Earlier this week I was invited to cover the launch of Taste of Burlington 2014. It was a busy event featuring 25 local restaurants: each served up a food sample aimed at enticing diners to try the promotional prix fixe menus that kick in from Feb 16th through to March 6th.
Given the number of food bloggers (or culinary writers as they were identified) in attendance, I knew there would be plenty of coverage of the dishes served, so I took a different tack. I posed four simple questions to the owners, chefs and front of house staff representing the various eateries to gauge what was happening in this part of our region. More on those later.
The dishes at the event were also judged by the 300 or so guests, and a panel of celebrity judges. You can see a full description of the results here: In summary, the judges voted the praline-rolled sweet potato donuts filled with Ontario maple cream – served up by the QUEEN’S HEAD PUB – as their top choice.
WEST PLAINS BISTRO shared the “People’s Choice” award for a complex and delicious roasted cauliflower soup. Co-winner, STONE HOUSE RESTAURANT, served up beer-braised short ribs with subtly-truffled turnip puree. Given what I’ve learned recently about fakery in the truffle business, I was happy to hear from Chef Mitchell Lamb that he is very careful to source pure truffle oil from his supplier of fresh truffles.
I’m grateful to my friend Heather Lang (check out her food and garden blog) for the use of some of her
