Blog Post 2

I feel the biggest impact with guest speakers was with Ruth from Monforte cheese. She’s someone who I feel knows her business in and out, especially with numbers and expenses which is something to me I feel intimidated by. When Ruth talked to us I felt she really believed in her vision and that it was going to change Toronto. 

It made me want to use her products everyday at the restaurant. After coming back from Italy I thought Italy had great cheeses… and it does… however we also have great cheeses produced right here in Ontario from Monforte. One day when my restaurants make an actual profit I would like to include her products into my menu as well as products from grassroot organic farms and use only seasonal ingredients. During fall I would want to look more into preserves and ways to keep these amazing products we have but so we can store it safely and still use it at its prime during the winter time. To me it’s important to use these more in menus, therefore diners will realize that there is a revolution of produce that we have here, especially during certain times of the year… they are great… and yet we can preserve them, pickle them, make a jam, so we can still use them on our menus and implement them. 

Ruth mentioned that she feels a certain fear in the near future, especially for us since we will be more involved in our food community.. I feel that as being informed as we are… we have a responsibility to protect future generations and cook food in a way that ensures that the chefs of tomorrow are involved with best practices in regards to sustainability and locality when it comes to menu creation and the major importance it has.

Monforte Dairy

Ruth is the owner of Monforte dairy. She is a trained chef and has vast experiences in the kitchen as well as working with chefs now. The root behind Monforte cheese and her starting it is the genuine creation of great local cheeses using local milk. The milk they use are from 4 mennonite farmers. The taste of the milk changes depending on the season. She makes a small variety of cheeses: abundance, cow tome, fontina, hodge podge, providence, mary jane, halloumi, yogurts, etc.

            I love taking the slow food class because it really appreciates the suppliers and locality and the importance of it… As an individual who hopes to own several restaurants one day I can’t see the feasibility of some of these ideas since the margins in restaurants are slim… the practicality is that you want to get produce and proteins at a low cost so you can try to make some money. As great it is to support local farmers, their products are more expensive and sometimes customers don’t like paying a higher cost necessarily or don’t understand it. One day when my restaurants hit a certain level I’d be more interested in supporting more local farmers. But visiting Ruth and her cheese making facility it made me realize that sometimes these are easier to use at restaurants while charging a higher cost because it is local, it is by Mennonite farmers so its all natural, and delicious. Her cheese could be included into many dishes.

            A lot of popular restaurants are using Monforte cheeses more and more so I feel that consumers are starting to become more educated about how great local produce and products are. If top restaurants in Toronto are using these products they must be great.

I got to use the Halloumi and the Providence cheeses. The halloumi we cut into blocks and fried them. It was super delicious with the fruity compote. It was great fried because it had great structure.

The providence cheese I feel would have been better in grilled cheese sandwiches so you can actually taste the cheese. We used it for the cheddar  & beer soup. I may have ruined it by adding a bit more beer than was expected however I didn’t follow a recipe so it was my bad.

It was great to meet Ruth at her cheese factory. Monforte cheese are something I will now be on the look out for when I’m shopping at farmers markets.

Guest Speaker Lecture

In your assignment take a concept or idea from the guest lecturer and define how that concept or idea is relevant to your growth as a good clean and fair chef.

Mark Trealout & Mario Pingue

Hearing Mark Trealout talk about his farm and the love and passion that goes into the production and growth of his vegetables is incredible. Hearing how much time and love that goes into it makes me want to purchase his products and take part in it. If I owned a restaurant I would purchase my produce from him knowing it came from a place where the gardeners love what they do. The sheer amount of time to wake up early and be on your knees or hands and feet and thinking about the nutrient level in the soil is not something I myself would see myself doing. It seems like a lot of tedious work and back pains. Hearing Mark talk made me be more consciencious about food waste and keeping it to a minimum. Whether it is taking an apple or even a red pepper and using as much of it as possible. Ideally, someone out there planted it and took the time to grow it and tend to it. That vegetable deserves the same amount of attention required as it does to prepare a piece of meat. There is a lot of time and dedication that goes into it. Even though his products are a bit more expensive than you would find at a Metro, it is worth it. IT is worth paying the extra price to get something that is made local, to be able to get something that actually tastes good and is in season, to be able to meet the person that actually grew it themselves!

Mario Pingue I was very interested in hearing talk. I myself make my own sausages and cured meats during the winter months and I like to see what other products are on the market that are considered  some of the best and seeing how I can improve my meats to get to that level. I knew of Niagara specialty foods because the previous restaurant I used to work at, Gusto 101 they order a lot of their cured meats from them  and I knew their dried salamis were really quite something. I always considered Niagara specialty foods expensive but it wasn't until Mario started talking about the costs and expenses that I really understood and saw a different side of their business. Even though their meats are expensive, the pigs are raised in a humane environment, they care about how the pig is treated throughout  the whole process. He used the comparison of how much a package of hot dog is and what percentage of meat is actually in the hot dog and how even though there is a small percentage of meat, it's the bad parts of the animal that no one wants or can sell so they grind it small and place it in with a lot of fillers. His products are all naturally raised and used the traditional Italian way of curing meat. Since they have the proper procedures and methods of doing it well, restaurants can serve these products proudly knowing it is all done naturally.