Event: Taste of Toronto
Address: 250 Fort York Boulevard, Toronto, ON M5V 3K9
When: June 23 – 26
Late post I know.. I’m trying to catch up to blogging now after a brief hiatus, forgive me! 🙁
Back in June I was invited to the Flavor Studio by La Maison Maille Mustard, which was being hosted at Taste of Toronto 2016! As I have been to Taste of Toronto last year (recap here), I knew how the event worked, thus I decided to visit the event earlier during the day to avoid the crowds. Also, I had to catch a flight later that day so I wasn’t able to try all the dishes from the featured restaurants during Taste of Toronto :(.
Just a quick recap of how Taste of Toronto worked:
- There is an entrance fee to enter the food festival.
- To purchase food/drinks, you will have to pay in “Crowns” where $1 = 1 Crown. You can reload the card at kiosk inside the festival.
- Each day have different events/cooking sessions. Check the Taste of Toronto website to see which event you want to attend.
This year, La Maison Maille will host a Flavor Studio in three cities across Canada, giving visitors a one-of-a-kind culinary experience led by headmaster mustard sommelier, Harry Lalousis. An expert on cooking with mustard, Lalousis will be teaching Canadian home chefs how to ditch the cookbooks and cook from the heart – with the help of the yellow stuff! The main highlight of the studio was an opportunity to custom your own mustard for $2. Keep scrolling down to see more pics from the event!
The sushi from Miku was probably the best deal in the festival as at its own restaurant, the pressed sushi is quite expensive.
Obviously I had to get the oysters from Richmond Station… and find an excuse to take picture with chef Carl Heinrich as well :p.
I’ve been to Richmond Station a few times but this was actually my first time having their famous Station Burger! The patty consisted of 2 parts – braised beef in the middle and then wrapped with ground beef – and it was cooked a perfect medium rare! I thought the burger was sliced too early though as you can see the meat was bleeding. The milk bun added lots of flavor and did not get soggy at all. The beet chutney really balanced out the burger, super yummy :).
Originating from France, did you know Maille has been around for over 300 years? At Taste of Toronto, patrons were treated to a self-serve tasting bar of mustard and pickles that can be found at your local grocery stores. There was even a cocktail specially made for the event – you might think it’s strange to add mustard to a cocktail mix but.. it actually worked! The drink was quite fruity with a slight hint of spice from the mustard to balance out the sweetness in the drink.
The highlight of Maille was definitely the DIY mustard blend station where you could customize your own mustard with various fresh ingredients. I created a blend of maple syrup, rosemary, basil and hot sauce for an extra kick! Thinking back, I should have put some raspberries to create a pink mustard blend ;).
Previous Taste of Toronto Recap:
Disclaimer: Partial of the food was provided by Taste of Toronto 2016. I am not obliged to publish a review on the business. All opinions/thoughts are my own. For more information about my review policy, please click here.