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Toronto mayor Olivia Chow faced off against Ontario Premier Doug Ford in a battle of broken shells and, for one competitor, broken dreams, as celebrity contestants in a cooking competition for a good cause on Tuesday evening. When I got out of my Uber and stepped into the buzz of the illustrious St. Lawrence Market North building for the second-annual Chefs for Change event, I was under the impression that I'd merely do my rounds, sample bites from some of the best chefs in the country, and head on my merry way. For the first hour or so, that's exactly what I did. I sipped on chicken stock from Jordan Station's two Michelin Star Restaurant Pearl Morissette , wolfed down a hot dog wrapped in bannock from Naagan chef Zach Keeshig, and tried in vain to minimize the mess of mayo and pickle juice dripping from my mensch burger, served by Maven 's Shauna Godfrey. What wasn't on my bingo card for the night, however, was turning around to head to the bar after a series of performances from student members of Beyond 3:30 , a division of the event's beneficiary, the Toronto Foundation for Student Success , and nearly walking directly into Doug Ford and his entourage. Even less expected was the reason why the Premier was at the event in the first place: he would soon compete in a cooking competition against Toronto mayor Olivia Chow, moderated by Afrim Pristine of Cheese Boutique fame. They would both be tasked with making omelettes. Yes, omelettes. Had I drunk one too many of the cocktails Civil Liberties was shaking up at the bar? I mean, you really can't make this stuff up. Nevertheless, the competition commenced. Either politician was flanked by a duo of student chefs and given a bevy of toppings from humble cubed breakfast ham to truffle cream. An illustrious panel of judges, comprised of Fitzrovia founder and CEO Adrian Rocca, financier and foodie Moez Kassam, Bar Eugenie chef and co-founder Rebekah Bruce, McCarthy Tetrault partner Jennifer Longhurst, and Langdon Hall chef Jason Bangerter, were to decide the ultimate winner. The teams were given 10 minutes to complete their omelette, which felt like an exceptionally long amount of time for an omelette, but when team Chow was forced to toss out their first prototype, it became clear that this competition would come down to the wire Team Ford, steered and operated almost entirely by his duo of student chefs as the Premier fielded Pristine's questions about strategy, opted for an entirely vegetarian omelette heavily featuring spinach and green onion. Team Chow, on the other hand, leaned all the way into meat-lovers territory, with generous helpings of ham and cheese. For her part, Chow, ever the perfectionist, took the omelette-making responsibilities well and truly into her own hands, only seeking support when she struggled to turn on the portable gas stove she was cooking on. In the last two minutes, team Chow had only just put their second omelette in the pan, while team Ford was taking theirs off. The countdown ended with team Chow's omelette still cooking, prompting a modest extension from Pristine until, finally, the time came for the final judgement. It was a landslide. Out of five judges, four voted in favour of team Ford's omelette while only one, Rebekah Bruce, voted for team Chow. All the judges conceded, however, that it wasn't an easy decision. Ford's omelette was described as "fluffy" and "fresh" by judges, while Jason Bangerter expressed that the exterior of Chow's, cooked in a frantic tizzy, achieved a perfect caramelization. At the end of the day, let's face it, the kids did all the work anyway. After all was said and done, I found myself, once again, outside the building waiting for an Uber. As I did so, Mayor Chow herself breezed out and towards her car. I let her know that, even if she didn't win the omelette competition, she, clad in a black satin cocktail dress and pearls, was the best-dressed of the evening. She seemed to like that. The valet standing next to me was just shocked that the Mayor of Toronto would take a Honda Civic home from an event. I wonder if they splurged on an Uber Black for the winner of the contest.
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