By Yashy Selvadurai Murphy @yashyanthi & online at babyandlife.com
Toronto Events Reporter
60 Female Chefs for one booby cause
On October 16th the Roy Thompson Hall was buzzing with excitement for the 17th annual Eat to the Beat, a culinary fundraiser that benefits Willow Breast Cancer Support Canada. On arrival I was greeted by the cheeky and sassy corset girls, who’ve come to be a tradition at Eat to the Beat. Every corset wearing lady is a breast cancer survivor and they were thrilled to be part of such a wonderful event where over 80% of the proceeds went back to the not-for-profit organization that offers free peer support to anyone coping with breast cancer. Some of these ladies even designed their own outfits! Talk about being craft and feisty while facing breast cancer! Truly inspiring.
Eat to the Beat had an impressive display of sweet and savory foods, wines, premium beers and spirits for sampling at food and drink stations positioned around Roy Thomson Hall’s outer lobby. Sixty female chefs had donated their energy, culinary skills and time to ensure that the guest list, comprised of men decked in suits and lovely refined ladies on their arms, were in for a culinary feast. I was absolutely stuffed by the end of the night! No lie…I sampled from every single chef! Surely I deserve a medal for that?
I was thrilled at the opportunity to be fed by a stellar line up of chefs. Some of Toronto’s finest were on hand to answer questions about food, drink, Willow Breast Cancer Support Canada or just about anything. How often does one get that opportunity? The incredible chef line-up included Donna Dooher (Mildred’s Temple Kitchen), Anne Yarymowich (Art Gallery of Ontario), Vanessa Yeung (Aphrodite Cooks), Arvinda and Preena Chauhan (Arvinda’s Healthy Gourmet Indian Cooking), Joanne Lusted (Clean Eating Magazine), Madelaine Sperry (Flaky Tart ), Lynn Jones-Adams (Inn on the Twenty), Wanda Beaver (Wanda’s Pie in the Sky), Lola Csullog-Fernandez (Pimentón Spanish and Mediterranean Fine Foods), Alida Solomon (Tutti Matti), Adrienne Weinberg (She Takes the Cake) and Top Chef Canada II finalists Trish Sheen (Crush Wine Bar) and Elizabeth Rivasplata (Art Gallery of Ontario) to name a few.
One of my pit stops was at Aravinda’s Healthy Gourmet Indian Cooking where mom and daughter, Preena and Aravinda, were quite busy serving Paneer Tikkas and humouring guests. This was their 16th year with Eat to the Beat and Preena was absolutely “thrilled to part of such an inspiring event that has a great energy”.
Other favourites from the night include chef Alexardra who would love to volunteer for events such as Eat to Beat, fulltime if she could. Her Devil’s on Horseback, a roasted, port stewed prune wrapped in bacon deserved a second and third visit. She had me at prunes…I mean bacon. Be sure to keep an eye out for the opening of the Samuel J. Moore restaurant at the Great Hall this November where she heads up as Chef de Cuisine.
Nuit Regular owner and chef at Khao San Road was a non stop machine as she pumped out some crunchy Mar Hors which coincidentally means galloping horse in Thai. Apparently I have a thing for horses. Either way this peanut and shrimp concoction served on a pineapple piece was also another highlight for me.
Between the fabulous cocktails, the Chateau des Charmes wine and Steam Whistle beer, each and every bite I enjoyed that evening was wonderfully paired. I could go on and on (and on…) about the amazing dishes I had and calories I piled on but you need to experience it for yourself! If any of you
Masalamommas are looking for a date night focusing on amazing food and fine drink concoctions while supporting a great cause, be sure to keep an eye out for the 18th annual Eat to the Beat next year!
©masalamommas and masalamommas.com, 2016-2017. Unauthorized use and/or duplication of this material without express and written permission from this site’s author and/or owner is strictly prohibited. Links may be used, provided that full and clear credit is given to masalamommas.com and Masalamommas online magazine with appropriate and specific direction to the original content.
Share this:
This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.
There are no comments
Add yours