SPECIAL INVITATION TO: FOOD & ENTERTAINMENT BLOGGERS

HAVE YOU TRIED TORONTO'S NEW PIZZA IN A CONE YET?
Find out why everyone is talking about the city's most innovative fresh taste sensation

the mad ITALIAN Gelato Bar
589 College Street

invites you to an

OPEN HOUSE

THURSDAY, NOVEMBER 3
5 pm to 7 pm

Food bloggers are invited to drop by The Mad Italian Gelato Bar, 589 College Street on your way home from work this Thursday evening to sample ZAZZU Hot Cones, Toronto's FIRST pizza in a cone. Similar products have hit the streets of Italy, Brazil and New York City and are finally here!

Meet The Mad Italian owner, Eli Turkienicz who will explain the inspiration and development behind ZAZZU Hot Cones. Watch how each hot cone is individually made using The Mad Italian's exclusive crispy pizza dough recipe, and then baked in specially designed cone stands. Try the original pizza sauce and your choice of toppings. Now available in 8 delicious varieties, ZAZZU Hot Cones are taking the slide off of pizza pie slices, and putting flavour and warmth in the palm of your hand. Great on the go, for lunch, after pubbing or clubbing, or anytime you want an easy to eat, hearty snack made from fresh ingredients.

The Mad Italian Gelato Bar, 589 College St. south side between Clinton and Manning. Parking 2 blocks West. News releases and images will be provided at the restaurant. For more information visit www.maditalian.ca
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To register your attendance please contact:
Linda Crane 905-257-6033 cell 416-727-0112 cranepr@cogeco.ca
*Please bring this invitation with you

NEW FOOD GROUP FOR THE YOUNG AND YOUNG AT HEART: MEATBALL IN A CONE!

ZAZZU Hot Cones by The Mad Italian
make their debut at The Baking and Sweets Show, Sept. 30 - Oct. 2
Savoury new treat makes pizza as portable as an ice cream cone

TORONTO: Sept. 26, 2011 . . . What looks like an ice cream cone, tastes like pizza and delivers a nutritional wallop in a fun, edible package? Move over ice cream cones, ZAZZU Hot Cones by The Mad Italian will be heating up The Baking and Sweets Show, September 30th to October 2nd at the International Centre.
Why didn't I think of that?!
ZAZZU Hot Cones are the FIRST of its kind for Toronto. Visualize the product as pizza inside a cone. Initially available in Pepperoni, Meatball and Margherita flavours, the customer can customize their Hot Cone with a variety of toppings. Along with traditional pizza favourites, a wider range of gourmet ingredients including goat cheese and herbs are planned for coming months.
In a year that has seen a trend toward decadent food product introductions, this product has staying power. At $4.00 to $6.00 a cone, ZAZZU Hot Cones are competitively priced against other lunch, snack and short order meals. Not only are the prices easy to digest, there is an added bonus of great gourmet flavour in a funky new cone style package.
Hot Food Convenience in a Cone
The brainchild of Eli Turkienicz, President of PineMount Food Services, ZAZZU Hot Cones have been more than a year in development. While the company's Mad Italian restaurants have become recognized for their sensational gelato and cones; for the ZAZZU product, special dough and sauce recipes had to be approved, and new baking equipment to bake the cones upright were acquired. "Then it was test, test, test," explains Mr. Turkienicz. "Now at last we're ready to introduce this exceptional new product to Torontonians."
"ZAZZU Hot Cones have evolved and improved upon the single serving pizza -- no more toppings sliding down the pie, plus it's a handy snack for growing kids and young adults," explains Mr. Turkienicz. "With all the nutritional components provided by its traditional Italian ingredients, they are a good choice for families and those craving a filling snack any time of the day."
ZAZZU Hot Cones will be available, along with their already popular gelato cones at The Mad Italian restaurants located in Leaside and Little Italy by mid-October. The product will roll out through GTA franchises over the coming year.
Will ZAZZU Hot Cones become a new Toronto snack food staple? Be the first to try it or enquire about a Mad Italian franchise at the Baking and Sweets Show, Hall 5, International Centre Sept. 30 - Oct. 2. Booth #331. Or drop by The Mad Italian restaurants at 1581 Bayview Avenue and 589 College Street after Thanksgiving.

