Weekly Tips: November Edition
Executive Chef Lorenzo Loseto is busy rewriting his menus as cold weather arrives in Toronto. He reports from the Ontario Food Terminal that Ontario farmers have now mostly vacated.
There is still lots of really good Ontario produce on sale. Look for pumpkins and squash, leeks, parsnip, celeriac, apples, artichokes and hothouse produce like tomatoes and eggplant. Disappointingly, there were no paw paws on offer this year.
On the imported side of the Terminal, Chef bought US zucchini, grapefruit, grapes, persimmons and pomegranates, noting that all were more expensive.
He noticed a lot of produce from Peru available at the Terminal and wondered if it had been diverted from the US because of the new US tariffs on South American produce. He liked the look of the Peruvian offerings, particularly the tangerines, lemons and mangoes.
Look for the following heartier dishes, which will be appearing on Chef’s menu as we head towards the colder part of this year’s autumn season:
Ontario duck legs
Braised veal breast, which he is currently experimenting with
A warm oyster dish with large Royal Miyagi oysters from BC
Spanish octopus
Nova Scotia scallops
Also look for the Atlantic mackerel, which is replacing the Nova Scotia swordfish. Chef finds that selection of the mackerel is critical to avoid strong-tasting or oily examples. He is quick to reject mackerel from the fishmonger when it is not perfect. We strongly advise that you try the mackerel when it’s on the menu. In previous years, mackerel has been delicious.
Current seasonal desserts include two tarts — a chocolate chestnut caramel and a roasted apples custard.
Our Autumn Bounty three-course $99 value special will continue to the end of November. Click here for more details on this limited-time dining experience.
Prof Scott Galloway in a recent article claimed that 40% of Americans are obese and the trend is moving towards 50%. He states that the solution lies in widespread adoption of “fat” pills. He claims that the cost in billions of providing these to the public would be far offset by “massive health and productivity gains.’’ Never mind the numbers. Is this not an example of the US healthcare system, which attempts to eliminate every malady with a pill? Often the pills appear to work well until someone discovers that they don’t.
A more useful obesity approach was published in the NYT, The French Secret to Healthier Eating. Paris has one of the lowest obesity rates in Western Europe — at 14% in 2020. The article states that Paris is said to have gone to great lengths to preserve its fresh food tradition by offering healthier alternatives to ultra-processed food. Read the article to find out the steps that the French have taken to encourage consumers to buy healthier foods, including a voluntary system called Nutri-Score, which labels the content of food clearly in terms of how much salt, sugar, saturated fat and calories it contains, as well as its healthy elements. Sounds a lot better than pills.
GEORGE takes great pride in making all its food from fresh ingredients in its own kitchen using no ultra-processed food.