This Zucchini pasta is a nice alternative to a traditional pasta noodle. This dish is a light, fresh, and flavourful option for those hot summer nights. Serve as an appetizer, or add a light protein, like chicken or fish (shrimp would be a great choice!), and serve as a main.
I first wanted to get into food when I would pore over my mum’s many, many issues of Gourmet magazine. Other major influences were the Two Fat Ladies, and the one and only Ina. All of these women have a contagious and confident approach to food, and I couldn’t resist.
Spicy and fresh, this salad is perfect for those humid summer nights where food is the last thing on your mind.
For a quick dinner, you can make the salad ahead of time (be sure to make the dressing fresh though, to not lose its vibrancy). Grilling the flank steak only takes 15 minutes – including resting.
Foraging season has begun and ramps, or “wild onion”, are beginning to sprout up all over. Growing in large patches where the sunlight breaks through the forest’s tree canopy, you can almost find them from smell alone. The aroma of onion and garlic is fairly pungent on these tender spring onions. If you go out ramp hunting, make sure you follow foraging procedure by only picking five percent of what’s available (or what you can process within three days, as they go off quickly).
After being awakened to global food at the Stratford Chef’s School, Victoria Allman wanted to go out and taste the flavours she had been studying in their own countries. Victoria became a private chef, cooking her way around the world on yachts. This has allowed her to not only study what paella is but how it is made in Spain by authentic local cooks. Victoria has been lucky enough to visit 52 countries – cooking and eating her way through the cuisine of each. Victoria currently works as a Yacht Chef for Motor Yacht Odessa.
These pork buns are a staple on any Dim Sum menu, and can also be quite filling. I recommend hosting a Dim Sum pot-luck party to disperse the labour of all the little bites, but they also make a great meal on their own with some sautéed Chinese greens drizzled with Oyster sauce alongside.
Corbin Mathany, Executive Chef of Hudson’s on First in Duncan, British Columbia, graduated from the Stratford Chefs School in 2012. He was also recently featured in an issue of Boulevard Lifestyle.
In October 2017, we were lucky to partner with Digiwriting Book Marketing to host Appetite for Words Festival: A literary festival with a culinary twist. Joining us that weekend to promote her book I Hear She’s a Real Bitch was Toronto’s own, Jen Agg. Notorious for calling out “bro culture” in the restaurant industry, she is blazing a new trail for women in kitchens.
This recipe is adapted from Paul Bertolli and Alice Waters’ Chez Panisse Cooking, although there are innumerable variations on this French bistro classic. This dish is at its very best with thin baby leeks, but can absolutely made with larger leeks halved lengthwise.
As dreary March gives way to spring, you might even consider adapting this recipe to early asparagus, making sure to blanch the green spears ever so lightly, and dressing them in the vinaigrette rather than marinating them, so that they retain their brilliant green colour.
Ryan Donovan, Co-owner of Richmond Station in Toronto, graduated from the Stratford Chefs School in 2005. He returns every year with Richmond Station Chef (and fellow SCS Alumnus), Carl Heinrich, to close out our Canadian Guest Chef dinner series.