Archive for November, 2008

Nov 14 2008

The AGO has a culinary muse

Published by Stephanie under Chefs, Love

“I don’t dig very fussy, highly manipulated plates.”

– Anne Yarymowich

Ask Anne Yarymowich for the most memorable meals she’s ever eaten, and the Executive Chef of the Art Gallery of Ontario will take you first to the Mediterranean and then to an unglamorous quarter in a world culinary capital.

At a Turkish outdoor, seaside café, she orders a striped bass plate that comes cured, like graavlax, to which she matches a glass of rosé. “The flavours,” reminisces Yarymowich, “the ambience, stopping there by chance — it blew my mind.”

In Paris she comes across a working-class cantina called Le Roi de Pot au Feu, the “king” of the humblest of everyday French meals. “They plop a bottle of wine on the table, a gamay, whether you want it or not,” says Yarymowich, and then came the specialty of the house. If you want something else, surmises Yarymowich, the message is clear, “Piss off! … Brilliant!” she laughs….more

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Nov 05 2008

Mealmaker-helper seeks soul

Published by Stephanie under Food, Retail, Web

 ”Forget the cheddar. Velveeta’s better,” says Kraft.

No. It’s not.

… unless you’re a family of four that needs to put supper on the table for under $10, “with second helpings for the following day,” and in that case, this vintage cheese food could be a big help. So might VelveetaCasseroleChallenge.com.

Five bloggers take a run at this task, a demographic cross-section of middle-America, from a young pro-Obama mother of two, who favours whole-grain taco chips for her casserole’s crust, to the Christian military wife in a frisky, kitschy apron, and her “Ay Carumba! Chicken Spaghetti,” named for a liberal use of taco spice mix.

Let’s hear it for the casserole, the mealmaker-helper that nourished a couple of generations of  penny-pinching families living within their modest means.

There’s honour in economy, and cheese food follows this function, but does it have soul?

It certainly begs the question: What kind of cheddar are we talking here?

 
 

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