The Everyman is really a wonderful guy sometimes.
For Christmas 2007 he got me the gift of a dinner at Eigensinn Farm. It came with this really cool autographed book from the farm about their Heaven on Earth project. Don’t get me wrong, sometimes I think the chef is completely out to lunch, but I don’t think there’s any denying that he knows food. Besides, most chefs are a little crazy, and they have to be to work in that sort of environment every day.
Anyhow, we had dinner reservations for February 1st, and let me tell you, I was looking forward to that day for a month and a half. Of course, the heavens had other plans that day, which mostly involved thwarting my efforts to get there. February 1st turned out to be one of the really brutal winter storm days we had, and it took us a good 4 hours to drive to Blue Mountain in Collingwood where we were staying. Once we got there, we figured we were home free, but it turned out that the weather was so bad that the taxi company would not drive us out to the farm, because they were worried they would not be able to retrieve us after dinner. And thus, my attempt to have my dream dinner disintegrated before my eyes. I was crushed, heart-broken, etc, but luckily Nobuyo completely understood and rescheduled our dinner for the following weekend. The wait was on again. To appease ourselves, we ended up dining at the Oliver Bonacini Cafe in the Westin building, but more on that in another post.
So, on to round two. Of course, being winter in Ontario, when we drove up on February 9th, it was snowing pretty badly again. I was terrified that we were just going to repeat our experience last weekend, but still, we plowed on. This time we decided to stay in the Westin building, and we called and confirmed our taxi service before we even left our house. And we made it. Yes we did. What follows is as detailed an account as I can remember of our 9 course meal. I took pictures of each dish, but Nobuyo asked us not to post them on the internet, so they’ll just have to be my own personal memories. I’ll do the best I can to describe everything we ate instead.
First off, let me say, this place is beautiful. You walk through what looks like this tiny entrance to a farm house, into this beautiful, dimly lit room with a roaring fireplace. There are large, colourful circles painted on the ceiling that are outlined in gold leaf, and a sculpture in the corner of driftwood and a pair of naked plastic baby dolls. It’s strange and eclectic, but it works. Each dinner party had their own table, and when we sat down at ours, we noticed that there was a small leg bone of meat on the fire. One wonders whether this is to be served to us later. Mmm, the possibilities. Everyone here is incredibly friendly, and adept at service. They are unimposing, but completely take care of all of your needs. There were only 12 people dining, and they had Nobuyo (his wife) and another woman taking care of us all. I felt royally pampered the whole time.
But on to the food, you say! So to start, we were brought out an elegant, handmade plate in the shape of an artist’s palette. Our first course was a 5 bite appetizer arranged around the palette, which included a bite of wild venison glazed with raspberry on a twig, a chicken liver on toast round, a vegetarian dumpling in a won ton type wrapper, smoked meat on a tiny piece of rosti and a bit of ham they cure in house. Words cannot properly convey the deliciousness of this food. Honestly. I’m reading my description and thinking to myself, that totally doesn’t even begin to describe how good it was.
Moving along, our second course was a chicken consommé with enoki and matsutake mushrooms and an apple, celery root and duck ravioli. There was also a paper thin shaving of cooked chicken breast laid on the top of the consommé. So before you start thinking to yourself, oh, it’s just consommé, listen here. It takes real talent to make even the simplest things taste exquisite, and that they did. I have never been so satisfied with something so simple in my life. The consommé was rich, the mushrooms crunchy, the chicken succulent and the ravioli silky. Hard to pick a favourite dish of the evening, but this was definitely up there.
For our third course, we were presented duck confit leg and fois gras in a plum wine reduction with a delicious squash puree. There was also a cured plum served with this dish, on the amoeba-shaped plate. I love duck, so for me, this was a no-brainer. The squash puree was rich and smooth and matched excellently with the duck. I could’ve eaten 3 more portions of this perfect dish.
