Sistering feast raises a lot of dough

Women who rule the roast cooked up a storm at Kitchen Sis­ters fundraiser (left to right): Anne Yary­mowich, Lora Kirk, Lynn Craw­ford, Chris­tine Bib, Colen Quinn, Donna Dooher, Mau­reen Wat­son, Joanne Yolles, and yours truly who spear­headed the event.

Wow, talk about synergy!

An ensem­ble of Toronto’s top women chefs col­lab­o­rated to pre­pare a cel­e­bra­tory feast called Kitchen Sis­ters to help home­less women on March 8, 2011, the 100th anniver­sary of Inter­na­tional Women’s Day!

And what a feast it was. Mildred’s, located in Lib­erty Vil­lage and co-owned by husband-and-wife team Donna Dooher and Kevin Gal­lagher, was the gor­geous venue where 120 guests gath­ered for hors d’oeuvres fol­lowed by din­ner that lovely evening.

Things kicked off in the lively bar at the  front of the restau­rant where tasty canapes pre­pared by Deb­o­rah Reid, chef/instructor at George Brown Col­lege, star of TV show Pitchin’ In and co-owner of stel­lar eatery Ruby Watchco Lynn Craw­ford, and Donna Dooher showed how deli­cious one bite can be. Deborah’s dainty Salt Cod Frit­ters with creamy Aioli were divine. Like­wise for Lynn’s lus­cious cubes of Pork Belly with Rose­mary Honey and Donna’s Veg­etable Bahji with Tamarind Glaze. Henry of Pelham’s Cather­ine Cuvee was the stun­ning sparkling accompaniment.

Next, it was over to the two huge, long har­vest tables beau­ti­fully decked with flow­ers where a four-course repast, each course with a match­ing wine, was served amid the hub­bub, to happy diners.

I intro­duced the evening by telling how the seed of an idea mush­roomed into this lav­ish splen­dour thanks to the enthu­si­asm of our stal­wart chefs who worked for sev­eral months with me and Joanne Abbensetts, Deb­o­rah Bar­retto and Sheryl Lind­say of Sis­ter­ing, a down­town Toronto drop-in for home­less women. Sheryl, exec­u­tive direc­tor of the grass­roots non-profit group that does such impor­tant front-line work, was emcee.

Then came the food and wine — a meal that was deliv­ered with smooth pre­ci­sion and per­fect tim­ing by vol­un­teer servers under the bril­liant super­vi­sion of Lind­sey Thom­sen, a young, dynamic event co-ordinator at the AGO who offered her invalu­able help pro bono to plan and orches­trate the dinner.

Quail Egg en Cocotte with Maitake Mush­room on Cele­riac Tar­tar came first, the work of chef Suzanne Baby of the Gallery at Hart House, U. of T. Help­ing her was Sis­ter­ing chef Trish Beard. Ele­gant, deli­cious and inspired, this was a great match for 13th Street Pre­mier Cuvee sparkling wine.

Next up: caterer Chris­tine Bib, together with Sis­ter­ing chef Mau­reen Wat­son, bar­be­cued Cedar-Planked Ontario Rain­bow Trout with Fla­geo­let Puree. Aro­matic, juicy and superb with Southbrook’s lus­cious 2008 Tri­om­phe Sauvi­gnon Blanc.

The entree, pre­pared by Anne Yary­mowich of Frank at the AGO and Lora Kirk of Ruby Watchco, was a hearty serv­ing of two big Braised Beef Short Ribs with Bone Mar­row Jus and Horse­rad­ish Beef Chut­ney atop baby root veg­gies and Sweet Potato Gnoc­chi. The wine: a full-bodied 2008 Mer­lot, Rose­wood Estates, Creek Shores VQA.

Last but not least, Joanne Yolles, for­merly of Scara­mouche and Pan­gaea and now of George Brown Col­lege, together with Colen Quinn of Pan­gaea, dished up three out-of-this-world lit­tle desserts lined up on one plate: Brown But­ter Pis­ta­chio Cake with Cit­rus Cream and Pis­ta­chio Meringue; Lennox Farm Rhubarb Tart and Meyer Lemon Sor­bet on Gra­ham Cracker Crust. Its tasty side­kick: Porto Ris­erva Quinta de Ven­tozelo NV, B & W Wines.

The beauty of this meal was its syn­ergy of taste, tex­ture, good­will and great vibes. Each chef intro­duced her course. Each vint­ner said a few words about the wine — so you can add edu­ca­tional to that list.

An ad lib, impromptu singing duo was a high­light of the evening as, just before dessert, Lynn and Donna chan­nelled Patsy Cline (or was it Loretta Lynn?)  in a sweetly har­mo­nized ditty about a Gar­land stove and other culi­nary themes I can’t recall.

The bot­tom line: Ticket sales, a kitchen reg­istry and dona­tions to Kitchen Sis­ters yielded more than $60,000 in aid of Sis­ter­ing to expand, ren­o­vate and re-furbish its kitchen. These funds are badly needed so this stal­wart group that’s been help­ing home­less women in Toronto for 30 years can con­tinue to feed hot meals to more than 200 women a day, seven days a week.