SUPPER CLUB: Malaysian Rice Table, Pt 1 by Rocheller Batuigas (feat. Fat Rice)
2025-06-14 18:30 - 21:00 (America/Toronto) | CSI Spadina, 192 Spadina Ave., Suite 501, Toronto, Ontario, M5T 2C2, Canada
Back again after April’s off-the-chain Fat Rice supper club, this dinner is Chef Rocheller Batuigas’ is a love letter to his experiences in Malaysia and discovering its huge culinary roots. From the street vendors hawking food at the markets and beautiful sea-side restaurants serving fresh fish and curries, to the pasar malam night markets smelling of the intoxicating aroma of stinky tofu and durian, this is an ode to Malaysia, its people, their cuisine, and as well to his partner. A colourful, contemporary mashup of contemporary Asian cuisine, old-school nonya vibes, and traditional rijsttafel flavours. Not to be missed.
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Eagle and the Snake aka Yee Sang/Prosperity Toss Salad
This fresh and bountiful dish is often made for the lunar new year in Malaysia, where it is a festive centrepiece to the family table. Each of its many ingredients has some sort of symbolism: carrots symbolize gold, daikon for moving up in life, cucumber for good returns, scallions for fresh ideas, and thin fried croutons represent gold bars. In modern dishes, salmon is often featured to symbolize abundance, and the plum dressing represents the sweet things in life. The holiday banquet begins when everyone simultaneously reaches in with their chopsticks to toss the salad together, shouting their LNY wishes. The louder you shout and higher you toss, the more prosperity and good fortune you will have in the new year!
Chef Roche’s version combines julienned carrots, daikon, cucumber, mango, green papaya, green onion, cabbage, red onion, fried taro, crispy lumpia wrapper with a salted plum vinaigrette. It is served with salmon tartare, marinated in dark soy, gula melaka (coconut palm sugar), shallots, calamansi, finger chillies, sesame oil, grated ginger, and fish sauce. It comes with crispy prawn crackers and sambal belacan, a spicy, slow-cooked shrimp & chili paste.
Nasi Ulam
Northern-style rice salad with grated fresh coconut, galangal, ginger, chillies, shallots, market lime leaves, lemongrass, and fresh Asian herbs.
Beef RenDANG
Crazy soft lemongrass braised beef simmered in coconut fat and herbs and spices. Sweet, savoury, with an intense gravy. Garnished with fresh herbs.
Chicken Satay
Marinated for 3 days with turmeric and spices. Grilled slowly and served with proper peanut sauce. Dip it with fresh cucumbers and ketupat (compressed rice cakes).
Kangkung and Brinjal
Stir fried morning glory and eggplant in a spicy shrimpy sambal.
Kuih Bingka Ubi
Rich & gooey cassava and coconut cake with ice cream and a gula melaka and pineapple rum butterscotch.
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Rocheller Batuigas has worked as a chef for nearly 15 years working under Brad Long at Evergreen Brickworks at Cafe Belong and as well as the current Executive Chef at York University Student Centre. Currently traveling around the city on his days off with his friends and partner as FAT RICE, a hilarious group of people who love food and sharing those experiences at your next market or pop-up. @fatrice.to
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Every weekend The Depanneur invites an amateur or professional guest chef to host a fun, informal dinner party. @thedepanneur

DIY DINNER: Sous Vide Surf & Turf with Carole Nelson Brown
2025-06-15 16:00 - 21:00 (America/Toronto) | CSI Spadina, 192 Spadina Ave., Suite 501, Toronto, Ontario, M5T 2C2, Canada
Join us on Father’s Day for a fun, hybrid cooking class-meets-dinner party
Join Carole Nelson Brown, The Dep’s culinary tech guru, for a cool new event that combines perfectly cooked steak, cool kitchen gadgets, cooking with fire, and clever hacks that save time and money. It’s built around a mouthwatering menu of tender sous vide steak — perfectly cooked all the way through and finished with a delicious, crisp sear, and garnished with a delicious compound butter — juicy shrimp, creamy mushroom risotto, crisp asparagus, and a decadent chocolate surprise to finish things off. You have the option of joining us for this deluxe, family-style dinner party, or coming by earlier and learning all the recipes, tool and techniques that go into getting it on the table.
For the class portion, roll up your sleeves and join Carole in the kitchen for a dive into several game-changing modern culinary technologies: sous vide (cooking vacuum-sealed ingredients at precise temperatures for perfect, consistent results), pressure cooking (using an Instant Pot to cut long cooking times in half), and using a torch/Searzall to add the finishing touch of sear and char. Your hands-on participation will put the food on the table for the dinner guests joining later, and you’ll go home with all the recipes and the skills to level up your kitchen game. For the dinner, kick back for a fun, BYOB family-style dinner party; bring your appetite and your best dad jokes!
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4:00pm Class+Dinner $129 (includes recipes)
6:30pm Dinner Only $99
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After a remarkable 40-year career as a professional makeup artist to the stars Carole Nelson Brown embraced a mid-life pivot that took her from famous faces to tantalizing taste buds. Her culinary journey led to recipe development, enchanting chef pop-ups, and sharing culinary wisdom through cooking classes. She currently works in catering and as a private chef.
@mamashack
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The Depanneur is where Interesting Food Things happen. For more than a decade The Dep has been showcasing Toronto’s remarkable culinary diversity by hosting unique food events.
@thedepanneur

