Devan: As a chef who grew up in Toronto,
being one of the hosts of this series for Food & Drink Magazine
is a dream assignment for me.
I get to hit the road and check out the culinary scene
in different areas of Ontario.
And I get to do it all with a different guest each episode.
(Music)
Song: It's just my fascination
Don't need a destination
It's just my fascination
I've never felt so beautiful
(Music)
Today is going to be a great day.
Heading out to the Niagara region, about 90 minutes outside of Toronto
and I'm going to be picking up an amazing Niagara chef.
She's a local, her name is Tania Ganassini.
She's a plant-based chef, she's an entrepreneur,
and we're going to be hitting up 5 stops in the Niagara region.
We're going to be looking to draw inspiration
and pick up some amazing artisanal ingredients.
Incredible food and drink that are there.
And at the end of the day, we're going to put together an incredible dinner.
I can't wait to get started.
Devan: I'm meeting Tania at her local,
and our first stop, The Pie Plate.
(Music)
This looks incredible. It smells so good in here.
- Welcome. - Thank you so much.
I love this place so much.
This is one of my favourite spots in the region.
- This is the spot? - This is the spot.
- Okay. - This is The Pie Plate
- Yeah. - and this is Maddie.
- Devan. Nice to meet you. - She's a good friend of mine,
and her family owns this place.
- Yeah. - Amazing.
We source everything locally here in Niagara.
We use only local farmers, local fruit.
It just... it all looks so incredible,
- I know. - it looks so artisan
and just so delicious. I want it all.
What do we have to have here?
Well, right now it's peach season.
Peach pie, peach scones..
Ohh, I saw your eyes light up.
I definitely want peach scones.
- Yes. - For breakfast, peach scones?
And you, what are you going to get?
You know, I think we need some baguettes for dinner.
- Sure. - And then definitely a peach pie.
Devan: And peach blueberry pie?
- Yeah! - We want everything.
We're here at the perfect time of year
where everything amazing is in season.
You have blueberries, peaches, apricots, plums,
like, every stone fruit, tons of beautiful summer vegetables,
and we're going to cook with a lot of those ingredients tonight.
Devan: Yeah.
(Music)
Tania: I love this area so much,
and I'm really excited to show it to you
because there's something fun kind of discovering a place for the first time.
It's truly endlessly inspiring.
Like, this is the place to be if you're a chef.
I'm excited for this trip.
I want to experience everything that Niagara has to offer.
So where are we going?
So, we're going to Rosewood Winery.
- Okay. - Actually the only stop today
- that I have never been to. - Oh, that's exciting.
I'm really excited. All of the other stops,
I love and I can evangelize about them, so...
- Have you been? - Never been before.
I've been to Niagara, Niagara-On-The-Lake, but I've never been to Rosewood.
I also don't know what evangelize means.
(Laughing) Me neither.
(Music)
Tania: Wow, it's super beautiful.
(Music)
William: The dream was to build a family winery and meadery.
Honeybees, for us, are fundamental and paramount
to everything we do here at Rosewood.
Honeybee is omnipresent.
Devan: Are you afraid of bees?
Tania: No. Are you?
Devan: No, not at all.
Tania: Wow.
William: This is where the queen has been laying some of her eggs.
Devan: Want to go for it?
Tania: Yeah, I kind of do, actually.
There's something really calming about this.
Devan: All this honey talk... can we try some of this?
William: Definitely.
Tania: Okay, I'm going in.
So this is a really nice wildflower-based blend.
Tania: It's so good.
So, the smoked honey is really unique.
Tania: I feel like this is up your alley.
I'm a big fan of smoke.
Tania: Ooh!
Wow.
This is the most fun I've had in a while.
William: It's kind of like butter, eh?
So... getting to the good part.
We're going to taste some wine.
Tania: Wow, I love that.
William: So this is our Mead Royale.
So the Mead Royale is our honey wine, basically.
Wow.
So, we're taking honey, we're adding water,
we're diluting them together,
and then we're allowing these to begin fermentation in a tank.
Sorry, we need a moment of silence for this.
(Laughing)
This is incredible! This is next level.
You can taste the terroir, you can taste the honey,
but it's not adulterated at all.
You guys approach winemaking
like how really great chefs approach food:
you're sort of letting nature speak for itself.
I feel like I have a new appreciation for this region and what you guys do.
- Thank you so much. - Thank you.
(Music)
Devan: Where are we going now?
'Cause we're going to our third stop.
- So are you a big cheese guy? - I'm a huge cheese guy.
Tania: We're going to Upper Canada Cheese.
They do some really, really unique cheeses.
We're here. We're going to taste some cheese.
