Viva Tastings

I recently attended my first Viva Tastings dinner party - what a wonderful evening! Every course was a perfect combination of flavours - bitter being the theme of the meal - and beauty. Karen's culinary talents are astouding with each portion revealing an element that will surprise. The atmosphere was lovely, the company was charming. All this, combined with Karen's warmth and talent, made for a perfect dining experience.

Our work team has an annual dinner at our team lead's house. This year we decided to cater with Viva Tastings. Our budget was pretty small but we were nonetheless able to get an interesting and delicious summer menu. Food was delivered on time with full instructions on how we should serve everything since we did not ask for our event to be staffed. Couldn't have been easier! Everyone at the table really enjoyed everything.

I asked Karen for a chocolate cake for a birthday. Seriously, the best chocolate cake ever. Everyone at the patty loved it and fortunately there was some left over to share with those who could not attend the party.

Rich chocolaty taste and very moist.

I first bought one of these very tasty pies from Karen at the market and loved it so much I asked her to make a large one for a dinner party. It was a hit with everyone. Great flavour. Amazing crust. Truly a perfect holiday party dessert.

Thank you, Karen.

A great big thanks from Sara and I to you and your chefs for making our holiday party a day to remember.

The event required people to come together and deliver quality results in short time frames. Your leadership supported a happy, courteous and professional team of chefs whose interaction with the guests created a fun culinary experience for the PCLers.

Much success in your future event planning!
Regards,
Rona Saldanha & Sara Dufton

Hi Karen: I just wanted to say how successful your food was at our
"cocktail" event last night.
Not one thing left, a hungry lot. It was all delicious.
Hope you get a well deserved rest at Christmas.
All the best
Susan

Hi Karen - sorry for delayed feedback but I just wanted to let you know that everyone really enjoyed the food on Tuesday night. It was delicious, the correct amount and included a nice variety. Please accept my apologies about the delivery but a real emergency came up. In fact I got home only an hour before everyone arrived, so I want to thank you for having everything so well organized too. As well, we appreciate your gift of the fig salami, it is so good! My neighbour Molly asked for your contact info and I know 2 other ladies took your card. See you soon but in the meantime have a Merry Christmas and a lovely holiday season. Rill

Excellent all round.

Karen,
I’d eat my shoe
If it was cooked by you,
And surely John would eat his sleeve
In any stew prepared by Viva
Divine is everything you make,
In fact I’d even eat a snake
With Triple By-pass Chocolate Cake!
—as recited to John O. by Holly

My husband and I really enjoyed our valentine's evening with Karen, Erica and the other couples! Karen was extremely organized, with each couple having a work station at which to prepare part of a delicious meal! There was no chaos in Karen's charming, completely functional kitchen. Karen and Erica were calm and accommodating, quietly answering questions and demonstrating cooking techniques. The menu was fabulous, the meal delicious and our stomachs comfortably full. We recommend one of Karen's classes to anyone looking for a fun, informative cooking class!

We arrived at 5:45 p.m. promptly , warm welcome from Karen & Ann. Aprons ready and the 12 participants listened as Karen explained the work stations and menu .
We all prepared , along side with expert coaching the entire dinner. It was hands on, the only way to learn!
We prepared "The Last Feast" the one perfect menu for the last feast ever eaten. AND IT WAS!

It was amazing how the 12 of us could prepare the five course dinner in harmony. Obviously with much organization and preparation from Karen and Ann. Everything was laid out ready for us to tackle. The meal was tasty and we all learned something new.
This was fun and would be a great corporate team event.

Karen,

What a lovely night Steve and I had. Thank you for creating such a great
menu and for giving us the opportunity to learn and feel more comfortable in
the kitchen.

If you could add me to your list that would be great. For all your
promotions and of course for the "special dinner parties"


Sincerely,

Aviva

fun time, learned alot, and enjoyed a great meal

Dear Karen,

Once again, I have to thank you for making another party a success. Anne
and Amanda worked so hard in my tiny kitchen to keep my guests happy. The delicious food disappeared - the mini-meat loaves were a favorite - and everything was clean when the last guest left. This time, could not get everyone out of the kitchen which must have been stressful for Anne, but she managed to carry on undaunted.

Best regards,


Leslie

Viva Tastings is the very best. Prima!!!!!!

This year, Faulhaber wanted to do something different to celebrate the holidays. With an office full of self-proclaimed foodies, and just a bunch of girls who love food, we headed downtown Toronto for an expert cooking class at Viva Tastings. Owned by Cordon Bleu trained chef, artist and caterer Karen, Viva-Haynes and assisted by Anne Hynes, also Cordon Bleu trained, Viva offers full service catering, cooking classes, and corporate team building.

Although some of us questioned how enjoyable cooking with your co-workers would be, we had a delicious experience! It was BYO wine for the three hour cooking class, which we enjoyed with some hors d’oeuvres before we got started. We divided and conquered to tackle the 7 course meal that included filo wrapped chicken with brie, fennel soup and molten lava chocolate cakes. The highlight dish? Arctic char dip. In one word – MMM! While we whipped up our culinary creations in Viva’s state-of-the-art kitchen, we took the time to get to know each other a little better.

Luckily, you aren’t expected to be a culinary genius, so chef Karen and sous-chef Anne rotated amongst us to ensure we would actually want to eat what we were cooking, and to give us helpful tips. They made it seem so easy! As an added bonus, our meal was not only tasty, but it was also healthy! Viva offers locally sourced, fresh, artisan, and sustainable food.

We were surprised at how quickly, through team work and a LOT of help from Karen and Anne, we had prepared our team feast! We each served our slaved over dishes, and sat around the kitchen to enjoy the fruits of our labour as a team. In addition to being a treat for our taste buds. Karen also uses the cooking experience to facilitate a corporate growing experience – how delicious! While We took time to go around the room and share something new we had learned about our partner, and we reflected on the past year as a team and what we’ve accomplished.

We laughed, we cried, we feasted. Oh, did we feast. Aside from a few over-zealous chocolate lava cakes, our delicacies turned out flawlessly (in our opinion anyways)! Karen and Anne were beyond fabulous, and we strongly recommend a visit to Viva Tastings as an alternative for your typical office party!

A very fun and social evening. Food was great. Recipes awesome

Excellent food and service, have used them for a number of years as catering for parties, personal consumption-never unsatisfied with any aspects! Highly recommend.

Karen and Anne were incredibly helpful and helped us to prepare an AWESOME Italian dinner! Would recommend them to everyone!

Anne and Karen were great teachers. The choice of recipes was wonderful. Would go back again though maybe when we can actually eat our meals outside. The kitchen got a bit uncomfortable with the heat. I will be trying everything at home and have already recommended it to friends. Thanks!

Great people. Incredible food. Karen and Anne are great chef-hosts!

We really enjoyed the hands on experience along with a well thought out menu with six groups making different items which composed our supper. Each item was very good and nutritious. WE took home the recipe booklet and have made one of the delicious items. I would definitely try this cooking outlet again as a learning experience with tasteful consequences.

Wonderful experience. The owner and chef was gracious, very helpful, and organized. We enjoyed the experience of preparing our meal, meeting several interesting couples, and finally enjoying the dinner we had prepared. I can definitely recommend this experience and am planning on a return visit.

Everything about the experience was very positive, the location, equipment, instruction and... the eating. I would have preferred more advanced menus, but ours were very appropriate for the other participants and we did learn some new things in any case.

Viva tastings was worth every bite. Amazing!