#foodindustrytips

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Gautam Nath came to Canada in 2008 as a landed immigrant and he faced the relative obscurity that all new immigrants face. Despite years of achievements back in his country of origin, he felt a stranger in Canada. Gautam had to move fast and had to build his brand fresh in Canada. On the professional front he volunteered, networked and used digital media to great effect.

Gautam soon realized that it was not all about volunteering, networking and looking for jobs. To maintain his sense of balance, he started cultivating his passion, FOOD. Gautam started a Facebook group called Foodies Unite II that has close to 2000 members from Toronto as well as all across the globe.

Gautam used to run a crab lovers club back in India and felt passionate about cooking similar tasting delicacies here in Toronto. He sourced his raw ingredients from a variety of outlets and found the biggest BC crabs in a Vietnamese grocery outlet on Jane Street. Other ingredients came from the Indian food mart on Eddystone Avenue and the aromatic basmati rice from Iqbals on Overlea Drive. In this short video, Gautam talks us through the making of awesome spicy crabs.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4HTwXnTzdN8

— submitted by Gautam Nath

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Working in the fast food industry

I’ve worked at a lot of restaurants this past year, some of them being Paramount Lebanese cuisine and Bamiyon Kabob at Markham Rd and 14th Avenue. Obviously, the majority of people that come are Arab or Afghan. But still, there are always new people that want to come and try new foods. A lot of people come there and don’t even know what’s going on and where they are. They’re usually just intrigued by the appearance of the place – one person dropped by once because they though the name ‘Paramount’ was unique and wanted to know what it was about. Others dropped in because they said the building looks nice and  they want to come inside. When working at Bamiyon, I see a lot of visitors that come in and ask about Afghan culture. Some people come in and ask me, “is this Afghan food?” or “Are the spices you use directly from Afghanistan?” At Paramount, I got a lot of questions about the Arab coffee. It’s cool to be able to see people genuinely take interests in other cultures while working in the fast food industry.

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Tasteful Experiences

At first glance, my life is luxurious, my experiences rich and my growth native to each geographic region of visit: the deserts of United Arab Emirates, the districts of Sri Lanka, the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, the provinces of Canada, the states of America, the intercontinental futuristic vision of Dubai, and back again to the human rights of Canada. I have vividly enjoyed every faucet of it all.  

Each country, unique with its own traditions, formed a colourful array of values that composed a multiculturally enthusiastic family. Being the third culture kid, food allowed me to bring a piece of my childhood and past experiences along with me. Just like the sense of hearing is an avenue to connect memories associated with sound from the past to the present, taste buds help you taste every ethnicity no matter where you situate. 

My fondest memory of growing up in Dubai revolves around Ramadhan. It was a time of breaks for people of all religions, cultures, and colour. But most importantly, it was special time that brought families together with one simple thing. Food. Many homes around the United Arab Emirates cooked in excess to share with neighbours, friends, and loved ones. Two very common dishes associated with Ramadhan are Harees (an Emirati porridge) and Luqaimat (a sweet crunchy dumpling). Everyday just before sunset, families would line up outside the villas of neighbours' to either give or take one of the dishes. This made Ramadhan, a time of giving, even more meaningful.

As a Muslim, my migration to Canada 11 years ago caused a dent in my Ramadhan spirit and continues to do so every year. Fasting in North America can never feel the same for my family and I. But in order to compensate, my family practises re-creating the memories of our life in Dubai every year for thirty special days. My mother has an authentic Emirati recipe book, which we use to cook both Harees and Luqaimat. Since the trickiest part of food making is getting the right consistencies, recently we have decided to stick to Luqaimat more often than Harees. An excitement rushes through me each time I bite into a crispy sweet dumpling tossed in farm honey. It takes all my worries away and brings flashes of my laidback childhood, where I had the luxury of running around the streets with the desert sand under my feet. 

I am grateful for the experiences that have allowed me to not only learn about other cultures but also given me an opportunity to mould into my own individualistic differences as an Emirates-born, ethnically Sri Lankan-Canadian. 

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My migration story started when I left Pakistan at 3 years old….I don’t think I have a migration story really. But I’d like to think the food I cook is a fusion of both my Pakistani culture and Canadian upbringing. When I host dinners, my table spread always includes a mix of both.

  I started a cake business around 5 years ago. I’ve made cakes for so many special occasions – sweet 16s, birthdays, graduations, baby showers and weddings. I’ve catered toward Paksitani, Canadian, Chinese, Italian and Greek events. I love seeing my cakes bring joy to other people. The picture I included is a cake I made for my best friend’s son’s dholki – a wedding event where the guests put henna on each other and celebrate before the wedding.

