In researching comfort foods, we realized that it’s just a white thing really. Shepard’s Pie, pot pie, mac n’ cheese, apple pie, creamy soups, this is some serious stuff white people like. So we looked up some recipes and wondered, where’s the best comfort food for the season of getting fat in the city? Below is our list of the best vegan comfort food spots.

If you’re anything like me, you’ve dropped the “I don’t eat meat anymore” bomb on your family already. And they were cool with it at first, until some family celebration that involves a turkey rolls around. At first, I continued to eat fish, which gave them something to cook for the holidays, but it was more for them than me. they gripe. Flesh eaters always gripe. All they can cook is a side of animal with a potato and some lettuce anyway, there’s very little creativity in most of it.

If you wanna eat veg and you don’t want to deal with the guilt you might feel for putting your family out (cause you are a horrible, hard-to-please, ungrateful child who decided to be healthy, save the environment and reduce your chances of over a dozen diseases, how dare you), then you gotta bring your own food with you pal (get used to that), and try to keep the nuts and berries bullshit at home. Meat eaters are not interested in your healthy food-they want sauces and fat and foods in varying shades of brown. Here’s a guide to surviving the holidays vegan style.

Every cook wants to test their skills in the kitchen and with my third adventure in cooking school, I thought I would push it to the outer limits.  For this, I thought of Marcel from Top Chef.  Everyone remembers him as the douche chef who was always working with jellies and foams and put them on every single dish he made.  Fact of the matter is: this process is very difficult and he made it look douchey.  It’s called molecular gastronomy and Nella Cucina (876 Bathurst Street) offered up a class as part of their “Professional Series”.  So in order to step up my ktichen game finish off my third and final cooking class series, I decided to take molecular gastronomy out for a spin.

Round one of my venture into cooking classes was done and I was onto the next with a bit more confidence in myself and my skills.  This time, I wanted to take on the ultimate in cooking: french cuisine.  I heard a lot from friends about taking cooking classes at Loblaws so I decided to check out their Black Label “Evening in France” class at the historic Maple Leaf Gardens location, offered at $20/class.

In this class, Chef Martin Raymond took our class of fifteen students through the PC Black Label products in the elegant PC Kitchens, located in the Maple Leafs Gardens location and provided clear, simple and hands-on instruction on how to make Caramel Milk Chocolate Mousse, Chicken Liver Pate with Fig Cabernet Jelly, Carmelized Pear and Walnut Salad and finally a Pepper & Anchovy Tart.

On Monday November 19, Chef Alexandra Feswick played host to a beautifully executed collaborative dinner party inspired by Judy Chicago’s Dinner Party.  The night was in celebration of women and all the women.

Of the noted female chefs taking part in the tasting menu that evening: Laura John (LeSelect), Missy Hui (Fabbrica), Charlotte Lang (Hooked), Cheska Ang (Actinolite), Trish Gill (Spin), and Robyn Cheng (The Stop Catering).  Each chef had dedicated their dish to an important female who had encouraged them in their lives and each plate design took on the shape/structure of a female body part.

Since it’s the month of Best/Worst lists, it’s only fair that we weigh in with the best and worst restaurants that serve vegan food. It’s not the longest list, as many many restaurants that serve meat also have vegetarian and vegan options (like salads and spring rolls and fries duh), but few are tasterrific.

My name is Ama and I am what some would consider a ‘foodie’.  The way I like to relax when I get home from a long day at work is by cooking and experimenting with produce, spices and whatever ingredients I can find in my pantry.  Basically, food is my passion, but I’m no ‘Iron Chef’.

For my November-December ‘Eats’ column, I wanted to challenge myself.  Take it to the next level, if you will.  I decide it was time to enroll in some cooking / baking classes and bring out that inner ‘Top Chef’.  I enrolled into three classes and this is the first in the series.  You can watch my adventures, fumbles and learn about what is available in the great food-centric city of ours.

Eat to the Beat took place on October 16, 2012 and celebrated its 17th year raising funds and awareness for Willow Breast Cancer Support Canada at the Roy Thompson Hall.

Over 60 world class female chefs from the city of Toronto came out to prepare sweet, savory and sinful dishes for the thousands of foodies who attend the event.  The annual Eat to the Beat event takes place during Breast Cancer Awareness Month and helps attendees see that no one will ever face breast cancer alone.

Eat to the Beat, celebrating is 17th year, is in less than a week (October 16, 2012) and has gained a reputation has the event for foodies in the city to experience the talents of 60 female chefs – women supporting women for breast cancer.

The end of summer is always marked by one thing to me: the CNE.  It was always a family tradition for my aunt to take me each year.  I loved riding on all the midway rides and checking out all the buildings like a crazy kid.  But now that I’ve grown up, things have changed about the CNE.  The focus has become less about the midway rides (I noticed that it was actually smaller this year) and more about the food, both around the CNE and in the Food Building (the food aspect has gotten much larger).

Grand Electric was hands down, THE spot this summer. At least in Parkdale. Like so many new restaurants in Toronto they don’t take reservations; which means one thing: line ups for days. And line up we all did, all summer long.

It takes a long time in a bookstore to find the perfect cookbook when you have no idea what you want, but you know exactly what it needs to contain. Thankfully it only took me 3 hours find Alice Hart’s Vegetarian which included everything I was looking for: beautiful pictures of EVERY recipe (thanks to photographer Lisa Linder), simple straight-forward instructions, everything from breakfast, lunch, dinner & dessert, and step-by-step guides on creating the basics to make the perfect meal (ie sauces, broths, dressings, and salad toppings).

As an added bonus Hart includes essential guides to making your own yogurt, your own tofu, your own flavored butters, how to sprout your own sprouts, and Hart even include a few menu ideas.  Don’t let the cover of this cookbook fool you, it will make your mouth water and re-inspire you to get more creative with your cooking. Follow through to get a peak of what inside Alice Hart’s Vegetarian…

The traditional bar goer in Toronto may scoff when you bring up a word like “mixologist,” but this term is no longer a gimmick.  Bartenders can be endlessly creative and experimental, but a mixologist takes up the study, the skill and the knowledge behind the creation of a fine cocktail.

Sure it’s easy to just pop ourselves onto a patio and grab a pitcher of beer, but there is a special magic experienced when you have the ability to tell a mixologist what type of spirits, flavors, bitters and taste you are interested in and you receive the cocktail you didn’t know you needed.