Happy New Year everyone!
Sharing two notable holiday dinner spreads with close friends - homestyle Greek pork souvlaki, tzatziki, roasted lemon garlic potatoes, Turkish bulgur and Lebanese fattoush salads, Chinese bbq pork char siu and Japanese mochi cake with @lisaeats.
And take out Iraqi assorted kebab and roasted chicken platters with homemade Lebanese fattoush salad, crispy roasted potatoes and Vietnamese veggie rolls with my bestie.
What is the common theme in both these meals? As much as they lean towards one cultural cuisine, it welcomes and embraces the addition of other country flavours, making the experience both global adventurous and harmonious on the kitchen table.
Takes me back to my roots, as far as I can remember in the beginning of my food career. In my early Kraft Kitchen Days as a recipe developer, I always had multiculturalism in mind. I believe I was instrumental in bringing global diversity to the forefront in both our What's Cooking? and Quebec equivalent qu'est-ce qui mijote? magazine recipes to the mainstream audiences. That was nearly 20 years ago. And my love for multiculturalism only ramped up from there 🌐💞.
In a world where change is constant, imminent and inevitable, somethings just never change...
And that in itself, is some kind of wonderful❣ #ethos
It was a great year end wrapping up my food programs at Newcomer Kitchen and at TDSB Community Services 💞! I am so ever grateful for being able to combine two loves in my career. They are my I.K.I.G.A.I #lifepurpose 💫
On my Passion for Empowering Newcomer Women:
To mirror Cara, NK Executive Director's sentiments which is so beautiful and powerful,
"Watching such special women burst into smiles
Also knowing how scared they are inside
To do their best, that "positive stress"
And their transformative experiences no matter how small they seem at the time
Are why we do what we do ..."
How extraordinary it is to witness this regularly 🥰.
On my Passion for Cooking With Kids:
My dream is to make a difference…
for our children now and tomorrow
Equip them with solid skills, not just borrow
Food education at home, at school
Pass on how-to knowledge, that’s the tool
Important skills that must be taught
Life lessons gained that can't be bought
Too many suffer from not knowing
Cooking is the key to healthy growing
There is a better choice
Empowerment is the voice
Together we can make a difference…
for our children now and tomorrow! -- Susan
Follow Your Ikigai... 💫
🎉 2023 was a year of tremendous growth at Newcomer Kitchen! From moving into a larger office space equipped with a demo kitchen, to hiring 2 additional staff and launching our second XP food business program with pride, including our first series of Moroccan Mnencha workshop over at Evergreen Brick Works for the holidays... this was certainly a year to celebrate our wins 🎊!
Congrats to our recent cohort grads- Afro-Asian Eats and DISTIINCT for completing our Willing To Work program. We wish you all the success in your endeavours, and will work with some of you again in XP!
To the ladies currently in our XP, we are very proud of your accomplishments as you take the new learnings to the next level. Your individual menus look incredible and delicious, and we can't wait to see where you go from here 🙌!
To our friends, partners and followers, thank you for your ongoing support 🙏. May the new year bring you many laughter and happy memories! We look forward to bringing you more events, more workshops to tantalize your senses and take your taste buds on a global adventure. Many cheers!!
And to wrap up this post... As The Depanneur owner Len Senater exclaims "2024 is going to be amazeballs!"
Announcement 📣: New cookbook launch 🙌👩🍳👨🍳📚 The Depanneur Cookbook is finally arriving in March!
(All excerpts are from Indigo's overview of the cookbook) It celebrates Toronto’s astonishing cultural diversity, telling the modern immigrant story of the city through 100 recipes from 100 cooks and exploring the Dep’s transformation from old corner store to a buzzy place of tremendous culinary creativity.
More than three years in making, The Depanneur Cookbook: Stories from Canada's Unlikeliest Restaurant — Canada's most successful Kickstarter cookbook ever — is finally hitting the shelves March 5th!
Over a decade ago, Len Senater set out on an adventure to create meaningful experiences using food as the medium. Since then, Len’s idiosyncratic pop-up space, The Depanneur—a tiny, old corner store transformed into “A Place Where Interesting Food Things Happen”—has featured hundreds of talented cooks and served thousands of eclectic meals. Through culinary events such as casual Drop-In Dinners to family-style Supper Clubs, hands-on Cooking Classes to insightful Table Talks, The Depanneur has discovered unique ways to foster community through food, all while avoiding the pitfalls of more traditional restaurant experiences. From a decade of unbridled culinary creativity emerged the idea of celebrating the remarkable accomplishments of this experiment as a book.
Launched as a Kickstarter campaign in November 2020, The Depanneur Cookbook showcases the astonishing range of Toronto’s culinary talent. Equal parts documentary, manifesto, and cookbook, the book features delicious food, poignant stories, and beautiful photography. More than just a collection of authentic home cooking from around the world, it is the only cookbook that truly captures the incredible culinary diversity of Toronto.
Len used to sit on Newcomer Kitchen's Board of Directors. Congratulations! We look forward to more collaborations and inspiration in all that you do 👏🎊!
Looking forward to what food ventures 2024 has in store.... I say Bring. It. On!
