Tag: Coconut Lagoon
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Coconut Lagoon’s sorrow
I was writing a short piece to celebrate Joe Thottungal’s cookbook making the ‘long list’ for the Taste Canada Awards when the awful news hit that his restaurant was on fire. After sixteen years of operations Coconut Lagoon has now closed for the foreseeable future. I’m acquainted with a great number of restaurants in this […]
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Let the record show…
…that our city, our national capital region, has won more gold medals at the Canadian Culinary Championships than any other. I’m not bragging here. No ma’am. I’m simply stating a fact. We’ve been on the top rung of the national culinary podium three times. Close behind us, Montreal, Toronto and Calgary chefs have managed to […]
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Good stuff…
Mark your calendars for a collaborative pop-up at the Jazz Festival. June 27th. Chefs Pat Garland (Absinthe), Joe Thottungal (Coconut Lagoon), Tim Stock (Thyme & Again) and their teams. Ticket gets you into festival VIP Lounge and to the funky, spring-in-your-step music of the Heavyweights. Details below.
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Colours of Curry: Vij & Thottungal paint the town
“Twenty years ago, who would ever have thought,” said Vancouver chef Vikram Vij to the full house at Ottawa’s Coconut Lagoon, “…that a Canadian crowd would pay more than a hundred bucks each to eat Indian food prepared by a couple of Indian guys.” That got a laugh. Probably because it’s pretty accurate: Indian food […]
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Vij and Thottungal in one kitchen
Two of our country’s finest chefs and restaurateurs — one from western Canada but originally from North India, the other from eastern Canada, but raised in South India — are teaming up for a capital event. Chefs Vikram Vij (of Vancouver’s Vij’s Restaurant and Rangoli) and Joe Thottungal (of the Kerala restaurant Coconut Lagoon) will each cook […]
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Top Vets
“But what of restaurants with staying power, with pedigree, with a noble history? The truth is, they tend to fall off the page.” I wrote a food feature for Ottawa Magazine’s Holiday issue, on veteran restaurants I still consider of genuine quality. I defined ‘veteran’ as those place that have blown out ten candles. (Two […]
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Bocuse d’Or comes to Atelier
It is indisputably the most prestigious cooking competition in the world. The Bocuse d’Or was created in 1987 by the legendary (nonagenarian) French chef, Paul Bocuse. Every two years, it invites 24 young chefs from around the world to a wild and crazy cook-off in Lyons. Each must prepare meat and fish courses, accompanied by […]
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Canadian Culinary Championships 2017
When all was said and eaten and the judges’ marks tabulated, on the podium at the Canadian Culinary Championships stood two Alberta chefs and our man from Ottawa. Calgary chef Jinhee Lee of Foreign Concept won the event — the first woman to take the top prize since 2007. The bronze went to Chef Eric Hanson […]
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Gold Medal Plates 2016
Photo courtesy Gold Medal Plates The eleventh Ottawa-Gatineau Gold Medal Plates was a grand night of feasting and partying in support of our Canadian Olympic athletes. It was also, of course, a cooking competition, one that brings together ten of the National Capital Region’s finest chefs. We ate incredibly well this year, the dishes as […]