EnRoute names Vancouver's Cibo as Canada's best new restaurant
Turnips, lamb's tongue, kidney and heart don't usually dazzle or enchant but at Cibo restaurant, chef Neil Taylor transforms supposedly bottom-rung ingredients into mouthwatering dishes. That's partly why the Vancouver restaurant was named Canada's Best New Restaurant 2009 by Air Canada's enRoute magazine Wednesday in the eighth annual round-up.
Food writer Chris Nuttall-Smith visited 37 new Canadian restaurants, eating as many as three entrees in one sitting (triple-headers, he calls them), including five in Vancouver. "The nice thing about Cibo is I had no doubt leaving the restaurant of what had just happened. It was just great," he said in a phone interview from Toronto. "One of the mandates is that restaurants shouldn't only be amazing but the kitchens should be carrying things forward and bringing something new to Canadian cuisine, whatever that might be."
Taylor, he says, has a way of making rustic Italian dishes new with West Coast ingredients and with his skilful cooking. "It's really River Cafe, brought to Vancouver," he says, referring to the celebrated London restaurant where Taylor previously worked (and where Jamie Oliver was famously discovered.)
Taylor agrees. "I try and cook along that River Cafe philosophy of keeping things simple and using local product."
Canada's 10 Best New Restaurants
1. Cibo Trattoria, Vancouver
2. The Black Hoof, Toronto
3. Rush, Calgary
4. Atelier, Ottawa
5. Murray Street, Ottawa
6. Cabane à sucre Au Pied de Cochon, Saint-Benoit de Mirabel, QC
7. Ship to Shore, Malpeque Bay, PEI
8. Pizzeria Libretto, Toronto
9. Culina Highlands, Edmonton
10. La Salle à manger, Montreal
-source: EnRoute Magazine
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