MASTERCLASS: Discovering Wild Foods by Dyson Forbes
2025-06-26 18:30 - 21:00 (America/Toronto) | CSI Spadina, 192 Spadina Ave., Suite 501, Toronto, Ontario, M5T 2C2, Canada
Masterclasses offer in-depth explorations of food topics, presented by experts and accompanied by demonstrations and tastings.
What does it taste like to live in Ontario? This is a tricky question to answer for two reasons. Firstly, although we grow a lot of things, most of what is cultivated here is not native to Ontario. The vast majority of food crops are essentially an invasive species that that been introduced and have taken over our local ecosystems. Secondly, most of the food plants that are indigenous to Ontario are not grown commercially nor available for purchase in stores. The only products actually native to Ontario one is likely to find in a supermarket might be maple syrup, blueberries and wild rice. So we find ourselves deeply disconnected from our terroir, seasons and natural environment, as well as sustainable First Nations food traditions that reach back thousands of years.
But it doesn’t have to be this way. Ontario is abundant with all manner of edible plants, mushrooms, herbs, nuts, fruits and vegetables, if you only know what to look for — and that is exactly what the Forbes family has been doing for decades. Dyson Forbes, following in the footsteps of his father Jonathan, have devoted themselves to making wild foraged native foodstuffs available to a broader Canadian audience through their company, Forbes Wild Foods. Working with specialized teams of foragers — rural Indigenous people, women, youth, retirees, farmers, and professional pickers — they carefully and sustainably harvest abundant wild foods, and help propagate rare plants by reintroducing them to lands that need remedial attention, such as overgrazed woodlots and pastures.
For this Masterclass, Dyson will be walking guests through a multi-course tasting session designed to showcase the unique flavours of a wide range of native foods, from teas, berries, and nuts to mushrooms, herbs, and seaweeds. These remarkable ingredients are available in variety of forms, from pickles and jams to powders and teas, making them available year-round. Dyson will speak to some of the overall considerations of Canadian foraging as well as sharing fascinating botanical, historical, nutritional and medicinal details of particular species.

Early Summer Edition:Berries: Saskatoon Berry, ElderberryPlants: Ramps (wild leeks), Fiddleheads (fern tips), Stinging NettleSeaweeds: Salicornia (aka Sea Asparagus, Glassworts)Mushrooms: Fresh Morels, Black TrumpetTrees: Birch, Haskap, Balsam, Spruce, CedarNuts: Beech Nuts, Heartnut, Black Walnut, Chestnuts, Hickory
(Exact items will depend on availability)
A simple but extensive tasting menu has been prepared in collaboration with Chef Taylor Parker, the man behind the popular Indigenous Food Lab dinner series. This will be a unique opportunity to sample a broad range of rare flavours and ingredients that are a connection to our Canadian landscape. Dyson will also have a selection of wild food products for sale at the end of the event, so you can take home some of the amazing new flavours you have discovered.
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$79 +HST
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With more than twenty years of experience in the food industry, and over twenty five years in film, television, and content creation, Dyson Forbes has a unique set of skills well suited to food marketing and education. He has worked with Forbes Wild Foods almost from the start. As well as marketing wild foods, Dyson leads foraging trips for small parties, and does presentations to chefs, student chefs, and organizations with an interest in food. He is involved in several on-line initiatives about food trends, farming and resource management, and cultural development.
@forbeswildfoods
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The Depanneur is where Interesting Food Things happen. For more than a decade The Dep has been showcasing Toronto’s remarkable culinary diversity by hosting unique food events.
@thedepanneur

SUPPER CLUB: Indigenous Food Lab by Chef Taylor Parker
2025-06-28 18:30 - 21:00, 2025-09-13 18:30 - 21:00, 2025-10-11 18:30 - 21:00 (America/Toronto) | CSI Spadina, 192 Spadina Ave., Suite 501, Toronto, Ontario, M5T 2C2, Canada
Toronto is part of the Dish With One Spoon Covenant. In its very language, it reminds us that by eating together, we are connected.
The Depanneur is proud to host the Indigenous Food Lab, a new monthly residency with Chef Taylor Parker, the man behind The Dep’s acclaimed and subversive Canada Day Supper Clubs. It is designed as space to consider the possibilities of an elevated, communal dining experience rooted in First Nations traditions. It is a laboratory to explore and experiment with a Canadian concept of terroir – the flavour of a place — to rediscover and redefine what Indigenous food means today.
Chef Taylor’s sophisticated tasting menus celebrate local and foraged ingredients, and a deep connection to First Nations foodways, to our land and our shared heritage. Each meal showcases a range of wild ingredients native to Ontario. Weather, timing, season, and the caprice of Mother Nature will determine exactly what will be shared with us. Whatever comes to the table, you can be assured that it will be crafted with remarkable skill and creativity of a veteran fine-dining chef.