BE THE FIRST IN TORONTO TO SAMPLE PIZZA IN A CONE!
Toronto's Mad Italian previews ZAZZU Hot Cones
at Canada's Baking and Sweets Show
opening FRIDAY, SEPTEMBER 30 (Hall 5) International Centre

What looks like an ice cream cone, tastes like pizza and delivers a tasty and convenient wallop of fun in an edible package? Move over ice cream cones, ZAZZU Hot Cones by The Mad Italian will be heating up The Baking and Sweets Show with its savoury and convenient new snack. The event runs Friday, September 30th to Sunday, October 2nd at the International Centre's Hall 5.

Why didn't I think of that?!
ZAZZU Hot Cones are the FIRST of its kind for Toronto. Inspired by similar products made popular in Italy, Brazil and in New York City, this pizza is inside a cone. After its preview at the Baking and Sweets Show, the locally developed and freshly made, original recipe hot cones will be available for mass consumption after Thanksgiving at The Mad Italian Gelato Bar locations in Leaside at 1581 Bayview Avenue and in Little Italy at 589 College Street College Street.

Available in Pepperoni, Meatball and Margherita flavours, you can customize your Hot Cone with a variety of toppings. Along with traditional pizza favourites, a wider range of gourmet ingredients including goat cheese and herbs are planned for coming months.

In a year that has seen a trend toward decadent food product introductions, this product has staying power. At $4.00 to $6.00 a cone, ZAZZU Hot Cones are competitively priced against other lunch, snack and short order meals. Not only are the prices easy to digest, there is an added bonus of great gourmet flavour in a funky new cone style package.

Hot Food Convenience in a Cone
Eli Turkienicz, President of PineMount Food Services, ZAZZU Hot Cones explains that while the company's Mad Italian restaurants have become recognized for their sensational gelato and gelato cones, "This new product needed special dough, an exceptional and authentic sauce recipe as well as new equipment to bake the unique cones upright."
"This is a big improvement upon the single serving pizza -- no more toppings sliding down the pie, plus it's a handy snack for growing kids and young adults," explains Mr. Turkienicz. "With all the fresh nutritional components of traditional Italian ingredients, ZAZZU Hot Cones are a good choice for families and those craving a filling snack any time of the day."
Will ZAZZU Hot Cones become a new Toronto snack food staple? Be the first to try it or enquire about a Mad Italian franchise at the Baking and Sweets Show, Hall 5, International Centre Sept. 30 - Oct. 2. Booth #331. (Show opens at 12 noon Friday, Sept. 30 and 9 am on the weekend. (For show info see www.canadasbakingandsweetshow.com)
And be sure to drop by The Mad Italian restaurants after Thanksgiving. For more information visit: www.themaditalian.ca

CUTLINES: Top: Three different tasting Zazzu Hot Cones. Bottom: Making Zazzu Hot Cones at the Baking and Sweets Show this afternoon (October 1) in Toronto. Photos by Linda Crane

UPDATE DECEMBER 2012

Fall 2012, The Mad Italian opened a store on the 500 block of Danforth Avenue

Just in time for November 11th

TIM COOK AND STEVE PAIKIN TALK ABOUT WORLD WAR 1 AND AFGANISTAN - NOW A TVO PODCAST

Linda Crane and I had Tim Cook (author of Madman and the Butcher, WW1 curator at the War Museum and Charles Taylor Prize winner) in studio with TVO Agenda host Steve Paikin - on Monday. Thoughtful,interesting and sometimes disturbing interview. Talked about the Great Wars in context with what is going on in Afganistan. 20-minute interview is posted on line at:
http://www.tvo.org/cfmx/tvoorg/theagenda/index.cfm?page_id=3

A Night of Literary Non-Fiction

IAN BROWN to headline IFOA's REAL LIFE: A Night of Literary Non-Fiction

Friday, Oct. 29th at 8:00 p.m.
Lakeside Terrace, York Quay Centre at Harbourfront

Winner of The Charles Taylor Prize now Canada's most highly acclaimed non-fiction author

TORONTO, Oct. 21 /CNW/ - Multiple book award winner Ian Brown is the most successful literary non-fiction writer Canada has ever produced. In 2010, his book, The Boy in the Moon: A Father's Search for His Disabled Son (Random House Canada), swept all of the major non-fiction prizes in the country. In addition to winning the 2010 Charles Taylor Prize for Literary Non-Fiction, Brown's book won the B.C. National Book Award and the Trillium Book Award, and the accolades keep coming: the book is shortlisted for the Governor General's Literary Award, to be announced in November.

WHO:
Author Ian Brown, winner of the 2010 Charles Taylor Prize for Literary Non-Fiction, appears at Harbourfront's esteemed International Festival of Authors. Ian Brown joins fellow non-fiction writers Charles Foran, Charlotte Gray and poet Meaghan Strimas. Each will read from their most recent works. The evening is hosted by non-fiction author Larry Gaudet.

