School board mulls closure of exclusive arts program

4:26 pm

The York Regional District School Board’s (YRDSB) trustees are considering introducing a policy that would close the only elementary school arts program of its kind in York Region, much to the dismay of parents and students.

If the policy is approved, the YRDSB would put an end to the exclusive drama, dance, dramatic and visual arts stream at Thornhill’s Baythorn Public School, located near Yonge Street and Royal Orchard Boulevard. Currently, the school has a standard curriculum stream as well as an integrated arts stream for Grades 6, 7 and 8, which students must successfully audition for. Trustees initially drafted the policy to ensure consistent programming across all schools, said Ross Virgo, senior manager of public affairs and communications at the YRDSB.

“If the policy was adopted, all of the elementary schools will be fully accessible to students who live within the attendance boundary,” Virgo said. “The current program at Baythorn, which restricts attendance to those who meet certain criteria, would be curtailed,” he added.

But some parents such as Stacie Korn, whose daughter, Kayla, is in Grade 6, plan to fight the policy.

“I was shocked. The program has been around for so many years,” Korn said. “Kids thrive in the program. The whole thing doesn’t make sense. It’s not that the kids are flunking.”

Virgo said the audition process is unfair to students who are not accepted, and the trustees’ policy is meant to promote inclusiveness and equity.

Although the arts stream would cease to exist, there would be opportunities for “grandparenting,” which would permit students currently enrolled, including for the 2012–2013 year, to remain at the school, Virgo explained.

But as someone who lives outside the boundary in Thornhill Woods, it’s not enough for Korn.

“Why would I send Kayla there if she’s just going to take a drama class and go to a regular public school?” she asked.

The final decision is expected in April 2012.

Local butcher charged with 12 health infractions

4:26 pm

A Richmond Hill butcher shop has been summoned to court following an investigation that resulted in them being charged with 12 health infractions. According to YorkSafe, York Region’s food inspection agency, Many Meats Trading, near Leslie Street and Highway 7, was first inspected in July 2011 and was served with a court order at the end of last year.

“We don’t allow live animals to be present within an establishment,” said Steven Rebellato, manager of community and health services. “You can put two and two together, so in this case, we charged them in terms of what we had seen at the time,” he added.

YorkSafe’s website revealed that, during their initial inspection, investigators found the butcher shop had violated the safety code, including permitting the use of a food-handling room for sleeping, failing to provide a handwashing basin in a food preparation area, selling hazardous foods stored at unsafe temperatures, housing meat from an uninspected animal, failing to ensure the room is kept free from live animals and failing to protect food from contamination. Rebellato said the Ministry of Natural Resources approached his team with a complaint, and the two groups shut down Many Meats. Two days later, they were reopened.

“When we went back two days later, they had done everything we had asked them to, in order to mitigate that health hazard, and as a result, they were reopened,” he said.

But following any investigation, YorkSafe has six months to serve an establishment with a summons to court, which they did late last year.

If found guilty, Many Meats faces a fine of up to $25,000, but no court date has been set, Rebellato added.

A manager at Many Meats said he could not comment due to a language barrier. The butchery is currently open for business.

Shore reveals depression behind past allegations

4:26 pm

“Concerned that a [local media exposé] would sensationalize” a string of former charges against him, Ward 2 councillor Howard Shore revealed mental health issues, namely depression, are behind the “embarrassing incidents.” The charges include allegedly stalking a female lawyer and stealing a cellphone in Florida, where he spent 11 days in jail. All but one charge have since been dropped. Shore was accused of allegedly stealing an iPhone from the Thornhill Community Centre late last year.

“I have no doubt that mental health issues have played a role in various aspects of my life,” Shore said. “As a result of my illness, I have been involved in some incidents which are very embarrassing to me and my family,” he added in a letter to residents on his website.

Although Shore said he could not address his past transgressions for fear of prejudicing the current case against him, he said the public has been misinformed. Shore said he spent time in jail not because he was convicted, but because his lawyer did not inform him of a hearing date.

