Top Chef Canada recap, episode 6: horsing around
TOP CHEF CANADA
Season 1 | Episode 6
Last night’s episode of Top Chef Canada might have featured superstar New York chef Daniel Boulud, but the viewing audience likely tuned in for another reason altogether: horsemeat-gate (last week’s preview for episode 6 revealed that horsemeat would make an appearance, setting off a pre-emptive e-backlash and prompting Metro Morning to call our own Chris Nuttall-Smith for his opinion). Aside from the horsemeat sideshow, the episode featured some entertaining character development—Dale MacKay as a sore loser, Rob Rossi as a baby-faced trash talker—a classic Top Chef misstep and, for the first time, not a single chef in their underwear. Our recap of it all, after the jump.
Horse Sense
The good people at Food Network Canada met the horsemeat challenge head-on, with a pre-show disclaimer explaining that while some viewers may be offended, the episode was all about respecting traditional French food. They repeated the following notice at the end of each commercial break:
Some ingredients featured in this episode may not appeal to all viewers.
All protein used is federally and HACCP approved. The skate is cuckoo ray, a sustainable fish.
Translation: get over it already. To state the obvious, we’re sure that every episode features ingredients that someone would find unappealing, and we’d be surprised if any protein did not come by way of Canada’s Hazard Analysis Critical Control Point regime. The line about the skate is nice, though.
Quickfire
This being the first Canadian season of Top Chef, it was only a matter of time before a poutine challenge cropped up. For last night’s quickfire, the chefs had to create a unique take on the Quebec classic in 45 minutes. The contestants were judged by Chuck Hughes of Food Network Canada’s Chuck’s Day Off, a studly, tattooed chef whom Andrea Nicholson (Great Cooks on Eight) described as “so friggin’ cute” (incidentally, the exact same phrase she used to describe her sous-chef last episode). Unfortunately, her admiration failed to help in the challenge, and her soggy fries landed Nicholson on the bottom of the heap along with fellow Torontonian Chris Kanka—who deconstructed the dish, with the sweet potato fries stacked to one side of the pot of gravy and curds—and MacKay, whose foie gras–laced concoction was a mushy mess.
The title of “poutine king” (yes, host Thea Andrews actually said this) went, naturally, to the competition’s lone remaining Quebecker, François Gagnon, who made what looked like a latke smothered in blue cheese, prosciutto and pork. His reaction, expressed in delightfully accented English: “My momma would be proud.”
Elimination
For this week’s elimination challenge, the chefs teamed up to prepare a 10-course tasting menu for Boulud, who at the time of taping was MacKay’s boss at DB Bistro Moderne and Lumière in Vancouver (both have since shuttered, and MacKay recently launched Ensemble). Each chef was responsible for a single course showcasing one classic French protein. For his quickfire win, Gagnon won not only immunity, but also the privilege of sorting out the order of the dishes and permission to swap proteins with one chef (he exchanged his hazelnuts for Perrin’s frogs’ legs, much to the latter’s delight—and eventual downfall).
During the cooking, Darryl Crumb pulled the classic reality TV not-here-to-make-friends gambit when he offered Asian-cuisine specialist Kanka step-by-step advice on how to devein and prepare his foie gras torchon—without letting on that, as he put it, “you can’t make a torchon in one day… it’s impossible.” MacKay, meanwhile, eager to impress his boss but irritated that he was assigned the relatively limiting oyster as his protein, started to freak out, criticizing Kanka’s diced cucumbers, questioning everyone about the whereabouts of his coriander seeds and yelling, “Why won’t that fucking clicking stop?” (The source of the clicking remains unknown.)
At the tasting, the regular judges and Boulud were joined by French Food at Home’s Laura Calder, for a Food Network Canada cross-promotion double-whammy. Most of the contestants performed well, with Gagnon (frogs’ legs, salsify purée and parsley jus), Connie DeSousa (lobster bisque, scallop dumpling, brandy chantilly cream) and Grace’s Dustin Gallagher (rack of lamb with baby vegetables and parsnip purée) landing near the top. In the end, though, the judges found that Rossi’s classic dish (sweetbreads with chanterelles, bacon and garlic purée) embodied the spirit of French cooking, garnering him the win.
