Lucky # 7

“Quatrefoil is a fancy word for four-leaf clover, but luck has little to do with its success.” – Sarah Musgrave, food writer

Several celebratory glasses of bubbles later, and we are still over the moon (although slightly headachy) with the news that Quatrefoil Restaurant was rated among Canada’s top 10 best new restaurants.

Sarah Musgrave is somewhat right when she says luck has little to do with the accomplishment. A lot of hard work on the part of a lot of people sparked this success.

Even so, we feel so fortunate. We are thankful for the continued support of our community, our clients, and our amazing staff.

Without the skill and talent of our dedicated kitchen crew and front-of-the-house team, we never would have made it. We are very lucky to have them!

Top 10: Quatrefoil was named among Canada's top 10 best new restaurants by Air Canada's inflight magazine.

Man, having to keep this news under wraps for the last little while was tough.

We were contacted by enRoute a couple of months ago. They said they had sent in a reviewer and were potentially going to publish a regional story for their itinerary section – that’s the line they gave us, anyway.

They sent over a photographer, so we shut down shop for an afternoon. That’s when we met Virginia Macdonald, who is as lovely as she is a talented. We tried to hammer her for more details, but she did an excellent job of feigning ignorance.

I answered the call from enRoute editor-in-chief Ilana Weitzman a few weeks ago before service. She asked to speak to Georgina or Fraser, but wouldn’t tell me what the call was regarding – just that it was very important.

From the look on Georgina’s face, I knew instantly what the call was – we made the top-10 list!

Basically, we were told to prepare ourselves and our staff to be very busy. Compared to Canadian cities represented on the list, Dundas may be obscure, but it’s not too far off the beaten path, so be ready.

After service, Georgina pulled everyone into the kitchen for a celebratory drink. Without giving away too much detail, she told them we would be receiving national recognition in a high-profile magazine.

As of today, enRoute’s November food issue sits in the seat pockets of all Air Canada flights. At a cruising altitude of about 10,000 metres, more than one million people will read about Canada’s top 10 best new restaurants, Quatrefoil and Dundas.

Kind of scary considering I’m already getting reservations from Saskatchewan. Luckily, we’re ready for them!

Quatrefoil among Canada’s top 10 best

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Quatrefoil Restaurant named among Canada’s top 10 best

Oct. 28, 2010 – After a nationwide search, Air Canada’s enRoute Magazine  has declared Quatrefoil Restaurant in Dundas, Ontario among Canada’s 10 Best New Restaurants.

The much-anticipated annual survey, now in its ninth year, has rated Quatrefoil Restaurant  the seventh best new restaurant in the country.

“In the Gothic-lite interior of this centennial Dundas home, servers glide past the well-heeled denizens of the GTA outskirts carrying plates of crisped quail and foie gras torchon so fine, it might have been rolled in linen rather than cheesecloth,” says journalist and food critic Sarah Musgrave, who scouted restaurants from coast to coast to compile the top-10 list.

The survey is featured in enRoute’s November food issue, and online. Inclusion in the magazine’s top-10 list is considered one of Canada’s highest culinary honours.

“We are extremely happy with the recognition,” says Quatrefoil Restaurant chef/owner Fraser Macfarlane. “As well as putting a national spotlight on our restaurant, the ranking also puts the community and region on the map as a destination to explore.”

With an average, monthly circulation of about 141,000 copies, the internationally acclaimed travel lifestyle magazine has a monthly readership of more than one million. The magazine’s past surveys have sparked nationwide buzz and media attention for the restaurants included in its top-10 lists.

“It is an incredible feeling to have our restaurant and my hometown acknowledged as a culinary destination,” says Georgina Mitropoulos, the restaurant’s co-owner and Macfarlane’s wife.

“We owe the recognition to years of hard work in some of Canada and Europe’s top-rated restaurants, and to an approach to cooking that celebrates classic combinations and pure ingredients sourced from local producers.

“We never could have made it without a team of staff that is as passionate about giving people an ultimate dining experience as we are, and our community’s support. To them all, we are enormously thankful.”

About Quatrefoil Restaurant:
Fraser Macfarlane and Georgina Mitropoulos opened Quatrefoil Restaurant in May, 2010. Located in the quaint community of Dundas, Ontario, the restaurant offers contemporary French cuisine in a charming heritage home turned modern eatery. Both chefs, the husband-and-wife duo met in the kitchen of Toronto’s Scaramouche Restaurant, before heading to Europe to seek out new food styles and experiences. Together, the pair has cooked in some of the best Michelin-starred restaurants in Europe, training under notable chefs such as Marco Pierre White, Gordon Ramsay and Gary Hollihead.