WHAT:
Ian Brown will read from his award-winning book The Boy in the Moon: A Father's Search for his Disabled Son.

Born with a genetic mutation so rare that perhaps 300 people around the world live with it, Ian Brown's son, at age twelve, weighs only 54 pounds, wears diapers, can't speak and needs to wear special cuffs on his arms so that he can't harm himself. "Sometimes watching him," Brown writes, "is like looking at the man in the moon - but you know there is actually no man there. But if Walker is so insubstantial, why does he feel so important? What is he trying to show me?" The author's journey takes him into deeply touching and troubling territory. "All I really want to know is what goes on inside his off-shaped head," he writes, "But every time I ask, he somehow persuades me to look into my own."

WHY:
This is the IFOA's signature Non-Fiction event. Charles Taylor Prize winner Ian Brown, Charles Taylor Prize Founder Noreen Taylor and Charles Taylor Foundation trustee, Dr. David Staines are available for interviews before and after the event.

WHEN: Friday, October 29, 2010 at 8:00 p.m.

WHERE: Lakeside Terrace, York Quay Centre, Toronto

TICKETS: $18.00 Available online in advance. Seating is limited. www.readings.org

Previous Winners of the Charles Taylor Prize for Literary Non-Fiction:
2000 Wayne Johnston for Baltimore's Mansion: A Memoir
2002 Carol Shields for Jane Austen
2004 Isabel Huggan for Belonging: Home Away from Home
2005 Charles Montgomery for The Last Heathen: Encounters with Ghosts and Ancestors in Melanesia
2006 J.B. MacKinnon for Dead Man in Paradise
2007 Rudy Wiebe for Of this Earth: A Mennonite Boyhood in the Boreal Forest
2008 Richard Gwyn for John A.: The Man Who Made Us
2009: Tim Cook for Shock Troops: Canadians Fighting the Great War, 1917-1918, Volume Two
2010: Ian Brown for The Boy in the Moon: A Father's Search for His Disabled Son

The Charles Taylor Prize for Literary Non-Fiction is presented annually by the Charles Taylor Foundation with support in 2010 from its partners: AVFX, Ben McNally Books, BookTelevision and Bravo!, Canada Newswire, CTV, The Globe and Mail, Le Meridien King Edward Hotel, Quill & Quire publications, and Windfields Farm.

For more information about The Charles Taylor Prize for Literary Non-Fiction, and Ian Brown's award winning book, please follow links at www.thecharlestaylorprize.ca and follow on Twitter @taylorprize.

For further information:

Media are requested to confirm their attendance and/or interview requests with Stephen Weir & Associates:

Stephen Weir: 416-489-5868 cell: 416-801-3101 stephen@stephenweir.com
Linda Crane: 905-257-6033 cell: 416-727-0112 cranepr@cogeco.ca

Media Launch All Wet at Toronto's Indoor Lake

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Boat Show Friday morning Media Launch leaves other media events in its wake and snowbank.

My associate Linda Crane penned the slogan "Put a Little Summer in Your Winter at the Toronto Boat Show" over a decade ago. It worked then and it works now - a visit to the boat show does wonders for me ... it is uplifting, fun and it makes you think warm weather is just days away (even though it is so cold security is running around the CNE grounds giving battery boosts!)
I briefly attended a Photo Opportunity at the Boat Show on Friday (January 7th) the day before the show officially opened even though I had other important (i.e. paying) jobs to look after. The Media Alert issued to the boating media by Holmes Communication is printed below.
Videographer George Socka (Beach Digital) met up with me at The Lake, Canada's only temporary indoor lake. It is 4ft deep and the size of an AHL Hockey Rink ( not a surprising because in fact, after the boat show ends, it becomes a hockey rink for the Toronto Marlies).
Although it is a small space for wakeboarding, the Boat Show was able to put on an interesting aerial display for video crews and still photographers (I might have been the only print journalist there).
The wakeboarders didn't use a tow boat to get them up to jumping speed. Instead, a high speed wire whip winch was employed to pull the performers across the water and onto a jumping ramp. In the sport of wakeboarding it is important that one climbs the ramp at a high rate of speed - the faster you go, the higher you can fly off the ramp.
On Friday the wire winch was pulling slow, so there were spills and chills (the water is near freezing) along with thrills as the boat show performers went aerial at a very slow speed!
Pictured are Mississauga's Scott Duke (white helmet and vest), Oakville's Matt Sacchitiello (red & grey safety vest), Chris Guard (the upside down wakeboarder who has just lost his white helmet) and Port Carling's Dan Brown (in grey).
The media event was well attended by the electronic media (CP-24, CITY TV and Global TV) but less so by the dailies. The Toronto Sun dropped by briefly to take pictures,while the Star, the embattered National Post and the Globe gave the event a pass. Always an opportunist, I took four of George Socka's pictures shown above and offered them to the Star City Desk gratis. It was late in the day, it was an event they had passed on, and, I didn't send them cutlines ... so, the pictures printed above never did see the light of day beyond this website.

