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A Toronto foodie whose name is familiar on the Canadian restaurant scene has been shortlisted for one of the “best jobs in the world.”

Mary Gazze, who works as a communications specialist for the Canadian Restaurant and Foodservices Association, is one of two Canucks on the 25-name shortlist of applicants in consideration for a tasty position within Tourism Australia’s “Best Jobs in the World” competition.

The “Taste Master” will be charged with blogging about the best ingredients, restaurants and bars in the state of Western Australia. In so doing, this individual will get a rare experience to celebrate food against a special backdrop. She might, for example, go fishing for exotic barramundi and then haul the results back to a barbie to prepare them with an Australian chef. Or she might sample wines from the country’s Margaret River region....more

Whether or not Toronto finally gets its own casino remains anyone’s bet. But there’s no doubt that the contentious subject has divided fans and detractors into snarling camps. Not surprisingly, given the impact they would feel from such a gamble, some of Toronto restaurateurs have thrown their toques into the ring.

In early April, a group of local Toronto restaurant owners sent out letters to city councilors to declare their support for bringing a casino to the city. A casino at the Metro Toronto Convention Centre, says the band — whose members include the Old Spaghetti Factory, Biagio, Hey Lucy and Michael’s on Simcoe — would deliver untold riches to adjacent restaurant businesses. 

If you’ve got a taste for the suds and a few bucks in your pocket, we’ve got a beer for you. Samuel Adams Utopias hit the Ontario market the first day of March. And it came with a pricetag as hefty as its reputation.

This dark and powerful brew — clocking in at 28 percent alcohol content — costs $114.95 a bottle. And this price is better than what it sells for south of the border, with some US stores hawking the stuff for close to $300....more

It’s baaack!

Winterlicious, in all its seasonally scrumptious, snow-dusted glory, will make its triumphant return to the city on January 25. The much-anticipated event runs until February 7.

The 2013 list of participating Toronto restaurants is the longest ever. This year, 191 local eateries will roll out prix-fixe menus for Toronto bon vivants anxious for a soft-on-the-wallet taste of the best culinary offerings the T-dot’s got. Among their ranks find stellar returnees like Bodega and Splendido, along with newcomers like Sagano and Prohibition Gastrohouse.

Aware of the potential for the thing to become unwieldy, Winterlicious organizers have taken care to put together various tools to help visitors navigate its bulk. A visit to the Winterlicious official site reveals a Map that allows users to search participating players by neighbourhood. And you can use the Sort List tool there to create your own inventory of destinations....more

If you like technology and also food, well, there’s an app for that. 

Eat Canada: Dining in Downtown Canada is a spanking-new app, just loosed on the iTunes store, that’ll aid and abet any downtown diner with valuable data and functionality designed to enhance his dual passions. The Eat Canada app includes details and reviews of 20 or so of the finest establishments in each of 11 major Canadian cities including, natch, ours. 

The reviews are penned by big-name critics in each of the centres (Toronto gets esteemed food scribe James Chatto), and include info on such experience influencers as cuisine styles, noise levels, the availability of private rooms, price ranges, corkage fees, outdoor dining opportunities and opening hours. There’s also a throw to restaurants’ websites and to the OpenTable reservation system. ...more

Big-smoke eateries dominate the winner’s circle in this year’s enRoute Top 10 best new Canadian restaurants inventory, a luminous list that’s topped off in 2012 by Toronto restaurant Edulis.

Edulis, which translates from Latin as "edible," is the attention-grabbing culinary innovation of restaurant power couple Michael Caballo and Tobey Nemeth. European-style bistros find happy communion with southern Ontario’s bounty at this Niagara St. gem, an eating experience which The Globe and Mail called “pleasure bordering on delirium.” 

The menu changes daily here, but always draws from the influences of French and Spanish country food. Ingredients are fresh and served family style. Fish enthusiasts find much to love in the regular appearance of sockeye from Alaska’s Copper River, and pristine herring from the B.C. coast. And the slow-roasted heritage-breed chicken, carved tableside from a pot accented with garlic and alfalfa, is a noteworthy find. ...more

As sure as the return of fall programming and the technicolour display of trees casting off their leaves, the proliferating appearance of lists is a hallmark of this time of year. Take, for one, Maclean’s comprehensive compilation of the 50 best restaurants in Canada. 

A crew of big-ass critics, headed up by the magazine’s food columnist and critic-at-large Jacob Richler, lent their palates to the enterprise of aiming “for a balance of old and new, cheap and pricey, casual and posh” in their selection. The result is a 132-page cross-country catalogue of where to eat now, highlights of which include the magazine’s naming of Hawksworth at the Rosewood Hotel Georgia in Vancouver as Canada’s restaurant of the year;

Normand Laprise of Toque in Montreal chef of the year and the Grove in Toronto as new restaurant of the year.

All told, a dozen of the picks are from Ontario, with nine from Toronto....more

Hungry? No problem. Equipped with a decent set of olfactory senses? Excellent. Worried about the caloric fallout from addressing your pangs? Suck it up.

Le Whaf is a wacky bit of innovation just off the boat from Europe that may soon be regarded as the best thing to happen to weight management since zippered lips. 

This elaborate, cauldron-like device acts as a kind of humidifier that boils food down to its essential liquid-form ingredients. The fluid is then strained and transferred to the Whaf, where electromechanical crystals vibrate rapidly enough to turn it into gas. Ultimately, the stuff makes its way up through the Whaf’s straw-like point of exit as a “food cloud.”...more

A shadow has been cast over the stretch of King St. that’s famously known as “restaurant row.” Or at least, if the construction of a proposed controversial condo project goes through, it will be. 

Among other issues, restaurateurs who do business along this storied strip express concerns about wind tunnels (pointing as a cautionary example to the TIFF Bell Lightbox’s 46-storey Festival Tower, and the plates of food that blow off nearby patio tables), jammed access to delivery laneways, blocked sunlight and the fundamental alteration to the charm of neighbourhood architecture such a move would bring.

And at its heart, restaurateurs’ concern is that this deal will encourage other property owners to knock down the rest of restaurant row’s heritage buildings for condo towers.

The development in question, at 323-333 King St. W., between Peter and Widmer Sts., has taken a curious journey to here. When developer King Financial Holdings first introduced it in the winter, it was a 39-storey condo with 201 units. The proposal was rejected. In a report to city council at the time, one senior planner warned: “[This] could fundamentally alter the character of this main street area, and could affect the qualities that make it a destination for residents and tourists to the city, particularly if it creates poor pedestrian conditions through its streetscape and wind impacts.”...more

Ever wonder what your waiter and his buds are saying about you as they’re slipping into the kitchen with your half-eaten order of braised lamb shanks? Ever puzzled over the curious letters the hostess has penciled in beside your name on the reservation list? Ponder no longer. The New York Times recently threw the swinging doors off the scene by sharing the secret codes used by employees at some of New York’s finer restaurants. ...more