Squiggfeast IV - Twisted French

WOW! What a night! Squiggfeast returned to the Toronto food scene with a sold out dinner party at the Rusholme Supper Club. Twenty-one guests enjoyed a mouth-watering 3 course meal, with with some added tasty interludes; created by your's truly. The menu was inspired by traditional French dishes and techniques, adapted with Squigg's unique and delicious flare. The Depannuer was the venue of SQF4 and its intimate atmosphere. long main table that seated the 20 guests and open kitchen created a warm and interactive space of delicious eating and good conversation. Robin was able to showcase his culinary skills to a mix crowd of old friends and new friendly faces from the Depannuer community.

The calm before the storm: Squiggy preps for Squiggfeast IV

Menu

Amuse bouche: Lemon macaroon

Appetizer: Nicoise salad – Green peppercorn tuna roulade, edamame and potato salad, pickled shallots, garlic confit, tomato and olive tapenade, egg yolk emulsion and riced egg whites

Interlude: “French onion soup” - balsamic onion jam on a rice cracker with torched Gruyere cheese and toasted panko bread crumbs

Entree: Chicken Ballantine stuffed with Duxelle, smoked apples, roasted onion puree, honey and rosemary gravy

Cheese course: Roquefort gougere stuffed with cherry balsamic jam

Dessert: “Coffee and donuts” - profiteroles stuffed with espresso cream, drizzled with chocolate and vanilla sauce and a cherry espresso with cocoa dusting.

The night was a huge success. 

Thanks to everyone who came out to make this such a great night.

Plans for the next dinner are already in the works! So keep your ear to the ground to find out when the next one is.

almost a year later

almost a year later and i'm thinking that i am going to get back on this blog bandwagon for no other reason then to do it. there has been a handful of changes and adventures in the meantime and there are more to come. i'm back in toronto an cooking better then ever. this post is going to be short and sweet, but at least i am back to doing it.

Top Chef 1.1

When I first started toying with the idea of doing a blog, I was thinking of a hook of sorts; like those numerous blogs that work their way through a cookbook posting their results etc. Then I thought of Top Chef. I love top chef. I own all the seasons that I can get off itunes (7 regular seasons and 2 top chef masters). I constantly have them on in the background and really enjoy the challenges that they put the chefs through. So I was thinking that I could use that as a hook and go through all the seasons and their challenges (I would be so excited to do the final ones of top chef masters). And now I have a blog, so why not try?

So I load up the first episode from the first season to see what the first challenge and I realize that it might be one I have to skip. I know that I would have to shift some of the rules and definitely ignore time limits on some challenges, but this one was difficult to even tweak.

The contestants had to spend 30 minutes on the line at Chef Hubert Keller’s Fleur De Lys in San Francisco. For obvious reasons, I wouldn’t be able to do that. I figured that I would just have to skip it and move on to the next challenge.


Then I got the call. (Doesn’t that just sound so dramatic?)


A chef I had crossed paths with in Montréal had gotten a call from a restaurant that was in a bind for that night, he couldn’t help out, but knowing that I’m looking for work/got time on my hands, he tossed the ball to me and told me to do him proud and not fuck it up. So I made my way to the resto about a ½ before service, which was the regular a la carte menu as well as a special party of 20. And wow did it just feel good to be back in a kitchen and on the line.


They were also short staffed for the next night as well, so I came back to help out with a private party for 60.


And I guess the best way for me to prove that I succeeded at this challenge is that I left there with a job. I’ll be workin’ at San Lorenzo, an Italian restoruant in little Italy, Thursdays and Fridays, my off days from the Burger Bar (once it opens…).


Next Top Chef Challenge: Showcase your signature dish.

Sunday Night Dinner 4.15.11

Sunday night dinner, chef's table for 2 @ squiggs, 5 courses

A friend pointed out to me that if i really wanted dinners at my place to be something special, i should be looking at things beyond just the food. so i did a bit more then the usual clean up and stuff and tried to create some ambiance.

