Articles Tagged ‘anne desbrisay’

BEHIND THE SCENES: How Oz Kafe’s Jamie Stunt scored that Silver Medal at the 2013 Canadian Culinary Championships

Dark horse Jamie Stunt wowed the judges to take Silver in this past weekend's prestigious Canadian Culinary Championships held in Kelowna, BC.

Ottawa Magazine restaurant writer Anne DesBrisay was a judge at this past weekend’s Canadian Culinary Championships. For an even more extensive insider’s view of the event, visit her Capital Dining blog.

Jamie Stunt of OZ Kafe secured the silver medal at the Canadian Culinary Championships in Kelowna on Saturday night, with the aid of lots of lamb, some yak, and a great beer.

He had chosen lamb to showcase on Friday night, for the first of three challenges: the Mystery Wine Pairing competition. (Not, as it was revealed, a BC pinot as most chefs, guests, and this judge assumed, but rather Norman Hardie’s 2010 Pinot Noir from Prince Edward County, Ontario.)

Stunt encountered lamb again in the morning, bone in shoulder and neck from Tangle Ridge Farm in Alberta, one of six mystery ingredients in the Black Box competition. (The balance of the box included a grain: Red Fife wheat from K2 Milling in Ontario; a fish: Northern Divine’s sustainable sturgeon caviar from BC; a dairy item: goat gruyere from the Okanagan’s Carmelis Artisanal Dairy; Organic black kale for veg; and heritage Anjou pears as the fruit member of the team.)

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  |  February 11, 2013 at 9:25 am

ANNE’S PICKS: Just in time for the holidays, Anne DesBrisay finds a worthy Stollen at True Loaf

Christmas cheer: Marzipan alert! There's a toonie-sized length of it in True Loaf's version of the Christmas classic known as stollen.

By Anne DesBrisay

“Nothing says holiday cheer like Stollen!” Eh?

Eh??

Well that’s my new cry anyway. This was to be a post on plum pudding, but when I got to the True Loaf Bread Company, from whom I had picked up a fantastic pud last year, lo and behold, they were gone. Sold out.

Humbug.

I was talked into Stollen. A few were on display on the True Loaf counter, all wrapped up for Christmas with a ribbon and a bow. But I bought it with a heavy heart. I’ve never much liked these German loaves: dense, dry, too sweet for bread, not sweet enough for cake, typically an anti-climax.

But it turned out to be completely not the case with this version. This one is hefty, to be sure, dense with dried fruit, candied peel, citrus zest, but this one has a heart. Rather than almonds in the mix, a Toonie-sized length of marzipan (almond meal and extract sweetened with honey, according to baker/co-owner Yael Matte) is shot through its centre. And that makes all the difference.

Hurry. Go. Now.

Cost: A loaf of Stollen is $17 and lasts a long time if you’re very disciplined about it. Or it can go in an afternoon.

True Loaf Bread Company, 573 Gladstone Ave., 613-680-4178.

 

 

 

  |  December 10, 2012 at 9:31 am

ANNE’S PICKS: Brunch at Première Moisson (you don’t have to be a student to stop in!)

By Anne DesBrisay

“Who thought it was a good idea,” tweeted a U of O student, “to put a café that serves $10 sandwiches in a university filled with broke students?”

This seemed to me worthy of some investigation. My niece — the glorious Claire, in her final year as a U of O scholar — surely needed her aunt to buy her lunch. She’s broke. And she spends the bulk of her time in the new Social Sciences building, where the artisanal Québécois bakery Première Moisson has just opened up a branch. (Its first in Ontario. Its first outside of Quebec. And its first time on a university campus.)

Breakfast sandwich: the egg panini is an omelette tucked into a crunchy-soft bun. Well seasoned, buttery, it came layered with Gruyere cheese, lettuce, and sliced Roma tomatoes

So we met mid-morning. I was ready for lunch; she for breakfast. The egg panini Claire chose cost $5.25. Tucked into a crunchy-soft bun was a pretty nice omelette, well seasoned, buttery, it came layered with Gruyère cheese, leaf lettuce and sliced Roma tomatoes. Heated up on the press (for not quite long enough we decided, and with the lettuce still unfortunately inside) it was, notwithstanding those errors, a pretty tasty package.

Hot chocolate: It got a bit squashed in the bag, but once she took it out and had a bite (or two), Anne DesBrisay declared the chocolate 'pretty generous and very fine'

I had a pain au chocolat ($2.25), which is a good test of two things: the quality of the dough (is it soft and flaky, without being flabby inside? Does it correctly shatter in the mouth? Does it taste of classy butter?) and the superiority of the chocolate (smooth, clean, silky feeling). It passed the careful examinations of two picky women. Not sure it was the best pain au chocolat in the city (still researching that) but it was certainly a mid-morning pleasure.