Read the profile of Chef Taylor from The Depanneur Cookbook

We live in the largest city in Canada, one of the most ethnically and culinarily diverse cities in the world. One can find almost any dish from almost any cuisine, with one glaring, egregious exception: the country we actually live in. Indigenous food is criminally underrepresented in Toronto’s food scene, without a single Indigenous-owned restaurant for people to patronize. More than ever before, Canada needs to embrace and celebrate its indigenous culinary heritage, and I believe the long path towards reconciliation can and should start at the table.
Why no menu?
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Taylor Parker is of the Mohawk Nation, Bear Clan, from Six Nations of the Grand River.
Taylor is a proud father, chef, forager, gardener, and friend. His extensive knowledge of native North American plants brings rarely seen ingredients and flavours to his dishes, with the philosophy that food is a conduit to connect people back to the land. Taylor is passionate about bringing like-minded Chefs together to share, educate, and collaborate on unique dishes that seek to define modern First Nations North American Cuisine. Taylor is proud to work alongside fellow cooks and friends Phil Magtulis and Matthew Kleinsteuber at The Depanneur dinner series.
Taylor has spent much of his professional life working in a diverse range of kitchens and catering. He currently runs MT Hospitality focused on unique hunt, fished and foraged First Nations inspired events and dinners, and is also the co-owner of For4ged Candle Company in Brantford, Ontario. @turok_parker
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Every weekend The Depanneur invites an amateur or professional guest chef to host a fun, informal dinner party. @thedepanneur

OFFSITE: Canada Day Mushroom Hunting & Foraging Expedition with Puck's Plenty
2025-07-01 10:00 - 12:30 (America/Toronto) | Barrie Community Sports Complex, 2100 Nursery Rd, Minesing, ON, L0L 1Y2
What better way to celebrate Canada Day and the country we call home?
Join us for The Depanneur’s first ever offsite foraging excursion! We’re taking the show on the road and bringing you directly to the source with an expert guide to educate us on the seasonal species of fungi available in our own backyard. We’ll respectfully take what we can from the land we all share and then return home to cook up our treasures!
Our expert guide, Danijela Pulcini from Puck’s Plenty, has been foraging wild mushrooms and plants her whole life, first in her native Serbia and since right here in Ontario. She will show us how to safely identify wild species and will discuss medicinal and culinary uses of what we find. For this time of year in, our chosen location, we will be looking primarily for Summer Oyster mushrooms, Turkey Tails, Angel Wings and perhaps some members of the Bolete family.
We will meet at 10am sharp (please do not be late) at the Barrie Community Sports Complex in Minesing, about 15 minutes North of Barrie. Once you pass the first gate, take the first right into the parking lot and we and Danijela will be waiting there. Once everyone has arrived we will head directly into the woods!
Recommended items to bring:

small knives
garden spade
basket or mesh bag
assorted bags (both paper and plastic)
water bottle
insect repellent
back pack

Participants should wear either running shoes or hiking boots as well as long pants. Note: dogs are welcome to join!
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Puck’s Plenty was established in 2010 by Peter Blush, who has become a renowned wild mushroom expert here in Ontario after years as a military news correspondent and novelist. Featured for his mushroom expertise on The Oprah Network’s ‘Fearless In the Kitchen’, The Global Network’s Morning News and many others, he now delights in taking groups of intrepid foragers into our wooded spaces to enjoy the natural spoils of the land we all share. pucksplenty.com

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The Depanneur is where Interesting Food Things happen. For more than a decade The Dep has been showcasing Toronto’s remarkable culinary diversity by hosting unique food events.
@thedepanneur

Mercari x The Dep — InFusions: An Elevated Dinner by Carole Nelson Brown
2025-07-04 18:30 - 21:30 (America/Toronto) | CSI Spadina, 192 Spadina Ave., Suite 501, Toronto, Ontario, M5T 2C2, Canada
A sophisticated dining experience crafted with thoughtful and precise cannabis infusions featuring Orchard Cannabis and Token Naturals
Join Mercari at The Depanneur for an elegant infused dinner party with culinary cannabis alchemist Carole Nelson Brown. Carole combines years of catering and recipe development with her deep expertise crafting precise cannabis infusions to create a truly one of a kind culinary experience. Chef Carole will infuse an exquisite, multi-course, Peruvian-inspired menu with a unique blend of terpenes and cannabinoids to enhance and elevate your meal. Sauces and condiments will be infused with precise dosages so every guest is fully in charge of their own experience.
Welcome Mocktail
Infused Peach Bellini (non-alcoholic)
Ceviche
Peru is famous for its fresh, bright and exciting ceviches. Fresh raw fish ‘cooked’ in lime juice, spiked with garlic, onion, chiles and cilantro, served with tender sweet potato and crunchy cancha, a uniquely addictive kind of Peruvian popcorn.
[Vegetarian option: Heart of Palm Ceviche]
Beet, Orange and Fennel Salad
A crispy, colourful composed salad that masterfully combines the deep earthiness of beets with the crispy aromatic of fennel, the sweet juiciness of oranges, and the fresh, peppery bite of arugula, in a luscious citrus vinaigrette.
Pollo a la Brasa
Peruvian roast chicken is simply next-level; if you have never tried it, it is a total game-changer. It is deeply seasoned with a unique mix of spices, herbs and chiles like here: aji panca, aji amarillo and huacatay, before roasting, and then served with a spectacular, vibrant aji verde sauce that makes for an unforgettable flavour combination. Served with crispy roast potatoes.
[Vegetarian option: Seasoned Crispy Tofu with Aji Verde]
Alfajores
These rich shortbread cookies stuffed with dulce de leche caramel are beloved across South America; Carole’s are dipped in dark chocolate for an extra luxurious touch.
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After a remarkable 40-year career as a professional makeup artist to the stars Carole Nelson Brown embraced a mid-life pivot that took her from famous faces to tantalizing taste buds. Her culinary journey led to recipe development, enchanting chef pop-ups, and sharing culinary wisdom through cooking classes. She currently works in catering and as a private chef.
In addition to her work as a private chef and caterer, Carole has spent the last decade developing cannabis-infused gourmet products and teaching others how to cook with precision and purpose. What began as a way to help a family member manage cancer symptoms evolved into a passion for creating delicious, discreet, and microdosed edibles—like her signature vegan, nut-free chilli crisp. Carole was an active part of the founding of Social Sessions, a culinary cannabis project rooted in community, and she continues to explore how food and cannabis can elevate both health and pleasure.
@mamashack
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Mercari Agency works with cannabis companies to help their brands come to market across Canada. @mercariagency