“It’s quite correct to say in 2007 I entered a plea of no contest in Florida, but I did that solely because I didn’t have the financial means to dispute some very false accusations directed at me,” he explained.

Will budget cuts push kids to crime?

4:26 pm

The infusion of civic energy into the proposed city budget for 2012 has been astonishing. I feel good about a city where so many people care about and have strong opinions about our shared lives, even if I don’t feel so good about some of the opinions of the decision makers. The common thread among the more than 300 deputants at City Hall is that the mayor and his colleagues are being short-sighted. The critics say to City Hall: you need to be smart with public money. You can’t just randomly chop away at spending to balance the budget.

One example of the wrong approach is in the proposed cuts that would eliminate seven swimming pools and 12 recreation programs at schools. The programs are delivered under what is called “shared use,” where a city program is operated in a school facility, making good use of school buildings that would otherwise sit unused after school hours.

City staff said a net of $2,111,000 will be saved by cutting these recreation programs, and $978,6000 will be saved by chopping seven swimming pools. But staff were blunt about the non-cash impact: “Eliminating programming at the 12 selected school locations will impact 230,000 or 35 per cent of participant visits in the TDSB schools. The majority of eliminated programs cannot be accommodated in existing city-owned facilities.”

So what happens to these kids? Will they gently fade into the background? Not bloody likely.

The best advice on what happens when recreation programs for young kids are cut back comes from a brilliant report by Roy McMurtry and Alvin Curling in 2008, entitled Roots of Youth Violence. These are not your usual suspects. McMurtry was attorney general in the Bill Davis government, then chief justice of Ontario. Curling was speaker of the legislature.

Their report makes it clear that good programs are critical to keeping kids away from crime and delinquency. Spending more money on policing is not part of the solution for kids — in fact, their report shows that too much money is eaten by police and is not available for the needed social and recreational programs. (The police budget for 2012, you’ll remember, will increase and is not subject to cuts. The money that goes to the police-budget increase causes the cuts to programs for youth.)

Cutting recreation programs for kids won’t save money — it will cost more because some of those kids on the loose will get into trouble and into the court system and into jails. If any of the councillors had the time to consult with Roy McMurtry, they wouldn’t support these cuts.

Or they could look at a 2004 book: Research on Community Safety, edited by Bruce Kidd, a runner and professor of physical education at University of Toronto. The essays in this book contain lots of data coming to the same conclusions. All of which means we’d be better served if our city council took a longer term view about revenue and spending. Don’t cut the things that make kids and communities healthy. If you need to find more revenue to keep those programs funded — and maybe expanded — then look at the revenue options.

I’m thinking there’s money to save at City Hall — not gravy, but money. For instance, in a previous column, I argued much money could be cut in the police budget without compromising service. And here’s another idea: I suspect there is money to be found by rethinking how we deal with the homeless. Currently we spend $60 a night for each bed in a shelter, while the individual in that shelter bed could be housed in a standard apartment at a cost of less than $30 a night (or about $800 per month).

Those are the kinds of ideas we should be studying carefully, rather than chopping away at a useful future for some Toronto kids.

Review: Festival of New Formats at Comedy Bar

1:34 pm

You can thank the January blues for Festival of New Formats. Now in its third year, the festival was created by Comedy Bar’s Gary Rideout Jr. to help people get out of their self-imposed winter cocoons with the promise of free (yes, free!) comedy, while also offering local comedians the opportunity to try out new and (hopefully) funny concepts that haven’t been attempted before.

The weeklong festival, which kicked off Monday, is basically a comedy free-for-all. A variety of stand-up comics, improvisers and sketch comedians get up on Comedy Bar’s black box stage and throw out a bunch of random, sometimes raunchy, sometimes ridiculous ideas. Then they see which, if any, stick.

