Recipes Reimagined: Rethinking How We Cook in the Age of AI

It's been a minute ... on the heel of returning from Asia, I taught an online AI incorporated cooking class with families from a TDSB junior public school last week. It marked the first session of our two-part cooking workshop in Recipes Reimagined, and what a beautiful start it was 🥰.

Together, we explored how simple, everyday ingredients can come together in meaningful ways. We prepared a comforting one-pot lentil and rice soup paired with a vibrant pickled vegetable giardiniera- showing how one meal can be both nourishing and adaptable, and how a simple jar can extend flavour and reduce waste.

A large pot of lentils is inexpensive and stretchable.

It fosters the communal aspect that no one in the neighborhood should go hungry.

The giardiniera-style pickle is designed around using leftover vegetables, slightly soft produce, imperfect or discounted items. This reframes reduced-price food as resourceful and intentional, and as a practical way to salvage and extend the life of food at home.

I also introduced the thoughtful use of AI as a kitchen support tool. Families explored how it can help with menu planning, organizing recipes, and translating dishes across languages- all while keeping their own tastes, traditions, and judgment at the centre. 

Most of the stress isn’t cooking. It’s deciding. AI isn’t replacing your knowledge. It’s a planning helper. Think of AI as a highly organized kitchen helper who has read every cookbook in the world and remembers exactly what you have in your fridge. Just knowing a few simple AI tools can help us save recipes and food traditions.

Each participant was tasked to prepare a favourite recipe contribution from their family, including a story, food photo and artwork to culminate a cookbooklet for their school community 🔪📔

At the heart of it all was food sovereignty: having confidence and control over how we feed our families, using what we have, and honouring the foods that connect us to home.

AI isn’t here to replace what you know- it’s just there to make cooking a little easier and less stressful. Experience and judgment always come first, and like any tool, it’s not perfect. If we can teach our kids how to cook, think for themselves, and use tools wisely, we’re doing more than just making meals- we’re building stronger, more capable families for the future. And that’s what our project Recipes Reimagined is all about 👊💥

Grateful to everyone who joined, shared, and cooked along. This is just the beginning- looking forward to seeing these recipes and stories come to life in our upcoming cookbook and potluck celebration 🤗

If you would like to organize a cooking workshop, please contact me to arrange.

Newcomer Kitchen International Cooking Workshops...

 

Happy International Women's Day sisters 👭💛👭!  

We can all learn from each other and cultures through our stories of resilience and courage to empower ourselves and our communities to be stronger, happier and better in every way! 

Women in Newcomer Kitchen's Food Business Program

May you always find the inspiration and strength to chase your dreams 

and the determination to make them come true. Happy Women's Day! 

Photo captions:

Top- with my past group of students in the Newcomer Kitchen food business program with women from Taiwan, Bahamas, China, Afghanistan and Syria. I am proud to share Newcomer Kitchen has learned from and worked with women from 33 countries since inception over 8 years ago 💗

Bottom- with newcomer women who took part in The Arab Community Centre of Toronto ACCT's Amal Project (Amal = Hope) came to cook and eat together in the past for a happy occasion after Ramadan- graduation lunch. What a Mosaic of cultures - women from Iran, Jordan, Iraq, Egypt, Syria, Lebanon and Venezuela.

🌍 The power of women knows no borders! 

January and February have been busy months at Newcomer Kitchen with several globe trotting small group cooking workshops hosted by women who are in our next level XP food business incubator program.

In this training, we teach newcomer women who are serious about venturing into conducting cooking workshops how to menu ideate, plan their schedule- in advance and on-site as well as storytelling and engaging with their guests. The key is commanding the room and have a mix of demos, hands-on activities and customizing to one's tastes. A recipe for success! Here are some highlights of workshops that I co-hosted with our students in our beautiful century old loft kitchen and office space at CSI- Centre of Social Innovation at 192 Spadina Avenue.

We ushered the new year with La Kasbah del Sol, chef Hajar Ouzid in Savour Morocco for a hands-on workshop exploring Moroccan tagine with all the trimmings!

Moroccan Chicken Tagine

Moroccan Vegetarian Tagine

We gathered around our open kitchen to prepare and cook two tagines. Her chicken tagine was simmered with aromatic spices, tangy preserved lemons, and briny olives. The vegetarian tagine displays a beautiful variety of seasonal vegetables cooked in a fragrant broth served with batbout bread and a beetroot salad.

Her dessert was a showstopper and perfect finish- flaky layered phyllo pastry filled with homemade creme Anglais and a douse of icing sugar. Served with a mint tea ceremony, it's a delicious end to a hearty Moroccan meal! Everyone left satiated having learned new delicious things and meeting great new people 🤗

The week after, I co-hosted with Nigerian host Opeyemi Osadare, founder of @ibilemeals an eclectic evening, discovering and cooking West African cuisine 🇳🇬- Savour Nigeria. This is her first foray into delivering a cooking workshop as one of the few small food business avenues we teach in our food entrepreneurship program.

