Must-Try: Canoe’s super-pretty platter takes summer sweet corn into fall

The lake vista from Canoe’s 54th-storey dining room is impressive. Diners get an equally exciting view, though, from the chef’s rail—the kitchen-side perch where ingredients become beautifully composed dishes under the watchful eye of executive chef John Horne. Right now, Horne’s focus is corn: savoury cornbread, lobster-topped cornmeal and, our favourite, a corn custard platter that utterly encapsulates the tail end of summer. Horne tops spoonfuls of butter-yellow corn pudding with paper-thin shreds of truffle salami, tangy pickled chanterelles and swipes of cool, caraway-infused buffalo yoghurt. Then, he adds sprinkles of charred corn kernels, spicy herb blossoms and toasted corn nuts for crunch. Each forkful is sweet and light with hints of smoke and spice—like the first whiffs of fall after a long, lazy summer. $21, or $100 as part of a 7-course tasting menu (platter presentation available at the chef’s rail only).

Canoe, 54^th Floor, 66 Wellington St. W., 416-364-0054, oliverbonacini.com/canoe