Biana Zorich and Marc Thuet's blog: Game time in the kitchen

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3:53 pm

With the exception of this seemingly non-stop rain, the fall season is firmly upon us. However, with the shorter days and longer nights we do get to enjoy an abundance of distinctly autumn harvest goods, reminiscent of the smell of grandma’s freshly baked pumpkin pie. This time of year takes us to the rich flavours of fall squashes and root vegetables, as well as the earthiness of wild game, making for some very creative cooking, especially in our adventurous kitchen.

As it happens every year, Marc indulges in the romanticism of the hunting season. He has been tracking down and finally procured some rare birds from Scotland. As we receive them, they are, first and foremost, carefully hung in the fridge for faisander (a French term used to describe the process of aging game), which in turn gives that unique smokiness and texture to the flesh. Hailing from Alsace, the French capital of rugged hunting forests, Marc’s passion and skill shine through in the intricate preparation of these unusual dishes.

Along with the Scottish game, the chef has also located some very difficult to procure elk meat and other delicacies from the wild regions of Alberta. Preparing wild game is long considered a noble tradition in Europe and has appropriately found a strong place in the heart of Thuet Cuisine.

When explaining his love for all this wild, Marc quickly turns nostalgic.

“Wild game is the heart and soul of my cooking and I only serve it during these months, because it’s against my belief that it should be presented out of season. Preparing these delicacies takes me back to the dampness of the autumns in France, as I left my mother’s house in the early mornings with my best friends and our loyal barking companions. When people experience these dishes, I hope that beyond the enjoyment, I can also pass on the memories and traditions of those foggy and beautiful Alsace mornings.”

Seeing that the Scottish grouse and other wild meats are very scarce this year (and sometimes deliveries being a little late), please call our restaurant in a advance if you would like us to prepare a traditional game menu customized to suit your tastes.

For others who share Marc’s passion, we also proudly feature Marc’s Cloudberry preserve, another autumn staple, at our Petit Thuet locations. This delicate berry is an ideal accompaniment as a side or an addition to sauces to suit most wild game mains. Despite its modern demand as a delicacy, the amber-coloured edible fruit is largely grown in the wild in bogs and marshes across Canada and other northern countries. Their distinctively tart taste makes for an excellent preserve with seemingly unlimited uses.

Here’s hoping for some sunnier days but in the meantime, enjoy the splendour of colour that surrounds us and the fresh harvest fruits and vegetables of the season.

World-renowned executive chef, Marc Thuet, and his wife and business partner, Biana Zorich, will be blogging weekly for PostCity.com about their new show and restaurants.

Wendy Woods' blog: Haute hats at College Street boutique

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12:17 am

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Women tend to think that hats don’t look good on them. Sometimes I wonder if it’s because the only hats they’ve ever tried on are baseball caps and toques.

Hats are just so much more than that!

If you are one of these women, I highly recommend taking a trip to College and Bathurst to frolic in the world of Lilliput Hats.

Lilliput Hats is an environment where playing, and trying new things, is encouraged. The women who work at the boutique are ready to help those who want it. However, they’ll also let you browse on your own. Every time I go into the boutique there are women having so much fun trying on all the different styles Lilliput has to offer.

To be honest, I’m having a hard time choosing a few specific styles to highlight because they are all so gorgeous. That said, it is the perfect time of year to focus on getting a winter hat that is both practical and fashionable. Lilliput has so many winter hat styles to choose from you are guaranteed to find something that suits your face, shape, and size! The best part is any of the in-house styles can be custom-made to your colour choice and sized to fit perfectly to your head — at no extra charge.

If after visiting Lilliput Hats you still can’t find a style that suits you well, I may actually believe you to be a “non-hat” woman.

Always on the lookout for Toronto’s best boutiques!

Wendy

As a personal style coach with THE REFINERY, Wendy Woods translates the world of fashion into a personal style that makes her clients shine, while introducing them to Toronto’s unique boutiques.

EDO and Nobu joining forces for charity

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8:39 am

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On Oct. 31, Toronto’s own Japanese fine dining shrine EDO is combining forces with Nobu from New York City to host a reception as part of the Grand Cru wine festival to raise money for the University Health Network.

The legendary restaurant, opened in 1994, and co-owned by Nobu Matsuhisa and Robert DeNiro has expanded to locations around the world such as Milan, Italy; London, England and Cape Town, South Africa.

