Tickets on sale Saturday, April 13 Visa Infinite® Dining Series Explore a world of fine flavours and exclusive dining experiences for Visa Infinite® and Visa Infinite Privilege® cardholders. Darren MacLean | Shokunin Chef Mark McEwan | Bymark At Shokunin, a sneak peek of The Final Table chef’s next act. The greatest plates from Mark McEwan, and his brightest protegés. New Zealand vs Canada: The cool climate wines of two nations. 2019 SPRING/SUMMER SERIES TORONTO | MONTREAL | OTTAWA | CALGARY | VANCOUVER ®Visa, Visa Infinite & Visa Infinite Privilege are trademarks of Visa Int., used under license. © 2019 Visa. All Rights Reserved. It’s your ticket to hot new restaurants Welcome to like Calgary’s Barshoku and Montreal’s Eastern Canada Western Canada Pastel, as well as beloved classics like Les the Visa Infinite Fougères and Alloy. More than anything, Events Events it satisfies your craving for all that’s fresh Toronto Calgary Dining Series and new and deliciously exciting this spring. Cru 4 Alloy 12 All across Canada, the country’s best May 9 6:30PM - Dinner $175 May 3 6:30PM - Dinner $165 chefs are cooking up something Intimate. Unique. Delicious. Every Visa exciting for you, tastes so new and fresh Infinite dinner tells a story. What will Bymark 6 Charbar 14 and amazing, you can’t wait to try them. yours be? May 14 6:30PM - Dinner $200 Jun 22 6:30PM - Dinner $165 That’s why we’ve curated a collection of dining experiences you’ll seriously want Labora 8 Shokunin 16 to savour. Visit visainfinite.ca for details. Jun 9 11:00AM - Brunch $100 Jun 28 6:30PM - Dinner $185 Your Visa Infinite or Visa Infinite Privilege Ottawa Vancouver card is your entrée to all this and more. Les Fougères 10 Ancora 18 It serves up all the freshest flavours Jun 12 6:30PM - Dinner $175 May 1 6:30PM - Dinner $165 of spring, the brightest produce, the Boulevard 21 sweetest berries and the crispest, most Montreal Jun 6 6:30PM - Dinner $185 aromatic wines from British Columbia, Ontario and New Zealand. It assures you Le Fantôme 11 a seat at the tables of the greatest chefs May 30 5:45/8:30PM - Dinner $185 in the country, among them Canadian Culinary Champions Yannick Lasalle, Ryan Media Sponsor: Produced and managed by: O’Flynn, Alex Chen and Jinhee Lee as well as TV celebrities like Mark McEwan, Subscribe to receive Connie DeSousa and the stars of Netflix’s The Final Table. It offers exciting tastes marketing emails from Visa, at www.idmg.ca from all over the globe, from Peru’s chili- visainfinite.ca, in order to learn Please drink responsibly. spiked ceviche to France’s butter-rich about upcoming events. sauces and all the sweet-hot-salty-sour complexity of Asia. It opens the door to exclusive experiences including a one-night-only pop-up that reunites culinary alumni from the legendary kitchen of one of Canada’s greatest fine-dining restaurants. Terms & Conditions: ✦Cardholders will be informed at least five business days prior to an event of any postponement or cancellation. In the event of a cancellation, cardholders will receive a full refund. The offers described herein are only available to Canadian Visa Infinite and Visa Infinite Privilege cardholders. The appearance by all Chefs, sommeliers and bartenders is subject to change without notice. Seating requests are always considered but cannot always be accommodated and some events may have communal seating. Offer is 2 | based on availability and additional terms and conditions may apply. Visit visainfinite.ca for details. | 3 New Zealand vs Ontario: The cool climate wines of two regions. “Wine is one of the most ABOUT JONATHAN WILLIAMS civilized things in the world.” Is there anything Chef Jon Williams can’t do? The Executive Chef of the newly opened CRU Restaurant in Scotia Plaza is as expert in ABOUT NEW ZEALAND charcuterie, pastry and wine as he is in the WINEGROWERS fundamentals of fine cuisine. He began his career in Niagara wine country, cooking at New Zealand Winegrowers is the national Hillebrand Winery Restaurant, and then made organization for the country’s grape and his way to Toronto to become Sous Chef at wine sector and comprises around 850 Top Chef Canada winner Carl Heinrich’s highly grower members and 700 winery members. regarded Richmond Station. He then spent Established in 2002, it is the only unified a few years in the UK, where he cooked in national winegrowers industry body in the numerous Michelin-starred restaurants: The world. Among other things, the association Clean, elegant and bursting with flavour. Clove Club, Dinner by Heston Blumenthal and provides a global marketing platform for Ontario and New Zealand are both Hedone restaurant, all of which also enjoy New Zealand wine, advocates at regional, renowned for their cool-climate wines. spots on San Pellegrino’s list of the World’s national and international levels, leads But how do they complement each other? 