The Classic
A few weeks ago a friend mailed from Normandy that she was eating a collection of little cheeses, no brand names, just cheese made in the village from the milk of local goats and cows. They tasted so fresh, so unusual. So what? I replied. Why I’ve just eaten three amazing little cheeses made from local goat’s milk, no brand names, and by a chef in my local restaurant in Toronto – A fiery Brie-style, an ashy pungent pyramid and log of firm glossy paste as tangy as a young St. Maure from the Touraine.
The cheesemaker is Derek Bendig, the chef de cuisine at Pangaea which is co- owned by manager Peter Geary and chef Martin Kouprie. A fixture on Bay and Bloor for the past fourteen years, Pangaea’s image is as pinstriped as its upscale clientele. But don’t be fooled. Under Pangaea’s discreet charm of the bourgeoisie and silken service is a poster restaurant for the fast changing taste of the city – fresh’n’local doesn’t cover it. More accurate to say the embrace of artisan food, of peasant food. I don’t believe any other restaurant is offering a home-made cheese plate. And Pangaea was quick to jump on the charcuterie bandwagon, to embrace Toronto’s changing palate from bland to sour, salty, pickled. The great earthy artisan foods, fat melting round cured ham, spicy salamis to make the eyes pop out, cheeses which must be eaten before they stink you out of the house. A restaurant can now offer something truly unique because no one cures or smokes or makes cheese quite the same way. That’s why you won’t sample Bendig’s Oregano and chili Copa (pig’s shoulder) a cinnamon and cumin Copa, Bison sopprasatta and a mouth-whinging Spanish Fire, with fiddlehead and morel pickles, anywhere else.
And there’s more. A few years ago, Kouprie sent Bendig to Spain with importer Michael Tkaczuk to suss out a new USDA-approved factory making Bellotta ham – the el supremo of ham, one of the world’s luxe foods, rich, delicate fat marbled flesh that tastes of acorns. Pangaea would become the first restaurant here, and the first restaurant in North America, to serve it -$30 for a few unforgettable slivers.
And more. Pangaea may be upscale but it does superb “Licious” menus. A couple of weeks ago I had a twenty buck Summerlicious lunch which included curls of Serrano ham, leg of lamb stuffed with a fresh mint gremolata and a friend crooned over a little tranche of grilled sirloin on a corn and barley risotto and the three little homemade cheeses. I save up lunch meetings for Pangaea’s “Licious” menus.
Pangaea is so established so reliably good that it often seems to be taken for granted. The house style is nuanced. Geary is the kindest least intimidating maitre d’. while Kouprie has kept the lowest of profiles. A classic style.
Time I think to make a reckoning. Already deciding to order my favourite grilled liver, perfectly medium, $29, I take along an avid gourmand and prepare to go the whole nine yards. We start with a sparkling pear shot and a crispy sage fritter. The charcuterie platter $18 of course A startlingly sweet corn, cliantro, cumin soup $10 which tastes like perfume. Original. Roasted Bone Marrow $10 is major meat homage spiked by celery-root salad. The foie gras $25 en cocotte rests on black mission fig/spiced onion and port and is immensely, satisfyingly rich. I curl my lip at rabbit. Wrong. It’s terrific, a roasted roulade stuffed with vegetables, offal and potato ragout and grilled king oyster mushrooms, invigorated by foie gras jus $36. I chuck the idea of liver for fresh West Coast Halibut $40 with a melange of roasted salsify leeks, wild mushrooom and not enough oyster beurre blanc particularly because the halibut is on the dry side.
We take time outs, sipping a pinot noir suggested by our waiter Michael who as the avid gourmand says approvingly “took the work away from me.” Michael is a subtle salesman: Why he almost had us ordering wild sea bass from South Carolina til we remembered the oil spill.
We end our meal with the dessert du jour, baby donuts, warm and lemony $10 stuffed with ricotta which comes with an orange-cardmom shake and wild blueberry tart $10.
***1/2 Pangaea 1221 Bay Street 416-920-2323 www.pangearestaurant.com. Wheelchair accessible. Dinner for two: food and tax $150
Martin Kouprie’s Pangaea: Why It Tastes So Good, Key Porter Books, comes out this October.
gina@ginamallet.mindtripz.com