I compare it to what I imagine Saturday Night Live’s writers’ room to be like: just a bunch of funny people (some more funny than others) spewing out sketches, some of which probably sounded a lot funnier at 5 a.m. under the influence, and some of which have the potential to be something really cool. (One of those “cool” acts to come out of the festival is Rap Battlez, a rap and comedy spectacle, and now a regularly sold-out monthly performance at the Bar.)

I attended the festival on opening night and watched the first three acts (there’s an act every hour from 8 p.m. to 11 p.m.) to mixed results. Pitchcast, which started the night off, made a literal example of my writers’ room analogy. A group of comedians (who could have also been writers) huddled around a table, with each one improvising a movie pitch. The pitches were naturally absurd, and sometimes funny (Joan Cusack falls in love with a whale in Nova Scotia! Vin Diesel heads up a team of bald crime fighters who investigate stolen candy at an elementary school!) Though the concept was interesting and garnered enough credible guffaws from the audience, the physical concept of the performance was too static for me. I would have preferred the pitches to be actually improvised by the performers rather than just watching a group of people talk.

Next up at 9 p.m. was the improvised act Conference, which was described as “The Office meets TED talks.” It was my favourite act of the night, mostly because the performers, a group of experienced improvisers, were game for everything, and the idea of a medical conference for Pfizer and Cialis employees at a Florida resort was pretty priceless. However, I’m not sure if the format itself has longevity.

The last act I caught was Swap Meet, where two stand-up comedians presented their own original material and then “swapped” identities with each other. It had the potential to be something quite special, but unfortunately the comics themselves weren’t very memorable. Or, perhaps they were memorable, but just not for the right reasons. (Just as an aside: can female comics please stop playing dumb, or stop running their mouth off like they are Samantha from Sex and the City? Dumb and dirty doesn’t always equal funny.)

Around comedy circuits, there’s a popular adage: “Dying is easy. Comedy is hard.” Regardless of the hits and misses, these comedians, who keep churning out new material to either chuckles or crickets, should still be applauded. So get out of your warm house and support them!

The Festival of New Formats, Comedy Bar, 945 Bloor St. W. Runs from Jan. 2-8.

Davisville village gets an Old World-inspired butcher shop

1:07 pm

A new shop located near Yonge and Davisville is likely to have health-conscious carnivores licking their chops. The Butcher’s Son specializes in mostly local, traditionally-raised meats, including Mennonite chickens and grass fed, hormone-free beef.

The concept comes from partners Vito Rizzuto of the Italian restaurant Five Doors North and Matthew Kumprey (a.k.a. the butcher’s son — his father heads up the meat department at McEwan).

After nearly 15 years in the neighbourhood, Rizzuto says he recognized a need for such a shop. He enlisted Kumprey, who learned the trade while working at Bruno’s Fine Foods.

According to Rizzuto, their aim is to provide customers with high quality meats at reasonable prices. A standing rib roast costs $12.99/lb and strip loin sells for $17.99/lb.

A full kitchen, headed up by chef Brandon Conrad, cooks special-order meals for customer pickup and prepares a selection of food-to-go, such as soups, lasagnas and shepherd’s pie. Sandwiches like beef brisket, meatball and veal range from $7 to $8 each.

The Butcher’s Son, 2055 Yonge St., 416-901-9414

Six must-see theatre productions for 2012

9:40 am

Suffering from the winter blahs already? Nonsense. Not with all the terrific theatre that’s going on right now. But if you’re one of those diehard thespians who’s seen both American Idiot and Parfumerie already, you might be wondering what else is there to look forward to in Toronto’s theatre scene in 2012. Luckily for us, there’s a lot — including Broadway favourites and, uh, Yanni.

War Horse

This story about a young man who longs to reunite with his boyhood horse is the buzziest show this season, and with good reason. Not only did it nearly sweep last year’s Tony Awards, but Steven Spielberg’s film version is looking to strike Oscar gold. Warning: even though the horses are played by puppets, expect to shed major tears anyway.
Princess of Wales Theatre, 300 King St. W., 416-872-1212. Feb. 10 – June 30.

