-old Toronto Chef (The Little Locavore)
Time: Wednesday, April 18, 2018 from 7-9pm
Where: The Gladstone Hotel
1214 Queen Street West, Toronto ON

Second Harvest, Canada’s largest food rescue organization, launched For The Love of Food Challenge, a one-month program that challenges Torontonians to reduce their household food waste by 50 per cent.

Commencing on Earth Day, the goal of the program is to educate and raise awareness about household food waste, greenhouse gas emissions and how to make a difference at home.

To kick off the challenge and encourage pledges, Second Harvest, will be hosting a cooking demo
featuring Celebrity Chef Bob Blumer, and 15-year-old, Toronto chef, Liam Lewis. The two will create a dish showcasing a simple way to use leftover food items in your kitchen that would otherwise go to waste.

The kick-off is hosted in collaboration with the Gladstone Hotel’s Grow-Op Exhibit and Harvest
Wednesday’s Food Series launch, a new event that showcases some of the Hotel’s favourite Ontario
producers.

There were many different local Food and Drink Producers on hand for sampling such as Fifth Town Cheese and Chocosol chocolate, Island Oysters, Honey from the Bee Keeper Collective, Alchemy Pickle Co. and Sapsucker water and more.

Website:
https://www.harvestwednesdays.com/

Coming up on August 22nd,  Bob Blumer is back at the Gladstone Hotel for a Harvest Dinner to once again battle food waste, a cause that he is passionate about and which benefits his charity Second Harvest.

For more information and tickets:
https://www.harvestwednesdays.com/tickets/harvest-wednesdays-august-dinner

I also had a quick peek at the Grow Op Installation upstairs at the Gladstone.  I picked up this free plant there.

The Feast of St Lawrence - Dinner under the Stars

FEAST OF ST LAWRENCE

DINNER UNDER THE STARS

When:    Saturday July 14, 2018
What:     Media Preview for Dinner Under the Stars
Why:      Charity Event for Second Harvest
Who:      Sponsored by Audi Toronto
Where:   Preview at 4 participating restaurants in the St. Lawrence Market Area

On August 10th there will be a great Sit Down Charity Event called the FEAST OF ST LAWRENCE -DINNER UNDER THE STARS that will take place at St. Lawrence Market.  It will feature restaurants in the St. Lawrence Market area and the proceeds from this event will be donated to the Food Rescue Non-Profit organization Second Harvest.  I really love what Second Harvest does because it tackles the food waste problem while also taking care of food insecurity for so many people in Toronto. Sponsored by Audi Toronto.

On a very humid Saturday afternoon I joined fellow bloggers/influencers for a walking tour and preview of some of the participating restaurants for The Fest of St. Lawrence - Dinner Under the Stars.  Unfortunately I missed the first stop at Pearl Diver because of the subway closures but luckily I have been to Pearl Diver many times so I know they are fantastic. I haven't had a chance to go to the Feast of St. Lawrence but I have heard that it's an amazing event and it's a gorgeous night out at the Market while doing great things for so many people.
                                  

1st Stop: Pearl Diver

Location: 100 Adelaide St E, Toronto, ON

Tasting: Oyster 

                                 

2nd Stop: Omni King Edward Hotel
Location: 37 King St E, Toronto, 

Tasting: Ancient grain and hazelnut clusters, roasted summer vegetables, charred pickled onion, petit tender - Beef, Chimichurri crema. Vegetarian Alternative: Ancient grain and hazelnut clusters, roasted summer vegetables, charred pickled onion, squash blossoms, carrot cider puree.

   

 

                           

3rd Stop: Farmr

Location: 140A The Esplanade, Toronto, ON

Tasting: Pickled Watermelon Salad, local tomatoes cucumber, arugula, finger chilies, tomato vinaigrette, micro basil

This was probably my favourite on the tour only because it was a hot day and this was so refreshing and light and we had it sitting outside on their cozy patio sitting on picnic tables so it really felt like summer.

                                  

4th Stop:  CC Lounge and Whisky Bar

Location: 45 Front St E, Toronto

Tasting: Gooderham & Worts Four Grain Canadian Whisky and

Cocktail Toronto -  J.P. Wiser’s Deluxe, triple Sec, Lillet Liquor and fresh Lemon.

Herbed fries with dips.

This Lounge is beautiful with some fantastic huge chandeliers and a long bar and cozy seating.  The building has a ton of history and you sort of feel it when you are there.

Now for more details about the actual event including the full menu and ticket information:

DETAILS for the DINNER UNDER THE STARS

The Feast of St. Lawrence begins on August 10th with an exclusive, al fresco fine dining event for charity. Two hundred and fifty guests will be seated at two continuous tables on Front Street (between Scott and Church Street) and served a sumptuous five-course dinner prepared by chefs from some of the top restaurants in the St. Lawrence Neighbourhood including Biff's Bistro, Farmr, ARDO, The Hot House Restaurant, The Omni King Edward Hotel, Pearl Diver, The Sultan's Tent and George Brown College. 