Everything was ‘to go’ Our chocolatine got a bit squashed in the bag, weighed down with the panini, and the photo doesn’t do the thing justice. Particularly as we then had to take a bite, each of us, to show you the quantity of chocolate. Which we found pretty generous and very fine.

So welcome, Première Moisson, and full marks to U of O for thinking outside the fast food chain box. Makes me think going back to school wouldn’t be such a bad thing. It all passed the Claire test anyway. And she’s a natural critic.

Social Sciences Building, 120 University Dr., University of Ottawa.

Hours: Monday to Thursday, 7:30am to 7:30pm; Friday, 7:30am to 5pm; Saturday and Sunday, 8am to 3pm.

 

  |  November 12, 2012 at 10:28 am

WEEKLY LUNCH PICK: Warm up with seafood laksa at Sidedoor

Comfort in a bowl: Though it was more a shrimp soup than the promised seafood, DesBrisay enjoyed Sidedoor's seafood laksa, complimenting the chef on the ccomfortingly complex flavour of the coconut broth.

By Anne DesBrisay

I had been meaning to check out Sidedoor’s new lunch service for some time now. Particularly since it is no longer new. But when it first opened for the noon crowd, last December, it was big news for a little time, and it reminded me of memorable lunches at its big brother restaurant, just around the corner.

Restaurant E18hteen used to be my go-to for out of town guests in need of a satisfying lunch in a signature setting. The food (then orchestrated by chef Matthew Carmichael) was of a very high quality, the service was impeccable and the place simply gorgeous.

But E18hteen stopped its noon service a few years ago because nobody came. I think nobody came because lunch was pretty expensive and $$$$ lunches in a government town sobered with austerity were a thing of the past.

These days, the reliably-good downtown restaurants busy at noon tend to offer weekday specials, designed to get you in and out, well fed, and for not much. (Play Food & Wine’s any-two-small-plates-for-twenty-bucks formula comes to mind.)

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  |  November 5, 2012 at 8:32 am

ANNE’S PICKS: Anne DesBrisay has 4 glorious fall gingerbread finds

Ginger love: DesBrisay calls 'dynamite' this Kichesippi gingerbread cake with a Steam Whistle frosting at Murray Street.

By Anne DesBrisay 

This time of year suits me. The garden’s been put to bed, the motley tomato crop’s been transformed into sauce, the outdoor markets are dwindling down to a few brave and mittened souls selling off the last of the apples, squash, and kale — and yet the madness of the Christmas season is not yet upon us. And as I’ve always been a big believer in waiting for the sun to set before the cork comes out of the bottle, well, late fall feels like a good friend.

Nothing quite says “November” to me more than when chefs and bakeries start dusting off the bottle of molasses. And then rooting around for all those ancient aromatics — cinnamon, cloves, cardamom, ginger, nutmeg, allspice — to add gingerbread to their menus. There’s an inherit zing to gingerbread, and a sweetness that’s there, but subtle. I love it in warm puddings, cakes, and cookies or, when used judiciously, paired with foie gras, say.

Four of our city’s crackerjack eateries are cozying up our autumn with their delicious takes on gingerbread:

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  |  October 29, 2012 at 10:00 am

WEEKLY LUNCH PICK: Three courses, one tray at Brookstreet Hotel’s Options Lounge

Lunch box: The weekday 'business lunch' at Options Lounge is a three-course service that arrives on a square 'tonga tray.'

By Anne DesBrisay

Seeking options for fine dining in Kanata isn’t exactly an uplifting exercise. If it’s me doing the seeking, I usually end up at the Brookstreet Hotel. Its dining room, Perspectives, was first put on the map during the Michael Blackie era (MB Cuisine is now at the National Arts Centre). Since those heady opening days in 2003 — with Blackie in the kitchen and the utterly delightful sommelier Stéphanie Monnin (now running Art-is-in Bakery with her husband Kevin Mathieson) in charge of the cellar — the food can be a bit hit or miss, but I quite like the express lunch deal at Options, the bar/jazz lounge across from the lobby.

Like Perspectives, Options has a contemporary, clubby feel with its wood veneer panelling, rounded edges, and metallic finishes, all softened with the wobbly white trunks of birch saplings that act as organic dividers between upper and lower spaces. I’m sitting in a lower space this lunch, with a view of the golf course and oversized photos of legendary jazz musicians above me. And I’m pretty much all by myself.