Kim’s Convenience

Playwright Ins Choi’s smash Toronto Fringe Festival hit, set in a Regent Park Korean convenience store, receives a professional production courtesy of the always-fabulous Soulpepper Theatre Company in what is sure is to be the city’s next classic play.
Young Centre for the Performing Arts, 55 Mill Street, 416-866-8666. Jan. 12 – Feb. 11.

In the Heights

Set in a Latino neighbourhood in New York City’s Washington Heights, this modern-day musical (which won the Best Musical Tony in 2008 and was a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize in 2009) blends the stories of its residents with a mix of Latin and hip-hop music, which speaks to us all.
Toronto Centre for the Arts, 5040 Yonge Street, 1-866-950-7469. Feb. 7-19.

Beauty and the Beast

It’s the tale that launched a thousand Disney musicals after its successful Broadway debut (okay, maybe not a thousand, but about a half dozen or so). The smash hit — one of the longest-running productions in Broadway history — returns to Toronto in July, inviting us to be its guest all over again. I fondly remember seeing it for the first time here in 1995.
Four Seasons Centre for the Performing Arts, 145 Queen Street W., 1-866-950-7469. July 3- 22.

An Evening With Yanni

Just kidding. The Sony Centre does seem to be infatuated with the ‘90s this year though, since in addition to Yanni’s concert, it will be host to the monster hit from 1994, Riverdance, which took the world by storm, for good and bad (the dancing is spectacular, but I’m sure we could all have done without the image of Michael Flatley’s flailing limbs imprinted in our brains for almost a decade).
The Sony Centre, 1 Front Street East, 1-855-872-7669. April 19-21. (And for actual Yanni fans — no shame! — he’s there June 16-17).

Bring It On: The Musical

Though the 2000 Kirsten Dunst flick inexplicably spawned forgettable sequels (yes, plural), the theatre might prove to be an effective medium for this movie-turned-musical. Let’s hope the results are more along the lines of The Producers rather than Dirty Dancing.
Ed Mirvish Theatre, 244 Victoria Street, 416-872-1212. May 2 – June 3.

Easing the post-holiday blahs: five items to spruce up your office

1:00 pm

Heading back to work post-holidays is always a drag (never mind having to get out of bed when the city has issued an extreme cold weather alert). So we say distract yourself from real work by sprucing up your desk with some new treats to make the back-to-work transition more fun. Here’s our quick-fix shopping guide to the best in desk décor.

1. The fashionable tea time

After a solid week (or so) of lazy lie-ins, waking up early ain’t easy. Re-adjusting to the nine-to-five schedule will require a constant stream of caffeine, so why not enjoy morning, noon and afternoon tea with the fashion elite?
Pret-a-PorTea by Donkey Products, available at Studio Brillantine

2. The luxury candle

Deep breathing exercises can help to relieve stress, but what helps better is breathing in the calming scent of a luxury candle. This one from fashion house Balenciaga is our top choice.
L’Essence perfumed candle by Balenciaga, available at Holt Renfrew

3. The little black book

Nothing says “new start to a new year” like unwrapping a brand new notebook. Archie Grand’s I Met And Liked notebooks are essential, and we prefer Fashionistas I Met And Liked. In black, naturally.
I Met And Liked Notebook by Archie Grand, available at Studio Brillantine

4. The fancy pen

Pens are required to make notes (in your new notebook), so why not get one with a cat’s head and LED eyes that light up? It’s like having a pet to play with at work that’s also useful.
LED Cat Pen by Kikkerland, available at Magic Pony

5. The artful vase

Go ahead and buy (or send) yourself some flowers to cheer yourself up. Why not? We say go even one step further and splurge on an illustrated vase by Laura Zindel. From her prickly rose to the intricate beetle, these vases are works of art on your desk.
Beetle vase (small) or Rose vase (large) by Laura Zindel, available at Love of Mine

Chef & Me: a test drive of the best reds to ring in 2012

1:15 pm

When I was in university, an English professor of mine shared with me the secret of creating the semblance of worldliness: knowledge of classical music and wines (primarily the reds — he considered white wines to be vulgar). He assured me that in my field, amusing cocktail party conversation would never run dry with a ready knowledge of Tchaikovsky and the Médoc wine region of France on hand. (Note to reader: at the time, I was a freshman and believed I would be either an English professor or an author of historical fiction in the future.)

