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

Wasted! The Story of Food Waste - see it at Planet in Focus

WASTED! THE STORY OF FOOD WASTE

Anna Chai/Nari Kye, USA, 2017, 85 min

Slick, solution­-oriented, and featuring Anthony Bourdain at his sardonic best, 

WASTED! The Story of Food Waste is that rare social issue documentary that’s every bit as entertaining as it is informative.

Do you remember when Documentaries where things you were forced to watch in High School,  well this isn't one of those.  It's eye opening and educational but it's also whitty and interesting.  It puts food waste into perspective and you will feel a twinge of guilt the next time you throw food into the garbage and forget about it.  This documentary is one that SHOULD be shown in schools to young children so that they learn where there food comes from and where it goes if they don't eat it.
Anthony Bourdain doesn't consider himself a food activist but food waste was ingrained in his culinary training where food costs are paramount to the success or failure of a restaurant.  it's just smart not to waste any food in a restaurant but it also applies to real life.  

I highly recommend everyone watch this film.  It has so many well known people in the food industry discussing different aspects of the food supply chain and how everyone can do their part to make a difference.  

You can see it at the Planet in Focus Film festival in Toronto  in October 2017.

PLANET IN FOCUS Screening Times: Saturday 21 October, 6:45pm ­at Innis Town Hall

Screens with THE POACHER (Nicholas Jones) 

Trashed X Wasted Event

What:       Trashed & Wasted for Second Harvest
Where:     Artscape Wychwood Barns
When:      March 1,  2017
Why:        An event to divert food waste from landfills and raise funds for Second Harvest
Facebook:  https://www.facebook.com/trashedandwasted/

I was really looking forward to attending the 1st Trashed & Wasted event which was sparked by an idea from the Gourmet Soup Kitchen that Michelin Chef Massimo Bottura created from the excess food from the RIO Olympics.  I saw the documentary Theatre of Life about this story and thought the same thing as Trashed &Wasted founder Brock did.  I really wanted to do an event that used the excess food that was usually tossed out but my idea was to do a public event to educate and feed street people.  Trashed & Wasted was more of a curated event that used local Chefs and vendors to produce creative bites to raise funds for Second Harvest which is one of the best food recovery Charities in the city.  Held at the Wychwood Barns space at Christie and St. Clair in Toronto.  It was fairly small with about a half a dozen food vendors and a Brewery.  It was only the first one but I bet if there are more to come there will be a lot more vendors that will jump on the food diversion train.

 The good thing about it being a smaller event was the fact that there weren't any lineups for food.  Yes that might change if it grows but I think people are afraid of what they think is food waste because they don't know what they are eating.  Two of my favourite things weren't strange at all.

 From Arepa cafe they made a mixed vegetable like ratatouille mixture that they put on tostones (fried plantains)  and on mini Arepas.  It was delicious, and I wish I had asked them what the food waste part was because it just tasted amazing.
The other bite I loved was the pureed cauliflower on Bannock from Oliver and Bonnacini's Bannock restaurant.  The cauliflower was just the stems that people usually toss and they were pureed with cheese I think.  Nothing weird about it, just the stem that is tougher but totally edible.

The event was a bit expensive but I think that if they do more and get more vendors the cost might decrease.  It's always hard to launch your first event.  People don't want to jump in until they see something is successful usually.

I would say this event was very successful.  People seemed really happy about the food.  I even spotted Marion Kane long time food industry insider checking things out.

Oh my favourite dessert was of course the chocolates from CXBO Chocolates by Brandon Olson .  OMG, they are beautiful and delicious.  I think those were chocolates left over from special orders because there was nothing wrong with them, that's for sure.

Some of the other foods to try included Chicharons with whipped lamb brains, yeah this one sounds weird but it wasn't bad.  Pickled Lamb tongue on rye which was just like corned beef.  Fried chicken tails,  they tasted good but there is a bit of cartilage in them which wasn't as appealing.  Hooked made sushi with Pickerel and their own caviar.  There was also a curry carrot soup,  I am not sure if it had curry in it because it just tasted like carrot soup.  My friend really liked the mushroom on Bannock from O&B.  There was also a spent bread and whipped butter that tasted like amazing whole grain nutty bread.  And pictured above was a pickled Kohlrabi, who knows what to do with Kohlrabi?