There were 2 friends coming over for dinner, so i set up a chef's table of sort facing on to the kitchen. I had ran out to dollarama to grab napkins and a table cloth. It was also suggested to me to grab a candle, so i got a sturdy manly candle and a mirrored plate for it to sit on. The only thing i forgot about was water glasses. I also thought about what music to play, deciding to go with the chemicals brothers dj mix cd. a nice upbeat music that can easily be ignored.




Bread Basket: Lavender Bread
Due to having a lot of time on my hands recently, i've started to bake a lot more. The buns were cooked in muffins tins which gave them a somewhat rustic look that i wasn't too sure about, but the guests enjoyed the unique shape.








Amuse Bouche: Oyster/Strawberry/Ice wine Vinegar
I'd picked up this really nice ice wine vinegar and was wondering how to best showcase it and this dish worked well. The sweetness of the vinegar played off nicely to the saltyness of the oyster.








Soup: Spicey Mint Cucumber soup/Smoked Salmon/Mandarin Orange

The spicyness in the soup was a happy accident. Apparently in the container that i pureed the soup in, there was some residue left over from the homemade hot sauce that confused at first. The heat works well with the coolness of the other ingredients. This was also where i realized there were no water glasses.





Braised Pork Short Ribs With Asian Flavour/Kimchi Fried Rice/Baby Corn/Broccoli Stalks
Decided to serve the pork 1st of the 2 proteins/mains due to the lightness of the asian flavours used. Kimchi is pretty much Korean fermented cabbage that is just so packed with flavour, I highly recommend that you check it out.














Braised Rabbit/Blueberry Sauce/Morel Mushrooms/Mixed beans/House Cured Bacon
This was served as the 2nd protein because of the woodsy/foresty notes of it felt to me to be a bit heavier, er go, later in the course. The strip of bacon underneath was my first attempt at curing bacon and it was taaaaasty. i was seriously impressed with myself.








Dessert: Strawberries/Blueberries/Lime Curd/Chat Longue Cookies
Nice, light and clean dessert. Variety of textures and something that i could throw together in one afternoon.















Thoughts from the Diners

Thanks again so much for a lovely evening.

I would just say that I'm grateful for happy accidents - the soup was delish and surprising and went really well with the Lavender buns - the muffin tin gave them a nice shape.

My other fave was desert - the lime curd was amazing and my multiple helpings undid a good few weeks at the gym.

almost forgot the kimchi - really everything was amazing but those were probably my highlights

Quick hit: Art Square Cafe

Artsqaure cafe

During a weekend trip to toronto, i was able to check out this little cafe across from the AGO for brunch with fellow blogger Lindsay of threehundredsixtysixdays.com. (look at that, i'm already part of the blogger community with blogger friends doing stuff to blog about!) Upon entering it, one could feel that the designer had put in sometime in and the investors had put in some money. The front half is a sleek looking gallery featuring a number of different photographers with a cafe in the 2nd half specializing in crepes and chocolate truffles, with a strong Turkish influence.

The menu is intriguing and somewhat exciting, with a couple odd pairings, especially on the savoury side; (chocolate and chicken, blue cheese and shrimp).

Both of us decided to go with the Canadian breakfast crepe, 2 sunny side eggs with 2 strips of chicken bacon on a crepe filled with mozzarella and a side of home made jam. linds opted for the soy latte, me a 2nd cup of coffee since i had finished the one i ordered while i waited for linds to arrive.

Food itself was quality, it was the finer points of service that they need to work on. The edges were rough, but you could tell they were trying hard so instead of it being frustrating, there was a certain cuteness to it. plus since we both lean more to the benefit of the doubt and weren't in a rush, we let things slide.

there were little things that was off, like adding a 2nd milk container to the table for coffee when the first one was far from finished (they do warm the milk though) or serving a latte that was on the wrong side of boiling, which is things that one could let slide. On the other hand, when we are the only 2 people in the place, order the same food at the same time, it's expected to arrive at the table at the same time. Unfortunately that didn't happen. It feels like if they ever get more then 3 orders at a time, they'd be smoked.

Strong menu and decor, with the errors in service something that could be easily improved, i suggest checkin' it out.