And so I immediately enrolled in The Art of Listening: an Introduction to Classical Music as an elective and dutifully attended all the English faculty readings and mixers to experience the variety of red wines being served as part of the refined refreshments. But it was these, the very sophisticated gatherings that were meant to develop my worldliness, that are to blame for my underdeveloped wine palette. Despite concentrating on the reds as advised — while always being mindful to swish the drink around in my glass before taking each sip with a nibble of cheese and fancy, thin, rich man saltines — four years of “experiencing” wine did nothing to mature my palette. The reason: 10 times out of 10 my wine experience was dispensed from a removable spout attached to a box.

The result of my early education in wine is that today, given the choice between an $800 or so bottle of Château Margaux vintage Bordeaux and a three-litre box of non-vintage Black Box Central Coast Cabernet Sauvignon coming in at around $20, my taste buds will never fail to side with the bag in the box. Socially, this means I am left trying to segue the conversation into a discussion about Beethoven’s Moonlight Sonata every time someone asks me my thoughts on the wine in my hand.

Given this social anxiety, and the fact that it seems every bottle of wine Chef shares with me is wasted on my palette (including a pricey bottle he brought over on one of our first dates), he has been giving me lessons in the art of wine tasting. To put my schooling to test, Chef and I decided to do a test run of five red wines in search of the perfect bottle to take us from our New Year’s Eve roast dinner on through to the countdown to midnight.

Under Chef’s tutelage, I reviewed the wines alongside him according to the three critical categories that must be satisfied by a quality wine: look, smell and taste. For wine connoisseurs, you may prefer the bare exactness of Chef’s commentary. For the wine novice, here’s hoping my layman reviews lead you out of that dark burgundy tunnel.

Stone Dwellers Cabernet Sauvignon, 2009 (LCBO #212761). $19.95

Layman says:

Colour and consistency: the wine is not so dark that I can’t see my face clearly in the glass (from the top, I mean, because it’s in a tea cup). The colour is deep purple, like lips after eating cherry lollipops. Its consistency is as thick as runny gravy.

On the nose: I have a cold and am congested, but I can still manage to smell this; very much a grownup liquor scent strong enough that I can feel its warmth in my throat when I inhale. I detect no trace of fruits.

On the palette: I don’t like swishing this one because chewing on it, like Chef told me to do, makes my tongue feel waxy. It burns my throat a little going down, leaving a very warm residual sensation two notches below the heat in a swig of whiskey.

Chef says:

Colour and consistency: the wine is dark purple with a tinge of brown.

On the nose: I get blackcurrant, cooked stone fruit, some black pepper and a very potent alcohol scent.

On the palette: I get a lot of blackcurrant. It actually reminds me of Ribena. It’s full-bodied with a long finish characterized by notes of black pepper and vanilla.

Author’s note: I think it important to point out that with this first bottle, Chef already failed to indicate consistency. He blames the teacup, claiming he cannot accurately measure consistency, but then repeatedly fails to test consistency as he taught his pupil to do.

Ladies Who Shoot Their Lunch, Shiraz, 2008 (Vintages #243592). $34.95

Chef’s New Year’s Eve Pick!

Layman says:

Colour and consistency: we are now using clear glasses to house the wine. Chef, though, continues to complain because they are champagne glasses, not wine glasses. This wine appears light. It’s thin in consistency, and when I hold it up to light, it doesn’t look too dark but it’s not pale either. Chef is already on tasting so I have to move on to next stage fast.

