Join Bob Blumer (The Food Network) and guest “Miss Conception” at the First Annual Queen Victoria Look-A-Like Contest, Victoria Day, Monday, May 24th from 12 Noon to 4 PM at the Fairmont Royal York.

Enjoy Vic Gin cocktails, tipsy cuc sandwiches while watching queens, young and old, vie for the crown.

First 200 to RSVP to rsvp@victoriaspirits.com will receive a hard cuppa Vic Gin.

To help commemorate Queen Victoria’s one hundred and ninety-first birthday, the Fairmont Royal York is offering an exceptional one night package for weekends throughout the summer. Package includes:

• One night accommodation in a Fairmont room
• Breakfast for two
• Afternoon tea in the Library Bar
• Tour of the hotel’s roof garden
• Two martinis in the Library Bar or EPIC
• Souvenir bottle of Victoria bitters

For more information or to make a reservation, visit the Fairmont Royal York Website.

To enter the first annual Queen Victoria Look-A-Like Contest, download and complete the following entry form (DOC version or PDF version) and e-mail or fax to:

Mia Hunt, Creative Director, Victoria Spirits, mia@victoriaspirits.com OR Melanie Coates, Regional Director, Fairmont Hotels & Resorts, melanie.coates@fairmont.com, 416-368-8817 (fax).

Then join special guests Bob Blumer of Food Network’s Surreal Gourmet and Glutton for Punishment, “Miss Conception“, and our celebrity judges for the crowing of the Queen, Victoria Day, May 24th, at Toronto’s Fairmont Royal York Hotel .

One 12 to 18-pound turkey, with giblets and neck removed
3 tablespoons kosher salt
1 1/2 tablespoons black pepper
4 tablespoons butter, cut into four pieces
1 medium onion, quartered
2 stalks celery, cut in two or three pieces each
8 sprigs fresh thyme
2 cups turkey broth, water or a mixture of half water and half apple juice.

Method:

1.  At least four hours before roasting, rub turkey inside and out with salt and pepper; refrigerate. Remove from refrigerator 45 minutes before roasting. Heat oven to 425 degrees.

2.  Set turkey in roasting pan Slip your fingers under skin to loosen it. Rub butter over breasts. Stuff vegetables, and thyme into cavity. Tuck wingtips under bird.

3.  Pour broth or water into pan, around bird. Put turkey in oven and roast, uncovered, for 30 minutes. Reduce heat to 325 degrees, baste turkey with pan juices, cover with a foil tent and return to oven. Cook for another 30 minutes. Remove foil, baste again and place foil back on turkey. Cook for 30 more minutes. Remove foil.

4 . When turkey has roasted for a total of two hours, insert a meat thermometer straight down into fleshiest part of thigh, where it meets drumstick. Check a second spot, then remove thermometer. (Do not let thermometer touch bone.) Thigh meat should reach no more than 165 degrees. Juices should run clear. (If bird is larger than 14 pounds, keep foil on longer and begin checking meat temperature at two and half hours.) To assure perfectly cooked white and dark meat, you may remove bird when meat thermometer shows thigh temperature at 155, then remove legs and roast them separately for another 15 to 30 minutes, depending on the size of the bird.

5.  When bird has reached desired temperature, remove from oven and let rest for at least 30 minutes, covered in foil and with a damp towel on top of foil, to retain heat and allow juices to return to meat. Remove foil and towel carve and serve.

To make things easier, the hotel will deliver Turkey to Go to your home. And, in the spirit of the holidays, The Fairmont Royal York will donate one turkey to the Daily Bread Food Bank for each Turkey to Go meal purchased this season.

Turkey To Go
Available for pick-up:
Thursday, December 24 and Friday, December 25, 2009
Serves 4 persons 3 – 5 kg $175
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Serves 8 persons 5 – 7 kg $285
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Serves 12 persons 7 – 9 kg $365
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Includes:
Honey Roasted Pumpkin Bisque with Clipped Chives
Natural Ontario Roast Turkey
Onion Sage Stuffing, Savory Pan Gravy
Royal York Cranberry Sauce
Herb Roasted Chateau Potatoes
Maple Glazed Root Vegetable Medley
Royal York Apple and Mincemeat Tartlets with Rum Sauce

All ready to reheat and serve. Delivery available.

Just turkey, stuffing and jus $119, $155, $185. Tax not included

Orders can be placed by calling 416-860-5050 or by e-mailing festive@fairmont.com.

She has substantial hips, copper highlights and bedroom eyes.

She is Toronto’s Grande Dame – The Fairmont Royal York Hotel – and she turns 80 on June 11, 2009.

Famous across the nation for her iconic silhouette, there are still a few surprises up her sleeve.

This year, she has decided to give a gift on her birthday and offer rates reminiscent of days past, by offering guests their second night’s stay (on all regular leisure rates) at a reduced commemorative Royal York 80th Anniversary Rate of $80 (excluding taxes) from June 4 through to June 11, 2009.

On June 11, 1929, Toronto’s Grande Dame officially opened under her maiden name as The Royal York and quickly set the hospitality standard of the day.

The magnificent hotel was born a Gemini, and it is no wonder that it grew to be a city within a city. It consisted of 28 floors of architectural splendor replete with the mechanical genius of 10 ornate passenger elevators. It had 1048 rooms, each with radios, private showers and bathtubs.

In her thirties, she put on a few extra rooms and now weighs in at a total of 1365 rooms. The original 1.5 acres of public rooms included a 12-bed hospital, 12,000-book library and a glass-enclosed roof garden. Her warm heart held the largest hotel kitchen in Canada with a bakery that could produce over 15,000 French rolls a day, a 66-ft.long switchboard manned by 35 telephone operators, its own bank and a golf course (now known as St. George Golf & Country).

Today, after welcoming more than 40 million guests, The Fairmont Royal York (her name by way of a 1999 corporate marriage with Fairmont) continues to epitomize gracious hospitality.

Over the years she has received a few nips and tucks to retain her classic figure, and many distinguished features remain thanks to several capital injections. The magnificent hand-painted ceilings, the Travertine pillars, ornate furnishings, crystal chandeliers and wall hangings are still some of her greatest assets.

To this very day, The Fairmont Royal York is no wallflower, as she will continue to rub shoulders with the legendary and famous, including celebrities, heads of state, and royalty well into her eightieth year.

The Fairmont’s Royal York 80th Anniversary Rate offer visitors the second consecutive night’s stay at a rate of $80 (excluding taxes) from June 4 through to June 11, 2009. This does not apply to negotiated rates or for reservations that have already been made. For reservations please refer to rate code 2U8ANN and call 1-800-441-1414 or visit http://www.fairmont.com/royalyork.