Nicholson, Crumb, Perrin and Kanka landed at the bottom, each for very different reasons. The judges thought Nicholson’s horse tartare, far from being the anticipated scene-stealer, was bland and unimaginative. Crumb’s skate grenobloise was fatally acidic, with too much lemon. Perrin made the classic Top Chef mistake of using store-bought puff pastry in his tarte tatin (which was also, bizarrely, right-side-up), earning him a death stare from judge Shereen Arazm, before Boulud delivered a helpful (and kind of adorable) lecture to the Newfoundlander: “It’s very important to practise the basics; take an hour or two a week and make puff pastry just for the sake of making it.” But it was Kanka who struck out worst, with his rushed, under-seasoned and largely improvised foie gras torchon, which he continued to defend as the judges lambasted it. It was pretty clear he was going home, even if the odds were stacked against him, making him the second Toronto chef to fall on the series.
Next Week on Top Chef Canada
Michael Smith, the kindergarten teacher–voiced host of Chef at Home, drops by, and the chefs are asked to cook a dish that will appear on the menu at restaurant mega-chain Milestones. Sounds like a classy affair.
Our weekly Top Chef Canada leader board:
![](http://www.facebook.com/sharer.php?u=https://torontolife.com/culture/top-chef-canada-recap-episode-6-horsing-around/&title=Top Chef Canada recap, episode 6: horsing around&picture=https://torontolife.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/05/boulud-mccewan-mackay-calder-624x263.jpg&description=[caption id="attachment_68920" align="aligncenter" width="655" caption="Dale MacKay before head judge Mark McEwan and his boss Daniel Boulud; French Food at Home’s Laura Calder (Image: Food Network Canada/Insight Products) "][/caption]
TOP CHEF CANADA
Season 1 | Episode 6
Last night’s episode of Top Chef Canada might have featured superstar New York chef Daniel Boulud, but the viewing audience likely tuned in for another reason altogether: horsemeat-gate (last week’s preview for episode 6 revealed that horsemeat would make an appearance, setting off a pre-emptive e-backlash and prompting Metro Morning to call our own Chris Nuttall-Smith for his opinion). Aside from the horsemeat sideshow, the episode featured some entertaining character development—Dale MacKay as a sore loser, Rob Rossi as a baby-faced trash talker—a classic Top Chef misstep and, for the first time, not a single chef in their underwear. Our recap of it all, after the jump.
Horse Sense
The good people at Food Network Canada met the horsemeat challenge head-on, with a pre-show disclaimer explaining that while some viewers may be offended, the episode was all about respecting traditional French food. They repeated the following notice at the end of each commercial break:
Some ingredients featured in this episode may not appeal to all viewers.
All protein used is federally and HACCP approved. The skate is cuckoo ray, a sustainable fish.
Translation: get over it already. To state the obvious, we’re sure that every episode features ingredients that someone would find unappealing, and we’d be surprised if any protein did not come by way of Canada’s Hazard Analysis Critical Control Point regime. The line about the skate is nice, though.
Quickfire
[caption id="attachment_68922" align="alignleft" width="208" caption="Montreal chef François Gagnon (Image: Food Network Canada/Insight Productions)"][/caption]
This being the first Canadian season of Top Chef, it was only a matter of time before a poutine challenge cropped up. For last night's quickfire, the chefs had to create a unique take on the Quebec classic in 45 minutes. The contestants were judged by Chuck Hughes of Food Network Canada’s Chuck's Day Off, a studly, tattooed chef whom Andrea Nicholson (Great Cooks on Eight) described as “so friggin’ cute” (incidentally, the exact same phrase she used to describe her sous-chef last episode). Unfortunately, her admiration failed to help in the challenge, and her soggy fries landed Nicholson on the bottom of the heap along with fellow Torontonian Chris Kanka—who deconstructed the dish, with the sweet potato fries stacked to one side of the pot of gravy and curds—and MacKay, whose foie gras–laced concoction was a mushy mess.