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For more information, please contact: Elaine Mitropoulos at 905-628-7800 or Elaine@quatrefoilrestaurant.com.

Three cheers for Tawse!

Our neighbour in the Niagara region, Tawse Winery, has been awarded the coveted title of Canada’s Winery of the Year.

Tawse Winery, which has been pleasing the palettes of oenophiles since 2001, took top place at the Canadian Wine Awards – an annual competition held by Wine Access Magazine.

I’d like to raise a glass to our supplier, and good friends at Tawse in Vineland. As well as taking the top title – a first ever for an Ontario winery – Tawse also set a record: five gold medals and 18 medals in total.

Raise a glass: Tawse wins Canadian winery of the year title.

The win is proof that taking risks can pay off.

While growing grapes – like any other crop – is inherently risky, Tawse’s winemaker Paul Pender uses biodynamic methods of farming that are free of pesticides, herbicides and chemical fertilizers.

Instead of  the synthetic chemicals and antibiotics that conventional growers use, Tawse treats its vineyard as a self-contained ecosystem.  It uses natural predators, not pesticides, to deter pests, and livestock to prune, weed and fertilize the soil. Many of Tawse’s wines will be certified organic/biodynamic as of the 2010 vintage.

Clearly, for the panel of wine experts who judged the competition in a blind tasting, the proof is in the pinot.

As well as Tawse’s 2008 Lauritzen Pinot Noir, gold medals were awarded to its 2008 Robyn’s Block Chardonnay, 2008 Quarry Road Chardonnay, 2008 Wismer Lakeview Vineyard Riesling and 2009 Sketches Riesling.

Community pig out a great success

Last week, Quatrefoil Restaurant partnered with some amazing food and beverage vendors to put on a special event that left guests squealing with delight.

The first Butcher Block Dinner featured the Tamworth pig. It included a demo by Cumbrae’s butcher Jamie Waldron, a five-course feast by Quatrefoil Restaurant chef Fraser Macfarlane, wine pairings by Brad Gowland of Tawse Winery, and coffee by Detour Coffee Roasters.

Debut demo: The first of Quatrefoil Restaurant's Butcher Block Dinner Series took place last week.

Local cheesemonger Paddy McGuire also stepped in to make the event a total success. Trading in his cheesecutter cap for his graphic design hat, Paddy was the talent behind the event’s poster.

The event's poster was designed by our cheese guy, Paddy McGuire.

Thanks to Paddy, guests also got the full swine and cheese experience. They sampled some of the finest from Mickey McGuire‘s Cheese Shop. They also enjoyed a good helping of charcuterie along with a glass of Tawse’s Unoaked Chardonnay.

Charcuterie was aplenty during the first of the Butcher Block Dinner Series.

Afterward, cooks helped Jamie heave the about 110 pound (50 kg) half hog into the dining room, where he picked up his hacksaw and other sharp tools. Fewer guests than expected batted an eye as the pig –  dubbed “Babe” by Brad – was broken down into more recognizable parts.

Pig out: Gabe, Stue and Jamie carry the pig into the dining room.

As well as demonstrating the cuts, Jamie explained how the heritage hog was raised locally in Stratford, Ontario by Perth Pork Products –  a farm dedicated to preserving rare breeds.

The Tamworth breed, he explained, offered the best of the species: beautiful fat covering and moist, delicious muscle. The guests were convinced, as every inch of the pig – from tail to snout – was bought up and wrapped in peach paper, ready to take home.

Jamie talks to the guests about the Tamworth pig's unique qualities.

The ginger-coloured Tamworth pig is prized for its distinct flavour, so much so that it has been inducted into the Slow Food Ark of Taste.

The Slow Food movement started in Italy in 1986, in response to the growing prevalence of fast food. The movement aims to revive traditional ways of producing food, and to raise awareness about endangered ingredients.

Ironically, the best way to preserve the Tamworth pig is to eat it (by encouraging production, it is hoped the breed will again flourish).

That, guests did, thanks to Fraser and his crew in the kitchen. They prepared five courses of artful deliciousness, paired with a line-up of Tawse wines that included the Quarry Road Gewurztraminer and Grower’s Blend Pinot Noir, among others.

Fraser's ham hock mushroom ballotine was served with picalilli and rye toast.

Fraser’s menu included cola braised pork belly served with a seared scallop, a smoked ham hock and mushroom ballotine, and a braised shoulder risotto with shaved foie gras – a dish borrowed from Montreal’s Le Club Chasse et Pêche, and one that guests swooned over.

The main course was a whole roasted loin with celery root puree, mustard seed jus, and tomato jam.

Artfully delicious: Cola braised belly of pork and seared scallop, pickled chilies, butternut squash and small cabbage.