Wine pairings from Prince Edward County vineyards and Creemore Springs beer will

be served with the dinner and CC Lounge will present a special Whisky tasting bar. The 18-piece JAZZ.FM91 Youth Big Band will provide added ambiance in the beautifully illuminated Berczy Park lounge area.
The event begins with a reception featuring hors d'oeuvres, wine and beer starting at 6:00 p.m. and ends at 11:00 p.m. 

A portion of ticket sales will be donated to Second Harvest.

Tickets are $200 and are on sale now!

Purchase tickets:

https://www.showpass.com/feast-of-st-lawrence-dinner-under-the-stars/

By Phone: call 416 410 9242

Location: Front Street East (between Scott and Church Street)

Friday August 10, 2018 - 6:00 p.m. – 11:00 p.m.

Official Accounts:

@oldtowntoronto

@auditoronto

Official Hashtags:

#oldtowntoronto

#feastofstlawrence

#dinnerunderthestars

ABOUT:
Second Harvest: Second Harvest is the largest food rescue organization in Canada and a global thought leader on food recovery. With a goal to drastically reduce the amount of food wasted while ensuring people have access to the good, healthy food they need for success, Second Harvest works across the supply chain from farmer to retail to capture surplus food before it ends up in the landfill and negatively impacts our environment.
Since 1985 we have rescued and delivered more than 127 million pounds of food and prevented over 70 million pounds of greenhouse gas equivalents from entering our atmosphere. Currently, we rescue food from over 470 donors and deliver that food to 253 social service agencies in Toronto and food hubs across Ontario, providing enough food for 30,000 meals a day.

No Waste. No Hunger.

DINNER UNDER THE STARS MENU

FEAST OF ST. LAWRENCE 2018

HORS d’OEUVRES

Stationary

Oyster Station (Pearl Diver)

Whisky Bar (CC Lounge)

Beer Bar (Creemore Springs Brewery)

PASSED BY THE SERVERS

Biff's Famous Chicken Liver Parfait (Biff's Bistro)

Falafel with Tahini Sauce (The Sultan's Tent)

Stanners Vineyard 2016 Lincoln Lakeshore Riesling / Stanners Vineyard 2016 Prince Edward County Chardonnay / Broken

Stone Winery 2017 Estate Pinot Noir

APPETIZER

Chilled Melon Soup with ginger (The Hot House)

Rosehall Run Ceremony Blanc de Blanc Brut

Tagliata di Spada - Nova Scotia Sword fish with Ardo sour dough, breadcrumb green peas mint pure, pickled cipolline

(ARDO)

Closson Chase 2017 K. J. Watson Pinot Gris

ENTRE METIER

Pickled Watermelon Salad, local tomatoes cucumber, arugula, finger chilies, tomato vinaigrette, micro basil (Farmr)

Karlo Estates Winery 2017 Frontenac Gris Rose

MAIN

Ancient grain and hazelnut clusters, roasted summer vegetables, charred pickled onion, petit tender, Chimichurri crema

(Omni King Edward Hotel)

Vegetarian Alternative: Ancient grain and hazelnut clusters, roasted summer vegetables, charred pickled onion, squash

blossoms, carrot cider puree (Omni King Edward Hotel)

Keint-he Winery & Vineyards 2013 Queenston Road Pinot Noir

SWEET

Tonka Pavlova with Ontario peaches, wild blueberry and basil cream (George Brown College)

S'mores Tart with smoked chocolate, toasted marshmallow and crushed raspberry (George Brown College)

Broken Stone Winery Exuberance Sparkling Riesling

The Sweetery

Festival:     The Sweetery
Location:    David Pecaut Square
Date:          August 12  & 13, 2017
Website:     The Sweetery

I'm a bit late in writing this post but I wanted to make sure I gave a bit of props to the Sweetery Festival.  It's a small festival that is billed as Canada's largest sweets festival.  I don't know about that but It's a very cute and compact festival with lots of great things.

It's only a couple of years old but they seem to be getting into their groove now.  It's run in conjunction with George Brown College Culinary students and the team I believe are all students.

Some of the proceeds go to Second Harvest which is a great local food rescue charity.

George Brown College has a fantastic display of classic french pastries. I sampled a light and flakey croissant that was oh so buttery.

It was also great to see Holy Cannoli who are at most food festivals in Toronto and they even sold out one of the days they were so busy.

One of the best things I tried was from the food truck Wafel Bar.  They make the best Liege waffles I have ever eaten.  Crisp on the outside and soft on the inside and the flavour is perfection.  I had mine with chocolate ice cream and it was perfect.

They had some savoury food there as well and I had a taste of sweet and spicy corn salad.  I think that was the first thing I tried and my actual breakfast but it was delicious.

I also sampled a Macaron slider.  Although a bit weird to see a burger in a macaroon with nori in the middle it did taste pretty good.  I wonder how people decide to use a macaron for a burger bun but I can only imagine since most of the vendors are young and creative.

I didn't eat a lot because I had another festival to go to afterward but everything I tasted was great.