The title of “poutine king” (yes, host Thea Andrews actually said this) went, naturally, to the competition’s lone remaining Quebecker, François Gagnon, who made what looked like a latke smothered in blue cheese, prosciutto and pork. His reaction, expressed in delightfully accented English: “My momma would be proud.”
Elimination
For this week’s elimination challenge, the chefs teamed up to prepare a 10-course tasting menu for Boulud, who at the time of taping was MacKay’s boss at DB Bistro Moderne and Lumière in Vancouver (both have since shuttered, and MacKay recently launched Ensemble). Each chef was responsible for a single course showcasing one classic French protein. For his quickfire win, Gagnon won not only immunity, but also the privilege of sorting out the order of the dishes and permission to swap proteins with one chef (he exchanged his hazelnuts for Perrin’s frogs' legs, much to the latter’s delight—and eventual downfall).
During the cooking, Darryl Crumb pulled the classic reality TV not-here-to-make-friends gambit when he offered Asian-cuisine specialist Kanka step-by-step advice on how to devein and prepare his foie gras torchon—without letting on that, as he put it, “you can’t make a torchon in one day... it’s impossible.” MacKay, meanwhile, eager to impress his boss but irritated that he was assigned the relatively limiting oyster as his protein, started to freak out, criticizing Kanka’s diced cucumbers, questioning everyone about the whereabouts of his coriander seeds and yelling, “Why won’t that fucking clicking stop?” (The source of the clicking remains unknown.)
[caption id="attachment_68918" align="alignright" width="208" caption="Rob Rossi’s winning sweetbreads (Image: Food Network Canada/Insight Productions)"][/caption]
At the tasting, the regular judges and Boulud were joined by French Food at Home’s Laura Calder, for a Food Network Canada cross-promotion double-whammy. Most of the contestants performed well, with Gagnon (frogs' legs, salsify purée and parsley jus), Connie DeSousa (lobster bisque, scallop dumpling, brandy chantilly cream) and Grace’s Dustin Gallagher (rack of lamb with baby vegetables and parsnip purée) landing near the top. In the end, though, the judges found that Rossi’s classic dish (sweetbreads with chanterelles, bacon and garlic purée) embodied the spirit of French cooking, garnering him the win.
Nicholson, Crumb, Perrin and Kanka landed at the bottom, each for very different reasons. The judges thought Nicholson’s horse tartare, far from being the anticipated scene-stealer, was bland and unimaginative. Crumb’s skate grenobloise was fatally acidic, with too much lemon. Perrin made the classic Top Chef mistake of using store-bought puff pastry in his tarte tatin (which was also, bizarrely, right-side-up), earning him a death stare from judge Shereen Arazm, before Boulud delivered a helpful (and kind of adorable) lecture to the Newfoundlander: “It’s very important to practise the basics; take an hour or two a week and make puff pastry just for the sake of making it.” But it was Kanka who struck out worst, with his rushed, under-seasoned and largely improvised foie gras torchon, which he continued to defend as the judges lambasted it. It was pretty clear he was going home, even if the odds were stacked against him, making him the second Toronto chef to fall on the series.
Next Week on Top Chef Canada
Michael Smith, the kindergarten teacher–voiced host of Chef at Home, drops by, and the chefs are asked to cook a dish that will appear on the menu at restaurant mega-chain Milestones. Sounds like a classy affair.
Our weekly Top Chef Canada leader board:
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That’s it, I can’t watch this anymore. Poutine I could almost handle (Canada’s culinary gift to the world my ASS!) but having Michael Smith judge anything other than a pie eating contest, coupled with the inclusion of the culinary anti-christ that is Milestones is just too much. I only hope one of the contestants brings up his embarrassment on Iron Chef. Enjoy your spinach dip and curly fries… You can do it toooooooooooo!