We started the evening snacking on baked flaky veggie pies, then moved over to our demo kitchen to learn to make Moi Moi, bean pudding made with special African brown eyed beans and spices, steamed in fragrant banana leaves and served with oven-baked chicken thighs. 

A side of Efo-riro (collard greens) was deliciously seasoned rounding out the meal. To finish off, a delightful sweet treat of Puffs Puffs, fried chewy mini dough balls sprinkled with icing sugar and served with a refreshing Zobo beverage also known as Sorrel or hibiscus drink.

Puff Puffs- Nigeria's answer to Tim Bits :D

It was a lovely and lively evening filled with laughter and learning! Simply Magical 💫

In our latest and last workshop in February, host Nada Abd from Anber celebrated the rich flavours, timeless recipes and warm traditions of Iraqi cuisine. She is passionate about crafting authentic dishes that tell a story of culture and community, and eating with your eyes first 👀🤤

Our appetites were whet with rice Kubbeh stuffed with spinach, pomegranate seeds and walnuts, then we joined her at the demo station to prepare Iraqi Chicken Biryani, a fragrant yellow rice with vermicelli and spiced chicken thighs, topped with onions, raisins and almonds. Together, we made a showstopper layered salad with vibrant vegetables, greens, fried pita drizzled with a creamy yogurt dressing. Then finished the hearty meal with a refreshing silky milk pudding topped with crunchy shredded phyllo and pistachios served alongside warm spiced chai tea. 

What a lovely evening with such an amazing gracious host and the warmest guests- loyal repeat customers and partners 🥰. We have been so lucky!

Stay tuned for my next post on Savour Pakistan where I take one of the dishes I absolutely enjoyed from the workshop and make it at home for the family!

Newcomer Kitchen- Give the Gift of Joy this Holiday and For Lifting the January Blues

 

Give A Gift of Warmth, Fun, Community & Meaning

Excited to present ✌ things I've been working on at Newcomer Kitchen. Give the Gift of Joy this Holiday and For Lifting the January Blues (with a Holiday Trinidadian black rum cake and 3 International Cooking Workshops to start the new year)!

Order your cake on Eventbrite here

Get ready to spice up Tuesday evenings in January as we celebrate diverse global cuisines through engaging, small hands-on workshops followed by a shared meal. Let’s come together to enjoy delicious dishes while supporting newcomer women from around the world who are striving to make Toronto a warmer, more welcoming community. This promises to be a truly memorable experience! $59.91 total for a workshop

Moroccan Tagines Cooking Workshop

Tuesday, January 14th, 5:30 to 8:00pm Small Group Cooking Workshop: Savour Morocco Join La Kasbah Del Sol chef Hajar Ouzid for a hands-on workshop exploring Moroccan tagine with all the trimmings!

Tickets & Info for Moroccan Workshop

Nigerian Cooking Workshop

Tuesday, January 21st, 5:30 to 8:00pm Small Group Cooking Workshop: Savour Nigeria Join Ibile Meals chef Ope Osadare as she prepares steamy banana leaf wraps and serves up delicious puff puffs!

Tickets & Info for Nigerian Workshop

Persian Cooking Workshop

Tuesday, January 28th, 5:30 to 8:00pm Small Group Cooking Workshop: Savour Persia Join SHAMS founder Hamideh Arefeshghy to explore the flavours of Persia showcasing special ingredients sure to leave you enchanted!

Tickets & Info for Persian Workshop

What's New at Newcomer Kitchen: The Fall Line-Up of Foodie Events...

 

So much exciting announcements 📢 and stories to share from Newcomer Kitchen. 

If you are new to my blog, I'd love to introduce myself:

I have been a food professional with 25 years of culinary experience with a passion in food education and multiculturalism. I have worked in catering, culinary consulting, product development, recipe development in a test kitchen and for several magazines, and authored a cookbook on Asian hot pots. I ran cooking programs and workshops with primarily newcomers in schools and for diverse communities including kids, youths, families and seniors with an emphasis on healthy cooking, multiculturalism and curbing food waste. I blog about my community collaborations and love for food and travel here on Susan’s Savour-It!

I have been with Newcomer Kitchen, a non-profit organization for nearly three years, and as a Program Trainer, have led and completed the day program with seven groups of women. Our ‘Willing To Work’ Food Entrepreneurship Training program helps newcomer women in food preparation and entrepreneurship to start their own food business funded by the Immigration Refugee Citizenship of Canada (IRCC). This free "earn as you learn" hybrid (online and in-kitchen) program helps prepare their food ideas to market in three real life food events with all revenue generated going back in their hands. The money earned is divided amongst the team (6 to 7 women) and a certificate is provided upon completion of the 14 week program.