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The Depanneur is where Interesting Food Things happen. For more than a decade The Dep has been showcasing Toronto’s remarkable culinary diversity by hosting unique food events.
@thedepanneur

SUPPER CLUB: The Georgian Feast with Chef Zura
2025-07-05 18:30 - 21:00 (America/Toronto) | CSI Spadina, 192 Spadina Ave., Suite 501, Toronto, Ontario, M5T 2C2, Canada
An ancient myth posits that while creating the world, God took a break for supper, but became so involved with the meal that God tripped over the high peaks of the Caucasus mountains, spilling a little of everything from the plate onto the land below. So it was that Georgia came to be blessed with such riches, the table scraps from Heaven.
The foods of Georgia have roots in the many countries and cultures that have intersected with the land historically, however what has evolved is a food and wine culture unlike anywhere else in the world. Boasting the world’s most ancient viticultural and vinicultural practices (the world’s first winemakers), as well as developing some of the most fascinating (and, frankly, fun) rituals of the table. With toasts, poetry and elation at the forefront of the dining experience, Georgians simply know how to live and they know how to eat.
The cuisine is as creatively delightful as it is balanced, with a wide swath of vegetables transformed into soups and stews, spreads and medleys sitting next to baseball-sized dumplings, boat-shaped cheese breads and some of the finest barbecue in the world. Simplicity and freshness are priorities, the spices are simple but distinct. Tonight we dine like true Georgians with a multi-course feast representing many of the cuisine’s most iconic dishes.
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Pkhali Duo
Traditional Georgian vegetable spreads made from a base of garlic, walnuts and spices – one featuring spinach and the other with beetroot, contrasting bright green and pink, respectively. Balancing the salt/sugar/vinegar ratio by hand is essential to creating these delights and they should taste sharp and bright but never vinegary.
Nigvziani Badrijani
Tender strips of eggplant rolled around a blend of creamed walnuts and traditional spices. Often garnished with a Persian influence, such as pomegranate seeds.
Mchadi
Georgian-style cornbread – crisp on the outside and meltingly tender within. Traditionally this flatbread would have been made from native Georgian millet, however with the introduction of corn from the New World – a cheap, hearty and nutritious foodstuff – many countries from Eastern Europe and The Caucasus to the Mediterranean took to implementing the crop into everyday cuisine, where it continues to shine today.
Chakhokhbili
One of the most iconic dishes the Georgian table is this tender, homestyle chicken dish (once more commonly made from pheasant), cooked slowly with tomato, onions, garlic and herbs with no liquid added. As scholar Darra Goldstein notes, “Just as Georgian boys were once judged by their skill in cutting mtsvadi sticks (bbq skewers), so Georgian girls were deemed marriageable according to their ability to cut up chicken for chakhokhbili. The most traditional recipes call for seventeen precise pieces, although today a mere ten will suffice.”
Lobio
Red kidney beans slow cooked with Georgian spices, fresh herbs and aromatics. Often served with tkemali, a Georgian plum sauce that lends a deep and sweet richness.
Tonis Puri-Inspired Bread
A freshly baked, puffed bread designed for sharing, scooping and absorbing the juices from the accompanying dishes. Traditionally baked in a tone, similar to a tandoor oven, it is a staple at celebrations such as Easter, Christmas and New Year’s Day.
Sweet Rice with Dried Fruits
The sweetness of white rice is brought out and infused with honey, cinnamon, clove and a traditional accompaniment of dried fruits, lending a soft and aromatic end to the evening!
NOTE: Georgia is among the oldest (many say the oldest) wine culture in the world, with over 500 native varietals represented across a relatively small landmass. Georgian food and wine are nearly inseparable to locals who will insist that the two must go together. In the spirit of BYOB you can source rich and complex Georgian (red) wines such as Saperavi and Mkuzani at select LCBOs or at the newly opened Georgian House, just down the street from The Dep!
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Chef Zura grew up in Georgia’s capital, Tbilisi, where food was and is a celebration of life, story and community. Immersed in generations of Georgian cooking from a young age, Zura worked as an architect for many years before the calling of the kitchen drew him towards study at a culinary academy where he honed his skills and desire to bring Georgian traditional foodways to life. Today he runs a personal chef service – Zurbistro – specializing in Georgian dishes as well as Romanian hand-crafted grill and barbecue delicacies. @zurbistro
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Every weekend The Depanneur invites a guest chef to host a fun, family-style dinner party.
@thedepanneur