On the nose: I realize that Chef is smelling, not tasting, and casually spit my wine back into my glass. I pick up a hint of pork and brussels spouts, but can’t figure out if that’s because of what I just did. I do smell some vanilla though.

On the palette: going down, this one is very warm, but far from a burning sensation. There’s a sweetness that turns warm and taste slightly acidic when I chew on it. There’s a bit of Christmas in there, some gingerbread and cinnamon. It tastes even better when it’s proceeded by a bite of the roast pork on my plate.

Chef Says:

Colour and consistency: colour is robust — it has an almost purple look to it, a very deep and dark red.

On the nose: I get strawberries and fragrant spices, including nutmeg and clove.

On the palette: this wine has some very complex flavours that are showcased through a nice mixture of ripe fruit and spice. There is a very enjoyable balance of acidity and residual sweetness here. The wine overall is dry.

Cupcake Vineyards Red Velvet, 2010 (LCBO #260851). $14.95

Layman’s New Year’s Eve Pick!

Layman says:

Colour and consistency: I can’t not talk about the bottle with its cute yet sophisticated label, accented by pretty blue flowers which make me think of France, and I think of France as a good place for wine, so this bottle is already ahead… even though it’s actually from California. As for the look of the wine itself, it’s thin and coloured like cranberry-grape juice.

On the nose: perhaps it’s the name that is suggestive, but this one really smells like chocolate and sweet icing to me.

On the palette: happily, when I swish the wine around in my mouth, it doesn’t leave my tongue feeling waxy. The first sip goes down easily with just a slight warming afterwards.

Chef says:

Colour and consistency: the colour of this one is blood red.

On the nose: I get ripe berries and a touch of spice.

On the palette: I get ripe blueberries with a residual sweetness that is balanced well by a note of bitterness. There is a very long finish, and I am left with flavours of chocolate and coffee.

Pelee Island Winery Pinot Noir VQA, 2010 (LCBO #135939). $12.95

Layman says:

Colour and consistency: the red of this wine is almost transparent. Its consistency is similar to water; doesn’t stick to the sides of the glass.

On the nose: very faint sour wine smell with, weirdly enough, a hint of plastic Barbie mixed in there.

On the palette: no warming after a sip of this thin wine. It tastes of cranberries. Not particularly enjoyable.

Chef Says:

Colour and consistency: the wine is a light red and a touch cloudy.

On the nose: it has almost a Cherry Blaster like smell to it. There is an especially tart scent to this wine.

On the palette: I first get a very faint touch of sweetness (the cherry), but then am hit with a tartness of green apple. Overall, a very acidic wine. The bottle recommends pairing with chicken pot pie and pastas, I would suggest combining it with Coca Cola.

Authour’s Note: Chef says that the duo smells of cherries and green apples create a very similar “flavour profile” to that of a cranberry.

Marziano Abbona Rinaldi Barbera d’Alba, 2008 (Vintages #216416) $19.95

Layman says:

Colour and consistency: the colour of this one is a medium deep grape. There’s a tad of sticky residue left on the sides of the glass when I swirl it around.

On the nose: when I smell this one, I can really feel it hot in the back of my throat; it smells a bit like ammonia.

On the palette: very strong on first sip with a strong bitterness to it. It tasted better with the roast dinner; there was no sense of burning going down then.

Chef says:

Colour and consistency: light in colour with a ruby tone to it.

On the nose: I get some strawberry, a bit of grass and a floral scent, but over all, there is a very potent alcohol smell to this wine.

On the palette: there is a dusty flavour to this wine, almost chemical in flavour; the taste of the alcohol is very prominent, but overall, the wine remains well-balanced with both sweet and tart notes.

Toronto-based writer Jennifer Lee is the editorial director of FILLER magazine, an online fashion and culture journal. She is also the co-editor of Hardly magazine, an arts-centric online teen publication for Canadian girls.

