Wednesday, June 5, 7:00 P.M.
Members $85, guests $110

When twin brother-and-sister team Owen and Jill Steinberg opened their cozy JOV Bistro in Toronto's Leeside neighborhood in 1998, there was no question they were serious about what they were doing. But nobody was prepared for the restaurant's renown outside of their tony residential enclave. Food & Wine and Gourmet came to dinner, and they proclaimed JOV among the best restaurants in the city. The Toronto press suspected as much from the get-go. Now Magazine noted that "every foodie in town is fighting for one of its 40 seats," and The Globe & Mail said the "cooking is consistently divine."

Of course, had anyone taken the time to study Owen's culinary credentials, she wouldn't have been surprised. Steinberg graduated from the CIA in 1993 and set out to hone his skills with internships in France (at Valrhona in Tain Hermitage) and in Thailand (at the Royal Thai School of Culinary Arts), among other places. He had cooked with Toronto's celebrated chef Arpi Magyar at Splendido Bar & Grill and served as sous-chef for Didier Leroy, one of the city's finest French chefs.

At JOV, he is constantly refining his culinary vision. Former Toronto Star critic Cynthia Wine summed up his cooking thus: "Owen's cooking can be called neither fusion nor fashion. Ingredients are cooked to show off their real flavor. His hand with pastry is delicate and his imagination with flavors acute. His food is not tall, architectural or arty. It lies on the plate the way gravity ordained it to."

That's the sort of praise that got our attention back in 2000, when we invited the Steinbergs to the Beard House the first time. We are glad to welcome them back.