The other cool thing about the event was the booths were made using recycled materials and they had a table that you could create a collage from old magazines.

Second Harvest was on hand selling raffle tickets for some amazing things in their silent auction.  I wish I had the money to buy a bunch of tickets.

One thing that was really smart was the grocery stand display at the entrance.  They had paper bags so you could take some of the vegetables home.  Smart no waste display and no junk to toss away when you get home.  I took home some tomatoes, potatoes and lettuce.  I really appreciated that little thing that really did a lot of good.  I have a BLT,  Potato Salad and Tomato soup with it so far.  I will use the rest of the lettuce later.

I think it was a great smart event that I hope carries on so that we can educate people to use their resources a lot better so that we don't run out of food in the future.

Follow them on Facebook and maybe you will be able to attend another event soon.
https://www.facebook.com/trashedandwasted/

Twitter https://twitter.com/trashed_wasted

Trashed & Wasted - Food Rescue Event

NEW CHARITY EVENT FOR SECOND HARVEST

TRASHED & WASTED: TORONTO

A charity event rethinking food waste, repurposing trash, and reclaiming refuse.

Date:            March 1, 2017 

Time:            6 to 10pm, 

Location:       Artscape Wychwood Barns 

Event:           Food rescue charity event benefiting Second Harvest

The public are invited to join local chefs and food suppliers, designers and innovators at Wychwood Barns in Toronto for a one-day celebration of the sustenance, beauty, and benefits of what was once simply trashed and wasted. 

Enjoy delicious dishes, cocktails, and treats made from the most unexpected ingredients, and explore installations

that will make you rethink your next disposal or purchase.

Trashed & Wasted: Toronto will pair innovative chefs with ethically-minded suppliers to create

dishes from rescued food. Local brewers, distillers, and drinks experts will be challenged to concoct

libations from repurposed ingredients. Local artists and designers will create booths from disposed

and found objects. Local musical groups will share exciting ways to repurpose instruments.

“We have come to live in a disposable society,” says event coordinator, Brock Shepherd. “And rarely

is the reckless disposability more shocking than when it comes to food. Every day, tons of edible

food is wasted in this city. We allow it to rot in our fridges, grocery stores prematurely dispose of

‘expired’ products, and restaurants watch bins fill up with perfectly good but uneaten ingredients.

And, while so much is thrown out, thousands of people go hungry.”

Trashed & Wasted takes its inspiration from the recent Olympic games, during which a Michelin-star

chef Massimo Bottura took leftovers from the athletes’ village and turned them into meals that fed the homeless.   You can read about the documentary about the dinners in a previous review post on the film.

In 2017, Toronto-based food and beverage innovator Brock Shepherd is bringing these concepts to an event here in our own city.

HIGHLIGHTS

• Distilled spirits made from fruit pulp donated by local juicer

• Craft beer made from bakery bread scraps

• Gourmet dishes made from rescued food

• Proceeds will support Second Harvest’s Food Rescue Programme

Participants will include:

Sanagan’s Meat Locker, Porchetta & Co, Hooked, Arepa Cafe, Blackbird

Bakery, Montgomery’s Restaurant, Montforte Dairy, Soul Roasters, Elee Design, Sumo Project,

Tickets - 

universe.com/trashedandwasted

Social -

facebook.com/trashedandwasted

twitter.com/trashed_wasted

instagram.com/trashed_wasted

Planet in Focus - Theatre of Life

My two favourite things in life are Film and Food.  I got to enjoy both of them together at the Opening Night Gala at the Planet in Focus Film Festival.  The Opening Night film at the Bloor Cinema was Theatre of Life, a film about food waste and the people that are less fortunate and effects and solutions made by the Vatican, Chefs, Designers and Artists.  The film was introduced by local Chef Jamie Kennedy and there was a Q&A afterward with local Chef Activist Joshna Maharaj and Director Peter Svatel.

Michelin star Italian Chef chef Massimo Bottura had an idea for a Soup Kitchen and mentioned it to a colleague and then it turned into a whole other thing that brought the World's Top Chefs from around the world to a Gourmet Soup Kitchen in Italy during their Milano Expo 2015.