For Immediate Release January 7, 2010 MEDIA ALERT/PHOTO OPPORTUNITY

Wild Wakeboard Riders Perform
on The Lake Inside Ricoh Coliseum

What: Professional wakeboarders and wakeskaters will take to the water to perform on the world’s largest indoor recreational venue in a sample of the spectacular Winch Jam at the Toronto International Boat Show. These incredible athletes will demonstrate the range of their skills and provide a sample of their show jam-packed with grinds, tricks and flips.

Performers:
• Scott Duke/Wakeboard
Manages North America’s largest wakeboard camp
• Chris Guard/Wakeboard
Global Team Rider for Gater Boards
• Dan Brown/Wakeskate
One of Canada’s top wakeskaters
Where: Ricoh Coliseum, 100 Princes’ Blvd (enter via Heritage Court on the West side of Direct Energy Centre)
When: 10am sharp, Friday January 8, 2010
Media should contact the Toronto International Boat Show PR contact for access to the event:

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Media Contact:
Chris McDowall
cmcdowall@hccink.com
(416) 628-5648
www.HolmesCreativeCommunications.com

ADVISORY TO NEWS & ARTS MEDIA - CHARLES TAYLOR PRIZE FOR LITERARY NON-FICTION SHORT LIST TO BE ANNOUNCED AT TUESDAY MORNING MEDIA EVENT

ADVISORY TO NEWS & ARTS MEDIA
December 31, 2008

The Charles Taylor Prize for Literary Non-Fiction
2009 SHORTLIST PRESS CONFERENCE
Tuesday, January 6th at 10:00 a.m.

WHAT: Announcement of the finalists for the 2009 Charles Taylor Prize
WHEN: Tuesday, January 6, 2009
Announcement: 10:00 a.m. to 10:30 a.m. sharp
WHERE: LE MERIDIEN KING EDWARD HOTEL
Consort Bar, Main Floor, 37 King St. East, Toronto
(Parking: Public lot east of King Edward Hotel on Leader Lane)
WHO: Noreen Taylor, Chair, The Charles Taylor Foundation
Prize Juror Jeffrey Simpson
Prize Trustee & author Dr. David Staines
Canadian book publishers
WHY: The Charles Taylor Prize is the country’s most prestigious literary non-fiction award. Since 2000, the Prize has been the driving force behind increased recognition and growth of Canadian non-fiction.
Now in its 8th year, the Charles Taylor Prize for Literary Non-Fiction celebrates Canada’s rich literary voice, and the exceptional authors and journalists who captivate us with their stories, insights and style. The Prize commemorates the late Charles Taylor, one of Canada’s foremost essayists, a foreign correspondent and a prominent member of the Canadian literary community whose dream was to raise the public profile of non-fiction. CTP is presented annually to a Canadian author whose book best demonstrates a superb command of the English language, an elegance of style and a subtlety of thought and perception. Originally awarded every two years, since 2004 the Prize has been awarded annually.
135 submissions are competing for the 2009 CTP Shortlist. The Prize consists of $25,000 for the winning author and an award of $2,000 for each finalist with promotional support for each shortlisted title. The winner of the 2009 Prize will be announced at the CTP Author Luncheon Monday, February 9th. The Prize is presented by the Charles Taylor Foundation with generous support from AVFX, Ben McNally Books, CBC Radio One, CTV, CNW, Le Meridien King Edward Hotel, The Globe and Mail, Quill & Quire, and Windfields Farm. For more information: www.thecharlestaylorprize.ca

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Media are requested to confirm their attendance with Linda Crane, Stephen Weir & Associates

Stephen Weir 416-489-5868 cell: 416-801-3101 sweir5492@rogers.com
Linda Crane: 905-257-6033 cell: 416-727-0112 cranepr@cogeco.ca

A Calvacade of New. Giving 2-bite brownies for dogs 20 seconds of fame.

cutline: John Scott on the set of Canada AM, showing new food products coming to a store near you this winter.

