enRoute to announce Canada's Best New Restaurant 2009

MONTREAL , Oct. 9 /CNW Telbec/ - Air Canada's enRoute Magazine is delighted to announce that its 8th annual search for the Best New Restaurant in Canada has come to a delicious close! After an exhaustive hunt from coast to coast, award-winning Toronto-based journalist and professional foodie, Chris Nuttall-Smith, left no plate untouched in his quest for the ultimate Canadian dining experience.

Nuttall-Smith's brave culinary adventures had him eating everything from tongue to spot prawns, from ancient grains to new discoveries, and with the help of our 27-strong panel of the nation's top foodies he has created what is possibly the most exciting and eclectic list of the top 10 restaurants this search has ever seen. As well as announcing the winners, the November issue of Air Canada's enRoute magazine will also feature a trends article in which Nuttall-Smith has scouted out the most inspired - and sometimes tired - dining trends from across the country.

Chris Nuttall-Smith challenged every aspect of dining out at the 30-something restaurants he personal y visited. This year saw a return to good, honest cooking, with chefs rediscovering the humbler cuts of meat (which appeared braised, pickled, steamed, roasted and even turned into charcuterie) and the thankful demise of $40 entrees and water sommeliers! Simple ingredients were given a fresh spin in the hands of surprisingly young chefs, and long forgotten techniques changed the way we looked at time-honoured dishes forever. enRoute's 2009 list is a tour de force of astonishing talent and proof of the incredible energy and originality present in the Canadian restaurant scene.

Chris Nuttall-Smith has worked as a food writer and critic for Toronto Life (where he was food editor) and the Globe and Mail, and has published stories in Esquire, Report on Business Magazine, New York, Globe Focus, Toro and many other publications. He won a National Magazine Award last summer for an investigative feature about the Royal Ontario Museum.

Last year's survey, which reached over 1 million monthly enRoute readers, generated incredible buzz and was prominently featured in local and national newspapers, as well as on news broadcasts. All 10 of Canada's Best New Restaurants 2008 continue to see the direct and sustained impact of inclusion on this list.

This year's top 10 finalists and enRoute's choice for Canada's Best New Restaurant 2009 will be featured in the November issue of enRoute Magazine, Air Canada's in-flight magazine, online at www.enroute.aircanada.com and readers can also follow on twitter at enRouteOnline.

enRoute, Canada's premier travel lifestyle magazine, reaches over 1 million readers each month on all Air Canada flights and in Air Canada Maple Leaf Lounges around the world. Targeting a highly edited selection of luxury and boutique hotels, specialty fashion and design boutiques, top fitness centres, exclusive spas and fine restaurants, enRoute now connects with its audience even after they have landed by reaching them where they shop, where they stay, where they dine, even where they play. EnRoute is published by Spafax Canada Inc. Spafax is one of the world's leading providers of custom media. Magazines published by Spafax include Air Canada's award-winning enRoute, Fairmont for Fairmont Hotels & Resorts, Pure Canada (for the Canadian Tourism Commission), Home Spa (for BainUltra) and a host of other titles, e-zines and websites. Spafax is a part of the specialist media division of WPP, one of the world's leading communications companies.

For further information: or to receive further details on Canada's Best New Restaurant 2009 (including results under embargo) please contact: Fiona Dalrymple, ZOÏ Agency, [phone] ext 25, [email protected]; Maria Varvarikos Peart, ZOÏ Agency, [phone] ext 21, [email protected]