Comments Off on Here’s the Chef’s Challenge 2014 lineup
Chefs Challenge 2014 is exactly one month away on February 8, 2014 at the Toronto Congress Centre! Back in October we announced the exciting news that Giada de Laurentiis was going to headline and now we have the rest of the celebrities involved this year. The last event was an epic and exciting culinary battle and this year will be even better!
The top 50 fundraisers who raise a minimum of $2,500 will get to participate in this epic chef showdown for charity. So get out there and start donating to be part of the action! Visit www.chefschallengeforacure.com for more details. Hope to see you there!
Check out the video from the last Chefs Challenge in support of Mount Sinai Hospital Auxiliary.
Proceeds from Chefs Challenge support life-saving work in care and research in women’s cancers at Mount Sinai Hospital.
ABOUT MOUNT SINAI HOSPITAL
Mount Sinai Hospital is an internationally-recognized 442-bed acute care academic health sciences centre affiliated with the University of Toronto that is dedicated to delivering the best medicine and patient experience. It is focused on excellence in patient and family-centered care, innovative education and leading-edge research. Clinical strengths include women’s and infants’ health, chronic disease management, specialized cancer, emergency medicine, and geriatrics. Mount Sinai’s Lunenfeld-Tanenbaum Research Institute ranks in the top ten biomedical research institutes in the world. www.mountsinai.on.ca
Madonna is scheduled to appear for the official grand opening of her Hard Candy fitness club on February 11, 2014.
Not only is she going to make an appearance but she will also be leading her signature Addicted to Sweat cardio-based dance class with the Hard Candy Fitness Performance Team. In addition to being joined by a selected group of Toronto members, auditions will be held to send Hard Candy Fitness members from around the world to fly to Toronto. For Toronto members the auditions will take place on January 30th and February 1st with final cut auditions on February 10th.
“We are very excited to share news of Madonna’s visit to our club and proud to host Hard Candy Fitness members from around the world at the grand opening,” said Leonard Schlemm, co-owner of Hard Candy Fitness Toronto.
I worked out at Hard Candy when it opened back in October and it is indeed a luxury fitness facility with the latest equipment with rows and rows of state of the art cardio and strength training equipment. There are also over 60 group fitness classes to choose from including Madonna’s Addicted to Sweat cardio-based dance class.
Being the only Hard Candy Fitness club in Canada and the United States so far, it is located in the Aura building (Canada’s tallest condo tower) at College Park (382 Yonge St) on the 4th floor above Marshall’s.
Madonna’s motto is “No sweat, no candy!” You should definitely check it out!
A few quick facts about Hard Candy Fitness Toronto:
Largest cycling studio in Toronto with stadium seating, surround sound system and one of a kind Spinner Blade Cycles.
Fully customized Juice Bar and lounge area featuring everything from smoothies to espresso drinks.
19 foot floor-to-ceiling windows surround the entire club, complimented by an all-around rooftop terrace.
ABOUT HARD CANDY FITNESS
Hard Candy Fitness is a global luxury fitness brand with a distinctive footprint. Clubs are focused on innovative group fitness programming and personalized fitness training. The brand was created in 2010 by Madonna, the world’s leading female pop-icon and well-known fitness enthusiast, and New Evolution Ventures, the world’s leading expert in fitness club development and operations. Hard Candy Fitness currently has club locations in Moscow, St. Petersburg, Santiago, Sydney, Mexico City, Rome, and Berlin. For more information, please visit www.hardcandyfitness.com.
Hard Candy Fitness in Toronto is a large 42,000 square feet with rows and rows of the latest equipment
Check out the quick tour by Alex Simpson of Channel 12 News
Comments Off on Just really good Italian fare at Destingo
Located in trendy Queen West just a block west of Bathurst (right next to the Raq n’ Waq pool hall), Destingo Kitchen + Bar is a comfortable, cozy and casual Italian restaurant. The word “Destingo” is a playful abbreviation for “destined to go“. In the winter season, it’s a very intimate space and in warmer weather it’s sure to be a trendy hot spot having a large terrace equipped with patio umbrellas and outdoor heaters as needed. Large doors on either side of the entrance swing wide open, bringing the outdoors right inside. Relatively new, it opened in the fall of 2013, taking over the furniture store, Pavilion.
After visiting for a grand opening event and then also for a brunch, my third experience at Destingo was for dinner and it was quite a memorable one at that complete with attentive service and a great selection of wine by the glass (more about that later). Owner Monika Vacca is the former co-owner of Vaticano restaurant in Yorkville with former husband/executive chef Felice Vacca.
I heard a few good things about the prosciutto di buffala (proscuitto and buffalo mozzarella) but I didn’t get a chance to try it myself due to being busy with other amazing antipasti such as the grilled calamari and sautéed wild shrimp. You can’t go wrong with a lot of the dishes given the care and attention to detail into each and every serving. At the reasonable price points, the quality and value you get might just exceed your expectations. You can also choose to order the pasta dishes as gluten free, if you so desire.
