LCBO Food and Drink Autumn 2016

BY CYNTHIA DAVID  •  PHOTOGRAPHY BY VIRGINIA MACDONALD FIVE qUESTIONS WITH…

COULSON ARMSTRONG, CHEF DE CUISINE, CANOE, TORONTO, CANOERESTAURANT.COM

T he news ripples through the dining room in urgent whispers—there’s a celebrity in the house! As the curtain rises on the 2016 Toronto International Film Festival, chefs across the city are sharpening their knives, ready to dazzle visiting actors and direc- tors from around the world with tasting menus of seasonal, locally grown ingredients. We caught up with Chef de Cuisine Coulson Armstrong at Canoe, on the 54th floor of the Toronto-Dominion Centre.

When do you learn a star is coming to dinner? We usually hear about it at one of our two daily briefings. We make sure they have the best table but keep things low-key. I find celebrities want to stay under the radar when they’re dining out; they want to be treated like normal people and enjoy themselves. Does all that star power affect your work? When they arrive, we all have our star-struck moment. We can see the best tables—6 and 7—clearly from the kitchen. On a busy night, with 18 cooks, four sous chefs and three dishwashers on duty, everyone takes a peek, then it’s right back to work. Any strange culinary requests? Robert De Niro ordered roast chicken but only the left side— left breast and leg. Another actor ordered beef but asked

that the whole dish be blended into a smoothie. Which actress sets your heart a-flutter? Rachel McAdams arrived under a different name and a server spotted her—I’m not sure if the whole dining room clued in. She ordered the tasting menu and enjoyed it. She was gor- geous, flawless, exactly like you see her on the big screen. Who would you love to cook for and what would you serve? My favourite actor, Joseph Gordon-Levitt, does a lot of creative stuff and I think he’d really appreciate a good meal. I’d cook him an autumn tasting menu starting with a Holland Marsh onion soup with bone marrow, rye croutons and Thunder Oak Gouda. For the main, a risotto of Canadian barley with pine-infused onions, sunchokes and wild and tame mushrooms.

Chefs across the city are sharpening their knives in anticipation of the 2016 Toronto International Film Festival.

164  FOOD & DRI NK AUTUMN 2016