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A taste of
Topacross Chef Canada Experience the culinary delights of the best chefs from coast to coast HANDOUT
GIZELLE LAU
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Monday night, Food Network Canada’s newest show, Top Chef Canada (a spinoff of the original series, Top Chef on Bravo TV in the U.S.), finished its first highly successful season. After a grueling competition against 15 other chef competitors from across Canada, it was Dale MacKay from Ensemble restaurant in Vancouver that took home the grand prize: $100,000 and a fully furnished GE Monograph kitchen valued at $30,000. For those of you who followed from week to week, you know what it’s like to wish you could reach through the screen and eat what these talented chefs are cooking up for the Top Chef Canada judges, like Dustin Gallagher’s gnudi, Rob Rossi’s sloppy joes or Connie DeSousa’s handmade artisanal sausages. And this summer you can. Travel from coast to coast on our Top Chef Canada restaurant tour where you can taste some of the delicious dishes from the show’s top contestants.
Canada’s Top Chef Dale MacKay from Ensemble Restaurant in Vancouver
Opened just last month in Vancouver, owner and chef Dale MacKay’s Ensemble Restaurant and Bar offers modern French dining on Robson Street. A culmination of his life’s experiences including working under chefs Gordon Ramsay and Daniel Boulud, Ensemble offers modern interpretations of classic, high-end cuisine at an affordable price. On the menu from his Top Chef Canada repertoire: Dungeness crab in spiced melon soup, black cod with Thai broth and a soufflé that impressed even chef Mark McEwan. Toronto offers a handful of Top Chef Canada culi-
nary experiences. Catch chef Dustin Gallagher sporting his legendary grin at Grace Restaurant in the city’s Little Italy district. Fresh ingredients including herbs and vegetables from the rooftop garden are the focus with farmhouse-chic dishes like fresh ricotta gnudi or BBQ pork chop with corn bread. Although chef Rob Rossi recently announced his departure from the Mercatto restaurants, you can still visit and taste the menus he’s created in his twoand-a-half years as executive chef of Mercatto’s four locations, including the new Trattoria Mercatto at Toronto Eaton Centre. Sim-
ple, rustic Italian cuisine and wine create a bustling trattoria-style dining experience, a nice retreat from the hectic downtown core. With one of the most exciting dining scenes in the country, Calgary shouldn’t be overlooked. Here, female Top Chef Canada finalist chef Connie DeSousa serves up an urban-rustic, meat-heavy menu at Charcut Roast House, named one of the top restaurants in Canada in 2010 by enRoute Magazine (no easy feat!). Charcut’s specialties include a spit-roasted prime rib sandwich, slowcooked country sausages and a 6 oz. dry-aged butcher steak. Out in the east coast, visit Todd Perrin at The Chef’s Inn in St. John’s, Nfld. — a restored heritage home from 1893 with four guest rooms. Wake up to freshly baked goods and a gourmet breakfast prepared by the chef himself, using ingredients from the inn’s own backyard organic garden. On Monday and Tuesday evenings, Perrin showcases his fine culinary skill with dinners at the inn.
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