Eatdrink #67 September/October 2017 "The Decade Issue"

By BRYAN LAVERY | Photography by STEVE GRIMES
№ 44 | November/December 2013
By BRYAN LAVERY
By BRYAN LAVERY
№ 55 | September/October 2015
Photo by Melissa Doyle, Casting Memories
№ 56 | November/December 2015
The LOCAL Food & Drink Magazine
1
Culinary Farmer
Paul Spence
and the Chatham-
Kent Table: A fifthgeneration
farmer,
Paul Spence can debate
the economic impacts
of food policy with
agility and is equally
knowledgeable about
the urban farmers’
market culture and
the practicalities of
traditional farming
methods as he is on the subject of greenwashing.
His fierce championing of local food has won
him both admirers and detractors. www.
eatdrink.ca/a-culinary-farmer/
2
12 www.eatdrink.ca
T.G.’s Addis Ababa Restaurant: For
more than a decade, T.G.’s Addis Ababa
has offered a tour
restaurants
An Authentic Taste of Ethiopia
at T.G.’s Addis Ababa Restaurant, in London
D
ining at T.G.’s Addis
Ababa is characterized
by the ritual of
breaking injera (the
traditional yeast-risen flatbread
which is spongy in texture,
crêpe-like in appearance and
has a sourdough tanginess) and
sharing food from a communal
platter, signifying the bonds of
loyalty and friendship. For more
than a decade, T.G.’s Addis Ababa
Restaurant has offered a tour de
force from the Ethiopian culinary
repertoire.
The modest restaurant is
tucked away off the beaten track,
in an unassuming brick building on the
south side of Dundas Street, near the
corner of Burwell and Maitland.
de force from the
Ethiopian culinary
repertoire and has
garnered repute for
being blistering-hot,
but truly authentic.
T.G.’s signature
dishes comprise
permutations of
sweet, bitter, sour,
salty, hot and
fragrant. These
flavour contrasts and
the refinement of her
cooking is the hallmark of her cuisine. www.
eatdrink.ca/t-g-s-addis-ababa/
3
T.G. Haile
Chef/restaurateur T.G. Haile is dedicated
to supporting important cultural and
charitable initiatives and events, despite the
fact that she is a hands-on owner who does
all of the cooking at the restaurant. T.G.’s
Addis Ababa has been a stalwart participant
in the Taste for Life campaign to support the
Regional HIV/AIDS Connection.
T.G. supports the efforts of local student
organizers
at Brescia
University
during their
annual
Multicultural
Show, as well
as the London
Black History
Coordinating
Committee.
Recently, T.G.
was selected as
An unassuming
building facade
disguises a uniquely
original interior
#44 — Nov/Dec 2013
Andrew Fleet, Food Literacy and
Growing Chefs!: Based on the idea that
education can alter behavior, Growing Chefs!
and its many volunteers
have made tremendous
strides by changing
the way many children
perceive food, and
encouraging them to
become excited about
nutritious and healthy
food choices. The former
Auberge du Petit Prince
restaurant has been
transformed into the
new Growing Chefs!
headquarters and
18 www.eatdrink.ca
farmers & artisans
A Culinary Farmer
Paul Spence and the Chatham-Kent Table
F
or the most part, Ontarians are complacent
about the origins of their food and oblivious
to the challenges farmers face just to stay
on their land. Paul Spence is the archetype
of the intrepid, modern Ontario farmer advocating
for change to our food system. His family has been
working land in Chatham-Kent since 1852, when
his ancestors settled in this biologically diverse
Carolinian zone of southern Ontario.
Spence and my paths intersect at events
supporting local food and agricultural initiatives,
culinary events and tourism conferences. We often
discuss the fact that an obvious lack of commitment
to locally procured food takes away from the
integrity of many of these events.
A fifth-generation farmer, Spence can debate the
economic impacts of food policy with agility and is
equally knowledgeable about the urban farmers’
market culture and the practicalities of traditional
Paul and Sara Spence, with their
farming methods as he is on the subject of greenwashing.
His fierce championing of local food has
children, at Spence Farms
won him both admirers and detractors.
Spence and his wife Sara, who emigrated from hormones or additives, they developed
Ecuador, founded Lo Maximo Meats in 2009 as an a reputation for Latin-style cuts of
outgrowth of Spence Farms. Uniting the food of quality fresh-frozen beef, pork, lamb
Sara’s culture and his farming practices of growing and goat. Soon they were retailing
his own feed and raising the meat without growth pasture-raised ducks, geese and rabbits
from other small family farms in
Chatham-Kent. I became acquainted
with Spence during the four years he
spent as a vendor at London, Ontario’s
Masonville Farmers’ Market.
In 2012, Spence and fellow-farmer
and River Bell Market owner, Joseph
Grootenboer, collaborated to establish
the first Chatham-Kent Table. Over 100
attendees savoured a repast, prepared
and served by the farmers from where
the products originated. They achieved
this with the assistance and support of
the contributing farmers, their families
and sponsors.
Paul Spence (right) with Twisted Lemon
(Cayuga ON) Chef Dan Megna at the Ontario
Southwest’s City Fare in Toronto
8 www.eatdrink.ca
food writer at large
Food Literacy and Growing Chefs!
F
#55 — Sept/Oct 2015
ood literacy, when taken literally,
means a person’s ability to
correctly read food labels and
Canada’s Food Guide and the
aptitude to comprehend basic nutrition
well enough to apply that knowledge
to food preparation. Food literacy also
includes understanding how food is grown
and produced, where it originates, how
production affects the environment and who
has access to what types of foods.
The need to introduce food into school life
is the most compelling at the primary level,
when children are just starting to establish
food preferences, make independent choices
and influence their friends. Growing Chefs!
was conceived in Vancouver B.C. by Chef
Merri Schwartz in 2006, as she identified a
need to articulate the story of the food we eat.
Believing in greater engagement between
chefs, farmers and the general public, she
set out to educate children, families, and
community members about nutrition,
sustainability and healthy food systems.
Schwartz achieved this by providing programs,
seminars, and workshops in classrooms to
promote local and healthy eating.
After working with Schwartz and recognizing
the influence that Growing Chefs!
was having in Vancouver, Andrew Fleet was
inspired to launch the program when he
returned to London, Ontario. Consequently,
The Growing Chefs! Ontario Classroom
Gardening Project was established in the
spring of 2008 at Tecumseh Public School.
Fleet is the Executive Director of Growing
Chefs! Ontario.
What was initially known as the Classroom
Gardening Project has been redesigned as
a full-school project. The Growing Chefs!
team visits every class in each partner school
allowing individual schools to
contribute time and effort into
the coordination piece of the
programming. With this model,
Growing Chefs! is able to reach
three times the number of
elementary students annually,
that’s 2,600 students up from 800.
“Kids are well educated in our
school system on health and they
know they need to be making
healthy choices but we don’t show
them how to actually do that,”
Fleet explains. “That’s the Growing
Chefs! philosophy — you give kids
a chance to cook real food with
real flavour with a real chef.”
This year Growing Chefs! hired
Katherine Puzara as the lead chef
Students at the Montessori Academy of
London enjoy lunch — Growing Chefs style!
#56 — Nov/Dec 2015
Reverie
Reverie
Reverie
OPENING SOON
twelve seats
five course tasting menu
Contemporary Canadian Cuisine
By Reservation Only
208 Piccadilly Street, London
reverierestaurant.ca