"They are probably the best known Japanese restaurant outside of Japan in the world," says Barry Chaim, who owns EDO along with its casual sibling EDO-KO. "They put Japanese cuisine on the map in the western world."

The restaurant’s head sushi chef Tomita will be coming to town to take part in the day’s festivities. Chaim also teamed up with Tomita last year for Grand Cru, and has added an additional culinary event due to popular demand.

The cocktail-style party will be held from 4 to 6 p.m. at EDO, 484 Eglinton Ave. W. Tickets are $36 per person and includes hors d’eouvres and a glass of wine. Reservations are required.

My 905

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11:33 am

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AT THE BASE of Glen Cameron Road in Thornhill, on the south side, is an industrial building. As a kid, I used to ride my bike there. One day, I noticed a man walking out carrying a guitar to his Cadillac.

I was learning guitar and was obsessed with the idea of becoming a professional guitar player — or better yet, a star.

“What’s in there?” I asked the man.

“A recording studio,” he answered.

“What do you record?”

“Music for a TV show,” he said. “Wow, a recording studio,” I thought. I made it a habit to ride by there, hoping to, I don’t know, get inside and, in my wildest fantasies, get a chance to become a star.

Some time later, I heard another band, and this time I knew the songs. It was Rush! I kept going back, hoping to see the band.When the band finished rehearsing, its members, Neil, Geddy and Alex, would come out and say hello, sign some autographs and give out personalized guitar picks.

I never did see the inside of that studio, but I found out the man in the Cadillac was Bobby Edwards, one of Canada’s greatest studio guitarists. He later became my mentor.And sometimes I play for Terry Brown, the producer of Rush’s first 12 albums! You never know, it doesn’t hurt to dream. Craig Skala has played on a number of film and television scores and has played with the Nomads and Karen Durrant. His newest album, The Tundra Project, is out now.

The good, the bad and the snowy

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11:08 am

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DESPITE THE FACT that she is Canada’s one and only Olympic gold medalist in alpine ski racing, Kerrin Lee-Gartner advocates for keeping it casual on the slopes. “I’m about heartfelt family time,” she says on a call from her home.

She’s taken time out of her afternoon to talk to us about skiing as an extracurricular activity. It’s more accessible than you think.

“The one thing with skiing is that it’s a family sport. That’s why you see four-year-olds out there,” she says. Lee-Gartner herself started when she was four. She was following in her big sister’s footsteps.

Her career as a racer just happened. “It was a very natural progression for me,” she says. Lee-Gartner’s teenage daughters are now junior racers and also went competitive in a selfdirected way. “We offered so many different options to our kids: piano lessons, figure skating, golf lessons, ski lessons,” she says.

They said no to ski racing for years. Eventually though, the girls said yes.

“There are competitive genes in everyone, and our children definitely have them,” Lee-Gartner says and laughs. She doesn’t attribute the girls’ success to good genes, though. “Our kids were gifted genetically with athletic ability.… They came by that naturally, but I can tell you for sure that it’s very rarely the child with natural athletic ability that excels.… If you don’t work hard and love it and breathe it, it won’t happen. That’s probably true across the board.”

Ultimately, Lee-Gartner says a relaxed approach is wise. “One thing you have to think about is what you’re trying to get out of it,” she says. “If it’s family time and leisure … then that can be had on a bunny hill on a riverbank in Saskatchewan, which is where my dad skiied growing up in Saskatoon.… For me, it isn’t about getting a certain number of runs in every day to pay off the pass. To me, it’s not goal oriented other than really enjoying the quality time.”

And if, as with Lee-Gartner’s kids, yours eventually show interest in competitive racing, being in Ontario shouldn’t be a deterrent. She says the idea that the best training is in the mountains is false.

Ontario hills have many wonderful qualities, she says. “Sometimes the smaller ski resorts have the best racing programs. Lift lines are smaller, it’s a more competitive run, and the training quality is fantastic.”

Furthermore, she adds, “the snow in Ontario and eastern Canada is made for racing. Typically, it’s hard snow, which is what racing is on. Out west, if we have problems … normally it’s because there is too much snow. It’s powder, and the kids can’t race.”

Since her racing days, Lee- Gartner has become a sports broadcaster with the CBC, but because that network didn’t win the rights to the upcoming Vancouver Olympics, in January, she’ll be moving temporarily to a position at the BBC, just to call the 2010 alpine races. She is excited about the coming event and expects it to have a major impact on Canadian kids.