Tania: Is that a cow?
Devan: Is that a cow?
Tania: Oh my God, that's a cow!
It's not an ordinary cow, this is a Guernsey cow.
Guernsey cow. So is this cow ideal for producing a specific type of cheese, or...
Yes. All our cheese is made with Guernsey milk.
It's high in milk fat, it has lots of beta carotene,
and you'll see in some of our cheeses,
the wonderful coloration it gets from beta carotene.
And it's just a superior milk.
So who is this beautiful animal?
- Brenda: This is Jedi. - Devan: Jedi. What a great name.
Aww, she's so beautiful.
She's visiting us from the Comfort Farm.
- We milk about 45. - 45.
45... yeah.
The farm is about 20 minutes away from here,
so the milk is fresh every time we make cheese.
I think it's time we sampled some cheese.
- Yeah? Are you ready? - All this talk...
Thank you for your hard work, Jedi.
Brenda: She's the star of the show.
This is our signature cheese, Niagara Gold.
- Here you go... Ladies first. - Thank you.
Yes.
Salud.
Mmm! That with the honey...
That'd be amazing.
All right. Comfort Cream.
That's my favourite.
I'm going to grill our Guernsey Girl.
That's the jam. That's the one.
Tania: We're going to have a really good time cooking with these. Thank you.
Devan: Another inspiring adventure.
But now we're going to our fourth stop.
We're going to Quiet Acres.
(Music)
Tania: I go there at least twice a week,
it's one of my favourite farm stands in the region,
and they just have a wide variety of really, really high quality produce.
Devan: Let's go check it out.
Tania: All right. I can't wait.
(Music)
Devan: These plums look amazing.
- Wow. - Tania: Oh yeah.
Oh yeah!
You know, you never see fresh-dug potatoes like this.
So everything that we sell is all picked fresh every day.
Yeah, so we only sell what we grow, so it's all from our farm.
And I love what you guys do.
Maureen: Takes many hands.
It's a labour of love, that's for sure.
Tania: So we're going to grab some red skin and some Yukon.
Devan: Awesome.
Tania: I think we need some garlic.
Maureen: Variety of garlic's called "music".
Tania: Okay.
Maureen: And it's a hardneck garlic
and it will last well into next April.
- Tania: No way! - Maureen: So, yeah.
I find this time of year really overwhelming
because I want to... I want to use every single thing.
Yeah.
What's your favourite thing here?
Yeah, I would probably say the peaches.
And if you want to just take a stroll down the laneway...
Yes.
...you can help yourself. Enjoy.
And thank you. Have a great day, Maureen!
Okay, thank you. You have a good day as well, thank you.
(Music)
Tania: Yeah, the nectarines are insane.
This is the best thing I've tried so far.
- Tania: And now, ready to cook? - Devan: Yes.
Tania: We're heading to Oast House,
which is one of my favourite breweries in the region.
I might be a little biased because...
- Why? - Well, my husband is the chef there.
But it's truly an amazing place, you're going to love it.
And it's the perfect place to complete our day.
Devan: And we get to finally cook with all the amazing stuff we gathered all day.
Tania: This is why we do what we do.
Devan: Let's do it.
So what are you making?
I'm making this apricot and tomato salsa with chilli.
Tania: Okay.
Devan: Going to hit that with some lime juice, salt, and pepper.
And this is going to go with one of our beautiful cheeses on a nice crostini.
Tania: Amazing.
Devan: And I'm going to hit it with some more chilli 'cause I'm savage.
(Laughing)
What are you making?
I'm going to make a smashed cucumber salad.
Devan: Okay.
And it's going to have some charred garlic scapes in it...
- Devan: Yeah. - Tania: tomatoes...
- Devan: Okay. - Tania: crushed peanuts,
black vinegar, some shoyu... sesame, scallion kick in there.
Devan: This is rustic.
Well, that's the freshness.
Tania: This dinner is so quintessentially Niagara,
eating food that was gathered locally from people
who really care about what they do,
and it's the perfect way to spend an evening.
Devan: Moments like this are the true epitome of summertime.
Various: Cheers! Cheers.
Devan: This is why I love to cook.
Cooking is nurturing people and bringing them together,
and this is a true showcase of that.
You know, I've spent a lot of time in Niagara in the past,
but I've never experienced Niagara the way that I did today.
To meet these artisanal craftsmen,
just meeting them and learning their story was an incredible experience.
We're sitting on picnic tables, we're overlooking a vineyard.
This is how it's done in Niagara.
(Music)
On the next episode of 5 Stops, join me,
Miranda Keyes, as chef Nick Liu and I
check out Ontario's garden, Norfolk County.