Chefs, Passionate Food Artisans and Glorious Gastronomy
Our company of distinguished chefs and food artisans, some of Toronto’s finest local food champions, will delight you with a delicious array of locally sourced, fresh and seasonal ingredients masterfully crafted into mouth watering canapés and hors d’oeuvres for your pleasure. These fine Toronto chefs work tirelessly year round to bring high quality local food to your table. We are thrilled to showcase them to you as supporting our local communities and responsible, sustainable agriculture is what Green Connection 2010 is all about.
Brad Long, chef and owner of ‘Veritas’ and his new restaurant, ‘Café Belong’, located at the Brickworks
Chef Brad Long is one of Canada’s favourite home-grown culinary talents. Dynamic co-host of The Food Network’s Restaurant Makeover; former Executive Chef at Maple Leaf Sports & Entertainment and crusader for truth in cooking, Chef Long has dazzled the palettes of some of the world’s most discerning diners including top pro athletes, political heavy-weights, stars and everyday food lovers. Now everyone can experience the cooking that made Chef Long famous.
Veritas and now Café Belong!
Welcome to Veritas where Chef Long makes sustainability stylish. Veritas, meaning truth, features a delicious menu that blends Chef Long’s elegant style of cuisine with a commitment to sustainability and locally-produced, healthy, nutritious food – including seasonal vegetables from Chef Long’s own farm start-up. And now Toronto’s own celebrity chef has signed on to work his culinary magic in the retail café being built at Evergreen Brick Works.. Scheduled to be open this Fall, the Café Belong at the Brick Works run by Chef Long will offer delicious meals prepared with fresh local ingredients for visitors looking to relax in the natural setting at Evergreen Brick Works as well as for those looking for fresh meals for pick-up and go. Please come in to savour the best that Canada has to offer.
Visit www.localfare.ca for more information
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Chef Michael Steh
Michael Steh is executive chef of reds® bistro & wine bar in downtown Toronto’s financial district. Since his arrival as top toque in 2006, his passion for local ingredients, strong community involvement and unique culinary style have earned critical acclaim, and elevated reds’ repute to a serious and exciting wine and dining destination.
Steh began his culinary life in rural Oshawa where he tended to fruit orchards and livestock. Raised by Slovenian-born parents, he had the privilege of learning from his mother how to press wine, can fruit and smoke meat, using methods he deploys today to make reds’ kitchen distinct, including the creation of Toronto’s most involved and respected housemade charcuterie programs.
After several stints during his youth in a variety of restaurants, Steh relocated to Toronto and enrolled in the apprenticeship program at George Brown College. Following five years with Oliver & Bonacini Restaurants including Canoe and Biff’s, Steh moved to Susur restaurant in Toronto, before opening a new fine dining restaurant in the skiing destination of Collingwood, Ontario. Upon returning to Toronto, he spent two years as executive sous chef at Splendido prior to joining reds.
During his five-year tenure at reds, Steh has become a driving force in Toronto’s local movement. The restaurant is committed to a philosophy of serving ingredients that are carefully sourced with pride in the fact that they are local, healthy, and sustainable.
“At reds, we care about what you eat. We have a responsibility to our guests to not only provide them with great tasting food but also help educate them through taste,” Steh says. Organic products are used as much as possible and if the products are not from Ontario then they are usually Canadian. red’s only uses non Canadian ingredients when they are considered to be the best in the world when in season.
“The starting point for any dish at reds is our total commitment to quality in all of its forms, from how we source ingredients, to our recipes and, finally, to the way it’s prepared. We use only the freshest and finest ingredients, with special emphasis on local artisans, suppliers, and farmers who share our passion for world-class, sustainable products.”
Steh has been widely featured in the media including appearances on Breakfast Television Toronto and Canada AM, as well as in publications such as the Toronto Star, Toronto Life, The National Post, and The Globe & Mail.
Steh is a graduate of George Brown College, has studied at the French Culinary Institute in New York, is a member of Slow Food Toronto and has attended the annual international Slow Food event in Turin, Italy (Terre Madre). As part of his commitment to the local food community he participates in several annual fundraisers and community events, including benefits for the World Wildlife Fund and The David Suzuki Foundation, Evergreen’s annual Picnic at Brickworks, Cheese Boutique’s Festival of Chefs, the Brewer’s Plate and the Toronto Green Living Show. In 2010, he was inducted as a Fellow of the Ontario Hostelry Institute (OHI) and is a former OHI recipient of the Top 30 Under 30. He has been chosen as one of the chefs from Ontario to compete at the 2010 Gold Medal Plates.
reds bistro & wine bar
reds is Toronto’s premier wine destination. reds’ memorable food is a perfect pair for the exhaustive 3,000-plus bottle Wine Spectator-awarded cellar, which has a strong New World influence yet still manages to pay homage to the Old World greats. The ever-changing wine list has the city’s largest by-the-glass list, with more than 88 selections, confirming reds reputation for having some of Toronto’s best pours. reds is a proud recipient of several awards including the Wine Spectator’s Best Award of Excellence in 2010. Further info at 416.862.7337 or www.redsbistro.com.
