Well that was a lot of fun! Last night I judged the San Pellegrino Almost Famous Chef Competition. 6 culinary students competing to win the Canadian Regionals and progress to the finals in California.
It was a nail biter! There were leaders and early favourites in the kitchen, but it wasn’t until the last plate was served that I had a decision on who I thought did the best.
Continue reading "Judging the San Pellegrino Almost Famous Chef Competition" »
I am delighted to announce that I’ve been invited to be a Judge at the San Pellegrino Almost Famous Chef Competition.
This is the 10th anniversary of the S.Pellegrino Almost Famous Chef Competition and it brings together students from 73 culinary institutions across Canada and the United States to compete to be named the San Pellegrino Almost Famous Chef, up to $22,000 in prizes and a career-changing apprenticeship with a master chef.
There are 10 regional competitions and I will be judging the Canadian Regionals held on January 30th at the Calphalon Culinary Center in Toronto with:
As you may have noticed, all these dinner stories seem to start with some sort of life-event making dinner challenging. Isn’t that always the way? I know I’m not alone.
Friday night we were headed out of town. A quick train trip to visit family and I was really excited to snag wings at the Longo’s Maple Leaf Square store to eat on the train for dinner. I hadn’t realized until Friday how close they were to each other and hadn’t tried out the new entrance from Bremner into Union Station. It’s practically around the corner from the departure area. So great for zipping over and getting dinner to eat on the train.
So that is exactly what I did.
Friday’s deal: Chicken Wings
Because life is never boring, Thursday night’s dinner deal lined up with a HoHoTO sponsorship team meeting. Of course that means a great opportunity to feed a group!
So, guess who brought the pizza? (Okay, it was Gerry because I was busy getting things lined up for our meeting.)
Gerry picked up three 16” pepperoni pizzas at the Elizabeth Street store and cycled them over to the office.
Word of advice: you shouldn’t put pizzas in a bike rack and cycle them over to a business meeting and expect them to look like pizza when you arrive. Won’t happen. Gerry adds “pizza was a mess”. Still tasted great though!
Well, remember how my best friend and his daughter were visiting on Tuesday? Well they were still visiting Wednesday. Wednesday morning anyway. It was a lovely visit with lots of catching up, but it meant my day was little offset. Essentially I started work at about noon instead of nine.
One of the benefits of working for yourself is that this is an option. One of the downfalls is that Longo’s was sold out of chickens when I went in to buy one at 8:30pm.
Tuesday was by far the most challenging meal in this series.
Not because Longo’s sushi is challenging but because my best friend and god-daughter arrived that night with a serious craving for Indian. Sushi, as most of you know, is not a traditional Indian dish. Not even a close approximation of any South Asian cuisine.
I decided we’d get the Longo’s Sushi, share it as an appetizer and then head out for the much craved Indian. So working on a tight schedule we zipped over to the Longo’s at First Canadian Place to get it. Unfortunately the Longo’s at First Canadian Place doesn’t offer the Tuesday Sushi Dinner Done Right special. (Note: neither does the Brookfield store!)
I asked about it both in person from the cashier: "it's only at the big stores"; on twitter to @longosmarkets “it's a lease condition” and finally through official channels who replied:
“We do not offer the $6.99 Tuesday special, unfortunately, because those 2 locations Brookfield and First Canadian Place do not have on-site Chefs due to the limited space of the store and therefore do not offer the same program as all our other locations” AHA!
Monday was by far the most fun we had with Longo’s Daily Dinner Deals. Mainly because we got 3 of their Stir Fry Kits to try. We were gambling that the kits were good and that we could sample a couple of flavours and the leftovers would make great lunches. At $6.99 per kit it’s really not much of a gamble especially when you can look in the packages and see how fresh the meal and vegetables are. (Very!)
Monday’s deal: Stir Fry Kits
As Longo’s Ambassador and Chief CheapEater, I figured it was my duty to try out their prepared foods, especially since their current marketing is promoting Take it - Make it - Learn it (ready-to-eat, ready-to-cook, and how to cook). So I recruited my partner-in-CheapEats Gerry and we spent a day at Longo’s eating every meal - breakfast, lunch and dinner - from their kitchens.
Continue reading "Longo’s Meets CheapEats: A Day Of Longo’s Meals" »
So… you heard about Longo’s Field Trips, and you heard about our foggy drive to Wilmot Orchards early early early in the morning, now I really will tell you about the orchard, Charles & Judi and the apples!
I mentioned in my last post that I was fretting a bit about being late, well that was no problem at all. We arrived at about 8am and Charles Stevens the owner and operator of Wilmot Orchards was there to guide us over to the part of the orchards we’d be touring. They have 140 acres of trees, so it was important to be at the right part of the orchard.
It feels like much of our weekend was spent at protests, but this was the one we had to make it to: FoodStock. 
With a proposed mega quarry threatening 2,300 acres of prime agricultural land, pristine aquifers, and endangered species in Melancthon Township, just north of Toronto, the Canadian Chefs’ Congress took action. 100 chefs from across Canada came together to hold a fundraiser on land made available by the farmers still working the land in the region threatened.
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