Now Pilar is the consummate professional, too classy to allow me to voice my thoughts to the organizers. And besides, she accomplished what she had set out to do – experience a highly competitive fishbowl type of culinary environment with the public and media watching her every stir and taste, showcase Oaxaca, and enjoy.

As a former litigator, I’m perhaps overly sensitive to rules being followed, impropriety, and the appearance of bias. The competition was tainted, at least for those of us who knew the rules and that they had been broken. For the public and perhaps most media, Louisiana won fair and square. It’s the public whose interests are most important from the perspective, I would suggest, of the organizers of the Harbourfront events. But people came out to see Mexico do well, and Pilar did not disappoint. She drew the crowd. There were almost twice as many in the audience for Pilar’s semi-final (some had to watch on a monitor from outside the main event hall), than for the Louisiana chef’s final the following day. Organizers should take note. The Mexican Consul and at least one staff member were in attendance at Pilar’s performance, as were other Mexicans, including chefs eager to show their support. It’s unfortunate they may never know what was very conceivably, an uncomfortable truth.

Lead-up to the events
With a chef like Pilar, availability of ingredients is not the end of the story. Are they the quality she requires; will they be available and fresh when she needs them; are they organic; have the tortillas been frozen, and can they be purchased in blue and red as well; fresh masa; does dried hierba santa take too much away from a recipe calling for fresh or frozen? Several attendances at Chinatown and Kensington Market, and a visit to the upscale St. Lawrence Market, were not negotiable. And of course this meant that the provisional menus to some extent remained as such until only a couple of days before each event.

The Toronto Star invited Pilar to its test kitchen to prepare mole amarillo and verde. The Star will not publish a recipe unless each and every ingredient is locally available. Pilar’s concern was securing the green leafy herbs for the verde, but as it turned out, the dry hierba santa did do the trick, and everything else was available fresh. A page-long spread on September 16th, stands as testament of ingredient availability: Click here to read the article.

Repeated phone calls, emails, and attendances to and with the chefs and administration of each establishment were ongoing right up until Pilar’s final performance the evening of September 29th, at The Chef’s House, the restaurant and hands-on teaching facility of George Brown College’s Institute of Culinary Arts.

Arrangements had previously been made for longtime friend, Enrique Jiménez of Mezcal del Amigo notoriety, to give Pilar as many bottles of each type of mezcal – blanco, reposado and añejo – as she wanted. Then Ontario’s Woolwich Diary, known for its goat and feta cheeses, offered to provide each venue with unlimited product. The range of recipes in Pilar’s arsenal increased. And the generosity of these two enhanced the ability of each restaurant and culinary institute to bolster its bottom line.

The events, and more of the media
It’s beyond the scope of this essay to review each dinner prepared at the diversity of venues. However, the range included: teaching at the two Nella Cucina events, and working with Chef Li and his team of chefs and students of the hospitality industry at George Brown College; Frank Restaurant, the 120 seat high end dining room of the Art Gallery of Ontario (featuring guest artist Gabriela Campos while lives in Ontario and spends part of each year in Oaxaca); Veritas Local Fare; working alongside fellow Mexicans Luis Valenzuela at Torito Tapas Bar and Pepe at Frida; and finally, Pilar’s solo efforts at private dinner parties in the kitchens of Mary Luz, and of Lee Baker of Oakville, Ontario.

To this writer the dinner at Frank gets the highest grade, echoed by the critique on September 22nd, in the Women’s Post by Cathy Riches of the Toronto Tourism Board:

“Starting with one of the best margaritas I’ve ever had (sorry Mexico!), the six-course meal unfolded delightfully, moving from botanas (Mexico’s version of tapas) of silken scallop ceviche, incredibly fresh salsa de mango and guacamole, to kebabs of grilled shrimp the size of a baby’s fist, sublime salad, creamy corn soup, and chicken breast stuffed with mushrooms and poblano chiles. As with any fine meal, it’s the details and subtle touches that raise it above the mundane. So, a scattering of tart pomegranate seeds contrasted beautifully with the sweet richness of the corn soup and delicate, crispy fried tortilla threads and chile pasilla added crunch and fire to the salad. The artful blend of typical Mexican ingredients with local ones like Woolwich Dairy goat cheese was also a welcome touch.”

But it was the review of Sheryl Kirby of TasteTO.com, after her experience at Frida on September 16th, which set the tone for the tour and was likely instrumental in ensuring that each and every evening event was completely sold out:
“the sheer brilliance of Cabrera’s 30-ingredient authentic Oaxacan mole will likely remain one of the highlights of my food writing career.”

As a result of the careful and skilled orchestration of Sizzling Communications, media were either at each public event, or attempting to ply Pilar away from her engagements so as to obtain interviews for radio, television, newspaper and magazine, and blogs. Newspaper coverage included the Toronto Sun noting Pilar’s tour ahead of Bill Clinton’s much-touted talk to Torontonians; The Toronto Star giving her more press than George Clooney’s participation in the Toronto International Film Festival; and an article about her tour in City Bites, a magazine insert of The Globe and Mail.

While at Nella, Pilar was interview by Sarah Elton for a radio piece about huitlacoche, a delicacy derived from corn mold, which aired on CBC Radio’s Here and Now on September 23rd, and by Food Network Canada’s Erin Jackson, who recounted her exhilarating experience in taking a class from “the master herself:” Click here to read the blog.

Pilar was also interviewed over bagels and cream cheese for breakfast at Jewish style restaurant favorite United Bakers Dairy Restaurant, by Good Food Revelation’s Malcolm Jolley (http://www.goodfoodrev.com/0111/pilar.htm). Additional coverage was provided through Slow Food Toronto, Ontario Culinary Tourism Alliance, and on websites such as Tripadvisor, Mexico My-Space and Mexconnect.

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