“I really do think having the Olympics here makes a difference,” she says. “I’ve spoken to a lot of people who really remember the impact that the Calgary Olympics had.… The kids who are most impacted are the ones who are at that age where, all of a sudden, they can look at a moment and a dream is formed.”

She says children anywhere from age seven to 16 may have a formative Olympic moment watching a Canadian athlete win gold in any event in 2010.

And if one of those winners dethrones her as this country’s only alpine gold medalist? “I would enjoy that very much,” she says. “It’s time.

“I guess I just believe in the Olympic ideals,” she says. “I believe in what sport brings to our communities, in how healthy it is, in the social qualities of it.

I just think it’s fantastic, and I think Olympics represent excellence across the board not just for sport. For me, when I’m watching, I really believe in those athletes’ dreams, and I would love them to come true.”

Trudeau, teens and the art of engagement

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11:02 am

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JUSTIN TRUDEAU NEVER planned to go into politics.

“When I was 15, my father [former prime minister Pierre Trudeau] had just retired … politics was pretty much the furthest thing from my mind as a possible career path,” he says.

Nonetheless, despite an early career in teaching, Trudeau is now the Liberal member of Parliament for the Papineau region and is particularly invested in engaging young people in politics.

It can’t be easy, can it? North American teenagers are widely criticized for their seemingly inherent apathetic natures, but Trudeau says he considers them much maligned.

“Yes, there are moments of cynicism,” he says, adding that we all have those. “But fundamentally, don’t ever make the mistake of thinking young people can be apathetic and cynical because they don’t care about the world…. It’s because they care so much about the world that they are often frustrated and sometimes angry that they don’t have a voice, they don’t get listened to.”

So Trudeau does just that: he listens.

“I’ll go out to a high school or a university and have a conversation with young people,” he says, setting himself apart from those who pontificate for an hour before disappearing into the ether.

Trudeau talks for only about 10 minutes before opening the floor.

“We end up having a very honest, straight conversation,” he says.

“I don’t talk down to them.… You speak to them as equals, about things that are of concern to them and to all of us.”

The result? Not apathy.

“Young people are worried about the big picture,” says Trudeau. “They are worried about the environment, about world poverty and world hunger.

They’re worried about conflict and war and human rights and injustice. They’re not going to get all worked up about a bill that will shift taxes one way or another by half a percentage point or such.…

So, to have a conversation with them on that level is the only way to absolutely engage them.” Trudeau’s advice to parents of seemingly disconnected teens is to not worry about direct involvement with politics, per se, but to focus on involvement and connection in general.

If you look closely at organizations like Amnesty International, Greenpeace, Free the Children and even local environmental initiatives, he says you’ll find that teens are actually extremely involved already.

“They just often couldn’t care less about politics. That’s not their fault. That’s the fault of politics itself.”

Trudeau feels that his own parents ultimately did the best possible thing to inspire him (and that thing wasn’t about holding office).

“My father always said no matter what we chose to do, as long as we lived up to our potential and made the world a slightly better place, that was fine,” he says. “For me, being a teacher was a very concrete and powerful way of shaping the world and making a difference in the lives of people around me.”

Trudeau has two young children of his own and hopes to similarly inspire them as well as the kids he mentors through work. He wants to give them “confidence in themselves, a sense that they matter in the world, that they are, in fact, deeply relevant.”

And if your kids are interested in politics directly? Trudeau says a partisan route isn’t primarily important. He also says you don’t need to worry about stuff like debate skills (“it’s not a fundamental building block”). Just get them involved, and your kids will learn important skills that will aid them later in life.

Make a difference in your community, he says.

The rest will follow.

North York kids still banging heads after 36 years

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1:19 pm

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TWO YEARS AGO the members of Toronto heavy metal band Anvil were working at day jobs, shovelling pasta, delivering food and working on houses just to make ends meet.

Now, the DVD that documented their journey from groundbreaking ’80s band to obscurity and back again has turned the band into an overnight sensation.

In the last year, they’ve been Twittered by stars like Chris Martin of Coldplay and John Mayer, sought out by movie and TV producers for guest cameos, opening for rock legends AC/DC in front of 80,000 people and soon making an appearance on TV’s holy grail The Tonight Show.

Ironically, it took them more than 30 years to get here.

