Insider’s Tips: July 17

We are clearly now in our peak season for produce in Ontario, and Executive Chef Loseto was delighted with all the fresh field products offered by his longstanding farmer/suppliers at the Ontario Food Terminal. New products this week included blackberries and peaches.

Ontario-grown Italian cucumbers are back. They resemble the shape of a grenade. Chef considers them superior in taste to the normal lengthy ones.

Also now available are Ontario cabbage, baby carrots, eggplants, fresh onions, shallots and garlic, as well as lots of herbs, different potatoes, okra and pattypans (which are slightly sweeter than zucchini).

Chef liked—and bought more—Ontario French beans.

The only non-Ontario produce Chef bought were lemons and Californian melons, because Ontario melons are not yet available.

This week, the Trump administration levied a 17% tariff on Mexican tomatoes. In 2023, Americans imported almost $3 billion of Mexican tomatoes. The New York Times reported that the Fresh Produce Association of the Americas, which represents companies that import and sell produce and flowers into the U.S., said it was “disappointed” in the decision. It said that its members distributed vine-ripened, greenhouse-grown tomatoes from Mexico that are not replaceable by tomatoes grown in Florida and the Southeast, most of which are grown in an open field, picked green and gassed to induce a colour change. Not a great recommendation for American tomatoes imported into Canada.

BC spot prawns have now finished, and Chef reports we are seeing the last of the U.S. soft shell crabs. We continue to offer turbot from Nunavut, Nova Scotia halibut, gindara cod from BC, farmed organic BC salmon and wild Copper River BC salmon.

Sweetbreads and Ontario squabs lighten up the GEORGE meat offerings.

Chef is working on new desserts incorporating summer stone fruits.

Summerlicious in our courtyard has been popular at GEORGE. It ends this Sunday, when—as an exception to our regular hours—we will be open for dinner. We will extend Summerlicious pricing to our new special “Patio Summer Series” starting next week. Lunches are priced at $55 pp and dinner at $75 pp, continuing on with our special wine promotion.