COOKING CLASS: Intro to Whole Animal Butchery by Chef Taylor Parker
2025-07-06 10:00 - 15:00 (America/Toronto) | CSI Spadina, 192 Spadina Ave., Suite 501, Toronto, Ontario, M5T 2C2, Canada
Breaking down a whole animal is not only more cost-effective than buying pre-cut parts, but it give you much more control over the resulting cuts, allowing you to optimize them for specific dishes. Join Chef Taylor Parker for an in-depth introduction to whole-animal butchery. This hands-on, day-long workshop will cover the techniques and cuts for three primary types of animal encountered in the kitchen: quadrupeds, fish and fowl.
We’ll start with an introduction to butchering whole chicken. Everyone will get hands-on experience learning how break down a chicken into it’s component parts, and there will be a demonstration of some more advanced techniques like deboning, Frenched breasts, and wing lollipops. We’ll follow up with a fish butchery demonstration with an opportunity for everyone to learn how to fillet and debone a whole fish. We’ll then break for lunch made from some of the fresh chicken and fish we’ve just prepared.
After lunch we head back to the work table to break down a whole animal (either a whole deer, lamb, or pork, depending on availability; the same techniques apply to all). You’ll learn all the main primal and sub-primal cuts, as well as some more specific types of cuts. There will be demo and discussion of the best applications of different cuts, from steaks and roasts to ground meat and sausage, as well as more advanced techniques like removing silver skin, Frenching ribs, and preparing scallopini.
All participants will take home generous, vacuum-sealed portions of the meats they prepared in class, along with notes and recipes.
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Taylor Parker is of the Mohawk Nation, Bear Clan, from Six Nations of the Grand River.
Taylor is a proud father, chef, forager, gardener, and friend. His extensive knowledge of native North American plants brings rarely seen ingredients and flavours to his dishes, with the philosophy that food is a conduit to connect people back to the land. Taylor is passionate about bringing like-minded Chefs together to share, educate, and collaborate on unique dishes that seek to define modern First Nations North American Cuisine. He also heads up The Depanneur’s monthly Indigenous Food Lab dinner..
Taylor has spent much of his professional life working in a diverse range of kitchens and catering. He currently runs MT Hospitality focused on unique hunt, fished and foraged First Nations inspired events and dinners, and is also the co-owner of For4ged Candle Company in Brantford, Ontario. @turok_parker
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Every week, The Depanneur invites TO’s best culinary talents to lead fun, hands-on workshops.

@thedepanneur

SUPPER CLUB: Parsi Ghambar by Niloufer Mavalvala [Offsite]
2025-07-12 18:30 - 21:00 (America/Toronto) | Mississauga, L5L 3N5, Canada
2025 South Asian Spotlight
Parsi Cooking Demonstration & Dinner
Parsis are a Zoroastrian community descended from Persians who migrated from Persia around 7th century, with most settling on the west coast of India. Over the past 1300 years, while it has adopted many Indian culinary ingredients and techniques, Parsi food has remained a unique regional cuisine that still echos flavours and techniques from ancient Persia.
Niloufer Mavalvala is the award-winning author of several books on Parsi cooking, and our guide this evening she shares her home with us for an intimate cooking demonstration and family style meal of traditional Parsi dishes, along with stories about the food and Parsi culture. This is a unique opportunity to dive into a rare and fascinating culinary tradition and learn about Parsi culture, traditions, customs, and heritage.
This special meal is one of six annual Ghambars – seasonal Zoroastrian festivals celebrating nature’s blessings and the creation of the world through communal feasting and sharing. The emphasis of the Ghambar is on gratitude, the spirit of community, a sense of belonging and, most importantly, the ideal of equality despite one’s class or financial status.
In addition, as we will be dining during peak mango season in our area, a special educational emphasis will be directed towards gaining insight into this heavenly fruit, its variations and the seasonal art of the mango pickle. We will discuss the many variations in taste and texture that can occur throughout the lifecycle of the fresh mango.
This event takes place at the author’s home in Mississauga, near Mississauga Rd. & Burnhamthorpe Rd.
(Address will be provided with purchase of tickets)
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Ghambar nu papayta ma gos
Typically using either lamb or mutton (we will be using Halal Ontario lamb) with potatoes braised with a blend of Persian and South Asian spices and enjoyed with warm rotis or crusty bread.
Jhinga ni khichri
A one pot lentil, rice and prawn concoction. Considered a comfort food and increasingly a go-to for health-conscious diners in the West who are relatively new to the perfectly balanced dish. This is generally spiced with a garam masala and served with Dahi ni Kudhi.
Dahi ni kudhi
This sauce can accompany just about anything on the Parsi table, but traditionally a must have with Jhinga ni khichri. A delightful combination of yoghurt , curry leaves, chillies, turmeric, fried onions and garlic which is served warm.
Keri nu buffenu
a special pickle prepared with ripe sweet whole mangoes, skin on, eaten as a condiment alongside the main meal.
This family style meal will be served with sides of papadam, radishes and carrots, providing a clean, fresh, palate-cleansing crunchiness to contrast the rich and savoury elements.
Fresh mango ice cream
We will be enjoying the peak of mango season during this meal and what better way to highlight the magic of this fruit than with ice cream? Our newly gained education in all things mango from Niloufer will help us to especially appreciate the finale of this celebratory meal.
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$79 +HST
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Niloufer Mavalvala is an experienced home cook and an award-winning author, who believes her passion has a purpose. Her passion is teaching cooking, and her purpose is to spread ancient Parsi cuisine far and wide. She enjoys cooking for others, having been influenced by her family of good home cooks, particularly her mother and aunt. She was born and raised in Karachi and has lived in several cities, including Dubai, London, and Toronto. Niloufer enjoys welcoming people from other cultures and cuisines because she feels that food connects us all and that breaking bread together is the easiest way to bond. Follow her on Instagram, Facebook, and her website, Niloufer’s Kitchen. nilouferskitchen.com | @nilouferskitchen