Peter Svatel

Director Peter Svatel captures the contrast when Celebrity Chefs who's restaurants  can command hundreds of dollars for their meals decide to feed people who are at the other end of the economic spectrum.

Chef Bottura's idea was to repurpose leftover food from the Milan Expo that was donated to the Refettorio Ambrosiano Soup Kitchen. and an army of amazing volunteers and Top Chefs would create gourmet dinners for 100 less fortunate people.

Celebrity chefs such as Rene Redzepi, Ferran Adria, Mario Battali, Alain Ducasse and many others travelled to Milan and took over the kitchen to develop their own spin on the "surplus" food that was rescued each day, mostly things like stale bread and lots of bananas, it would change each day so the chefs needed to be creative with the ingredients.

The film profiles some of the displaced people that the Refettorio feeds as well as the people involved in making it happen.  There is an Italian homeless couple that prefers to sleep in a train station than stay in a shelter.  Another man looks for places to stay but sometimes sleeps in his car that he can no longer afford to pay insurance for.  There are refugees and people with disabilities and those who have just fallen on hard times.  A free meal won't change someone's life, but will provide a chance to meet new people and to have a great meal, a little joy, and a piece of cake.

This small idea from Bottura turned into a movement to use Food Waste to feed people who could not afford to buy food.  Bottura and his wife created a foundation to be able to do more around the world.

Food waste in some places, from farm to table, can sometimes average about 50%.  Half the world is living in poverty, and it makes sense to use some of this waste food to feed hungry people.  It won't fix their life but it will certainly help their quality of life.

They take the Soup Kitchen template to RIO to do it all over again.

I also attend the Opening night party at the 918 Cultural Centre on Bathurst- lovely space. Photos by the films photographer were on sale to raise funds for the foundation.

In keeping with the film's theme, the Opening Night Gala Party featured appetizers made by The Stop Community Food Centre using surplus food donated from the Master Chef TV production.

The film and the gala were really connected to the whole concept of Food Waste, using resources properly to sustain the environment in the world.   Well done Planet in Focus.

You can find out more about Bottura's foundation "Food for Soul":
http://www.foodforsoul.it/cooking-is-a-call-to-act-massimo-bottura/

"Cooking is a Call to Act" - Massimo Bottura

I think that this is the model that should be developed for every large event that generates surplus food.  In Toronto we have Second Harvest that works with local restaurants and others to rescue food and I think it would be great to get amazing chefs involved to elevate the surplus food to feed those in need.  It' would be a win-win situation to ensure long-term sustainability of our food sources.

PLANET IN FOCUS Festival runs from October 18-23, 2016.

No egg wasted

One of my New Years Resolutions is to try and use up all the food I buy and waste a lot less.

In an effort to try and do this I am trying to find creative ways to use up the food that can be leftover from other recipes.   Case in point: Eggs Benedict,   I had a craving for a breakfast Benny and was then left with egg whites.   I didn't want to waste them so I made meringues.   I made a lot more than I planned on and now want to find another recipe to turn them into like a Fool maybe.

I needed more egg whites to be able to whip it in the mixer so I separated more eggs and then was left with more egg yolks. And then had to figure out what to do with those so I made Aioli.

Well I ended up using the rest of the carton of eggs to do all this stuff and then was left with a blender, a mixer , pot, pan , cookie sheet and plate to wash up.

So the motto of this story is either go out for brunch if you are only one or plan your cooking a whole lot better than I did.  Or you can invite all your friends over for brunch and have them help.   I wish I had done the last one.

Here are the pictures of the spoils of my labour.

2014 Food Resolution- Waste less food

I am a little late but I haven't had the chance to sit down and work on this post but have been thinking about it's content since the Big Ice Storm in Toronto in December.

My #1 Food Resolution for 2014 is reducing Food WASTE.

If you were one of the people in Toronto or almost most places in the East Coast of North America you may have been hit hard by the Ice Storm and may have lost power from a day to a week.   I was one of the lucky and unlucky ones.   I lost power on saturday night and my power didn't go back on until late monday afternoon.   But the big thing was that our water was shut off too.   That was harder for me than the power going off as I had a wind up radio and was charging my cell phone in my car.  But not being able to take a shower, go to the bathroom, wash a dish or anything that had to do with water was tough.   I am not the camping type of person and living on the 19th floor in an apartment doesn't allow me to have a BBQ or make it easy to get in and out of the building.   We were lucky that the building had a generator that operated one elevator and the lights in the hallway were at half power.