What’s funny is, I attended a culinary conference in Halifax and Michael Smith was the keynote speaker. His entire talk was about why chefs were “rock stars” and he shared stories about his wild and crazy days. He was being a bad ass. Nothing like his, as the article says –annoying “kindergarten” presentation mannerisms. But I agree, cooking a dish that could be on the MileStones menu is only going to test how these chefs can cook relatively mainstream food for the masses that can be mass produced in a chain. It’s not about avant guarde or pushing the envelope or creating a signature experience. Tough challenge.
saying “Horsing around” and including “Horse Sense” is an insult. Did not watch the episode. Not watching ever again either. This is Canada. Watch a horse slaughter video. see just how humane that is.
Asking a real chef to cook a dish for Milestones? Might as well as them to make food out of poo.
@Anna Latimer Have you ever seen the conditions of chickens, not that great either, maybe you should take that into consideration when you’re scarfing down wings at your local Kelsey’s.
The author of this article is ignorant, offensive, and ill-informed. Do you not understand where horse meat comes from in this country? I wonder if he has a dog, or a cat. Perhaps he would like me to come over to his house, and he can show me some examples of how to cook some tasty dog meat or cat meat dishes, using his pets. Of course first, we’d have to shoot them a few times, with bad aim, and then probably beat them over the head with a club to finish them off, to make it equivalent to the inhumane slaughter procedures practiced at horse slaughterhouses. I’m sure he would be fine with that, since he’s fine with the Top Chefs cooking horses (i.e., other people’s ex-pets) on t.v.
lmfao! Love this article! “Horsemeat-gate” was my fave part!
I’m so sick of phony people talking this, that, and the other thing. If you’re for animal welfare, then get some balls and stand for it, don’t be a hypocrite.
And guess what? I’ll be boycotting your sponsors as well as those of Top Chef and the Food Network due to the snarky nonsensical comments posted in this article. The problem isn’t that it’s someone’s pet. It’s the fact that the majority of horses being slaughtered in Canada were not raised for the meat industry, they were raised for the show ring, the race track, and the back yard. These horses were medicated thusly. These medications, when consumed via horse meat are carcinogenic. SO the next time you morons want to open your mouth about something and blow off others, how about you do some goddamn research first? KTHNXBAI
umm…What does this article have to do with top chef or their sponsors? ALso…wheres the proof that anyone has died or gotten sick from eating contaminated horse meat? until you can provide ANYONE with that missing piece of info.. your whole drug contaminated bullshit is pointless.
Sean, please read the following:
Phenylbutazone became available for use in humans for the treatment of rheumatoid arthritis and gout in (1949), but is no longer approved, and thus not marketed, for any human use in the United States. This is because some patients treated with phenylbutazone have experienced severe toxic reactions, and other effective, less toxic drugs are available to treat the same conditions. Phenylbutazone is known for its ulcerogenic, nephrotoxic, and hemotoxic effects in horses, dogs, rats, and humans. It is known to induce blood dyscrasias, including aplastic anemia, leukopenia, agranulocytosis, thrombocytopenia, and deaths. The reported adverse reactions were associated with the human clinical use of 200 to 800 milligrams phenylbutazone per day. Hypersensitivity reactions of the serum-sickness type have also been reported in patients with phenylbutazone. The threshold for this effect has not been defined. Therefore, it is unclear what level of exposure would be required to trigger such reactions in sensitive people. Moreover, phenylbutazone is a carcinogen, as determined by the National Toxicology Program (NTP) based on positive results in genotoxicity tests and some evidence of carcinogenicity seen in the rat and mouse in carcinogenicity bioassays NTP conducted.
