Chef Michael Stadtlander with his wife Nobuyo and their son Hermann in the kitchen at Haisai
Serendipity sometimes happens.
It was on a Saturday evening in November when we drove on dark country roads from the Blue Mountains in Collingwood to the little village of Singhampton about two hours north of Toronto. The small restaurant Haisai was our destination. Read more…
Country Greek from “The Last Schmaltz” is a Salad Comprised of
the Usual Ingredients Plus the Welcome Addition of Chickpeas
What is a nice Jewish boy from North York doing with a mini-empire of quirky restaurants in a gritty neighbourhood of downtown Toronto? Doing pretty well is the short answer. Read more…
I can’t go for too long without a visit to my favourite place: Manhattan.
There’s something about the buzz, hubbub and hum that permeates it both night and day – not to mention the food aromas emanating from food carts and eateries at every corner – that make that place feel like home.
No doubt the feeling is made even stronger by the fact that much of its population seems decidedly Jewish – and, of course, many of its lively citizens are, as am I. Read more…
I have long dreamed of eating at famed Berkeley restaurant Chez Panisse.
At an Association of Food Journalists gathering in the Napa Valley more than a decade ago, I tried, without success, to find a way to make that pilgrimage.
A couple of years later, I interviewed its earth-mother, food guru founder Alice Waters by phone while she was on a train en route to Yale university where her daughter Fanny was a student and where Alice was trying “to change the food in the college dining halls and to change the way people there think of food.” Read more…
