ottawa foodies

Invitees are being contacted for the GMP 2011 "competition", which will be held at the NAC this year on November 21st - that's quite a bit of lead time!!! I had no idea that the funds being raised were diverted into the Own The Podium fund, what I do know is that the tickets are pretty $$$ so start hoarding your rupees! A number of people have commented on how the GMP participants are the same every year, hoping for new blood this time around to freshen things up. We shall see what happens!

Ron Eade just posted the list for 2011.

communities.canada.com

Returning from last year:

Simon and Ross Fraser - Fraser Café
Caroline Ishii - ZenKitchen
Marc Lepine - Atelier
Charles Part - Les Fougères, Chelsea, Quebec (* winner 2008)

New from last year:

Matthew Carmichael - Restaurant E18hteen, Social, and SIDEDOOR ( * winner 2009)
Michael Hay - The Courtyard Restaurant
Patricia Larkin - Black Cat Bistro
Michael Radford - Savana Café
Lili Sullivan - East and Main Bistro, Wellington, Ont. (Prince Edward County)
Steve Wall - Town Gastropub

The 2010 list was:

Ben Baird – The Urban Pear
Ross & Simon Fraser – Fraser Café
Caroline Ishii – Zen Kitchen
Charlotte Langley – Whalesbone Oyster House
Marc Lepine – Atelier
Steve Mitton – Murray Street
Michael Moffatt – Beckta Dining and Wine
Charles Part – Les Fougères
Michael Potters – Harvest
Rene Rodriguez – Navarra

So it looks like those on the 'out' list from the 2010 event are:
Ben Baird
Charlotte Langley
Steve Mitton
Michael Moffatt * winner for 2010 so does not compete in the next year
Michael Potters
Rene Rodriguez

I was just reading Ron Eade's breaking foodie news from last year's announcement of the GMP lineup. It then included:

Yannick Anton - Le Cordon Bleu, Ottawa
Michael Blackie - NAC
Richard Nigro and Norm Aitken - Juniper Kitchen

By the time the event actually came around the roster had them changed out for:

Charlotte Langley – Whalesbone Oyster House
Steve Mitton – Murray Street
Charles Part – Les Fougères

All that to say, things can happen. So if your favourite chef isn't in the line-up yet, who knows, there may still be hope.

Chimichimi, do you know how much "pretty $$$" is?

I don't know what they intend on charging this year, here's a pamphlet with all the pricing schemes from last year: www.goldmedalplates.com