Quarantine Fine Dining

This year, warm weather arrived in Toronto one day after spring officially began. Coincidentally we came across a happy food article, Spring Awakening, in the Financial Times written by a star chef in London, Ravinder Bhogal chef/le patron of JIkoni in Marylebone which some say is London’s best romantic seasonal eatery.

In a lighthearted way, Bhogal introduces the joyfulness of the arrival of spring for a chef. She then gives us three recipes made from this year’s brand new produce.

She perfectly captures the wonder and excitement of the launch of the delicious fresh food annual cycle.

Her recipes are a fresh crab salad, a miso poached chicken and a rhubarb dessert.

We asked our own star Chef to make comments and he predictably changed the recipes and talked about how to deal with ingredients that may not be available here.

The following is his report:

“The Crab Salad I like but maybe change the white vinegar to a nicer vinegar. I guess the white will be stronger, but I think rice vinegar would be better. Also use better crab, like snow crab or Dungeness crab. You are using Jersey Royals the king of potatoes, why not use better crab.

The poached chicken and soba dish is nice. I would love to taste the sprouting broccoli but do not see that here. I think there is so much happening that it might ruin the dish. Sesame and peanut? maybe one or the other. There are at least 3 different Asian influences in the dish, Chinese, Vietnamese and Japanese which I don't like. I would also leave the bean sprouts on the side with some herbs like mint or basil maybe with a small piece of lime. Keep them fresh and crispy

I like the first two savoury dishes but not a fan of the dessert. It seems a bit boring and I would not recommend the Sichuan peppercorn in the pavlova or the cornflour: usually, it is corn starch.”

From our Sommelier, Christopher Fulsome comes three wines for the dishes which are available in Toronto at the LCBO.

Fresh Crab salad

Riesling, especially with sweetness

Studert-Prüm Wehlener Sonnenuhr Riesling Spätlese 2017

Poached Chicken

Gewürztraminer (the previous Riesling would work too)

Cave Spring Estate Gewürztraminer 2017

Rhubarb Pavlova

Any sweet Muscat or Sauternes

Carmes de Rieussec Sauternes 2015

We now have time to cook at home. A letter writer in the New York Times recently suggested we get out our old cookbooks we have been buying in previous travels but never read. Try some new recipes and enjoy travelling the world through cookbooks.

Image via The Financial Times