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Chef Pedro Dos Santos
Pedro brings a wealth of knowledge, experience and passion to cooking, having spent many years gaining expertise in managing his own restaurant, Latitude to working in some of Toronto’s finest restaurants, including the Fifth. Pedro was the Head Chef and Food Consultant for the Healthy Butcher, which only sells organic products. His food philosophy is deeply rooted in the culinary traditions of Italy, France and other Mediterranean countries
Vert Catering’s food is local, fresh, seasonal and passionately cultivated and they are forging a special place as a leader in sustainability in the catering industry. Their long list of green and triple bottom line credentials include composting and recycling all excess food onsite, producing less landfill waste than any other caterer in the city, delivering brown bag lunches by bicycle, donating quality untouched extra catering food to the Toronto Community Hostel, using biodegradable non-pulp tableware and acting as a Local Food Plus (LFP) certified seller.
Vert is proud to be one of the first members of the Green Shift Environmental Stewardship program.
Visit www.vertcatering.com for more information.
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Chefs Melanie Harris and Alex Tso
Savour some tasty treats, prepared by chefs, food lovers and bloggers Alex Tso and Melanie Harris.
Combining 20 years of hospitality experience, training, certifications, international travel, and good ol’ determination, Tipicular Fixin’s pledges to elevate your appreciation for local food and beverage.
Handcrafted Food and Drink
We take cocktails and food seriously, but we never take ourselves too seriously. Whether we’re seeking out the best locally grown produce, scoring the net for rare spirits and ingredients, or meeting to discuss fresh new ideas, we always find humour and genuine enjoyment in what we do best: creating a unique experience for the people we work with. Come and sample Ontario’s most tasty cocktail this fall, prepared with care by Whitney Munro and Trevor Burnett, professional Mixologists.
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Monforte Dairy
At Monforte, they’re convinced the small things do indeed make a difference, that agriculture is best practiced on a human scale, and that their cheeses, each in its own quiet way, reflect something a little deeper than the technology behind mass manufactured food – a little of the poetry and passion of life itself.
And they are proud of the astonishingly good milk their shepherds bring them, believing their shepherds are their chief collaborators in building a sustainable sheep dairy industry and in assuring the welfare of the sheep whose milk they use.
Monforte Dairy was launched in the spring of 2004, growing (pardon the pun) organically, slowly, with a steady eye on deepening our knowledge of the art and craft of cheese making even as they reached more and more taste buds.
Monforte’s owner/lead cheesemaker, is a veteran chef whose cuisine is well-known to patrons of Stratford’s stellar restaurants Rundles and the Old Prune. A graduate of the inaugural class of ’83 at the Stratford Chefs School, Ruth is past chef at the Stratford Festival’s Green Room restaurant, simultaneously teaching at the Chefs School. Of Mennonite descent herself, Ruth is the mother of three sons, Ben, Christian and Daniel.
Visit www.monfortedairy.com for more information.
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A learning community, social enterprise flourishing between the Toronto Slow food community and indigenous cacao growers in southern Mexico, or Mexico Profundo.
Local food focus is an essential part of ChocoSol’s constitution and reputation. We have created local food fusions and encouraged the local farming of trans-local foods such as heirloom corn varieties for our traditional nixtamalized maize tortillas.
Our stone-ground chocolates are paired with locally and sustainably grown foods such as hempseed from Peterborough, mint grown in urban agriculture community plots and a whole variety of medicinal herbs to pair with our chocolate foods.
As a learning community firstly, we encourage the learning opportunities provided by great food and great hospitality. We work with the willing to celebrate through our dignified work an alternative food movement which strives to provide good food and food solidarity for all.
Visit chocosol.posterous.com for further information
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![NINUTIK [MAPLE SUGAR]](http://thegreenconnection.ca/wp-content/uploads/2010/09/NINUTIK_wordmark-160x11.jpg "NINUTIK [MAPLE SUGAR]"){kind=small}
Elegant, modern, distinctive – these are the words that describe the spirit of Ninutik design. The intent is to present maple syrup – a Canadian cultural icon – through the lens of design, art and sugarmaking. Ninutik products are designed by Dianne Croteau and Richard Brault, the founding partners of Studio Innova (Toronto) and they purchase their maple syrup from family-owned sugarbushes committed to producing the highest quality syrup. These producers are connected to the land and dedicated to ensuring the health and diversity of their maple bush.
Ninutik have made every effort to green their operations and are proud members of Green Enterprise Ontario. Their kitchen is powered in part by photovoltaic solar panels installed on the building, the waste water is chemical-free and when appropriate is diverted into a neighbouring community garden. They purchase their maple syrup from Ontario family-owned farms and the syrup arrives from the sugar bush in reusable food grade containers which are returned to the sugar bush for reuse and no packaging waste is generated. Their beautiful wooden boxes are crafted locally from FSC (Forestry Stewardship Council) certified Canadian maple finished by hand with food grade beeswax and are intended as keepsakes to be enjoyed for many years – for personal treasures…
Visit www.ninutik.com/store/index.php for more information.