It is hard to describe Robb Reiner as a kid. But as one of the two founding members, he has had the rare opportunity to keep part of his life the same as it has always been since his childhood days in the Bathurst and Sheppard area of Toronto. (That, and he can’t keep his oversized mitts out of the office candy jar during the interview.)

Through Marty Hoffman, a mutual friend, Reiner and Steve “Lips” Kudlow met in their early teens in North York and never looked back.

“He was weird,” says Reiner, of his appreciation for Kudlow’s demeanour in the early days. “He had this eccentric nuttiness that I recognized as a kid.” And he could play. “The guy was amazing,” says Reiner.

Inspired by bands such as Black Sabbath and Grand Funk Railroad, the boys adopted the name Gravestone and started to evolve a pioneering sound that would influence an entire musical genre. They were heavy metal before it existed.

“There was no such thing as heavy metal in 1973,” says Reiner. “It was an attitude and an attraction toward things not mainstream.”

The band changed its name to Lips and started building momentum toward a record deal.

In 1981, they inked one; Anvil was born; the band released the seminal album Metal on Metal; and started touring the world looking like a sure thing for rock stardom.

“Metal on Metal was a blueprint for everything that followed,” Reiner explains.

Then the bottom fell out. Mismanagement and bad timing combined to end the band’s meteoric rise while those they inspired — Metallica, Anthrax, Slayer and others — passed them by on their way to selling hundreds of millions of records and living a dream life.

Over the next quarter century, Anvil turned out more albums, toured and rocked, but never regained their foothold. That is until a former fan kid and tour roadie from England by the name of Sasha Gervasi sent a single, solitary e-mail that changed it all.

Already an established Hollywood writer who had worked with the likes of Steven Spielberg and Tom Hanks, Gervasi took it upon himself to document the band’s progress for two and a half years.

The documentary, Anvil! The True Story of Anvil, which was released in Canada last month, premiered at the Sundance Film Festival and was a smash hit.

In addition, their 2007 album This Is Thirteen — the creation of which was one of the central focuses of the film — has been re-released by VH1 Classic Records, and a book is on the way.

The movie, hailed by the London Times as “the greatest movie ever made about rock and roll,” shows in intimate detail the ups and downs of the music business, but touches an emotional chord that goes well beyond music.

And the band is finally back in the spotlight that has eluded them for 25 years. The guys are re-recording old tunes for a soundtrack, have a new album in the hopper entitled Juggernaut of Justice and will get back out on the road for a tour in November, with a North American leg set for January.

“We are just enjoying it,” says Reiner. “That’s all we can do. It is a celebration, and these are exciting times.”

Neighbourhood airport closure ‘probable’

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12:53 pm

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RECENT NEWS THAT the Buttonville Municipal Airport could be closing has led to speculation about development at Markham Airport.

In April, the Buttonville Airport lost $1.6 million in annual funding provided by the Greater Toronto Airports Authority.

Owned by the

Sifton Family for nearly 50 years, the airport’s closure is “probable,” said Toronto Airways president Derek Sifton.

“My father went to his grave trying to keep this airport open,” Sifton said, adding the family would remain in the aviation business and that plans for site redevelopment are in place.

Peter Shurman,MPP of Thornhill, said the need for the transportation gateway provided by the airport is vital to York Region as well as the GTA.

“Where are the 350 aircraft that use Buttonville going to go?” Activity at the Markham Airport, on Highway 48 in Stouffville, might offer an answer.

For the past two years, trucks have dumped fill on the site, according to one area resident, leading to speculation of an expansion.

Calls made to the Markham Airport were not returned. Sifton said the site — in current form — could not handle Buttonville’s volume. “It would take a lot of money to upgrade the facilities.”

Driving range creates controversy

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12:50 pm

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SOME RICHMOND HILL residents were surprised when it appeared that work had begun on a project to construct a controversial golf driving range on a provincially owned property behind their houses.

They were surprised because the project hasn’t been approved by the province yet. Atilla Yeter, who lives adjacent to the site at 8111 Leslie St., said he saw work beginning on the project that he has been working to block on a committee made up of his neighbours.

“Since… Tuesday, Sept. 8, there has been a frenzy of work on the premises,” Yeter said. “Heavy machinery was involved in earthworks on the north side of the land in question.… Many homeowners in that area, including myself and my committee mates, have already noticed the work and are very angry, repeat, angry, with this event.”