For animals, phenylbutazone is currently approved only for oral and injectable use in dogs and horses. Use in horses is limited to use in horses not intended for food. There are currently no approved uses of phenylbutazone in food-producing animals. Investigation by FDA and state regulatory counterparts has recently found phenylbutazone on farms and identified tissue residues in culled dairy cattle. In addition, the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s (USDA’s) Food Safety Inspection Service has reported phenylbutazone residues in culled cattle presented for slaughter for human food throughout the United States in the past 2 calendar years. This evidence indicates that the extralabel use of phenylbutazone in female dairy cattle 20 months of age or older will likely result in the presence, at slaughter, of residues that are toxic to humans, including being carcinogenic, at levels that have not been shown to be safe.
From http://www.americanhorsemeat.com. The full article can be read here:
http://www.americanhorsemeat.com/horsemeat.html
Ask yourself when you consume North American horse meat, “How lucky do I feel today?” May as well play Russian Roulette instead.
food and bans the administration of this drug in any horse sent to slaughter for human consumption. http://www.fda.gov/cvm/CVM_Updates/buteup.htm
Despite this, The CFIA uses poor sampling methods and cannot guarantee bute is not present in the meat we are producing for consumption by Canadians and people abroad. Claude Boissenault, Red Meat Specialist with the CFIA emailed the CDHC that “in the last 5 years the CFIA tested 698 samples of horse meat for phenylbutazone.” If you don’t already know, 385,000 horses were killed in the last 5 years in Canada meaning just .18% were tested! Regarding their criteria for sampling, he said the following: “Targeted sampling and testing for compounds like phenylbutazone is done when evidence of injection is found during inspection”. If you aren’t aware, phenlbutazone is primarily given orally, which means it leaves no evidence of injection.
Beyond the health concerns of horse meat, there have also been many reported cases of animal welfare violations in Canadian horse slaughterhouses. Horses are an extreme example of a flight animal – the panic and instinctive desire to escape they experience in the slaughterhouse causes them to thrash frantically in the kill chute, making it difficult to effectively stun them prior to slaughter. Not surprisingly, veterinary experts have denounced horse slaughter as inherently inhumane. Two-thirds of Canadians do not want this cruel export industry to continue.
Many people believe that slaughter is a viable option to handle the overpopulation of horses and that it is a fair way to euthanise elderly animals. It is in fact, not. Slaughter can never be considered a form of humane euthanasia.
If you do not know about what actually happens in slaughter houses, I suggest you take a look at some of this footage: http://www.defendhorsescanada.org/ChambersofCarnage.html and watch this news report by CBC on horse slaughter in Canada: http://www.cbc.ca/video/#/News/TV_Shows/The_National/1233408557/ID=1496932874
Secondly, there are many misconceptions about what kind of horses find themselves at the slaughter house. In fact, “92.3 percent of horses arriving at slaughter plants in this country in recent years were deemed to be in “good” condition, according to the US Department of Agriculture’s Guidelines for Handling and Transporting Equines to Slaughter.” http://www.awionline.org/ht/d/sp/i/12919/pid/12919
Meat buyers are not looking for old, thin horses. Vast majorities of horses that end up at slaughter come directly from the racetracks and are the result of not being fast enough for the track. The other main place they come from is overbreeding. They are not raised as livestock or for the purpose of human consumption and should not be treated as such.
Don’t criticize what you don’t know.
My daughter is a chef…she has worked in “important” places and the every day ” grab a burger” places. It is her education…..her University….and no matter where she works – she learns something new.
Chefs have to build experience in all aspects of the culinary world…you need to learn how to grill a perfect burger before you turn out a steak to remember…so before you rag on the Top Chef Contestants, think about the places they have been before you saw them on Food Network.
And respect their passion…because they do this for you!
Dear Sean,
Stuff these in your hash pipe AND smoke it.
http://rtfitch.wordpress.com/2010/04/02/contaminated-horse-meat-a-health-risk-according-to-study/
http://rtfitch.wordpress.com/2010/04/04/landmark-paper-links-bute-to-chemical-contamination/
Or maybe a more reputable source for you? Here’s a CNN article…bite me…or maybe you’d like to chew on one of your pets? I’m sure the drugs in their system will have a similar effect on your bone marrow, you dullard.
http://portfoliorepublic.com/cetfa/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=388:top-chef-in-hot-water-over-horse-meat-episode-cnn&catid=1:latest&Itemid=107
Oh and in case you’re wondering that took less than 5 minutes of research on google to find. So once again, before you make and slack jawed, narrow minded, bullshit comments, maybe, just maybe you should look things up for yourself. You know, instead of making other make a fool out of your dumb ass.