Grab of the Week: a metallic satchel that’s perfect for New Year’s Eve

1:10 pm

Reflecting back on the year of 2011, we’ve come to realize how heavily we’ve relied on A2Zane as our go-to accessory shop, and we aren’t the only ones. The shop has proved to be so popular that since its launch in 2010, it has grown from an online shop to a pop-up to a full-fledged boutique in the heart of Queen West’s best shopping strip.

The year is coming to close and we’ve been searching high and low for the metallic dress of our New Year’s Eve dreams. Slowly, we’ve had to come to terms with the fact that it might not be out there and that we’ll probably just end up in head-to-toe black (again).

It’s only fitting that in these final days A2Zane owner (and former handbag specialist at Holt Renfrew) Zane Aburaneh would notify us that our next-best option just came in: the metallic handbag of our dreams. All-black is more than okay to ring in the New Year when you’ve got this on your shoulder.

Metallic 11” satchel by the Cambridge Satchel Company. $175. Available at A2Zane, 753 Queen St. W., 416-803-7754

Grace Carroll is a Toronto-based freelance writer whose work has appeared in ELLE UK, ELLEcanada.com, Plaid magazine and FILLER magazine. Keep up with her daily blog at www.graciecarroll.com.

T.O.’s secret chef ready to go public

9:19 pm

The name Matt Kantor has been slowly swirling in Toronto foodie circles in recent months. But after his recent 23-course el Bulli tribute meal (a celebration of the haute cuisine created at chef Ferran Adria’s now-shuttered restaurant in Catalonia, Spain) at the Cookbook Store in Yorkville, the tech-savvy chef is one of the hottest names in town, and he doesn’t even have his own restaurant … yet.

Kantor is the personification of two of this city’s cultural obsessions: social media and cooking. The 42-year-old chef has launched a novel way to reach both an online audience and hungry diners in one fell swoop. The Secret Pickle Supper Club, Little Kitchen and Ghost Chef are three separate ventures Kantor founded after moving to Toronto in 2008 (www.mattkantor.ca). Each business leverages social media platforms, such as Facebook and Twitter, to gain the attention of a dining audience looking for new experiences.

What does a chef know about social media? Pre-apron, Kantor worked as a software developer, which he says came in handy — particularly for designing web pages and social media apps.

“I spent a lot of time thinking about how to get to people who don’t know about me,” he says. “It’s both the message and how to get people to pay attention.” And pay attention they have — largely thanks to Kantor’s social media savvy.

The Little Kitchen brings a fine dining experience to your home or business for a planned event. The Secret Pickle is an underground supper club that descends upon venues across Toronto to host themed dinners such as “sweet versus savoury” and “contemporary vegan.”

“I love the idea that he moves around the city, bringing the food to you (or your neighbourhood), and collaborating with chefs and venues.” says Dick Snyder, editor of City Bites, a Toronto magazine dedicated to the city’s food and wine scene. “What he’s doing is demonstrating that a chef can be more than a cook. He’s an inventor, an innovator, and idea guy. He's educating himself and his customers, and breaking the mould of how we think of dining out in Toronto. His events are also really good value.”

But perhaps most intriguing of all, Ghost Chef features Kantor making house calls to prepare a gourmet meal and leaving before the guests arrive — allowing the client to take all the credit.

What all of Kantor’s ventures have in common, though, are the impressive followings they’ve gained using Twitter and e-mail.

When Kantor moved to Toronto as a software architect, he developed a Facebook app — a cooking contest whose winners won a meal for four cooked by him. One of the winners was Alexa Clark, the founder and publisher of CheapEats Restaurant Guide, who was so impressed with his dinner she hired him on for a birthday party. The party turned into the first Secret Pickle dinner, and Clark became co-founder of the supper club.

“The contest showed up as an ad in my sidebar,” Clark remembers. “I don’t generally read the ads, but it caught my eye, and I was certainly the target audience, so I entered and I won. “I tell people, ‘I won Matt on Facebook.’”

