It had been years since I’ve been back to PEC, and I knew a lot had changed since my last visit, so when I was invited to dinner at Littlejohn Farm for a collaborative dinner with Miku, Toronto’s aburi sushi destination, it only made sense to for Misha and I to make a weekend out of it.
Littlejohn Farm is known for their sustainable agriculture and culinary experiences where they teach people about sustainable food harvesting through wholesome, healthy, terroir-based gastronomy. Their goal is to connect people with a deeper understanding of food production and where its from.
The farm may be small, but Chef Zach and his wife/business partner Lu Littlejohn’s vision is mighty, and based on love. Love in the romantic sense but also love in the sense of kindness for animals and the environment.
As Luhana (Lu to friends) led us on a tour of their few hectares-sized farm, we learned some of their secrets to sustainability.
- Their livestock are kept vegetarian, treated with kindness and compassion living multi-purpose lives (just like many of us in the gig economy.) Pigs are bred as flesh and blood composters, but kept on high nutrient diets for an optimal fat to protein ratio. Momma pig lives the fullest life as she is kept to breed while her babies live beautiful lives in comfort…. with only one bad day.
- Same goes for the sheep. Male runts (or spares in livestock talk) are purchased from a commercial farm and let out to graze in the pasture, until they eventually have that one bad day.
- Egg-laying chickens are kept on a grass diet, and if they’re happy, lay one brought orange-yolked egg a day.
Our local farm-to-table meets Japanese fusion meal was served in three parts
- appetizers
- mains
- and desserts, of course!
with wine pairings scattered through out. A brut Blanc des Blancs from Nicolas Feuillatte opened our palates and then PEC’s excellent Closson Chase vineyards handled the rest of the evening, with Valley of the Mother of God gin opening and closing down my evening.
For the apps section, Miku brought the power of aburi pressed sushi and mini-chawanmushi cups, while Littlejohn’s expression came through the strongest with experiences like raw veggies in a soil-like onion pesto, a Viet-style veggie wrap with ultra fresh garden greens, and a lamb tartare on slavic beet and latke bed. (very creative!)
Mains bounced back and forth between the heavy hitting culinary teams, starting off with chunky lamb and ham terrine on a St. Tropez-style salade with a creamy remoulade. Then Miku took over with a tender serving of Saikyo miso-marinated sablefish circled by smoky octopus and a puttanesca sauce. (I usually wouldnt eat the skin but this fish was next level.) Team Littlejohn hit back on the next course with a serving of farm-bred Rustic Ranger chicken (a bred with an optimal fat to protein ratio), in a corn soup/succotash sauce. But I would say that Miku won the final round with a cut of ultra tender beef cheek draped with thinly shaved a5 Wagyu serving, in a beef bourguignon-style sauce, accompanied by classic steak house fried onion tempura.
I think dessert was a tie, with a Littlejohn goat’s milk pannacotta with preserved berry compote (the berry’s balanced the goatiness) and Miku’s decadent green tea Opera cake, made from adzuki bean cream, dark chocolate ganache, and Ferrero Rocher-like hazelnut wafer that was hard not to devour in a single bite.