The fourth dish was just for us. Because we both had allergies, we had to request no seafood or nuts in our meal. While everyone else dined on a lobster, monkfish and scallop course, (which did look and smell delicious). Our replacement dish was a roasted chicken leg which was served with wild rice and valentine radish slices in jus. This was excellent roasted chicken. It was absolutely amazing, and really tasted like chicken, which is a rare thing these days. You can certainly tell what a difference it makes to have naturally raised food that didn’t come from a CAFO. Unfortunately, we both thought that the weight of our replacement dish was much more substantial than what was being served to everyone else, and therefore it made us quite bloated in the following courses. But one cannot leave their plates unfinished in a place like this, it’s just not possible. So we ate on…
The fifth course was a lovely palate cleansing sorbet. It was served in the upturned end of a broken wine bottle. If you ever look at the bottom of a wine bottle, you’ll see that it has a perfect little indentation shaped like a bowl. It was resting in a pile of fresh snow, with some beautiful branches sticking out for decoration. The sorbet itself was a lovely blood red shade, nicely accented by the green bottle bowl. It was a currant, honey, chartreuse and apple cider sorbet, and it was both refreshing, tangy and delicious. I’m not a huge fan of fruit flavoured things in general, (preferring chocolate, obviously) but this was fantastic.
Our next course was what we’d been eyeing up and anticipating since we walked in and sat down. It was the wondrous meat from the fireplace. It turned out to be a fire grilled pork loin, and it was served with carrots, coloured beets, a sunchoke and purple potato gratin and lentils. Again, such a good, lick your plate clean kind of dish. By the time I was half finished, I thought I was going to explode, but I did not want to risk offending the chef or insulting the kitchen, so I slowly but surely parcelled the rest of the dish into my mouth. If I was going to die, this was a fantastic way to go. 
Next, we had a mixed cheese plate, which was a welcome change from the heavier fare. It was a mix of 5 goat and cow’s milk cheeses from across the country, served with walnut bread, figs and pear slices. The cheeses were delicious, but I am not a connoisseur, so I almost felt that the experience was lost on me. Pear slices were superb; sweet crunchy and soft at the same time.
Dessert. My favourite part of any meal, and this was no exception. We were served an apricot, raspberry and pistachio layered panna cotta, which was even better than I could’ve imagined. With that, there was also a candied lemon foam with tangerine slices, and a small scoop of both an apple spice ice cream and a hazelnut ice cream, served with some cooked spiced apples. There was no chocolate to be found on this plate, and yet I loved every bite. My favorite part being a tie between the lemon foam and the apple spice ice cream. My compliments to the dessert chef!
And then, as a close to our meal, we were served two lovely chocolates on a beautiful wooden platter, with some green tea. One was a white chocolate shortbread and the other was a matcha (green tea) ganache. At this point, I’d forgotten to take a picture of the food before I ate it, because it was chocolate, and there really isn’t any stopping me where chocolate is concerned. I got a picture of my empty platter, which I guess, is a testament to my love of the medium. The green tea served with it was the perfect compliment, and a nice way to finish off our meal and relax our senses.
Overall, the best meal I’ve ever eaten, and honestly, since we’ve been out to dinner elsewhere, everything else (no matter how delicious) seems second rate. It’s not just the food at Eigensinn that’s outstanding, it’s the feeling that they care. They are stewards of the land, and take the utmost care to raise all of their food in a healthy and straightforward manner, without chemicals, pesticides and other harmful things. They are an expression of the type of person I strive to be, in connection with my surroundings and taking care of my planet so that it will still be around for those who come after me. I could not have enjoyed our meal there more if I tried. It was good, simple fare, presented in an elegant but unfussy way. Kudos to the farm, I hope I have the opportunity to visit again.
Until next time…
Tags: Collingwood, Eigensinn Farm, Michael Stadtlander, Oliver Bonacini Cafe Grill, Restaurants, Reviews
Well said.