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The Depanneur is a place where Interesting Food Things Happen. For more than a decade The Dep has been showcasing Toronto’s remarkable culinary diversity through thousands of unique food events as well as the forthcoming Depanneur Cookbook, featuring 100 recipes from 100 cooks. After more than 10 years at its iconic College Street location, The Dep is now bringing all new Interesting Food Things to exciting venues all across the GTA.
@thedepanneur

MASTERCLASS: The Savoury Pancakes of East Asia by Diana Chu & Bomi Choi
2025-07-13 12:00 - 14:30 (America/Toronto) | CSI Spadina, 192 Spadina Ave., Suite 501, Toronto, Ontario, M5T 2C2, Canada
Join us for a hands-on masterclass where we explore three iconic East Asian savoury pancakes – from Japan, Korea and China – each with a rich backstory and showcasing distinct techniques, ingredients and flavours.
In this class, you’ll make flaky, chewy Cong You Bing (scallion pancakes) from scratch — a beloved street food with roots in Northern China that dates back centuries. As we mix, knead, roll, and pan-fry, you’ll learn the surprisingly refined technique behind this humble dish: how to laminate dough without butter, fold in layers for flakiness, and master that golden, crisp crust. Scallion pancakes are an excellent and tasty way to learn the fundamentals of dough, including kneading, gluten formation, resting, and shaping!
While your dough is resting, we’ll demonstrate and taste two other classic pancakes from Asia and their accompanying condiments!
In Japan, these savoury pancakes are called Okonomiyaki. They’re umami, savoury, sweet and tangy, typically made with cabbage, egg, and pork, our version will include cabbage and bacon. This post-war Japanese dish literally means “grill what you like” and is popular in Osaka and Hiroshima. In Hiroshima the ingredients are layered and the pancakes often include yakisoba noodles. In this class we’ll demo and taste Osaka-style pancakes, where ingredients are mixed together and then cooked like a pancake. We’ll also show you how to make the sticky sweet and tangy sauce that makes these pancakes next level, and garnish the pancakes with umami-packed bonito flakes (fermented, smoked, and shaved skipjack tuna) and furikake (a popular Japanese seasoning and topping). You’ll definitely wow your next dinner party guests!
We’ll also demonstrate for you Kimchi Jeon, a savoury pancake from Korea. This pancake packs a punch of flavour. Typically made with over-fermented kimchi, this pancake is bold, spicy, and crispy. It’s a beautiful example of everyday cooking that turns waste into flavour. We pair this pancake with a signature dipping sauce made with common Korean pantry items like scallion, soy sauce, rice vinegar, and gochugaru (a type of Korean chilli that’s mild, sweet, and slightly smoky).
From scarcity and survival to street food innovation, you’ll learn new techniques, flavour combinations, and dipping sauces to try at home. Whether you’re here to cook, connect, or snack with us, this class invites you to experience food as a way of learning history, heritage, and craft.

Friends from culinary school, Diana Chu and Bomi Choi co-lead this hands-on masterclass that brings together their experiences growing up, as avid home cooks, and in the culinary industry. Both career changers, this duo started in other industries before finding friendship in culinary school at George Brown College.
Bomi Choi is a multidisciplinary artist with a background in graphic design, ceramics, fiber arts, and culinary arts. She thrives at the intersection of creativity and strategy. Her experience spans branding, digital marketing, prop and food styling, photography, and merchandising, allowing her to craft compelling visual narratives that engage and inspire. For more information about her work and services, check out: @bommgachi/ bommgachi.com
Diana Chu is an ex-public policy consultant with a love for food and the stories behind it. As a social scientist, cook, researcher and writer, her work explores how food can be used as a tool for cultural border crossing and deepening understanding of Toronto’s diverse communities. Currently, she designs and hosts food-based events, writes, and runs food tours. You can follow her work at: @TheGatheringSpot416 and dianachu.substack.com
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The Depanneur is where Interesting Food Things happen. For more than a decade The Dep has been showcasing Toronto’s remarkable culinary diversity by hosting unique food events.
@thedepanneur

COOKING CLASS: Classic Mexican Tamales by Chef Erika Araujo
2025-07-18 18:30 - 21:00 (America/Toronto) | 1033 College Street, Toronto, Ontario, m6k 2b5, Canada
Interesting tidbits of Mexican culture and history are just a part of this fun, hands-on workshop with Chef Erika Araujo, who will walk you through the traditions and recipes of two traditional dishes at the heart of Mexico’s cuisine: tamales and champurrado.
Tamales are an essential and ancient, pre-Columbian Mexican dish – soft corn meal dough (masa) stuffed with a flavourful filling, wrapped in corn husks or banana leaves and steamed. Portable and self-contained, tamales are a popular street food with countless variations found all across Mexico.
But making tamales that are light and tender is a special skill. Erika will be sharing her recipes and demonstrating her techniques for 4 kinds of tamales popular around Mexico City: chicken tamales with salsa verde or a rich chocolate-infused mole sauce, a vegetarian tamale of rajas (a julienne of green peppers) with cheese and red salsa, and a sweet dessert tamale with pineapple.
Erika will also introduce you to champurrado, a hot, creamy beverage made with toasted corn flour, raw piloncillo sugar, Mexican chocolate and spices that is a popular accompaniment for tamales, especially around the Christmas season.
There will be lots to taste, learn and do in this fun, hands-on workshop. In addition to using the familiar Maseca dry corn meal, there will also be an opportunity to cook with, taste and compare an artisanal fresh masa prepared by local molinero Iván Wadgymar of Maizal. Participants will get to try samples in class, make tamales and atole in class, enjoy a meal of the tamales they’ve made and take home extras and recipes.
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Chef Erika Araujo is a Mexican-born chef who immigrated to Canada 18 years ago, and now works as an educator, restaurant consultant, and executive chef in Calgary, AB. A passionate promoter of traditional Mexican cuisine and culture, Erika also serves as an ambassador for Agua Santa Mezcal and Chocosol Traders. Erika has traveled across Canada, showcasing her heritage through gastronomy, and has appeared on TV, in podcasts, and international publications. Originally trained as a nurse in Mexico, Erika found her culinary calling after completing the program at Humber College. She believes that when you honour your roots, amazing things can happen. @cheferikaaraujo
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Every week, The Depanneur invites TO’s best culinary talents to lead fun, hands-on workshops.
Learn more about Cooking Classes at The Depanneur