The thing I like about the Sweetery is the location.  It's located at David Pecaut Square on King St. West.  I like this venue because it's compact and easy to get to and there is a grassy area in the middle where they place big red and white umbrellas to sit under and enjoy your treats.   They also have music to enjoy while you are sampling away.

It's an easy festival to attend because there are no entrance fees and you can just pick and choose your sweet and savoury treats and relax in the sun.

I hope you get a chance to check it out next year and get to see it before people find out it's a sweet little festival.

Toronto Taste 2017 - A feast for Second Harvest

I was really fortunate this year to be able to attend the TORONTO TASTE Charity Event at Corus Quay on Sunday, June 4, 2017.  A culinary event where the proceeds go to Second Harvest.

Tickets were $260 for all you can eat and drink and lot's of entertainment.

This 27th edition with the help of many Chefs, top restaurants and over 400 volunteers they were able to raise $925,000 for Second Harvest, Canada’s largest food rescue charity. Funds raised will provide 1.8 million fresh and healthy meals to people facing hunger across Toronto. It accounts for 20% of Second Harvest's annual revenue to help provide meals to those in need in our ever growing city.

Guests sampled spectacular dishes and drinks from over 90 of the most sought-after restaurants and beverage purveyors, including Baro, Lavelle, McEwan Group, Antler, Hawthorne Food & Drink, Kanpai Snack Bar, Bar Reyna and Ufficio.

Michelle Jobin, John Catucci and Eric Chong - Masterchef Canada winner.

This year Top chefs Guy Rawlings (Montgomery’s), Anne Sorrenti (The Oakwood Hardware Food & Drink and Chopped Canada winner) and Eric Chong (R&D and MasterChef Canada winner) entertained guests in the Chef Challenge.  Guy Rawlings was crowned the winner.

At the live auction, attendees could bid on chef dinner packages, such as dinner at Bob Blumer’s LA home or the opportunity to join Chef Roger Mooking for an action-packed food tour of New Orleans. The exclusive live auction chef packages from Michael Smith, Michael Hunter, Roger Mooking and Bob Blumer raised a total of $46,000. Notably, Bob Blumer, Second Harvest Ambassador, raised $165,000 towards the purchase of a truck for Second Harvest and an anonymous donor came forward to top up his fundraising. With a long history of supporting Second Harvest, Purolator Inc. stepped forward to donate an additional truck, a valuable asset as Second Harvest transports food to hundreds of social service agencies across the GTA daily.

There were so many fantastic dishes that I tried to eat my way through the large outdoor tented event by the lake, but I think I probably only tried about half of the food before getting really full.

One of the favourite dishes for me and my foodie friends was the Scallop crudo from Buca.  They are one of the top restaurants in Toronto for good reason.

(left, Michael Hunter - Antler - r?

El Cabalito's Elia Herrera made a great pulled pork slider.  Hawthorne food and drink made their signature Schmaltz Carbonara.  Michael Hunter from Antler made really flavourful Duck skewers.

Trevor Lui - Kanpai Snack Bar

Pork Belly

It's great to see Chefs you know having some fun and creating great dishes at the same time.  Trevor Lui from Kanpai Snack Bar having a little fun with us and he created an amazing crispy pork belly dish with a slaw on the side.

Ivana Raca - Ufficio

All of the Top Chefs in Toronto were there and Bob Blumer from the West Coast and Michael Smith from the East Coast.  

They all really like this festival because it's organized really well and they are all fairly close together and they can do something they don't always have time to do because they work crazy hours,  something most of us take for granted.  Social time.  Yes they get to catch up with their peers and see what's new and actually try their food sometimes.  The Chefs in Toronto are mostly a tight knit group of very generous and hard working people.  I know this because I have gotten to know a lot of them at a lot  of these events and they are long days standing in the heat mostly.  I know that I don't have the stamina to do this everyday for a living.  So I have a lot of respect for their hard work and for pitching in their time and creativity to raise funds for Second Harvest and other local charities.

They got really lucky with the weather this year.  It was perfect.  The sun was out and the temperature was perfect by the lake.  Everyone was in a great mood and there was lot's of musical entertainment with live music inside Corus Quay.

This was only my 3rd time attending Toronto Taste.  The first time I was a volunteer and I can tell you that they couldn't do this event without volunteers.  The second time was years ago when I was writing event listings for B Magazine.  It was more about the overall event then.  This time with the knowledge of many years working on my Blog and getting to know who most of these chefs are and what kind of food they make I can honestly say I really enjoyed every minute of it and the best part was that I was able to spend the time with my 2 fellow blogger buddies (Cooking Quidnunc & Mary's Happy Belly)  so it made it that much more fun to run around and sample and compare dishes and hopefully between the 3 of us were were able to taste almost all of the different dishes.

I hope to be able to go back for more again next year.  I hope you can attend or at least try and donate to Second Harvest or buy raffle tickets or bid on one of their auction items and help them to keep doing great work.

Disclaimer*  The ticket was complimentary but the photos and comments are my own.  Some information was provided by Second Harvest.