The_Feast (2024)

02/01/2022

Bringing that unapologetic “duck liver in aspic” energy into 2022...

This recipe comes to us from "Three Small Rooms," one of the finest restaurants in Toronto around the 1960s-1980s. As the restaurant attached to the Windsor Arms Hotel on St. Thomas Street, Three Small Rooms opened in 1965 under the direction of hotelier George Minden (also famed as a distributor of Aston Martins, seen in this Star photo with one his prized possessions). Executive Chef Herbert Sonzogni was also a known force in the Toronto dining scene, responsible for the menus behind restaurants such as Babsi's, Noodles, and Millcroft Inn. It was also in Three Small Rooms, designed by the Karelia studio to evoke a minimalist Copenhagen aesthetic, that Torontonians were introduced to the culinary powerhouse Michael Bonacini (now of Oliver and Bonacini fame), who George Minden lured from England's best kitchens in the 1980s.

This "duck livers in port and aspic" recipe was featured by then-Toronto Star columnist Judith Drynan as part of her series on the best restaurants in the city in the early 1980s. And, although we hear that aspics might be making a serious comeback in 2022, maybe some things are best left in the past. This recipe from Three Small Rooms' menu, calls for one pound of duck livers, marinated in port with bay leaves, peppercorns, with lots and lots of gelatin. Garnished with gherkins and marinated artichokes...it was a thing of gelatinous beauty. But probably not likely to feature on our weekly dinner table any time soon… 🥴

Photo Credits:

George Minden by Ken Faught, 1977
Herbert Sonzogni by Frank Lennon, 1988

07/11/2021

Join The Feast for a conversation on the indulgently delicious food and music of the Baroque period! On Wednesday, November 10 at 7pm ET, we'll be a part of Tafelmusik’s online panel discussion series, Tafel Talks: Baroque Feast. The conversation will explore the parallels between the musical and culinary arts while savouring the essence of all things baroque.
Moderated by Tafelmusik violist and food lover Patrick G. Jordan, the discussion features our host , La Palma sous-chef Samantha Medeiros, and pastry chef Farzam Fallah.

Tickets are just $5 - learn more at tafelmusik.org/baroque-feast

Caravaggio, Still Life with Fruit on a Stone Ledge (c. 1601-05)

18/07/2021

Found this delightful 1960s Canadian beer party guide at a few weekends back. Put out by Canadian Breweries (later known as Carling O’Keefe then Molson’s), this guide has everything a party planner needs for a swingin’ shindig. Especially if the party goal is to feature beer in every dish. From salad dressing to sandwiches to cocktails, it’s a beer lover’s dream.

Beyond the cottage loaf, my favorite gem from the booklet was the “arf n’ arf”: a (now) unusual combination of lager and stout. Although the booklet dates from the 60s, this mixed drink is far older- found in drinks guides as far back as the mid-19th century.

08/06/2021

What do freedom-fighting Frenchmen, medicinal herbs, and Canada's first disco have in common?

Well, we're digging into the 1980s menu at the Café de l'Auberge of Toronto (former home of the original Canadian disco, if you've been keeping track) at the Inn on the Park Hotel. We're kicking off with the menu's apéritif: the Communard. It's a simple mixed drink, blending red wine and crème de cassis.

The Communard cocktail comes from a long tradition of apéritifs, drinks designed to stimulate the appetite before a meal. Introduced in mid-19th century France, an apéritif often was flavored with spices or herbs thought to help “open the palette” (coming from the Latin word aperire: “to open”).

If you’ve heard of any mixed drink apéritif, you may have heard of a kir: white wine mixed with crème de cassis (blackcurrant liqueur). Also known as a blanc-cassis, the drink's name “kir” owes its origin to Félix Kir (1876-1968).

Kir was a legend, who fought in the French Resistance during World War II. After the war, Kir was elected mayor of Dijon. He allowed his name to be used by a local producer of crème de cassis, helping fuse his name to the aperitif.

The Communard is often considered a variant of the “kir”, swapping red wine for white. But red may have been the original wine of choice in France. When German soldiers confiscated French red Burgundy during World War II, locals swapped to using white in the cocktail, eventually naming the new version after .

But the Communard’s name has older origins than freedom-fighting Félix. In France, Communards were those who supported the Paris rebellion and independent commune of 1871.

Many believe the red color of the Communard gets its name from the Communard red flag. The red flag had long been a symbol of rebellion and resistance. In France, the Jacobins had made the red flag a national emblem in the 1790s. The solid red flag was again used as a symbol of protest in the French Revolution of 1848.

Images: Paris Communards of 1871; Close-up of "Lamartine, before the Hôtel de Ville, Paris, rejects the Red Flag," by Philippoteaux (1815–1884); Portrait of Félix Kir; Communard cocktail

30/05/2021

Our next Toronto meal takes us to a disco-turned-dining room from the 1960s: Café de l’Auberge was once the main dining room of Toronto’s Inn on the Park Hotel, formerly located at 1100 Eglinton Avenue East. Today, you’ll find a large Lexus-Toyota dealership and (what else?) condo buildings on the spot. But the former hotel must have had beautiful vistas: looking out over farmland and parks.