Sean, please please please do your homework. The premise of Bill C-544 (anti horse slaughter legislation) was the DRUG issue, there’s a plethora of information on drugs given to horses and their adverse affects if you’d just let your fingers do the walking and explore the reasons why so many people are against eating horsemeat. Put aside the humane issue which clearly isn’t your focus – get up to date with the drug issue. For starters, go to the ‘Food and Chemical Toxicology’ journal “Association of phenylbutazone usage with horses bought for slaughter: A Public Health Risk” by Nicholas Dodman, Nicholas Blondeau and Ann M. Marini. Digest that – and then come back to the table.
Since Michael Smith doesn’t cook his own food when he “cooks” at events, instead relying on the chefs on hand and taking the credit, I find him completely unsuitable as a judge. He seems to be all about the celebrity and not about the cooking. Case in point, his massive failure on Iron Chef. He just can’t deliver.
As for the horsemeat debacle, I understand the problem with getting horsemeat that’s safe for consumption. I disagree wholeheartedly with those who object simply because it’s horse. Some people just need to broaden their horizons about what’s acceptable as food and what’s not. Yes, people in some countries and cultures eat things that are unfamiliar to our palates. Would I eat them if I were in a location offering those items? Sure I would. As readily as I eat the deer my father hunts every fall.
Time to move off the horse and back to whats really wrong with this show. I think its great to showcase the chefs and show for the most part what has been some really good cooking. It seems that the focus is on everything but on the “Top Chefs”. This has become one giant co-operative advertising play from the beginning. We hear nothing about the restaurants that the chefs work at but every time the pizza bimbo opens her mouth they tout her restaurants. Mark McEwan is a bit of a joke as well. Between the highlights and the botox i think Mark should be on infomercial. By the way did you know that Mark McEwan owns By Mark, North 44, blah blah blah!
How can you have any credibility when you are bringing owners to judge their prodigies? Can Boulud really be objective about the dishes with his chef in the challenge? So far Higgins has been the class of the show.
Can this ever really be a fair challenge?
Not when you are pulling knives because it introduces luck. Ya they should be diverse but getting sweetbreads is nothing like getting horse.
Not when the judges know who cooked the meal.
Not when the judges are tasting next to each other. Is it just me or do the bimbo’s always agree with Mark McEwan? “This dish would have been better with toast rather than a cracker” — Ya, I agree. Whatever!
Same ingredient options, Same opportunities, Impartial Judges, Blind Judging and you will then be able to say it was fair.
Its clearly better for business to say bad things about restaurants when you are competing with them for the same money at the end of the day.
I would like to know if everyone that has boycotted the show, the network, the sponsors, also does the same thing with shows such as Fear Factor or Amazing Race?
If it is truly out of a concern for everyone else’s health that you are protesting, please let me know why you haven’t worried about the contestents of those shows as they eat insects that could be contaminated with insecticides, or the delicacies in some of the countries around the world that may also have questionable regulations of their slaughtering procedures.
I hope you have also contacted ABC and NBC etc. If you haven’t, then why do you choose to speak up now?
I’d watch this show every week if Laura Calder was on.
Question for all of you? Who works or at one time worked as a chef,sous,or a c.d.p.?
I have but I also haven’t said much here. These talks are just over the top BS. Being what my background is I watched family members slit throats of calves as a kid for dinner. Its life move on…I have worked in Toronto, Costa Rica, Dominican Republic, Italy. I think most of the public is very closed minded. Welcome to N.America :)
You people are just idiots……to say Chef Michael Smith cannot judge nor cook. Maybe you should do your research and get a friggin life. BOO to you “NAY” sayers!
