Food for Thought with Alex Bielak- Spirit(s) of the Season

Spirit(s) of the Season 

With Hanukkah and Christmas, not to mention Kwanza and New Year’s Eve upon us before we know it, I thought this column should bring some holiday cheer. Two recent events provided grist for the mill in the form of distilled products that would make any tippler happy.

In my last column I mentioned my serendipitous discovery of a new artisanal gin: Dillon’s Small Batch Distillers UNFILTERED GIN 22 was the base of the winning Apple Rosemary Collins cocktail mixed by the Earth to Table Bread Bar during Battledish on Locke St.

Very impressed, I visited the distillery in Beamsville to make a purchase, and subsequently had the pleasure of sitting down with the lanky, young distiller, Geoff Dillon, at the (wonderful) 2013 Ontario Culinary

Food for Thought with Alex Bielak- #Battledish @LockeStShops #hamont

Naroma - Chef (King) Mario & guests -
Battledish Hamilton

Food for Thought with Alex Bielak-  #Battledish @LockeStShops #hamont 

A couple of weeks ago I was asked to be one of the judges for the first, and hopefully not last, Battledish to be held in Hamilton. It’s an international contest with local chefs competing to eventually go head to head with others across North America for the best dish. The arena was Locke Street, eight restaurants entered the lists and the fair maids of Tastebuds Student Nutrition Collaborative were on hand to represent the beneficiary. (To get a great flavour of what was to go down see the entertaining WWE-style videos by SteelandtheCity.)

Having arrived at the charming, temporary Battledish operations centre at Ceylon Teabush, I organized my own tasting in the order courses of a meal might go. Soup by Chef Tor Krueger at the Cheese Shoppe on Locke, mains by Chefs Zelco Grahovac, Walter Roper and Manny Ferreira and Mike Tofano (respectively The Courtyard on Locke, West Town Bar & Grill, Earth to Table Bread Bar and Ole Gourmet) and moving to sweeter offerings from Chefs Mario Spina, Nicole Miller and Josie Rudderham,

Food for Thought with Alex Bielak- #Battledish @LockeStShops #hamont

Fod for Thought with Alex Bielak - #Battledish @LockeStShops hamont 
A couple of weeks ago I was asked to be one of the judges for the first, and hopefully not last, Battledish to be held in Hamilton. It’s an international contest with local chefs competing to eventually go head to head with others across North America for the best dish. The arena was Locke Street, eight restaurants entered the lists and the fair maids of Tastebuds Student Nutrition Collaborative were on hand to represent the beneficiary. (To get a great flavour of what was to go down see the entertaining WWE-style videos by SteelandtheCity.)

Having arrived at the charming, temporary Battledish operations centre at Ceylon Teabush, I organized my own tasting in the order courses of a meal might go. Soup by Chef Tor Krueger at the Cheese Shoppe on Locke, mains by Chefs Zelco Grahovac, Walter Roper and Manny Ferreira and Mike Tofano (respectively The Courtyard on Locke, West Town Bar & Grill, Earth to Table Bread Bar and Ole Gourmet) and moving to sweeter offerings from Chefs Mario Spina, Nicole Miller and Josie Rudderham, and Erin McGuffin (NaROMA Pizza Bar, Cake & Loaf Bakery and Democracy Coffee).

Therein lay a problem for the judges and public. How - when dealing with such a gamut of eateries and courses - do you judge whose dish is “Most Delicious, Creative, Authentic or Best Modern,” or who offers the “Best Cocktail”? Fellow judge, Scott Alexander (of GourmetOntario.com). “absolutely enjoyed” the event, but identified another problem, for the judges at least: “Portion size was way too big,” he said.

Before I go on, let me say that in my mind, ultimately, there were no losers! Some bruising perhaps, but that comes down to the issue I note above, coupled with a degree of ambiguity about how the criteria were scored and by whom. More on that later.

There was a great deal of Twitter traffic around the event (hence my column title) and Hamilton Small Fries and The Hungry Gnome wrote up fine posts about it describing most of the dishes, so I won’t go into that detail here except to also point you to the link at the end of this piece to my own pictures. Although all the offerings were better than merely good, it was clear to me the winners would come from among three restaurants: I called 4 of the 5 category winners.

With a lack of specific criteria for judging, I scored based on taste, component balance, and plating of dishes, and I saw the leaders of the pack being: laser-focussed Earth to Table Chef Manny’s modern take on comfort food (a beer-battered brie on fried bread with spicy nuts, bacon jam and apple puree with maple), NaRoma’s schiacciata con l'uva (a grape pizza which I gobbled down so fast I had to photograph a passing plate), and Courtyard’s tasty and beautifully-plated quail and polenta dish served with a complex reduction of pear and demi-glace and artful micro greens. The West Town came close with a flavourful, but poorly presented (and I gather variably done) pork tenderloin in puff pastry (mine was spot on), accompanied by a flavoursome rye Caesar.

Top Honours were carried off by Earth to Table (Most Creative, Best Modern and Best Cocktail), and NaRoma (Most Authentic and Most Delicious) NaRoma’s Chef Mario also won the “King of Battledish” Crown, regrettably leaving Chef Zelko of the Courtyard, and other worthy competitors, out of the medals.