Options’ weekday “Business Lunch” is a $23 three-course service on a “tonga tray,” which turns out to be a square white plate into which are inserted compartments, each filled with a course. (A bit like a bento box.) Ten minutes after ordering, my tray arrives, filled in with a cup of the day’s soup — curried zucchini with a crème fraiche drizzle — a filet of striped bass, moist fleshed and crisp skinned, paired with a sharp but honey-sweetened gastrique, and served on a roasted fennel purée with rapini and carrots. The sweet is an espresso brownie with a pleasant caramel sauce. An abstemious lunch, with tap water for company, but a double espresso spikes the bill by four bucks.

Cost: $23

Open: Business Lunch available Monday to Friday, 11:30am to 1:30pm

Options Lounge, Brookstreet Hotel, 525 Leggett Drive, 613-271-1800. 

 

  |  October 22, 2012 at 8:40 am

CONSTRUCTION FIND: Anne DesBrisay discovers impressive salads and slow-cooked meat at Levante Bistro & Lounge

Salad days: Anne DesBrisay notes that Levante has a number of interesting salads on the menu, including this one that unites fennel shavings with spinach, grapes, and oranges.

By Anne DesBrisay

For my last “Pick” I told you about the Red Sea Café on beleaguered Holland Avenue — a worthy little place obscured from street view by fencing and heavy equipment and the other detritus of several months-worth of road-work. This week I’m taking us back to the barricades, to advocate for another restaurant taking it on the chin in the name of urban renewal.

Levante Bistro & Lounge opened amidst the eclectic mix of shops and services that lines Rideau Street east of Dalhousie, along with, since opening day in June, the construction crews that have this section of Rideau all ripped up.

Over two visits, I’ve found pleasures worth enduring the dust and the noise. For one, the service has been immensely likeable. There was a young jazz guitarist that played for our one lonely table at a dinner here, and that was delightful. And the food’s been really very good.

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  |  October 15, 2012 at 10:58 am

ROAST IT: Anne DesBrisay extols the glories of in-season garlic

If I were going to simply wear it around my neck for what might ail me I’d buy the tasteless imports from China that currently bulge the bins of my local supermarket. But for cooking with the stuff I head to Antonio Cléroux’s stand in the Parkdale Market.

There, I buy a braid of the ‘’Gourmet Red,’ a varietal of the ‘Purple Stripe’ of Hardneck garlic from Antonio’s daughter-in-law Marie, a member of this genial family of growers from Navan.

This is garlic season. And though it’s been brutal growing for many things, garlic has been sitting pretty and parched. It likes a good dry spell a few weeks before harvest and a dry spell it surely did get. Garlic is a member of the lily family and as your grandmother must have told you, “lilies don’t like wet feet.” So there’s a bumper crop out there.

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  |  August 20, 2012 at 10:00 am

WEEKLY LUNCH PICK: Great gazpacho at the new 8 Locks’ Flat along the Rideau Canal

By Anne DesBrisay

Gazpacho tasted "potently of the August garden" on Anne DesBrisay's trip to 8 Locks' Flat.

It had been a long, hungry walk along the banks of our precious canal until this summer, so full marks to the NCC and Kemptville Hospital CEO Colin Goodfellow for giving this al fresco restaurant project life. 8 Locks’ Flat is a new, foot- and wheel-friendly outdoor dining room located on the east bank of the Rideau Canal, beneath and north of the Corktown Footbridge. It’s an expansive, handsome deck constructed of fragrant red cedar, named in honour of the historic flight of eight locks. Operational exclusively in the gentle months, the plan is to take it apart in mid-October and reassemble it in May. Next to the deck is either a sizable sandbox or a diminutive beach, depending on how you see these things.

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  |  August 13, 2012 at 10:24 am

EAT THIS: Anne DesBrisay stumbles upon tasty (and adorable!) Canada Day Cookies

Colourful confections decorated with oh-so-Canadian words. What do you think aboot that?

By Anne DesBrisay

I popped in for a loaf of bread. But there they were, arrestingly red, standing on guard, tall and proud on a Boko Bakery cookie sheet, and a dozen slipped effortlessly into a Boko box. Patriotic gems, they were, poking some fun at iconic Canadianisms, in the form of easily downed, utterly restorative sugar cookies. I just called. They’re making more.

Cost: $2.50 each

Boko Bakery, 264 Elgin Street, 613-230-2656

  |  July 1, 2012 at 8:30 am

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