3 squiggs out of 5

Guest Blog Comments from Lindsay of threehundredsixtysixdays.com

During Date Month (31 Day 31 Dates - check it out on the blog), I look at everywhere through the filter of "would I bring a date to this place?". The food was enjoyable and they were trying really hard, but I agree with everything Robin said. The fine details were missing that could make the experience great. That being said, the relaxed atmosphere made it easy to chat and therefore I say that yes, I would bring a date here, as long as I wasn't in a rush!

The return of the Sunday dinner

You up for a Sunday dinner on Friday?

And then you look at me as if I’m crazy, but that’s just cause you haven’t been enlightened to the return of the SUNDAY DINNER DINNer DInner dinner [echo effect, in text]

Feel free to correct me if I’m wrong, that’s what the comments section is for (I enjoy that I am writing this as if I have legions of fans that would actual be commenting), Sunday dinners to the best of my knowledge was something that started in 1952, well at least in the 50’s, well at least it felt like something that would have been coined in the 50’s and it was all about the family gathering over a big meal Sunday evening, ignoring all the hustle and bustle of the everyday world and the pressures that come along with it and just enjoying each other’s company and good food. Over time though, people got busy, families spread out farther, time to cook meals was lost.

Perhaps it had something to do with the rise of the television. Perhaps families shifted from the kitchen table to the living room couch. Technology in the kitchen, with the invention of the microwave also contributed with the best example being the combination of the two technologies in the: microwave tv dinner.

And the Sunday dinner faded away. Time spent bonding over food was gone. The idea that time spent cooking was time wasted.

But it doesn’t have to be gone. And nor does it have to be limited to Sundays. When I talk of Sunday dinners, I talk of friends or family taking the time to slow down and just enjoy some good food together. I love to cook and then have the ability to share with some friends where we can just relax, slow down, shoot the shit and feel satisfied, emotionally and physically, that sounds pretty fuckin’ good.

The food doesn’t need to be expensive or complex either. It is something about the experience of a good meal that when the components come together for something that is greater. A dish of shepherd’s pie is tasty when I eat it by myself, but it becomes part of a story, part of an experience when I share it with someone else, it becomes a Sunday dinner. So when I invite you over for a Tuesday Sunday Night Dinner, I’m simple inviting you over to spend sometime with you and that time with you makes the food taste better. So I’m just basically using you to make my food taste better. It’s like an extra bit of seasoning, or a spice called “friendship”.

Excited to be working

Be excited for me. I got a new gig and am so excited for it. So be excited for me, it’s a burger bar. Be excited for me for it is what I need and I’m excited for it, er go, you should be.

After pretty much bombing out on my first gig here in mtl (harsh, but true, but all bridges are still intact), I learned a lot of stuff about myself. Where I can improve and what works best for me. Through combing through online postings and interviews and tryouts, I realized the best place for me to be is the new burger bar opening on crescent.

I see people’s excitement drop as soon as they here this. When people hear that I went from high-end fine French food to burger flipping, I get reactions like I’m over qualified for that place and that it would be a step down for me. That's just wrong.
As things started to sink-in and the more I visited other kitchens during interview times, I realized the burger bar is actually the place I need to be right now for me.

As for the resto itself, it is hyped as a high-end burger joint. There is 4-5 different artisan buns coming in from a local baker and high-end products on the menu (lobster and kobe beef), so I will be handling a lot of good product. And everything will be done from scratch, including the building blocks like stock etc. After getting a look at the menu, I realized that while the burger maybe the lead singer, there are a lot of good dishes that make up a great back up band. I’m excited about the mac ‘n cheese and the twists the chef is putting on them.

The dialogue with the chef was great and i realized that as i was interviewed by other restaurants that just didn't click as well.

Even though it’s still under construction, the kitchen looks nice. There is a back prep area that has a skylight, which is really cool.

It’s on Crescent street which will be a wicked new Montréal experience for me. And it will be busy. There is no doubt about that. And right now, if the biggest thing I need to improve on is my focus and speed on the line, then a busy place doing many covers on a vast menu that is above your regular turn and burn is great for me.

Plus, on the spot, I was offered full time at more money then I had made previously.

So when I tell you I’m flipping burgers, remember: this is a good thing.

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