The top drink was ultimately a delicious Apple Rosemary Collins from Earth to Table. I was intrigued to learn it was made with a gin I was unfamiliar with. Dillon’s Unfiltered Gin with 22 botanicals is made in Beamsville and is a real find. (I’ve since visited the distillery and am planning a column on them and another interesting spirit purveyor.)

Chef Zelko was understandably deflated when I spoke to him indicating that he had hoped the judges’ votes would have counted for more. “I enjoyed it… but I was surprised I did not make it into any category.” I told him Scott and I had both rated him a class winner, but suspect this was little consolation, given his confidence at the outset. (He had predicted he was going to win when I was doing my rounds.)

At the other end of the spectrum Chef Mario (now King Mario!), who had warmly greeted all his guests the day of the battle and passionately explained his dish to them, was elated when I called. “It’s unbelievable, I was speechless. It was an amazing event... I tried all the other dishes, [it] was really competitive.”

Thinking about it from a broader perspective, he added “we saw so many new faces: it’s good for NaRoma, good for Locke Street and good for our City.” He’s waiting to get details on the road ahead in terms of the competition with other cities, but said, “King of Hamilton, I’ll take that for now!”

After the event, I made some suggestions and posed some questions to seemingly indefatigable event organizer, David Hanley. He responded “Totally agree that there is always room for improvement“, later adding “we had 140 people (they didn't all go to every stop) and 21 judges including some Ti-Cats, a last-minute addition.”

“Judge votes [were] weighted at 50%, all other ticketholders [were] 50% (so it did matter)! I am not sharing the number of votes with anyone but I can tell you it was ridiculously close in all categories but one (Bread Bar's Apple Rosemary Collins) eclipsed the competition.”

When I asked if he was going to run another event, sensibly he said “I can't say if there'll be a next time or not yet… I want to debrief with restaurants so to make sure they got value out of it.”

I know he will learn from this event based on feedback from the restaurants, judges and participants. I’d like to see more emphasis on publicizing the fundraising aspect of the event, tasting portions for judges, and having judges actually meet, discuss the dishes and be able to compare apples to apples.

So Dave, once you’ve reflected I hope you go for it. Hamilton will be the ultimate victor!

NOTE 1: For those up for more good eats, the next Hanley extravaganzas are Dishcrawl Hamilton (On the Mountain, November 26th with only 6 tickets remaining as I write) and #2 in the Popup Restaurants series (November 22nd).

NOTE 2: As a Battledish judge I was provided with free food and drink tickets by the organizers to enable me to conduct tastings. Neither Battledish, nor any of the establishments mentioned, reviewed the content of this article prior to publication. While enthusiasm for the event as a whole rose with successive beverages consumed, I do not believe this affected my judging capacity!

Food for Thought with Alex Bielak - Bagged! Reflections on Indian Food

Bagged! Reflections on Indian Food

Sometimes we simply don’t feel like cooking yet still crave something fast and tasty: something more complex than frozen pizza and on the table in half the time it would take to order and get delivery from a local ethnic restaurant. You get the mission: flavour, minimal prep/cooking, fast.

That situation arose this week after a long day in Toronto. I was glad I had a couple of fresh Sobeys “Blue Goose” (Certified Humane®) chicken breasts in the fridge, and usually have a variety of jarred or packaged sauces on hand for just such an eventuality.

I had recently picked up an Olivieri Butter Chicken “Fresh Sauce,” which, according to the packaging is “made with a blend of authentic Indian spices, tomatoes and cream… with no artificial preservatives, colours or flavours.” I also had two packages of vegetable curry in the freezer.

The latter were from superstar chef and cookbook author Vikram Vij and obtained from Goodness Me, one

Food for Thought with Alex Bielak Local Thanksgiving Sips and Bites

FlourPower owner, Veronica Bridge

Local Thanksgiving Sips and Bites 

Sometimes timing is everything. Having tried to phone several times, I should have known better than to just drop in to one of my favorite farm markets and ask for an interview for a profile, just a couple of days before Thanksgiving weekend!

Dyments Market and Bakery is located on the escarpment on the corner of Sydenham & Fallsview roads above Dundas. It has been family owned since 1887, and I usually pick up one of their wonderful pies when I’m getting corn during the summer.

The smell in the parking lot was delicious as I approached the attractive store which is open year around. It

Food for Thought with Alex Bielak- Top 10 Do's and Don'ts for your Kitchen Renos

The Top Ten Do’s and Don’ts for Your Kitchen Reno

Thinking of re-doing your kitchen? Then here are the top ten things you should consider to save your sanity as well as some dollars. Rest assured you’re not just getting my views; I solicited input from some of the kitchen designers, countertop specialists and cabinet builders at the Fall Home Show and Sale in Hamilton last weekend. I also checked in with the designer of our own kitchen, and asked our long-time handyman and house reno consigliere, Mark Gilroy of Marx Group, for his top do or don’t do item when he dropped over to do some work at our place.

We re-did our kitchen a few years back. It’s awesome, and as soon as we had the butcher-block island countertop installed, it shifted the centre of the house. The kids immediately started to hang out and do homework in the warm, renovated bright space while we made supper. It was money well spent, but we learned some hard lessons along the way, not least when the company we hired to do the work began to go bankrupt. (They’re back in business in the same location but under a different name, so, as always, buyer beware. And yes we had checked references before we signed the contract. And yes contact me directly and I’ll tell you the whole story.)

So here’s the top ten:

1. Unless you have money to burn, you want to do the reno once and forever. Elysha Cesar, the designer for