GALLERY: The Dinner Party, a celebration of women in the kitchen from some of Toronto’s top female chefs
GALLERY: The Dinner Party, a celebration of women in the kitchen from some of Toronto’s top female chefs
(Image: Renée Suen)
(Image: Renée Suen)
(Image: Renée Suen)
(Image: Renée Suen)
(Image: Renée Suen)
(Image: Renée Suen)
(Image: Renée Suen)
(Image: Renée Suen)
(Image: Renée Suen)
(Image: Renée Suen)
(Image: Renée Suen)
(Image: Renée Suen)
(Image: Renée Suen)
(Image: Renée Suen)
(Image: Renée Suen)
(Image: Renée Suen)
(Image: Renée Suen)
(Image: Renée Suen)
(Image: Renée Suen)
(Image: Renée Suen)
(Image: Renée Suen)
(Image: Renée Suen)
(Image: Renée Suen)
(Image: Renée Suen)
(Image: Renée Suen)
(Image: Renée Suen)
(Image: Renée Suen)
(Image: Renée Suen)
(Image: Renée Suen)
(Image: Renée Suen)
(Image: Renée Suen)
Restaurant kitchens can be macho, male-dominated places. So, on Monday night, 60 guests gathered at The Great Hall to celebrate the unsung talents of the women in Toronto’s kitchens at The Dinner Party, a special event organized by Alexandra Feswick of the soon-to-open Samuel J. Moore. Feswick enlisted some of the city’s top female talent to create a collaborative tasting menu dedicated to the women who inspired them. The evening was a takeoff on Judy Chicago’s famous 1979 installation of the same name, which honoured famous female historical figures with a dinner of dishes and place settings celebrating their accomplishments. “I’ve been working in the industry for nearly a decade and have yet to find many people who don’t walk into a kitchen I’m running and ask me where the chef is,” Feswick tells us. “I’ve decided that this needs to change.”
The Toronto event featured Laura John (Le Select), Missy Hui (Fabbrica), Charlotte Lang (Hooked), Cheska Ang (Actinolite), Trish Gill (Spin) and Robyn Cheng (The Stop Catering), with beverage pairings from Krysta Oben of Cowbell. Flipping the usual dynamic, a team of notable male chefs ran the front of house was run, including Mark Cutrara (Cowbell), Guy Rawlings (Room 203) and Dustin Gallagher (Riverside Public House). Proceeds from the event were donated to The Stop.
Check out the chefs, their dishes and the makeshift front-of-house team in our sideshow »
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- The evening’s menu (and souvenir given to each guest) signed by all the participating chefs
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- A standing ovation for Feswick and her efforts
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- The closing number, by Missy Hiu (Fabbrica), was dedicated to Bertha Wilson, the first female Supreme Court justice in Canada. Hiu presented a trio of sweets: an eggshell with vanilla and anise panna cotta topped with an encapsulated apricot coulis and sitting on a basket made with kataifi pastry; a quenelle of caramel-dark chocolate ganache; and a “bloody” macaron filled with blood orange butter cream with a puréed beet centre
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- A palate cleanser: a vodka and lemon shot à la Alexandra Feswick (Samuel J. Moore)
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- Dustin Gallagher (Riverside Public House) and Chris Brown (The Stop Catering) sip glasses of the organic whole milk that was paired with the yellow perch course
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- Charlotte Langley (Hooked) dedicated her yellow perch dish to U.S. chef, restaurateur, activist and author Alice Waters. Each guest received an abstract plate of grilled yellow perch, cured steelhead gravlax and soft boiled egg that was flanked with streaks of crème fraîche, honey and a garden of crumbled egg whites, white fish eggs and blanched brussels sprouts leaves
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- Trish Gill (Spin) made a homey corn grits course topped with pork belly and mushrooms in a maple reduction and crispy fried kale. Gill’s ode to Dolly Parton (and the working woman) used ingredients found in the Appalachians, where Parton was born, and was tagged with handwritten quotes from the singer-songwriter
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- Laura John (Le Select) dedicated her French-flavoured “Octopussy” dish to 3-Michelin-starred chef Anne-Sophie Pic, the fourth female chef to achieve that accolade (she was also named 2011’s Best Female Chef by The World’s 50 Best Restaurants). The dish featured slightly grilled octopus carpaccio with lemon confit, niçoise olive, charred peppers, frisée, toasted pine nuts and smoked fleur de sel. John and Feswick were both Ontario Hostelry Institute Top 30 under 30 award recipients this year
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- Robyn Cheng (The Stop Catering) made the trio of breads representing the different eras in the installation. Foccacia with olive oil, salt, oregano and sun-dried tomatoes with bagnet vert represent the Roman Empire. Amish honey whole-wheat bread served with a rosemary-lemon zest and fig compound butter represented the Rise of Christianity. Soft Scottish baps paired with a roasted parsnip, thyme, goat cheese and roasted garlic spread represented the Age of Revolution. Cheng dedicated the course to Feswick, Chicago and, of course, her mother
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- Feswick started the dinner with oysters and pickled watermelon, an amuse bouche dedicated to Judy Chicago and her installation
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- Alexandra Feswick: “This dinner symbolizes a big part of who I am as a chef and a woman. I’ve been working in the industry for nearly a decade now and have yet to find many people who don’t walk into a kitchen I’m running and ask me where the chef is; struggling to find a supplier that won’t let me help carry a whole pig in and further who doesn’t believe I understand how to use a knife to break it down once it’s delivered. I’ve decided that this needs to change. I want to showcase the talent of women in the city of Toronto because they deserve it. It’s important to me because I’ve discovered that these women are equally talented, creative and often more motivated to succeed. These women do not deserve additional obstacles in their path just because of their gender.”