Kantor was born in Wappingers Falls, New York, and grew up in the Hudson Valley area with two younger sisters. It wasn’t until Kantor was at college in Albany, studying physics and math, that he took an interest in cooking. He and his housemate would dine at a local Indian restaurant and try to replicate each dish at home. Kantor also travelled a lot in his early 20s with a buddy who worked in the wine business. While Kantor’s friend was only interested in the wine, Kantor says he was “blown away” by the food.

“I saw what amazing food should be — especially in Italy where it is so simple,” Kantor says.

Pursuing a career in IT and consulting for 15 years allowed him the financial means to continue travelling and tasting food.

Finally burnt out from the grind of the tech world and ready for change, Kantor went to chef school at the Culinary Institute of America in New York. Upon graduating, Kantor worked at the fine dining restaurant Picholine in New York City. He says he did a bit of everything and learned how to create great food with a small team.

“One time a guest arrived earlier than expected, and I had to hide upstairs.”

While Kantor was building up his cooking resumé, he kept a foot in the tech world. When an opportunity came up in Washington — on the IT side — Kantor took it and kept his cooking skills sharp by catering ad hoc dinners in D.C. It was at one of these dinners where Kantor met his future wife, a Canadian journalist. The two have been married for just over two years and are quite at home in Toronto.

And, yes, he plans to open a restaurant soon but can’t say where or when. “The wheels are turning,” he says, although he doesn’t have the property for it yet. But, he does know he would like his space to be in Leslieville or on Dundas Street West, where he feels his concept would fit in.

For now, Kantor says he’s happy bringing the kitchen to his diners. He says it keeps him on the edge, always thinking of creative ways to throw events in spaces that aren’t designed for making meals. He’s served an 11-course dinner from a tiny kitchen in a bachelor pad; he’s made gourmet meals in a Cabbagetown jewellery store; and he’s served a five-course Argentinian supper in a downtown coffee shop.

When it comes to Ghost Chef, Kantor doesn’t take any credit at all for the meal he designs — it all goes to the host who has hired him. During the actual dinner, if Kantor is around, he poses as a server and busses the meal.

“I don’t do complicated food,” Kantor says. “I make it as ready as possible, and I teach them [the hosts] tricks to impress their guests when they show up — I’ll teach people how to drizzle sauce on a plate.”

The margin for error in this line of work can be thin, though.

“One time a guest arrived earlier than expected, and I had to hide upstairs in a spare bedroom,” Kantor says, laughing.

Theatre Review: Parfumerie

9:51 am

Parfumerie, written by the almost forgotten but joyously gifted Hungarian-American playwright Miklós László, was a huge hit for Soulpepper in the Distillery District two years ago, even grabbing a Dora for best production. How inspired to bring it back; how perfect is this adaptation by Adam Pettle and Brenda Robins; how sad that it is nearly entirely sold out until its last matinee on Dec. 31.

I shall not go into its amazing staging or gorgeous set; nor the stunning direction by Morris Panych or the fabulous star-turns by Oliver Dennis, Patricia Fagan, Jeff Lillico, William Webster and Joseph Ziegler, among several others, Soulpepper stalwarts, all. If I were you, I would start phoning Soulpepper to beg for a standing-room spot. That is how my wife and I saw it, and we have not stopped talking about it since.

In honour of the season, I shall make just once more push to get you to try to catch this exquisite play and production: Parfumerie was the basis for the sweet Tom Hanks vehicle You've Got Mail a few years ago, as well as one of the best film comedy/romances of all time: The Shop Around the Corner. It's even better than those versions, believe it or not.

Do go! And a happy, healthy, relaxing holiday season and New Year's to you all.

Parfumerie, Young Centre for the Performing Arts. Runs until Dec. 31.

Allan Gould is Post City Magazines’ theatre critic. He has a Ph.D. in english and theatre from York University and has written over 40 books. His writing has appeared in Toronto Life, Chatelaine, en Route, Canadian Business, Good Times and Financial Post. He is married with two children. Aside from his family, his major passions are theatre and film, because they enrich life with pleasure and meaning.

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