TORONTO: SHOPPING WITH FAIRMONT CHEFS AT
ST. LAWRENCE MARKET

By Anne Dimon

“It’s one of the best things about Toronto,” says David Garcelon, executive chef at the landmark Fairmont Royal York Hotel in downtown Toronto. He is talking about The St. Lawrence Market, Toronto’s famed and Canada’s largest farmer’s market. It’s Saturday morning and as our little group walks along Front Street from the icon hotel to the venerable and historic market, we’re all in surprisingly good spirits for a morning of grocery shopping. “It’s a good opportunity to see what’s fresh,” says Garcelon, “and to see what’s new.” Wholesalers deliver the quality they want but at the market they can see and select what they buy. This is no ordinary Saturday morning shopping excursion.

Today our shopping guides are Chef Garcelon and Jean-Charles Dupoire, chef-de-cuisine for Epic, the hotel’s signature restaurant. Chef Garcelon tells us he lives close to the market and on Saturday mornings he is usually winding his way through the produce about 6:30, a scant half hour after it opens, to avoid the crowd and before everything has been picked over.

“There’s a lot of really good value, here,” he says. The chef suggests, the best plan is to not have a list but to just go pick up dinner. “You can be inspired by what’s around you,” he says, then search the Internet for a recipe. He explains that for tonight’s dinner at Epic, “we have a bit of an idea what we want and what’s in season but we’re looking for what’s looking good.”

The first stop for our little group of about a dozen foodies, all participants in the Royal York’s Shop with the Chef package, is for a Peameal Bacon on a Bun at Carousel. “If Toronto has a signature food it’s Peameal Bacon on a Bun and it’s best at Carousel Bakery,” says chef Garcelon.

Afterwards the chefs test out a tempe thinking it might be incorporated into an amuse bouche for tonight’s meal. Then, it’s off to the fish section. One of the reasons the chefs like to shop at Mike’s Fish Market (one fish stall among many) is that “they don’t serve Chilean Sea Bass.” Chef Garcelon explains that because it’s an endangered species he won’t serve it in any of the hotel restaurants. He picks up an East Coast Halibut and Chef Dupoire, who hails from Tours in France’s Loire Valley, comments that it’s the largest halibut he has ever seen. A whopping 117 pounds. Then they spot the Baramundo from Australia. Chef Dupoire says he likes to showcase a product that his patrons may not have tried before. This fresh water fish is expensive, they say, but has come down in price to about half of what it was a year ago. Next stop is Golden Orchard Fine Food. “Most of what they sell is organic,” says Garcelon. We pick up Sugar Snap Peas from Mennonite country, ploust (an apple/apricot from California), Saturn Peaches (aka Donut Peaches) and Zebra Tomatoes. At Carousel Bakery we are treated to an amuse bouche of smoke salmon on fresh bread rounds with capers and onions.

We head to Meat Ally in the North Building and stop at Rowe Farm Meats. “Ontario lamb is among the best in the world,” says Chef Garcelon. “It is as good as in France,” adds Chef Dupoire. They say Ontario pork, too, is exceptional. Meat Alley owner John Rowe passes around a sampling of ham. It’s ham “without the junk” says Rowe, who launched his business in the 1960s. His was one of the first organic farms in Ontario. “It’s lean,” he says, “only 3 percent fat and 1 per cent salt as opposed to much high salt content with some other hams. We can’t keep up with demand.” Rowe says the diet of the animals has been balanced to mimic an indigenous diet – grass in summer, hay in winter. He says, “when you feed a cow fibre, it’s a favour to the environment.”

Shopping from farmers’ markets such at the St. Lawrence Market “gives people an opportunity to interact with the farmers and growers,” says Chef Garcelon. “I just don’t talk,” he says, “I sometimes even listen and learn.” He explains that consumer usually pays about 15 to 20 percent more for organic because it costs more to grow than non-organic.

The chefs leave to go back to the hotel and the group continues to tour the market area with Toronto historian Bruce Bell. We learn that the term Hogtown – a part affectionate, part insulting name for the city – was coined back to the mid 1800s with a visiting journalist from Ottawa who had come to write a story. A hog escaped from a pen and knocked him down into the mud. “God damn hogtown,” he was heard to say, and the name stuck.

On the lower level of the South Market we stop at A Brisket, A Basket selling jams, jellies and other preserves. We learn that when Pope John Paul 11 was in Toronto for World Youth Day he loved the jam so much that his assistants ordered a case of it.

The tour finishes and we all go our own way until dinner time when Chef Dupoire, incorporating the foods purchased today, creates a six-course feast served to Shop with the Chef participants in one of Epic’s private dining rooms. Yes, the tempe, marinated in sesame seed oil, cilantro, ginger and lemon grass, has been made into a palate-pleasing amuse bouche, sugar snap peas have been turned into a sauce, the Baramundi, topped with lobster and served with carrot pure and oyster bisque is succulent. One dish is an Ontario lamb chop crusted with cashew nuts. Each course is paired with wines carefully selected to complement and enhance the flavours of each dish. An innovative adventure in eating, the meal is exceptional for a number of reasons: Chef Dupoire is an amazing chef who is passionate about his art; we are dining in the company of good friends; and today we enjoyed some interaction with the farmers and producers who have grown the ingredients for this night’s incredible dinner. The experience allows us to see the “chore” of grocery shopping in a whole new light.

Shop with Chef package includes Friday and Saturday night accommodations, a one-hour culinary tour of the market, one of Toronto’s famous Peameal Bacon Sandwiches, a one-hour guided historic tour, plus a six-course dinner in EPIC. For more info visit Fairmont Royal York or call 1-800-441-1414.

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