My Brain reviews the Cooking
Here’s a new take on how we evolved. In Catching Fire, How Cooking Made Us Human, the anthropologist Richard Wrangham posits that our big leap forward as a species came when our ancestors learned to cook. How satisfactory.
We have hungry brains. But until we started cooking food, chopping and softening it up, we couldn’t digest it efficiently enough to provide the energy to get our brains whirring. With this whole new way of looking at cooking, I now want to see how well my brain is fed at George, the restaurant tucked into the Verity Club at Queen and Jarvis.
I’d hoped to eat the patio lunch special $22 in George’s charming garden, but it’s January in June and we forgot our anoraks, so we have to retreat inside. Now we’re looking at the four-course-lunch tasting menu at $55. All four of us must order the tasting menu, based on the regular menu. Ok.
We wonder what we’ll get. The menu is global fusion, , Miso Chicken Sandwich, Oyster mushrooms, Swiss cheese $14, Pacific Halibut with pickled white asparagus, Taro $19. But first we’re given a delectable amuse guele, a little bowl of shards of short ribs and mushrooms. Superb.
We think we’ll each get something different. Instead, two of us are served Jasmine cured wild salmon, basil custard, pecans and the rest of us get seared tuna seared asparagus, parsley frittata.
First impression: I thought we’d get a series of dishes the same size as the amuse guele. Instead, we’re getting whole courses. Now the size of a portion dictates its acceptability. A small plate is easy to enjoy, it’s a fast hit, an impressionistic bite, The larger the plate, the more demands are placed on the cook because the eater has time to rate the precise calibration of textures and flavours. I like the fresh asparagus of course but I don’t think its brisk bite and neutral flavour goes well with the bland soft tuna. Cured salmon is a no brainer but I couldn’t taste the jasmine with which it had been cured.
Next course is pasta. My brain which has been playing tetris wakes up. Brains love carbs’ fast energy. The semi-light gnocchi with spicy prosciutto and spinach makes an immediate impression on the left cortex and conversation becomes animated. How would you run General Motors? The others lap up a lasagna with cured ricotta. We all taste the sauce and try to define the cured ricotta.
My brain dozes through the protein course. We’re thrown back to our energyless grass-eating selves. Grouchy, we let war break out. We women cry sexism: we’re being served grilled prawns with sweat pea mustard and sausage and draped in greens while men get the real food, veal tenderloin with two perogies on top. We eat the perogies to restore reason, and decide to share. I realize now that my brain is no gastronome because the perogies are hefty, but the veal tenderloin is pinkly good. I like the idea of sweat pea mustard with the prawns, but again, I can’t taste the peas.
Can we eat more? Yes shout our brains. They’ve directed the eyes to scan the dessert choices and they’re happy. Glucose addicted, they can’t wait for the sugar rush, the flow of the now despised corn syrup. Chocolate beignets, sugared donuts with hearts of molten chocolate are OTT with strawberries and a dab of marmelade. A soft meringue Pavlova is highly acceptable. The chocolate duende (flamenco?) mousse is velvety and the vanilla crème brulee may be a platitude but platitudes are often true.
The brains mull lunch. We have lapped up a delightful Lilly pilly Cabernet Sauvignon which may have dulled their keen edge. Even so they are able to parse the meal. Chefs at the level Lorenzo Loseto and Fiona Lim must have a story to tell so where’s the story? Apart from being big supportesr of fresh and local, they don’t seem to have an overriding philosophy of cooking. The fact that some of the advertised flavours were MIA makes them seem imprecise. Other than the chocolate beignets, there is no major dish, something which eaters look for, and while the food is good, it is not startlingly good. It’s cooking designed not to offend anyone - like a popular TV show.
George. 111C Queen St. E. 416-863-6006 No Wheel chair access. Lunch Tasting Menu for Two : food plus tax: $124.50
For more on Catching Fire, How Cooking Made Us Human, go to ginamallet.com
I read with great interest your review of George Restaurant. I am happy to agree with almost everything you said. Somehow , I have never thought of George as anything more than a GREAT place for LUNCH. The menu generally reads better than the food. But that is often the case… Thanks for raising that BAR, Gina! HappyEater