Three days of PR work (and some midnight veggie shopping) for a brief but fruitful food segment on the Canada AM news show

The media consumes New. New movies. New faces. New problems. New leaders. New messiahs. New ideas on old themes. New New New. And that was just last week's headlines.

Public Relations practitioners who represent clients that have New, will find a welcome reception from usually frosty television show bookers when pitching new. A broadcast favourite is a 5 minute segment that puts the spotlight on a procession of new products - be it clothing, cars, tools, gadgets or new foods. The biggest challenge for PR people is not finding a TV show interested in New, but, deciding which show to offer the Cavalcade of New to.

One of the best places to showcase freshly minted products is on CTV's nationally broadcast morning news/talk show Canada AM. Although its numbers have dropped, it is one of the few Toronto created shows that has a daily cross-Canada English audience. A show and tell with purveyors of New is a welcome break from stories of fires, murders and scandals.

Every so often I help Crane Communications (an Oakville PR firm) with the pitching and servicing of Cavalcade of New segments for Toronto television shows. Owner Linda Crane has a well respected expertise in placing new products on TV, be it on Canada AM or CITY TV's Breakfast TV, Global Television's morning show, Rogers Daytime and now and then the Weather Network. Crane has showcased everything from new boat products (bikini clad models with its bitsy life jackets), to home show cleaning products. Last month I assisted her with the Grocery Innovations Canada trade exhibition and the PR campaign which included bringing shopping carts filled with NEW food products onto Canada AM. Viewers got a chance to see new products that will be making their way onto store shelves this fall and coming winter.

Grocery Innovations Canada, is the country’s largest grocery trade show and conference. Staged for the owners of independently owned food stores, the conference was held on Sunday, October 26 and Monday, October 27 at Toronto Congress Centre.

John F.T. Scott, president, Canadian Federation of Independent Grocers (pictured above on the set of Canada AM), was our presenter on a Thursday morning Canada AM broadcast. Along with host Seamus O'Regan, the pair managed to look over 50 new things that you will soon see in independent food stores. The show-and-tell ran the gambit from 2-bite brownies for dogs (people can eat them too), to squeeze bagged Ketchup sweetened with honey instead of sugar. Seamus O'Regan sampled new cream cheese spreads on new glutton-free crackers. He took a pass on peanut butter made with soya and only sniffed at 100% peanut free chocolate chip cookies but seemed to be fascinated by new East Indian sauces made in Saskatoon.

The whole process, like the medium itself, is fast, furious and not particularly in depth. Unless viewers have a pen and pencil beside their TV sets, it is unlikely that consumers will actually be able to remember the names of the products they saw flash across their screens. Despite the lack of specific brand recognition, the broadcasted food segment did reap rewards for the Canadian Federation of Independent Grocers -- the producers of the trade-only exhibition where the new products were debuted to food store owners.

Scott's performance graphically showed consumers that small independent food stores continue to be an important part of the country's economy. A 2008 Kraft Canada/Canadian Grocer sponsored study reports that independent grocers (including franchises) comprise 40.2 % of Canada’s $76 billion grocery industry.

The independent stores continue to be strong even though their competition is huge -- think WalMart, Price Club, Metro, Soebys and the Loblaws Superstores. The Canada AM segment not so subtlety showed that the corner store is the place to shop to find cutting edge new products.

The under current messages? Independents are concerned about the health of its customers. Many of the product labels shown on TV that morning included the word organic in their names. Some of the new products answer the dietary concerns of a changing population. There were many new ethnic foods launched and the segment also showed that the independents have a desire to go with the 100-mile diet concept ... selling food that is processed within 100 miles of where their ingredients are grown.

5-minutes of television on the run doesn't come easy. Three people spent two 8-hour-days collecting product samples from producers and another 8-hr day to get even more samples (after it was determined that the line-up was a little light). Scripts and back-grounders had to be written, and one run through with John Scott was held via phone conference. Scott had to know everything about every project displayed on TV in anticipation of an out-of-left-field question from a sometimes wacky Seamus.

I personally scoured the market for ornamental gourds, dried Indian corn and orange squashes to decorate our show-and-tell TV set table. I bought veggies at midnight (to be fresh under the lights at 7-am the next morning) and drove an SUV filled with product to Canada AM's east-end Toronto studio at the crack of dawn. Two of us spent an hour dressing the table with the products prior to John Scott going on air.

After the show ended the producers of Canada AM came on set and congratulated the Grocery people for a job well done. We were asked to come back next year ... provided we had something Newer than this year's New to talk about.