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- Mark Cutrara (Cowbell) kept guests well hydrated while Guy Rawlings (Room 203) served as the evening’s floor manager
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- Plenty of brotherly love among the service team. Case in point: Bertrand Alépée (The Tempered Chef) and Steven Song (K-Song Tacos)
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- Service with a smile from Dustin Gallagher
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- The madness in the kitchen
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- Scott Vivian (Beast) out of his usual kitchen garb
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- A reprint of the email reply Feswick received from Judy Chicago in May on the news that the chef was going to host an event based on the artist’s installation
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- Decorative plates inscribed with food-themed quotes are also a Chicago-inspired detail. As in the original installation, the plates start flat and rise higher along the table to represent the growing independence of women
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- Cheska Ang’s (Actinolite) mussels with pineapple and saffron
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- Cheska Ang’s (Actinolite) mackerel with aged cheddar
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- Carrot with potato, olive and lardo, one of four hors d’oeuvres prepared by Cheska Ang (Actinolite)
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- Cheska Ang (Actinolite) prepared the hors d’oeuvres, including mackerel with aged cheddar, mussels with pineapple and saffron, chicken liver spring rolls and carrot with potato, olive and lardo. Ang’s dishes were dedicated to her mother, who still resides in the Philippines, where mackerel is common
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- The men running service: Albert Ponzo (Le Select), Steve Gonzales (Bushwick), Bertrand Alépée (The Tempered Chef), Chris Brown (The Stop Catering), Scott Vivian (Beast), Dustin Gallagher (Riverside Public House), and Steven Song (K-Song Tacos). Not pictured are Mark Cutrara (Cowbell) and Guy Rawlings (Room 203)
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- The female chefs: Alexandra Feswick (Samuel J. Moore), Laura John (Le Select), Missy Hui (Fabbrica), Charlotte Lang (Hooked), Cheska Ang (Actinolite), Trish Gill (Spin), and Robyn Cheng (The Stop Catering)
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- The triangular table arrangement had room for 20 diners per side (as opposed to 13 in Chicago’s installation). The triangle is considered a symbol of the female, while the equilateral triangle represents equality. Each edge, in Chicago’s version, represented one of three different eras: the Roman Empire, the Rise of Christianity and the Age of Revolution
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![](http://www.facebook.com/sharer.php?u=https://torontolife.com/food/the-dinner-party/&title=GALLERY: The Dinner Party, a celebration of women in the kitchen from some of Toronto’s top female chefs&picture=https://torontolife.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/11/nov12-Dinner-Party_intro-624x395.jpg&description=[caption id="attachment_178006" align="aligncenter" width="656"] (Image: Renée Suen)[/caption]
Restaurant kitchens can be macho, male-dominated places. So, on Monday night, 60 guests gathered at The Great Hall to celebrate the unsung talents of the women in Toronto’s kitchens at The Dinner Party, a special event organized by Alexandra Feswick of the soon-to-open Samuel J. Moore. Feswick enlisted some of the city’s top female talent to create a collaborative tasting menu dedicated to the women who inspired them. The evening was a takeoff on Judy Chicago’s famous 1979 installation of the same name, which honoured famous female historical figures with a dinner of dishes and place settings celebrating their accomplishments. “I’ve been working in the industry for nearly a decade and have yet to find many people who don’t walk into a kitchen I’m running and ask me where the chef is,” Feswick tells us. “I’ve decided that this needs to change.”
The Toronto event featured Laura John (Le Select), Missy Hui (Fabbrica), Charlotte Lang (Hooked), Cheska Ang (Actinolite), Trish Gill (Spin) and Robyn Cheng (The Stop Catering), with beverage pairings from Krysta Oben of Cowbell. Flipping the usual dynamic, a team of notable male chefs ran the front of house was run, including Mark Cutrara (Cowbell), Guy Rawlings (Room 203) and Dustin Gallagher (Riverside Public House). Proceeds from the event were donated to The Stop.
Check out the chefs, their dishes and the makeshift front-of-house team in our sideshow »
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Why wasn’t Alida Soloman of Tutti Matti not included in this group.. She is a great Chef with a good restaurant…
Please update the caption for the pictured Chefs… there are some women who were left out (not listed) therefore I cannot tell who is who. I would love to try their signature dishes sometime! Thanks.