Yeter wrote to Michael Cole, a senior planner with the Ontario Realty Corporation, who said that the work is not connected to the driving range project.

“The Ontario Realty Corporation is undertaking removal of part of the existing soil stockpile at Highway 407 and Highway 404 as a fill supply for the flood protection landform in the West Don Lands project in downtown Toronto,”Cole wrote.

Yeter has collected signatures from neighbours who are against the development. He said a driving range would decrease the value of his property, disturb him and his neighbours and displace a variety of wildlife that resides in the green space.

Scott Rudiak, the applicant and owner of Within Range Golf Centres, said he wants to work with residents to build something everyone is happy with.

“If we can avoid annoying the residents, then that’s what we’re going to do,” he said.

Yeter said he plans to make an appeal to the Ontario Municipal Board if the province’s planning department supports the project.

Sunnybrook Hospital captures the sun

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12:45 pm

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A “GREEN” UPGRADE to the Bayview Avenue campus at the Sunnybrook Health Sciences Centre was dedicated to a former employee of the hospital, Harry Taylor, who died last November.

“Harry was my boss,” said Beverley Townsend, the manager of environmental sustainability at Sunnybrook.“He was to win an excellence in leadership award at Sunnybrook for his efforts in leadership that day, and so when we had this event, that’s what it was dedicated towards.”

The facility upgrade was launched at a Sept. 9 event at the hospital.The $28 million project, achieved through a collaboration with Honeywell Building Solutions, includes more than 140 solar photovoltaic panels spanning two storeys of a parking garage and roof of the building. The project is expected to generate 27,000 kilowatts of electricity annually.

“Today marks a milestone on our path to becoming a greener and more sustainable health care facility,” said Dr. Barry McLellan, president and CEO at Sunnybrook, at the event.

Harry Taylor, 53, was driving on the Queen Elizabeth Way with his daughter when a truck filled with copper fell on his car, Townsend said.

Taylor died in hospital later that day.

Major development slated for Avenue Rd.

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12:18 pm

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North York Residents and councillors met recently to discuss the completed “Avenue Road Study.” Created to set rules for development on Avenue Road between Lawrence Avenue and Wilson Avenue, the study was one of three undertaken in 2007.

It calls for small-scale, mid-rise developments of five storeys with larger-scale developments of up to seven storeys at nine identified sites. The study also states that the retail-oriented nature of the road should remain and calls for the creation of more open and green spaces.

Robert Amaron, of the Bedford Park Ratepayers Association, said the study represents a reasonable consensus between involved parties.

“There are actually a number of very positive things,” he said, including the addition of green space and a rebranding of the area, which will benefit local business.

Coun. Karen Stintz said she expects the zoning changes suggested in the study will pass without complication at community council in November: "It was an incredible process whereby the community came together and really had a chance to articulate their vision," she said.

One-third of Downsview Park to be sold

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12:13 pm

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Beginning this month, Downsview Park staff and consultants evaluate proposals for a controversial development as part of plans to develop one-third of total parklands.

Parc Downsview Park, Inc. (PDP) outlined a proposal to sell two sections of the 47.6-acre Stanley Greene neighbourhood located in the southwestern area of Downsview Park to “appropriate residential developers” in their summer 2009 newsletter.

In anticipation of the forthcoming Downsview Area Secondary Plan with the City of Toronto, PDP initiated a request to solicit interest in the neighbourhood from developers to construct an estimated 736 residential units. The newsletter further described plans to sell or lease one-third of total parklands in order to sustain the park.

“We’re not happy about it overall,” said Michael Calabrese, executive secretary of the Downsview Lands Community Voice Association. Calabrese said the timing of the request is premature and presupposed ongoing work by the city planning department to develop a new plan — including development guidelines — for the site.

“They’re basically usurping the process,” he said.

In addition to concerns with water management systems and traffic, Calabrese said increased density is a serious concern. Previously a Canada Forces base, Downsview Park was established in 1996 as a Crown corporation, with the stipulation that the park be self-financing.

According to David Soknacki, a director for PDP, a number of ideas were considered for generating the necessary revenue. He said the recent proposal represents both the best — and only — way to fund the park.

"Although you can make money having the equivalent of the Rolling Stones come on a regular basis, that would be incredibly disruptive."

Calabrese said he is not convinced. "I think it’s the easiest way for them to fund the work, and that’s why they’re going for that option."