The Benedict Chronicles: Kensington Cornerstone
By Matt Brown
August 29 2010
"...as plate after plate of fluffy poached eggs, cartilaginous peameal, and lakes of sunshiney goo continued to pile up over time, I realized that if I don't start catalogueing these excursions in some formal manner, a great field of human knowledge would be lost. Hence, the Benedict Chronicles..."
I commented earlier this month that I can sniff out a Benny on any menu claiming not to have one; now I wonder if this hiding-the-Benny is becoming a trend. I think there is a Benedict Chronicles Law to be drafted here, which for now is only a theory: The Hidden Benedict Theory: All Brunch Menus Have an Eggs Benedict On Them, Somewhere. (Matthew Brown: August 2010.)
There's an Eggs Benedict on the menu at Kensington Cornerstone, but it isn't called that. It's called Cornerstone Poached Eggs. Now, I don't know if a particularly Cornerstonian incarnation of poached eggs dates back to prehistoric Toronto in the time before stories, but I tend to doubt it, as the restaurant hasn't been there that long. Cornerstone is located on a spot where I had delicious dim sum with my first two girlfriends, one afternoon way back in high school. I was in a nostalgic mood yesterday therefore, which suits Kensington fine, with its repurposed Wal-Mart dresses floating on the breeze in the dappled late-summer sun.
Due disclosure: it turned out after the fact that a friend of mine prepared this Benny, though neither he nor I knew that at the time. Further due disclosure: the non-Benny Benny at Kensington Corner is one of the best in the city. Make of these claims what you will.
Contentedly offering an entirely gluten-free brunch menu, Cornerstone puts its Benny on dark pumpernickel instead of an English Muffin, the first of its particular strokes of genius. The second is brie. I am a fan of other brie Bennys as regular readers will know, but putting hot brie on top of dark pumpernickel is like a Benedictular masterstroke of flavour combination. The bitter bread fires off the creamy cheese like a gun down the mouth of awesome. Above this we have the traditional back-bacon (though I suspect without proof that theirs is a cut above the regular factory-farmed pink slabs, as it is thinner, less pink, and more flavourful) and perfectly poached eggs. The Hollandaise is on the watery side, but bears exceptional flavour.
In fact the only thing I can find wrong with the whole presentation - the side potatoes and fruit were, of course, excellent - is the large lettuce leaf upon which the Benedict itself sits; this is unnecessary and made cutting awkward. Otherwise, this is the best Benny I've had this year.
Kensington Cornerstone is located at 2A Kensington Avenue in Toronto, and features an entirely gluten-free menu. The Benedict Chronicles is an ongoing, non-regular series.