  I made the cake look like a dholki  - the drum that we use at this event to play old Hindi songs, and decorated around it with actual chudiyan (bangles) I had at home. It was quite the hit :) 

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Doug (father of Allison): “Allison went to Stratford Chef School, a very competitive school. She started this business 2000, and sold it to me in 2006 when I was retiring. Gluten-free has been added as a new thing to cater to expanding gluten free market.”

What’s your favourite dish?

Doug: “Chicken pot pie. I spent a long time making it taste good.”

Ann: “Beef pot pie is currently my favourite.”

Was it hard finding ingredients for gluten-free?

Ann: “It took a long time. Doug is the mastermind. I’m the pretty face and sometimes I put things in the oven.”

Has the food industry created opportunities for you to succeed?

Doug: “Definitely. We do about five different markets around Toronto, more during the summer than the winter.”

Doug owner of Allison’s Savory Pot Pies and Soups and Ann. Interviewed at St. Lawrence Market North

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How long have you been in business?

“18 years. We do catering, markets, and wholesale to small businesses.”

How did you get into this business?

“Through family. My mom’s always been an entrepreneur. My mom started it and I grew it and expanded it.” 

How has the food industry helped you succeed?

“I think of the farmers’ market in direct contrast to ‘industry’ like Loblaws. What we do is more about bringing people in touch with the food that they eat. It’s more about a personal thing, like talking and getting to know to your customers.”

Have you had to substitute any ingredients?

“No because we live in Toronto. If it was a smaller town, then it might be more difficult, but Toronto is so metropolitan that it’s easy. There’s no shortage of spices, but it’s difficult to get local spices. Everything is imported.” 

What’s your favourite dish?

“One of my favourite foods is cheese made in the south of Italy, which you can’t get here. I also love French pastries, but you can’t get a decent croissant in Toronto. I guess I like food too much to pick one!”

— Nupur owner of Raani Foods. Interviewed at St Lawrence Market North.

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Has the food industry created opportunities for you?

Tristen: “I would say absolutely.

Mike: “100 percent.”

Tristen: “There are so few Filipino restaurants, we all know each other. Mike and I don't come from food, we met on Tinder and we started dating, and selling food at markets.”

Mike: “We were doing dinner parties for friends, and then friends of friends, and suddenly we were catering.”

Tristen: “It's hard to spread the word about Filipino food.”

Mike: “We started with ube pie, it blew up on Instagram, and purple yam is now our specialty. That's my job, driving around to a hundred million Chinese grocery stores. There is not a lot of availability. The purple yam is hard to ship and it doesn't grow here.”

Tristen: “It's similar to a sweet potato, people mix it up with taro. There's no domestic equivalent. The crust is not baked, it's made from powdered milk. You can get it, but not for a reasonable price. Here it's mostly skim. I'm hoping the most popular we get, the easier it will be to find these ingredients. It takes people like us, people who make it popular.”

Mike: “We really like the setup here [with Death in Venice] because it's kind of a market, kind of a restaurant. We would love to meet engaged millennial Filipinos who are ready to embrace their culture. We've met so many people selling hand-made crafts. Get a few businesses gathered together.”

Tristen: “It's a function of a very large community that has no social media content.”

Mike: “Now we're just desserts. We made a sundae last year and it blew up so big on BlogTO. That's when we knew people are maybe more ready for Filipino food.”

Where does the name come from?

Tristen: “My dad. Tito means uncle, but you use it as a term of respect. My dad's an OG, though, people who meet him love him. He's a hard worker. Basically we just started this so he could retire. Because he's never gonna stop working.”

— Tristen and Mike, owners of Tito Ron's Remixed Filipino Desserts. Interviewed in Death in Venice. 

Pictured: ube polvoron crust pie, champorado squares, and buko pandan cookies

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How has the food industry created opportunities for you?

“Food is a necessity, not a luxury like a car. So there's a difference, it's a service. I wouldn't sell oil, I would leave it in the ground. Cuz I need food everyday. My beliefs are, anything you waste is a disaster for the planet. This is my whole life, I wouldn't do anything else.”

How long have you been doing this?

“Long time. Come in a few weeks, I just hired a bunch of children to make a globe with information about what countries are using the most oil and what's being pumped out of the earth.”

— Pots, owner of 4 Life Natural Foods in Kensington Market