50 Best Restaurants. In 2017 he returned to sustainability initiatives and organizes Find out when winemakers from the island Toronto and recently joined the team at CRU, events such as the New Zealand Wine of the nation pour their best alongside vintages a modern fine-dining restaurant and with a Year Awards. from Ontario at the art-filled CRU, Toronto’s focus on wine. newest destination for wine-focused dining. Executive Chef Jon Williams, whose résumé ABOUT VQA WINES OF ONTARIO contains recent stints at several of London’s TASTY FACT AND WINE COUNTRY ONTARIO top Michelin-starred restaurants, will turn New Zealand is famous for intensely aromatic Ontario is home to 175 VQA wineries and is CRU RESTAURANT his impressive culinary skills to creating an white wines made from the Sauvignon the largest wine growing region in Canada. inventive succession of artful plates to pair ✦ Blanc grape, which was first imported into VQA stands for 100% Ontario grown grapes Thu May 9 6:30PM with the Sauvignon Blancs, Pinot Noirs, the country in the 1970s. No one is entirely and is the essence of local. Ontario has 100 Yonge St, Suite 100, Toronto and other food-friendly wines both regions sure where Sauvignon Blanc originated, gained global recognition for its cool are so well known for. Enjoy a comparative though it is generally believed to have climate wines and excels at key international $175 per person tasting of bright bubbles to begin, and been somewhere in France’s Loire Valley varietals including Chardonnay, Riesling, Includes food, wine and gratuity; taxes extra. then embark on a vinous journey across the and/or Bordeaux regions. What is known, Cabernet Franc, Pinot Noir and Gamay Noir. hemispheres. though, is that in 18th century Bordeaux, the Over 130 wineries in Ontario welcome wine Note: This event may have communal vine paired with Cabernet Franc and they lovers to visit their wineries, offering them 1-888-711-9399 seating, please keep this in mind when became, a little surprisingly, the parents of world-class wine country experiences from visainfinite.ca booking tickets. the bold, dark, tannic Cabernet Sauvignon. casual to fancy. Venues are not conducive to young children. Events run approximately 3-4 hours. 4 | TORONTO TORONTO | 5 Master & Protégés dinner with Mark McEwan & Stoneleigh wines at Bymark. ABOUT BROOKE MCDOUGALL ABOUT MARK MCEWAN Executive Chef Brooke McDougall began Mark McEwan is among Canada’s most his career at the lively Blue Mountain creative and groundbreaking chefs. He was Resort in Collingwood and then enrolled the youngest Executive Chef ever to wield in the Culinary Management program at a whisk at Toronto’s upscale Sutton Place George Brown College. After graduating, Hotel, and has since helmed some of the Chef McDougall headed to North 44 in city’s most notable restaurants: North 44, Toronto where under the mentorship of Bymark (enRoute’s Best New Restaurant 2003), Chef McEwan, Chef McDougall landed the ONE, Fabbrica and Diwan at The Aga Khan role of Executive Sous Chef. Known for Museum. He has also opened three upscale his strong leadership skills and dedication gourmet food stores, McEwan’s, leads one of to innovative culinary techniques, Chef the city’s top catering companies, McEwan McDougall was chosen to open the award- Catering, and produced two best-selling winning Bymark as Executive Chef. Mark McEwan is among Canada’s most cookbooks. Outside Toronto, he is probably celebrated chefs, as famous for his best known as head judge on television’s ABOUT CRAIG WONG appearances on Top Chef Canada as he Top Chef Canada and as host of the Food Chef-Owner Craig Wong brings classic is revered for dishes that are both easy Network’s The Heat. technique and the culinary traditions of to enjoy and exquisitely prepared from his Jamaican-Chinese heritage to Toronto’s the highest quality ingredients (Think: ABOUT STONELEIGH VINEYARDS Patois. He previously worked in some of luxuriously rich lobster poutine.) But these The exceptional terroir, where the Stoneleigh Toronto’s most illustrious kitchens, including days, he’d just as happily be known as one vineyards lie defines the wine’s superior the McEwan Group of restaurants, and of the country’s great culinary mentors. At qualities. Located on the northern side of spent a year with Alain Ducasse au Plaza this “Master & Protégés” dinner, he reunites Wairau Valley, the vignerons have located Athénée in France. He has earned numerous with some of his aptest pupils—Bymark’s the vineyards on deep, infertile gravel beds accolades including recognition by Toronto Brooke McDougall, Craig Wong of Patois covered in smooth sunstones. These stones Life’s Top 20 restaurants 2015. and Brad Long of Café Belong—for a feast reflect the sun’s heat during the day, assisting that celebrates flavours, technique and in ripening, whilst cool nights maintain friendship.