@ Lynn S “Boo to you “Nay” sayers!”That is very witty and by the way “naysayers” is one word.
I agree with you that most people posting on here should (A) get a life and (B) don’t know whether or not Michael Smith or any other chef they see on TV can cook. You can’t smell or taste the food when your watching from your living room!
The thing with Michael Smith is that he comes across as such an irritating,self-important and nauseatingly phony person that people just assume everything else about him, including his cooking, sucks.
“I’d watch this show every week if Laura Calder was on.”
Quoted for truth. ;)
I’m in Copenhagen right now cooking at a michelin star restaurant. Because of my background I don’t really get into reality Cooking shows like this. Generally, they tend to be gimmicky and don’t focus on the food or what makes a real chef.
Being a top chef is not only about being a strong cook and it certainly isn’t about who can make a four course dinner in a moving RV. It’s about being clean and efficient in the kitchen, it’s about your ability to interact with others and it’s about creating a working environment that breeds excellence. That’s why, in my opinion, shows like this should be called “Top Cook”, not Top Chef. There is just so much more to being a Chef than cooking food.
That being said, I have been pleasantly surprised by Top Chef Canada. I’ve been watching Top Chef Masters for fun and it is horrible. There is basically no emphasis on the food. It’s just a series of increasingly stupid gags that really don’t reflect the quality of the Chefs taking part in the show.
Top Chef Canada at least is all about the food. And sure, maybe the head judges aren’t Michelin three star chefs at the top of their games, but they give real, thoughtful feedback to the contestants and I respect that. I’m going to keep on watching the show because I think, so far, it is the only show that brings our industry into the popular gaze in a truthful manor. It’s not all about blonde Brits screaming their brains out (though that is a part of it!)
As for the horse meat, I’m honestly astonished at all the backlash. I’ve had a hard time living in Copenhagen over the last 9 months because of what I perceive as a lack of sensitivity to, or respect for, different cultures (I am of Asian decent). I always talk about Canada in romantic terms when I am here: “Canadians are so liberal”, “This would never happen in Canada” and so on. It is kind of shocking for me to be reminded about how hypocritical and un-open Canadians can still be, especially when it comes to food.
I lived in Korea for a year and a half where the older generation sometimes eat dogs. Does that mean that Koreans are blood-hungry, backward savages? No. It just means that eating dog is part of their cultural heritage.
How is eating horse meat or dog any worse morally than say, the massive devastation caused in the Alberta Tarsands to feed the Canadian economy and hunger for fossil fuels? How is it any worse than us clear-cutting forests and making massive hydro-electric dams and over-fishing our territorial waters? People need to get off of their high horse and look at the bigger picture.
With regards to the argument that the horse meat produced in Canada has high levels of toxins due to the way it is raised, I would say that anybody that consumes factory farmed beef, pork, poultry or fish on a regular basis is consuming way more hormones, steroids and additives than a horse bred to be a performance or labouring animal.
Just my thoughts.
I think they miscast some of the show’s roles. Both Mark McEwan and Shereen Arazam are unpersonable and unlikeable. I think Lynn Crawford or Corbin Tomaszeski would’ve been great choices for the head chef judge!…maybe next season???
Caught a marathon of the show before the finale so i’m pretty late on all of this. Honestly to everyone complaining on horse-gate and how it is unsafe please take a look at the proteins you find in your supermarkets etc. None of these animals are brought up in humane conditions and most can be considered harmful (anyone remember mad cow… and the latest case in 2008) And for those saying ‘what if this was your pet’ think about what hindu’s feel when they see others eating beef (not a pet I know but strong feelings nonetheless). Unless you eat entirely sustainable proteins/ are a vegan (or vegetarian for that matter) I see no reason why you can complain.
I’ve read several good stuff here. Certainly worth bookmarking for revisiting. I surprise how much effort you put to create such a wonderful informative website.