If it's any of the above, we won't know it by the soon to be in production seven-part television series and culinary competition Gold Medal Plates: The Quest for Canada's Best Chef which will air on Travel + Escape in the Spring of 2009.

If the deal is sealed Starbucks would be hawking what some consider overpriced lattes and burnt coffee just steps from I Deal Coffee and some of Toronto's other top cafes.

The arrival of fall means that pasture-raised animals have had all summer to fill up on grassy goodness and are prime for keeping us well-fed over the winter months. You won't find the stuff at your average grocery store or butcher though. In fact, asking for grass-fed beef in these locations tends to illicit blank stares. But a little research reveals some great sources in the Toronto area.

If grass-fed isn't on your meat buying radar, read on and it just might change the way you think about premium meat. And if your butcher hasn't heard of grass-fed meats, well, send him here too (and/or find a new one).

Okay... back up. What are cows usually fed? Well, with the advent of factory farming in North America, we've switched them on to a diet of grain because it's cheap and it fattens them up quickly. So practically any meat you buy in the area, unless otherwise stated, is "grain-fed". It's the cheapest thing you could possibly feed an animal and brings them up to slaughter weight abnormally fast. Farmers don't have to let the animals graze on grassland pastures; they can just pile them into stalls where they have nothing to do but stuff their faces with grain feed.

Last month I joined Not Far From the Tree for an apricot-picking in the urban orchards of ward 21. The group is made up of volunteer gleaners who are sent in teams offer to pick fruit trees in the backyards of residential properties in Toronto, alleviating the burden of harvesting the fruit while sharing the bounty with the community.

In addition to apricots, they've picked pears, apples, elderberries and grapes. So far this year they have shared over 2,000 pounds of fruit that would have otherwise fed only the birds, worms and possibly raccoons in the neighbourhood.

So what's it like being a volunteer gleaner?

As the neighborhood continues its transition and more shops appear, the Leslieville Cheese Market's merits continue to be fiercely debated. Neighbours either salivate at the proximity to fine food or criticize the prices.

Starting this Saturday, September 20th, and running through October 18th, 13 Mimico area restaurants (yes, there are actually 13 restaurants in Mimico) will be offering special prix-fixe dinner menus.

How 'bout a little schadenfreude?

Is a morbid appetite piqued somewhere deep in that reptilian part of your brain at the chance to dine at the same table (in a metaphysical sense, natch) with Ted Bundy or Aileen Wuornos? Well for a paltry $20--the state allotted maximum for an inmate's last meal you can nosh death row and eat a replica of the final meal consumed by a death row prisoner courtesy Last Meals Delivery Service.

Organized by the Toronto Vegetarian Association, food is nominally priced so that you can try a bit of everything. After trying the faux chicken nuggets on a stick I returned to the King's Cafe table to question the contents as it was unbelievably better than any meat analog I've tasted. They confirmed it was indeed soy.

With strong family roots in the far south of Italy, it's hard for the chef to keep Italy out of his food, but his French technique and worldly tastes make Silver Spoon a seasonal food restaurant more than anything else. His love of Italy, though, and its pizza, led him to help a friend open the new Pizzeria Libretto, where you can find some of the finest brick oven pizzas outside Napoli.

I joined Chef Agostino recently to talk about what makes good food, where he gets his inspiration and whether he'd like to have his own tv show.

If any restaurant has an identity crisis, this just might be it. It used to be a falafel joint but than mysteriously became a burrito place at around the same time that King Burritos around the corner transformed into Ali's King Falafel.

Burrito Boyz, Big Fat and other top local burrito purveyors better up their game and get ready to fend off the likes of Chipotle (at Yonge and Dundas, free burrito day is this Thursday), Mission Burrito (on McCaul) and Z-Teca.

In the Financial District for a lunch date today, I got my hands on a burrito from Z-Teca. You can read my review of Z-Teca in the restaurants section.

Located in the former home of the Amsterdam Brewery and the same building as the Spoke Club, the newest member of what we can now refer to as the Bier Markt family just opened last Monday after about a year of planning and renovations.

Although there are still plenty of options up and down the street to get pierogies, pickles or packzi, Warmia's offerings were particularly notable. For those who venture out of Roncesvalles for Polish, though, all is not lost.