All desserts are made in-house including their signature tiramisu and boy, that’s how you end a meal: great dessert and aromatic drip coffee.
While the food and service take centre stage, another interesting attraction is the enomatic wine system behind the bar. This is where bottles of wine are kept freshly sealed in a wine dispensing system so that you can try premium wines by the glass without having to pay for the whole bottle.
So, in staying true to authentic Italian fare while not being afraid to modernize with an enomatic wine system, you can really taste and appreciate all the effort that goes into the entire experience even down to the house-made desserts conveniently near all the action in Queen West. I’m looking forward to revisiting in the summer for patio season! Check out our photos below.
For breakfast options, they’re open 7 days a week starting at 7am including smoothies and other healthy options and free drip coffee or tea with every breakfast entree.
For brunch service, they’re conveniently open on Saturday and Sunday from 9am to 3pm. Check out this starter I had:
By the way, if you’re interested in enomatic wine systems, I’m told by a representative at Bevtech that the largest commercial enomatic wine system in the GTA is at the Touro Brazilian steakhouse. And even bigger ones are in Montreal. The only home version dubbed “Enoliving” that I saw featured at the Delicious Food Show is not available in Canada yet but hopefully soon!
Tiramisu made in-house
Crème Brulee made in house
“Seafood Alla Destingo”
with grilled jumbo tiger shrimp,squid,wild salmon and scallops in a lemon white wine sauce
Grilled 8 oz. filet mignon in a portobello mushroom truffle cream sauce
The “Verde” salad with arugula, ontario granny smith apples, toasted walnuts, parmesan, champagne-pear vinaigrette
P.E.I. mussels with home made white wine broth
Grilled calamari with caramelized onions, kalamata olives, capers, local grape tomatoes, roasted garlic
Bruschetta consisting of
baguette, vine tomatoes, fresh basil, garlic, evoo
Table bread with butter
The bar with the enomatic wine system
Half of the restaurant
Destingo is located at
741 Queen St. West
Toronto, Ontario
M6J 1G1
(647) 748-3113
Comments Off on A few holiday themed fashion shows
To celebrate the holiday season, here’s a look at some Christmas and holiday-themed fashion shows including a look back at the family-friendly retailer, Target, on the runway at Toronto’s World MasterCard Fashion Week Spring/Summer 2014 at David Pecaut Square.
Here’s a Christmas segment in Victoria’s Secret Fashion Show in 2007 including Selita Ebanks and a performance by Seal.
Also check out this classic Victoria’s Secret fashion show from 2005 with Adriana Lima, Alessandra Ambrosio, Miranda Kerr, Doutzen Kroes, Behati Prinsloo, Candice Swanepoel, Chanel Iman, Erin Heatherton, Lily Aldridge, and Lindsay Ellingson. (40 mins long)
A compilation of Christmas themed fashion on the runway by Fashion Channel.
And just because, here’s highlights from the recent Victoria’s Secret 2013 featuring the $10 million dollar bra and performances by Fall Out Boy and Taylor Swift
Comments Off on A look at the boutique Hotel St. Germain at Maple Leaf Square
Founded in Quebec, there are two Hotel Le Germain locations by the Groupe Germain in downtown Toronto and they boast being the pioneer of the boutique hotel concept in Canada. Nestled in between the Air Canada Centre, Real Sports Bar and the restaurants, Aria and E11even, you might not have noticed the elegant boutique Hotel St. Germain at Maple Leaf Square. But if you’ve ever been to a Leafs game or any big ticket concert at the Air Canada Centre, you would know it’s a bit of an ordeal trying to get out as everyone goes home or goes to fill up the nearest bars. Hotel St Germain’s PLAY Lounge is another convenient, easily accessible option with plenty of TVs set to a warmly intimate and modern atmosphere serving up local draught beer, wine by the glass or bottle and specialty cocktails like maple bacon caesars.
Available for lunch and dinner with creations by Chef Ken Zess, the menu features Canadian ingredients with interesting choices such as quail, bison burgers, or even a “Chef’s Creation” with whatever is fresh that day.
Some of the suites and meeting rooms have a great view of Maple Leaf Square and even large terraces to enjoy the lively vibe right in front of the Air Canada Centre. Cheeky, sports-themed names for the boardrooms included the Offensive Zone, Defensive Zone and the Penalty Box. In the suites it was interesting to see the glass showers with views from the bedroom for exhibitionists and photographs hanging above the bed featuring Leafs or Raptors players. Even the hallways have nice touches such as fresh apples and hot tea free for the taking. It’s all about the details.
Address
75 Bremner Blvd
Toronto, Ontario
M5J 0A1
St Germain hotel packages: Romantic Getaway starting at $354 Getaway starting at $315 Shoot and Score starting at $534 Game on! starting at $431
The Mercer Street location also boasts interesting features include a putting green on the roof and a chef that was a contestant on The Food Network’s Top Chef Canada (David Chrystian).
SEE ALSO
The New Executive Suite at One King West: The Fifteen Hundred
