Canoe, Toronto

“Inspired by Canada’s raw, rich land.”

Having Canoe as part of Food Day Canada means a lot to me.  It was the first high end Ontario restaurant to embrace and market Canadian cuisine as a competitive advantage. I spoke at the opening…and talked about what possibilities lay ahead. There were other restaurants before who cooked our ingredients but none that wooed the Bay Street crowd into two decades of culinary loyalty. Canoe was and still is a restaurant ahead of its time and, particularly in the early days, where one would go to claim success and a certain pride in Canada as a culinary nation that is still so rare.

The who’s who chefs who’ve been part of the team over the pat 20 years must begin with Anthony Walsh, the veteran who is still on the Oliver and Bonacini roster overseeing almost ever aspect of culinary innovation imaginable across all the restaurants.  Then there’s Todd Clarmo, who is now at Kitchener’s Charcoal Group, Tom Brodi at O&B Catering and Jason Bangerter who arrived a little later, going on to run several restaurants of note including his current position at Langdon Hall Country House Hotel.

Today John Horne and and his  crack team are constantly dreaming up menus to showcase the ingredients they so carefully research.  For the Acadian menu earlier this spring, they brought in seawater from Atlantic Canada to brine the pork.  For the First Nations menus, Horne had bentwood boxes created in which he poached the snow white Pacific halibut (at right) and served a beautiful prawn and nettle ‘chowder’ (left). For the Road to the Rockies the dessert was a upscale edition of the classic Icelandic vinaterta (below right). And so it goes.  Authenticity and flavour are going hand in hand.

Normally though Canoe is closed for weddings on Food Day Canada…after all, who wouldn’t want to be married in such a location overlooking Lake Ontario from the 54th floor of the TD Centre?  So we’ve agreed that a menu done before hand would work well, particularly since their clientele are fans of regional food and wine already

Contact Canoe at the number below to reserve a Food Day Canada table.

Contactez Canoe directement, au numéro ci-dessous, afin de faire votre Journée des terroirs réservation.

Canoe,
66 Wellington St. W,
TD Bank Tower, 54th Floor
Toronto, ON M5K 1H6
(416) 364-0054