COOKING CLASS: Full-Day Breadmaking Intensive by Leo Baduria
2025-08-03 12:00 - 18:00, 2025-08-31 12:00 - 18:00, 2025-10-05 12:00 - 18:00 (America/Toronto) | Café ZuZu, 555 Dundas Street East, Toronto, Ontario, M5A 2B7, Canada
This workshop takes place at Café ZuZu, 555 Dundas St. E.
One of The Depanneur’s most popular workshops!
Join artisanal baker Leo Baduria for a full-day, in-depth exploration of the fundamentals of great bread. You’ll learn how to make your own sourdough starter, and how to prepare different types of dough, using various grains and flours. There will be hands-on practice of the techniques to folding, kneading and shaping dough to make focaccia, fougasse, baguettes, boules, batards and brioches, including challah braids.
The morning focuses on dough-making; first for the focaccia and pizza, followed by the dough for baguettes, boules and batards using different types of flour. This is then followed by making the brioche dough, which takes longer to rise.
The afternoon focuses on the shaping and baking of the various breads, starting with the focaccia and pizza dough. By mid-afternoon the baguette, boules and batards will be ready to shape. While they are baking, the brioche dough will be ready for shaping into various types, such as challah, loaf, brioche buns.
Throughout the day there will be oven-fresh bread to snack on with cheese, fruits, and some charcuterie — please feel free to bring any topping you’d like to share!
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Leo Baduria‘s introduction to fine breads started in Montreal where he lived from 1977 to 1988. This beautiful city boasts a large number of fine boulangeries in just about every quartier where one can find a superb baguette for dinner or croissant for breakfast. This growing fascination with French breads led him to try baking his own baguettes via several books on French baking. Over time, Leo assisted several bakers in Montreal, France and Italy – learning techniques that he would incorporate in his own baking – and has since given several sold out bread workshops to bread lovers who wanted to learn the artisanal way of making bread. Leo’s approach to baking is one that respects the soul of the living yeasts, the quality of grains used to make the flour and the enjoyment of the whole baking process from start to finish.
@mywindowtotheworld

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Every week, The Depanneur invites TO’s best culinary talents to lead fun, hands-on workshops.
@thedepanneur

OFFSITE: Labour Day Mushroom Hunting & Foraging Expedition with Puck's Plenty
2025-09-01 10:00 - 12:30 (America/Toronto) | Barrie Community Sports Complex, 2100 Nursery Rd, Minesing, ON, L0L 1Y2
What better way to celebrate the end of summer and the country we call home?
Join us for a fun foraging excursion in the Ontario countryside! We’re taking the show on the road and bringing you directly to the source with an expert guide to educate us on the seasonal species of fungi available in our own backyard. We’ll respectfully take what we can from the land we all share and then return home to cook up our treasures!
Our expert guide, Danijela Pulcini from Puck’s Plenty, has been foraging wild mushrooms and plants her whole life, first in her native Serbia and since right here in Ontario. She will show us how to safely identify wild species and will discuss medicinal and culinary uses of what we find.
We will meet at location (TBC) within 90 minutes of Toronto; The Dep will have a vehicle with a few extra spots, so let me know if you want to share a ride.
Recommended items to bring:

small knives
garden spade
basket or mesh bag
assorted bags (both paper and plastic)
water bottle
insect repellent
back pack

Participants should wear either running shoes or hiking boots as well as long pants. Note: dogs are welcome to join!
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Puck’s Plenty was established in 2010 by Peter Blush, who has become a renowned wild mushroom expert here in Ontario after years as a military news correspondent and novelist. Featured for his mushroom expertise on The Oprah Network’s ‘Fearless In the Kitchen’, The Global Network’s Morning News and many others, he now delights in taking groups of intrepid foragers into our wooded spaces to enjoy the natural spoils of the land we all share. pucksplenty.com

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The Depanneur is where Interesting Food Things happen. For more than a decade The Dep has been showcasing Toronto’s remarkable culinary diversity by hosting unique food events.
@thedepanneur