The guests capped off the evening with dessert: a spiced apple cake, coupled with candied bacon ice cream and a maple-walnut-pork rind crunch.

The final course was accompanied with Tawse’s very tasty Gewurztraminer ice wine, followed by a steaming cup of Detour’s earthy Sumatra.

Rave Toronto Life review goes online

The Toronto Life review about Quatrefoil Restaurant recently went online. It’s even more flattering on the web!

Hopefully, I too have inherited this “restaurateur gene” it speaks of.

You can read it below, or have a look  here.

Every now and then, a new restaurant hits every note spot on. Husband and wife co-owners chef Fraser Macfarlane and chef Georgina Mitropoulos, who met while working together at Scaramouche, clearly have the restaurateur gene.

The years they spent working under such perfectionist-tyrants as Gordon Ramsay and Marco Pierre White also helped hone their skills. From the greeting at the door to the food on the plate, there is no hesitation, no jitters and no hiccups—well, at least none we can see.

The couple, who ran Saving Thyme, an Ancaster-based catering company, completely renovated this rambling, two-storey Victorian house, just around the corner from Dundas’s main drag.

 

Rave review: The current issue of Toronto Life features a review about Quatrefoil Restaurant.

The pared-down aesthetic is enlivened with splashes of colour courtesy of paintings on loan from the Art Gallery of Hamilton.

A simple purity is found on the menu, too. Elegantly thin green beans snap between teeth as if they were plucked from the vine only hours earlier, and pillowy ricotta and herb gnocchi with wild mushrooms, peas and favas is edible summer. One fat sea scallop and curls of calamari are grilled to wobbly perfection and encircled with bright herb oil.

Arctic char and lobster pot-au-feu is a rich and decadent mélange of crispy-skinned char, fat chunks of ever-so-slightly overcooked lobster (OK, there’s one slight hiccup), spring vegetables, herbs, and creamy béarnaise sauce, which demands a spoon. Desserts are creative.

In a trio of treats, crème brûlée is refreshing, with an essence of Clementine; Christmasy gingerbread is enriched with orange syrup; and smooth house-made vanilla ice cream is studded with warming cubes of candied ginger.

Service is swift, professional and small-town friendly. Brunch and lunch menus are equally elegant, and on Thursday afternoons a stroll around the nearby farmers’ market will help burn off that great grilled flatiron steak frites. Mains $28–$39.

Oh my stars!

I am very happy to introduce Food Ink Dundas, a blog that focuses on all that’s delicious in Dundas, Ontario.

Dundas is my home community, and a much frequented foodie hub. People from all over the Golden Horseshoe, and beyond, flock to Dundas for hard-to-find specialty items and the community’s growing list of dining destinations.

As well as showing off the amazing local fare, this blog will also document the exciting, and sometimes trying, challenges I face as a newcomer to the hospitality industry.

About five months ago, my sister Georgina Mitropoulos and brother-in-law Fraser Macfarlane, both seasoned chefs, opened Quatrefoil Restaurant in Dundas.

Family affair: My sister Georgina and brother-in-law Fraser with Quatrefoil Restaurant in the background.

Having moved back home after working as journalist in Western Australia and Canada, I was more than gung-ho to help out at the restaurant whenever possible. But I also fully intended on landing a gig as a journo or a position in communications.

In between PR contracts, however, my part-time responsibilities at Quatrefoil Restaurant quickly evolved into a more than full-time role. There’s rarely a waking minute when I’m not at the restaurant, or doing something restaurant related.

Inside look: A peak inside Quatrefoil Restaurant in Dundas, Ontario.

The upside, however, is that Quatrefoil Restaurant has been welcomed by a community starving for a fine-dining establishment.

Reviewers have also offered plenty of praise.

The Hamilton Spectator’s food writer John Kernaghan declared, “A Star is Born,” and called Quatrefoil Restaurant the best in the city.

Toronto Life has also published a review in its October 2010 issue, branding Quatrefoil Restaurant with three hard-earned stars. The review has yet to go online, but reads:

“The debut restaurant of chef-owners Fraser Macfarlane and Georgina Mitropoulos hits every note spot on. The service is swift, professional and small-town friendly; the aesthetic is pared down but lively. A simple purity is also found on the menu: one fat sea scallop and curls of calamari are perfectly grilled and encircled with bright herb oil.”

For me, the media attention bridges my former career in journalism/PR with a promising future in hospitality. For my sister and brother-in-law, of course, it is validation that what they are doing is truly stellar!

Quatrefoil Restaurant's Arctic char and lobster pot-au feu, spring vegetables, small herbs and bearnaise sauce.