Hanging Out with Susur Lee: The Veggielicious 101 Experience!

A few weeks ago I received an invitation to attend the Veggielicious 101 workshop at Bent Restaurant with the legendary Chef Susur Lee. I had witnessed his skills on TV and now I was super excited to meet the legend in person. We had a chance to taste the New Veggielicious Tasting Menu that is being featured NOW (Sept 9-20, 2014) at Bent! Here’s a quick timeline of how the awesome experience went down...

12:45PM I headed over to Bent Restaurant with my 2 friends Clara (@foodsisterhood and thefoodsisterhood.com) and Alex (@al3xxxx). Hyped!!!

1:00PM Arrived at Bent. We were the first of the bloggers to arrive and we were met at the door by the legend himself! Susur Lee shook my hand and I was star struck by this Food Network Star. All I could say was.. “wow...Susur Lee!” Susur laughed and told me to feel welcomed as he considers the restaurant his “home.”

1:10PM Champagne was served! (champagne time is all the time!) as around 15-20 bloggers walked around the restaurant taking pictures of the restaurant

1:20PM Let the feast begin! Before the Veggielicious workshop began, we get to sample some of Bent’s signature items including the Crispy Chicken Dumpling + Vegetarian Goat Cheese Tacos! YUM! Everyone stops to take pictures, flashes go off for 5 minutes.... time to dig in!

1:25PM Susur gave us a brief talk about Bent and the flavours his restaurants are known for. 

1:30PM “Fresh ingredients are key!” Susur says. He’s wasn’t joking! He took the entire group for a quick walk outside to his neighbour’s house. His neighbour is also a long time friend who grows the freshest veggies that Susur often uses at the restaurant. Cameras continued to snap pictures as we soaked in more culinary knowledge from Chef Lee. 

1:40PM We headed back into the restaurant and we were given a quick rundown about the Veggielicious tasting menu from bent. This was a 100% vegetarian tasting menu by Susur Lee that I was about to indulge in, so yummy!

1:45PM The main part of this event was a workshop on how to make French Meringues infused with Golden Licorice! This is actually the dessert featured on Bent’s Veggielicious Tasting Menu available Sept 9-20! 

1:50PM Making the meringues! Susur did all the work. Like a pro, he spoke thoroughly about the ingredients and pastry techniques. He encouraged us to get hands-on with the piping of the meringue, and everyone joined in on the fun! We scribbled our initials on the parchment paper before popping them in the oven, so we could see who had the best (or worst) meringue piping skills!

2:00PM Meringues go into the oven! Ready for more food! We were surprised with another dish: Chef Susur Lee’s Singaporean Slaw! It was a delicious salad with 19 ingredients of epic textures and flavours. This dish is also known as “Lo Hei” in Chinese and it was cool to learn of the influences that led to one of the most colorful and tasty dishes! Chef Susur Lee, Kai Bent-Lee (Susur’s Son) and Christian (Manager of Bent) put on a show for us as they tossed and mixed up the 19 ingredient salad in front of us, the same way it is done when served to customers at Lee or Bent. 9999999 pictures were taken by the bloggers- see instagram! HAHA

2:10PM First course of the Veggielicious menu was “Dip Three Ways.” Got to try some delicious fusion dips with chips! 1. Hummus of Romano Beans w/ Salted Chilis & Sherry Vinegar, with roasted olives on top. 2. Indian Spicy Mustard Seed Tomato Stew w/ walnut and curry leaf. 3. Carribean Eggplant Babaganoush w/ Cilantro. The Carribean Babaganoush was out of this world, with strong hints of tropical fruits (next level babaganoush!)

2:20PM The event moves over to the bar, where Bent bartender Manuel showed us how to make one of their signature cocktails, the Karate Kid 2! This was a sake based cocktail with jasmine tea infused gin, yuzu, egg white and coriander! So good I snagged the sample glass for myself as everyone was busy taking pictures of the next dish.

2:30PM Second Course was the Tingly Chilled Soba. Another beautiful dish with a mountain of different ingredients including a shiitake, shiso leaf, nori crisps and a spicy Taiwanese vinaigrette! Susur expertly mixed up the ingredients for us before we feasted. Wait.....gotta take pictures of the dish first! 

2:45PM A dish that looked kind of like fancy fried chicken was brought out. This was a vegetarian tasting menu though! Turns out it was a Chickpea Tempura Tofu. So many delicious flavours were in the air as the dish sat there and everyone took more pictures (#foodporn). The chickpea tofu was topped with pickled brassica, fish mint, shisito peppers, Korean sweet chili sauce and braised burdock root! aka The whole damn garden! 

2:50PM I am a serious meat lover, but I was loving this all veggie menu so far! No meat, no problem. 

3:00PM Just as I was thinking about needing another drink, we headed back over to the bar. This time, Manuel made a bunch of “Asian Caesars”, another delicious signature cocktail from Bent! 

3:00PM The last course before dessert was the Wild Mushroom Quinoa Risotto. This smells of mushroom, cheese and butter literally made me melt! This was one of my favourites, and I did not realize quinoa could be made this tasty! 

3:00PM Our meringues were finally ready! Some looked super ugly. Some more similar to the ones pre made by the restaurant. We topped them with fresh fruits: lemon curd, wild blueberry, peaches, passionfruit syrup and raspberry coulis!

Golden Licorice infused Meringue with Fresh Fruits.

Susur made the nice one on the left I made the ugly one on the right!

3:05PM I wasn’t overly stuffed, but my taste buds had been fully satisfied. Susur Lee’s presence continued to captivate all the bloggers as everyone listened closely to the chef’s insight on his own dishes. More Pictures!

3:10PM Susur Lee is a super cool and down to earth dude. I was genuinely impressed to see him speak individually with each blogger to get to know each of us and also to hear about our opinions on the current Toronto food scene. The team behind Susur Lee and Bent, including his son Kai Bent-Lee look ready to take on whatever the dynamic food and restaurant landscape in Toronto has to offer! 

3:10-3:30PM Everyone wanted a pic with Susur! He took his time to take pictures with each and every blogger there. Chef Lee definitely knows how to have fun, as we all take funny/stupid pics around his restaurant! Overall, I had an awesome experience at the Veggielicious 101 event. It was a great preview of the Veggielicious 5 course Tasting Menu available at Bent from Sept 9-20 ($45/ person). 

Special Thanks to Chef Susur Lee, Kai Bent-Lee, Kelsea Knowles and Manuel for showing a meat lover how vegetarian food can be amazing!

Chef Susur Lee with Toronto Bloggers! Photo Credit: Mary Tang (Mary's Happy Belly)

Bent Restaurant

777 Dundas Street W 

Toronto, ON M6J 1V1

www.bentrestaurant.com

(647) 352-0092