Well I gave up the roaming around my building trying to charge things and get bathroom breaks and I decided to stay at a Hotel downtown next to where I am working right now.  So around 5pm on sunday evening I packed a bag and took the subway downtown just in time because a part of the subway that I bypassed had been shut down afterwards.   I was able to go to the Keg for dinner, watch cp24 to find out how widespread the damage was and charge up my electronic devices and check my emails.   My how we depend on electricity and water for everything in life these days.   The next morning I got up packed up my stuff and walked to work at the building next door.   I wish my commute was that easy every day.   After work I took the subway back home and prayed that things were back to normal.  Luckily the power was back and I think probably not too shortly before I arrived home because it was very cold and I checked with management in the morning and it was still off then.   Thank God it was back.   BUT in my haste to get out of my powerless apartment I didn't do anything about the food in my fridge.   Here's were my NEW YEAR"S RESOLUTION comes in.   I then spent the next couple of hours going through my fridge and throwing out almost all of the contents of my fridge and then spent at least an hour cleaning the fridge and the mason jars and containers that were in my fridge.
Here's the thing.   My refrigerator was fully packed because I was planning on having my year end party with my friends and had picked up a few things and was planning on making some of the things I had in my fridge.

Here's what my fridge looked like before I had to purge the food and afterwards.   Also note that I ended up throwing out the chocolate cakes in the after because I didn't know what was in them and didn't want to take any chances. And a couple of things were transferred from the freezer.

 


And here's the pile in my sink that I had to clean up after I dumped the contents.


Here's what I learned through this whole experience.

1. You only have 4 hours after your fridge's power is turned off until things start going bad.

2.  You have 48 hours for the foods in your freezer if your freezer is jam packed.  I was lucky here and only tossed a few things.

3.  If your freezer is half full you cut the time in half for how long your food will be good.

4.  What I learned is to always have things like peanut butter and jam on hand and things that don't need refrigeration or cooking so you can always have something you can eat in case of power or water outages.

5.  Buying bottled water becomes a good thing in these cases of emergencies and thus our unpredictable planet will probably never be rid of them at this point.

6.  Don't count on anyone to help you and find a way to be prepared to help yourself.   For me it was the wind up radio, bottled water, and finally getting a hotel room.

7.  Buy what you need and don't store excessive things that need refrigeration because you never know what will happen in our ever changing extreme disasters.  

8.  Keep cash on hand for these types of emergencies in case the banking systems go down or in the case of my nearby Loblaws who's terminals went down and they were only taking cash at one point.


There were a lot more people that were a lot worse off than I was and there were many of my friends that never lost any power.   It's random so you never know what will happen.

Back to my New Year's Resolution.   I am going to try and shop smarter.  Although I now have food in my fridge I am going to try not to pack it full of things I can't possibly eat before they spoil.  
I have pickled jars and preserves that I just made and just enough to be able to make something for breakfast, lunch or dinner.

I spent a better part of 2013 wasting a large amount of food and money because I tried to buy more organic foods and more vegetables but unfortunately cooking for one is difficult to use up all of the produce and larger packaged items and I ended up throwing away a lot of money I couldn't afford to waste.

You know when you were a kid and your parents told you to eat your food because some kid was starving in Africa.   I found myself thinking about all the food that was tossed out after the storm that probably could have fed all the starving kids in Africa and other third world countries.

Imagine how we (myself included) take food, water, electricity for granted when there are still people in third world countries or war torn or disaster ridden areas that don't have these necessities.

Maybe Mother Nature has been trying to send us a message.   I got it LOUD and CLEAR.

We are all wasting the Planet away and don't appreciate what we have until it's gone.

I think Mother Nature is trying to get us to Wake Up and look at what we have done.

I am not a young person and have been through an ice storm in this city before but I have never seen so many trees devastated and destruction caused by a winter storm.

I hope I never see it again in my lifetime.
Stay safe people and don't waste the resources still left on this planet.