Last Supper
By Gina Mallet gina@ginamallet.com

I’m reeling away from the future in shock and awe.

Forget the current debate over what to eat to keep healthy.

In the future, as outlined by some starry futurists at last week’s IdeaCITY,  the nature of food  is immaterial as we change into cyborgs and robots and live to be l000..

 Dr. Ray Kurzweil, acclaimed as a genius futurist, says that soon we will be able to reprogram our own biochemistry with software, human body version 1.0 then the dramatically upgraded 2.0  - with the killer application of nano technology – nanobots, blood cell sized robots that can travel in the bloodstream destroying pathogens, removing debris,correcting errors in DNA and reversing ageing processes.

Forget obesity. Enjoy your Fast Food. Within 10 years, there will be a drug that lets you eat whatever you want – without gaining weight.

If you live to be l000, you will also be able to eat anything you like says Aubrey de Grey, founder of the Methuselah Foundation. “I love beer” he says. Another cheery vision of future eating. These guys have  leapfrogged over dreary nutrigenomics, preventive diets designed according to your DNA, and cut to hardware. Think of yourself as classic car which needs routine checkups. De Grey envisages a cell repair kit, ways of creating new cells, like stem cells,  to take over from the dying cells which condemn us to death.

People are puzzled by why anyone would want to live to be 1000. This annoys De Grey, who is a Monty Python version of Methuselah.

“WHY?” He shouts  --- “because l00 million people die each year. It’s a tragedy.”

What I want to know is wouldn’t we all be bored with available food – and how much would there be when everyone’s l000..  Seems to me that we’d have to find a lot of new species to eat and a great many ingenious cooks or robots. A gruesome corollary: a robot mouth has been invented that can chow down on human flesh.

Before I have time to get bored of food, and before I’m programmed or equipped with a robot jaw, I’d better grab a real meal. I  scan the options.  A tipster recommends JAMCafe –  open a year, it’s flown under the media radar due perhaps to confusion. In a year, the softshoulder Cabbagetown location went from Bistro Aubergine to The Cork and Bottle before JAMCafe set down real roots. It’s name comprises the first initials of the restaurant’s sibling-owners who include the chef Av Atikian – who’s done time at Herbs, Rosedale Diner and Tempest.

As I walk in I am immediately impressed by JAMCafe’s special character – like an oldfashioned men’s club, all dark paneling with a woodburning fireplace, comfy armchais. Just the right atmosphere in which to swirl wine in a glass and ponder the future of food. . Quiet too. The bar action/music is in the front room while there’s a charming patio beyond the dining room.

JAMCafe is pleasingly  unpretentious. I’m not given a resume of the provenance of the food. The lamb is described simply grilled and roasted. I am not given its brand name. What a relief. I always feel upstaged because I don’t know what say “Dorset” lamb tastes like, so how can I judge whether the chunk I’ve been served lives up to its  billing. “I’m afraid this isn’t Dorset at its best but the cooking’s swell.”

Atikian  has also resolved the plate size dilemma by offering just two of ‘em – Openers at $8 and $18 for  Substantials. An amazing honeydew  melon and strawberry soup that is astringently fresh as mint, and it’s matched by a bowl exuding the exotic fragrance of  mussels swimming in a coconut milk broth of roast corn, lime leaf, ginger, fresh red chilies….lots of mussels too.  

I think of having the Grilled Flat Iron steak with garlic –foie gras butter but it carries a $4 supplement,  so instead I order braised Ontario rabbit with a fig, pistachio, mustard, lavendar cream sauce – sensational!  Rabbit isn’t the tastiest rodent (guinea pig is)  but it has an agreeable texture, somewhere between chicken and canned tuna although its complex bone structure means you have to keeping picking away at it. Mashed potatoes, Yukon golds, are the perfect way to sop up the jus.  And  an impressive sign of the chef ‘s consistency. Our other Substantial is equally imaginative, beautifully paired flavours and presented engagingly. A long plate of a pan-roasted halibut filet with a prosciutto crust, whipped parsnip and long asparagus spears laid out with pinot noir JAM (jus).

And we’re drinking, thanks to our server Randy’s advice, a Henry of Pelham Meritage 2006,  $36, a light and well balanced red which goes well with both rodent and fins.

Oh for the sides! It’s unusual to see tempting sides on the menu.  I know I know, restaurants try to sell veg but customers turn away.   We just don’t believe our government – what’s new! JAMCafe has several of delicious sounding vegetable plates --- Sauteed peas and lettuce with mint and bacon, pan seared Japanese eggplant, fresh chilies, Miso, soy and sesame glaze, even a version of cauliflower cheese – all $6. I vow in the future I’ll pick a serious veg side over dessert. take eating veg seriously and when I see such sides I’ll pick one over dessert.

Or would I?  A dessert rounds out the meal aesthetically – because a  successful sweet changes the whole mood of the evening. And this glorious plum and apple crumble garnished with a spoon of vanilla ice is as joyful as a Sousa march. The delicate wedge of fresh raspberry flan has all the right tunes except that the pastry doesn’t melt as softy as it should. The only wrong note.

** and 1/2 JAMCafe, 195 Carlton St. 416-921-1255. No Wheelchair access. Not noisy in dining room. Dinner for two: food and tax: $105