Currently, as their Program Manager, I oversee the 'Willing to Work' day and evening programs that introduces newcomer women the many avenues to food business ownership, and support the next level XP food incubator program to get women started. My passion for culinary excellence and inclusivity is highlighted through my commitment to empowering others through food and celebrating diversity.

Here's What's New at Newcomer Kitchen: The Fall Line-Up of Foodie Events...

This Fall at Newcomer kitchen Seasonal newsletter Fall 2024 Coming up Tuesday Sept 17th Our usual W2W group dinner will be offered in November (see below for information). We have had numerous requests for a pop-up sooner! So we have reached out to one of our new businesses in our XP food business incubator to put together a special offer of a pick-up (or delivered) meal by Lakasbah Moroccan Cuisine. $25.00 see menu & tickets New for this fall After a successful season hosting our Summer Brunch Around the World Workshop Series we are introducing a new Tuesday Night Dinner & Cooking Workshop Series in our beautiful century space at the Center for Social Innovation. Four Tuesday evenings this fall we invite you to join us to celebrate different global cuisines through hands-on learning and then sharing a meal together. It promises to be a special experience.   Here is what of few of our guests said about our summer workshops: “What a heartening experience to learn and to share a meal together. We had such an unforgettable experience” “Thank you for creating a space for women to share their culture, talents, experiences and FOOD. Can’t wait to attend more events!” “Thank you for a loving and delicious experience” “The food was amazing” “This was a fantastic experience!” “It’s great seeing different communities brought together” “What a wonderful way to spend a Sunday morning” Tuesday night lineup for info & tickets for info & tickets for info & tickets for info & tickets Tuesday September 24th, 6:00pm-8:30pm Eritrean dinner & cooking workshop Tuesday October 29th, 6:00pm-8:30pm Lahore dinner & cooking workshop Tuesday November 19th, 6:00pm-8:30pm Iranian dinner & cooking workshop Tuesday December 10th, 6:00pm-8:30pm Punjabi dinner & cooking workshop Our popular pop-up pick-up meals are back Save the date Thursday november 7th Order now because they always sell out! This Fall our popular Pick-Up Meals will be back with dishes from Pakistan, Ukraine, India, Turkey, Jamaica & Kenya. for info and tickets event catering Special Limited Offer Our Willing to Work program trains newcomer women to provide party platters for special events. These groups of 6-8 women learn how to create finger foods highlighting their traditional recipes (including GF, Halal and Vegan options). This happens only twice per term:  December 5th and 12th. Perfect for a private holiday party or business meeting.  There is a $500.00 minimum and all the proceeds go directly to the women in our program. As a subsidized IRCC funded training program this is a great value and a triple bottom line. We work with our customers for a custom event experience. For more information please contact susan@newcomerkitchen.ca the XP Program Business Incubator A year into our “graduate” program we are pleased to announce the establishment of multiple business start-ups that are keen to show what they can do for you! Our current cohort of Newcomer Kitchen food entrepreneurs are ready to launch their catering menus and workshop offerings. This fall we have fantastic fare available from IBile Meals from West Africa, Lakasbah Moroccan Cuisine from Morocco, Shams Persian Dishes from Iran and Raabta from Pakistan. Please contact mary@newcomerkitchen.ca for more menus and catering information. Newcomer Kitchen News Busy Bee is open for business Veronica is one of our recent graduates of our Newcomer Kitchen Business Incubator Veronica …. has opened up her own take-out restaurant in the Sheridan Mall Food Court. We wish her well and CHECK HER OUT. CONGRATULATIONS VERONICA. You can also check out her amazing interview with Global News here.   watch us on Global News!! Aesop Skincare orders 2500 madelines for Mothers Day Oranges & Olives landed a order to make 600 bags of Orange Almond Madelines as thank-you gifts from Aesop Skincare to their customers. Thank you Aesop for your continued support to our entrepreneurs! Crescent School supports Again & again. thank you!! Thank you for the amazing ongoing support from Crescent School. This past term they ordered Valentines Gift Bags filled with sweet offerings from many countries. The boys also wrote reflections on what they are grateful for to add to the bags!! Crescent School also continues to be an amazing community partner picking up an entire Pick-Up Dinner of 50 meals and inviting us again this year to participate in outreach education opportunities for the wonderful, thoughtful and engaged boys at Crescent. We hope in some small way Newcomer Kitchen enriches and expands their window on the world.

Looking into winter, the "Willing To Work" Program is calling for newcomer participants for 2025. If you or you know a woman who would benefit from food training, please have them contact me Susan Ng at susan@newcomerkitchen.ca or call at 647-228-5990.