Simply the Best: Food and Wine from Ontario's Finest Inns

John Abbott is a professor of history at Laurentian University’s Algoma University College. He is the co-author of The Border at Sault Ste Marie and The History of Fort St. Joseph.

The authors provide no criteria for the selection process that resulted
in the 30-odd Ontario inns profiled in this book. The profiles
themselves are certainly not reviews in any critical sense of the word,
but rather “appreciations.” Some of the inns do not have real
kitchens, offering only breakfasts and sometimes “continental”
excuses for breakfasts at that.

The recipes, for the most part, are superb: relatively simple in terms
of preparation, and promising in terms of flavour and appearance. Many
of the breakfasts are sweet or savoury “jumbles” of the sort that
one might prepare on a holiday or weekend. Marmalade French Toast
(Idlewyld Inn, London) consists of bread cubes macerated overnight in a
solution of marmalade, orange juice, half-and-half cream, and almond
flavouring, then baked up in a soufflé dish the next morning.
Outstanding examples in the chapter on (seasonal) firsts include Roasted
Plum Tomato Bisque (Trinity House Inn, Gananoque), Muskoka Premium Dark
Ale & Cheddar Soup (Gananoque Inn), and Four Onion Soup au Gratin
(Vintage Goose Inn, Kingsville).

Over half the book is devoted to main courses, divided into four
seasonal chapters to prompt the employment of ingredients grown locally
and purchased from the producer. Spring mains feature leeks, baby
spinach, sweet peas, and spring lamb. Summer mains do not emphasize the
season, though the sides (which are not included) should. Fall is
treated a little better in this regard, with Highfields’ Harvest
Vegetable Strudel being an exceptionally tempting example. Winter brings
robust offerings such as Beef in Baco Noir with Porcini & Polenta
(Harbour House, Niagara-on-the-Lake). The rustic Baco Noir is a Henry of
Pelham specialty and a natural for deeply flavoured beef braises.
“Sweets for All Seasons” wraps up the work.

Simply the Best is not only a source of worthy recipes, but an
excellent guide to the culinary philosophies of diverse establishments.