Inn on the Park opened in May 1963 by the young Four Seasons Hotel chain. The company had opened its first hotel in 1961 on Jarvis Street, but wanted to expand its reach beyond metro Toronto. A 4-acre parcel of North York farmland was chosen for the hotel site, close to the Don Valley Parkway. Surrounded by 600 acres of parkland, the hotel had a secluded, resort-like atmosphere.

Hoping to appeal to business travelers and their families, the Inn on the Park was built to include the latest amenities: an Olympic-sized swimming pool, golf course, and even (unusual for the 1960s), an on-site health club. Located so far from downtown, the hotel also offered its guests on-site entertainment, opening Café Discotheque in 1964, one of Canada’s first discos.

But djs and disco failed to attract enough clientele and the Four Seasons eventually closed its doors to focus on fine dining. When the hotel had opened, it featured two dining rooms: the Vintage Room and the Buttery. To this, Café de l’Auberge was added, opened in the disco’s former space. Focusing on fine French cuisine, the restaurant quickly became a favourite for those celebrating special occasions.

Inn on the Park saw its share of celebrities pass through its doors: Glenn Gould often spent hours at the hotel in the 1970s. Toronto Mayor Mel Lastman’s sons both had their weddings at the hotel. But waning interest in road-side hotels saw its fortunes dwindle and the hotel closed in 2005. The building was demolished in 2006.

📸: , , , ,

27/04/2021

We're kicking off our Dining In Toronto series with perhaps one of the most famous restaurants in Toronto: Barberian's Steak House. As the first menu listed in Judith Drynan and James Williamson's 1980 book "Dining in Toronto", it seemed only appropriate that we start this historical culinary experiment with a deep dive on this iconic steak house, one of the oldest continuously operating restaurants in the city today.

Barberian's can be found just steps from Yonge Street, on 7 Elm Street in a 1860s-era building. Built as a private home, the house was transformed into a commercial space in the 20th century and became a restaurant when Harry Barberian bought the space in 1959. Harry Barberian was born to Armernian parents and got his start in Ontario restaurants before purchasing the building on Elm St for $6,000 and opening a steak house in 1959. Not long after, local papers were raving about Barberian's food (check out Mary Walpole's review from the restaurant's first year).

Capitalizing on the popularity of steak houses at the time, Barberian's became famous quickly, not just for its steaks but also for its clientele. In 1964, Hollywood power couple Richard Burton & Elizabeth Taylor became engaged at Harry's restaurant, cementing the spot as a place to "see and be seen."

By the 1970s, Barberian's was already an institution in Toronto. Friends with Sam Sniderman (Sam the Record Man- they were practically neighbours, as you can see in the 1970s photo) and Ed Mirvish (Honest Ed's), Barberian hosted prime ministers and international heads of state. By 1980, the kitchen was under the helm of Chef Gerhard Newbauer and still serving delicious steaks and fine dining cuisine. Even today Barberian's is a family affair, with Harry bequeathing the restaurant to the next generation of Barberian's: his son, Arron.

Stay tuned for our next installment when we cook a full menu from Barberian's, circa 1979. All I'll say is: get ready for some serious steak.

📸: ,

20/04/2021

We made the sourdough. We did the jigsaw puzzles. But we needed our own pandemic project. So, today The Feast is launching our new culinary history experiment. We’re cooking our way through the 1970s menus of some of the legendary & lost restaurants of Toronto. That’s right: we’re heading back to the era when mustard yellow could be found on every wall & polyester pants in every closet.

Every 2 weeks, we’ll cook a full meal from a different Toronto restaurant using a 1979 menu. Some of the restaurants we’ll be cooking from are long gone, like the old Café de l’Auberge. Others, like Barberian’s, are still going strong. For each meal, we’ll explore the history of each restaurant and a bit about the dishes. It’ll be a deep dive into 1970s food trends, so get ready for culinary delights like “molded praline mousse.” Get ready for “avocado pears stuffed with baby shrimp.” Stay tuned as we attempt flambeed steak and mussel velouté. And enough hollandaise sauce to fill a swimming pool.

Our trusty manual for this homage to historical restaurant culture will be Judith Drynan & James Williamson’s “Dining In-Toronto: A Collection of Gourmet Recipes for Complete Meals from Toronto’s Finest Restaurants.” Drynan and Williamson published the book in 1980 as part of the larger “Dining In” series. Each book offered readers recipes from an area’s best restaurants, from Seattle to the Monterey Peninsula.

Come back for our first menu later this week from that stalwart of Toronto steakhouses: .

We also want to highlight the great restaurants of Toronto that have faced incredible hardship during the pandemic. As indoor dining remains closed in Toronto, please consider supporting local restaurants through takeout or delivery.

📸 , Illustration by Jan Thornhill,

The_Feast

02/01/2022

07/11/2021

18/07/2021

08/06/2021

30/05/2021

27/04/2021

20/04/2021

Address

Website

Alerts

Contact The Business

Videos

Shortcuts

Share