Taste Ontario at Longo's

Is this not a picture of culinary concentration? Here, chef Matt Kantor of Little Kitchen carefully disposes his handmade caramel over the tops of several dozen chilled Cremes Catalan, a crème brulé dessert with a Catalonian twist. It's a delicate task involving molten sugar; see how the steam billows upward from the pan, and watch his careful maneuvering as reflected in the mirror above!

The occasion of all this kitchen intensity was an event titled Taste Ontario, Taste the World, organized by Alexa Clark of Cheap Eats Toronto, a one-woman empire who's also involved in Second Harvest, HoHoTO, BookCampTO and (with Kantor) the Secret Pickle Supper Club. The special meal, prepared for about two dozen people, was lovingly designed to illustrate the wealth of local Ontario food (and wine), even at this off season for fresh produce, and also to show off the wide range of ingredients in regular stock at the big, bright and shiny Longo's at 15 York Street.

I hadn't really checked it out yet, so it was fun to get a look inside. I made a mental note to pop back in, if not for my regular groceries, certainly to spend a little time at their wine bar Corks, which frankly has my dream wine, beer and cheese list, with a huge selection of Ontario VQA wine by the glass, a $10 craft beer-and-pizza special, and even an oyster night! All this in a cozy corner with TVs tuned to whatever big game happens to be in progress at the time.

The meal started off with a Swedish-inspired salt, lemon zest and sugar-cured Ontario trout on a bed of pickled beets and Honeycrisp apples (pictured above). This was brilliantly paired with a musky, pearlike blended white wine, Tolgate White 2007 from Stratus. Alexa informs me that Honeycrisps get sweeter the bigger they are; the opposite is true for most apples, so it's a good shopping tip.

The fish was followed by my favourite dish of the night, cubes of Ontario squash lightly cooked in a Thai-style red curry sauce featuring ginger, lemongrass, lime and coconut milk. The curry was paired with a sweet local beer, Duggan's #9 IPA, which made a great partner for the richness and spice of the Thai ingredients.

Moroccan cuisine was the starting point for the evening's third dish, an Ontario chicken tagine served over couscous with dates and almonds, absolutely delicious in its caramelized skin, redolent of cinnamon and saffron. It was served with Tawse Grower's Blend Pinot Noir 2008, which was also the accompaniment for the meat course, a Persian-inspired Ontario spice-rubbed lamb dish with sweet potatoes and raisins (pictured above).

A selection of Ontario cheeses, and the pièce de résistance, the Spanish-influenced dessert, were both accompanied by the gently sweet Cave Spring Indian Summer Late Harvest Riesling 2009: the topper to a feast fit for a king. An impressive roster of dishes to come from just one grocery store, indeed, and a fine celebration of Ontario's late fall bounty.