New York culinary dynamo Lidia Bastianich travels to Toronto to promote all things Italian

She’s been dubbed a force of nature — and with an empire that includes eight restaurants, six cookbooks, two Italian wineries and several cookbooks, who’s going to argue with that distinction?

Ontario’s Greenbelt Fund announces a new round of grants

Locally grown food is making the leap from quaint farmers’ markets to institutions serving thousands of diners with a boost from the Ontario government’s Greenbelt Fund Broader Public Sector Investment Fund.

TORONTO — The Second Annual Smoke’s Poutinerie World Poutine Eating Championship is set to kick off Sept. 24 from the chain’s Mobile Truck at the Rogers Centre in Toronto.

The 10-minute all-you-can-eat competition will challenge contestants to consume the brand’s traditional poutine, which includes hand-cut fries, cheese curds and signature gravy.

Obikà brings Italy’s famed Mozzarella di Bufala Campana to Canada

Anyone hurrying through the towering glass atrium of Brookfield Place in Toronto’s downtown business district would be forgiven for thinking Obikà Mozzarella Bar, one of the newest restaurants in the complex, is a sushi bar. First there’s that big name on the sign, with its seeming Japanese inflection and evocative mock-ink brush font; then there’s the restaurant’s layout in the atrium’s courtyard, featuring a glass-fronted eating counter where diners can watch chefs prepare the food. The chefs themselves wear traditional waboshi — those stubby sushi-chef hats.