Jacob Richler at Bosk

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JACOB RICHLER ENJOYS A SPECTACULAR NINE COURSES AT BOSK IN TORONTO'S SHANGRI-LA HOTEL - AND THINKS YOU SHOULD TOO.

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Squab is a tricky bird to cook, but when it passes through the right chef’s hands, it becomes a thing of beauty on the plate.

This one was a case in point. The skin on the breast was as bronzed and crisp as that of a fine Peking duck. Yet the flesh beneath was an ideal medium-rare, rosy-pink and succulent throughout. All the same no layer of fat lingered between them. The bird was perched on a remarkable nest – a circular splatter of puréed red cabbage, it peaks and troughs of varying translucence. Braised Savoy cabbage and a scattering of young nasturtium leaves filled out the picture.

This showstopper was the seventh course in a recent chef’s menu prepared by Damon Campbell and his team at Bosk, the house restaurant in Toronto’s stylish Shangri-La Hotel. His swiftly fired tasting had started with sweet Dungeness crab in a squid-ink dyed wrapper plugged with crème fraiche. It spanned Hamachi sashimi, the slices of shimmering fresh fish interspersed with disks of radish and compressed cucumber, as well as sous-vide poached foie gras, torched, glazed, and sprinkled with micro- shavings of apple and walnut. There was tender poached lobster, served on a bed of tiny, delicate, diced gnocchi, all blanketed with a frothy dollop of lobster emulsion. And roasted amadei in an intense mussel-and-saffron broth. A study of beef delivered a deconstructed Cumbrae rib steak, the filets of eye and deckle each cooked to their respective optimal doneness.

Next, an unusually beautiful dessert of rhubarb with buttermilk panna cotta. You can sample three of these pretty, intelligently composed plates for just $75, or four for $85. Or do as I did and have the full chef’s tasting menu for $115 – $10 less than the fried chicken platter they were peddling across the lobby at Momofuku Daisho last time I stopped by.

Your call.

Bosk at The Shangri-La Hotel, Toronto (1 647) 788 8294[vc_widget_sidebar sidebar_id=”sidebar”]