MASTERCLASS: The Past and Future of Maiz by Iván Wadgymar
2025-09-07 12:00 - 14:30 (America/Toronto) | CSI Spadina, 192 Spadina Ave., Suite 501, Toronto, Ontario, M5T 2C2, Canada
Masterclasses offer in-depth explorations of food topics, presented by experts and accompanied by demonstrations and tastings.
Maiz, the staple grain of many pre-Colombian civilizations, is now one of the most widely cultivated crops on Earth. But along the way, so much of what made corn culturally central and sacred is under threat of being erased by industrial commodity products flooding the global market. In response, artisanal producers like Iván Wadgymar are returning to heritage varietals and traditional processing techniques, along with zero-waste agricultural practices. This produces a higher quality, more authentic, and far more delicious product that honours this precious gift of nature and culture.
Join Ivan for a journey into the origins of maiz in Mesoamerica and discover how millennia of skillful crop domestication created a foundational food for Pre-Columbian civilization that lived the centre of their cosmology. These sophisticated agricultural practices coevolved with the technologies like nixtamalization, which transforms the nutritional profile of corn, and creates the masa used in tortillas, tamales, and even the ubiquitous supermarket corn chips. The place maiz holds in Mexico’s socio-political-economic web has undergone dramatic changes from the colonial period until now, and projects like Maizal help protect this unique cultural inheritance, from seed to table.
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Today’s tasting menu showcases the versatility of maize in Mexican cuisine, featuring corn, beans and herbs grown by Ivan himself.
Atole (hot) & Tejuino (cold) – 2 maiz based beverages
Tamales de frijol – maiz dumplings, stuffed with heirloom black beans, wrapped corn husks and steamed (vegetarian)
Esquites – a popular Mexican street food made with whole pozole (nixtamalized corn kernels) (vegetarian)
Panuchos – A specialty of the Yucatán, small tortillas stuffed with black beans before griddling, topped with cochinita pibil (slow roasted pork with annatto and citrus)
Totopos (fried tortilla chips) and homemade salsa will also be on the tables to snack on.
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Iván Wadgymar has some unfamiliar job titles for a Torontonian: tortillero, molinero, and sembrador, each one taking him deeper into the heart of an ancient culinary tradition. As a tortillero, he runs Maizal Tortilleria making artisanal Mexican tortillas and totopos (aka tortilla chips) using locally grown organic corn. As a molinero he processes raw corn using the traditional nixtamal method that transforms it into the raw masa dough that is the foundation of much of indigenous Mesoamerican cooking, making it more digestible and nutritious in the process. As a sembrador (sower), he grows his own heirloom varietals of corn and other vegetables, herbs and spices in the sustainable permaculture tradition of the small milpa farms of Mexico. Together, he connects land, seed, process and product in a way that is a celebration of both our local terroir and his hispanic heritage, putting the culture back into agriculture. Along the way he both protects and reveals the unique flavours of a culinary tradition that is both ancient and very much alive.
@maizalto

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The Depanneur is where Interesting Food Things happen. For more than a decade The Dep has been showcasing Toronto’s remarkable culinary diversity by hosting unique food events.
@thedepanneur

MASTERCLASS: Discovering Wild Foods by Dyson Forbes
2025-09-12 18:30 - 21:00 (America/Toronto) | CSI Spadina, 192 Spadina Ave., Suite 501, Toronto, Ontario, M5T 2C2, Canada
Masterclasses offer in-depth explorations of food topics, presented by experts and accompanied by demonstrations and tastings.
What does it taste like to live in Ontario? This is a tricky question to answer for two reasons. Firstly, although we grow a lot of things, most of what is cultivated here is not native to Ontario. The vast majority of food crops are essentially an invasive species that that been introduced and have taken over our local ecosystems. Secondly, most of the food plants that are indigenous to Ontario are not grown commercially nor available for purchase in stores. The only products actually native to Ontario one is likely to find in a supermarket might be maple syrup, blueberries and wild rice. So we find ourselves deeply disconnected from our terroir, seasons and natural environment, as well as sustainable First Nations food traditions that reach back thousands of years.
But it doesn’t have to be this way. Ontario is abundant with all manner of edible plants, mushrooms, herbs, nuts, fruits and vegetables, if you only know what to look for — and that is exactly what the Forbes family has been doing for decades. Dyson Forbes, following in the footsteps of his father Jonathan, have devoted themselves to making wild foraged native foodstuffs available to a broader Canadian audience through their company, Forbes Wild Foods. Working with specialized teams of foragers — rural Indigenous people, women, youth, retirees, farmers, and professional pickers — they carefully and sustainably harvest abundant wild foods, and help propagate rare plants by reintroducing them to lands that need remedial attention, such as overgrazed woodlots and pastures.
For this Masterclass, Dyson will be walking guests through a multi-course tasting session designed to showcase the unique flavours of a wide range of native foods, from teas, berries, and nuts to mushrooms, herbs, and seaweeds. These remarkable ingredients are available in variety of forms, from pickles and jams to powders and teas, making them available year-round. Dyson will speak to some of the overall considerations of Canadian foraging as well as sharing fascinating botanical, historical, nutritional and medicinal details of particular species.

End of Summer Edition:Berries: Saskatoon Berry, ElderberryPlants: Ramps (wild leeks), Fiddleheads (fern tips), Stinging NettleSeaweeds: Salicornia (aka Sea Asparagus, Glassworts)Mushrooms: Fresh Morels, Black TrumpetTrees: Birch, Haskap, Balsam, Spruce, CedarNuts: Beech Nuts, Heartnut, Black Walnut, Chestnuts, Hickory
(Exact items will depend on availability)
A simple but extensive tasting menu has been prepared in collaboration with Chef Taylor Parker, the man behind the popular Indigenous Food Lab dinner series. This will be a unique opportunity to sample a broad range of rare flavours and ingredients that are a connection to our Canadian landscape. Dyson will also have a selection of wild food products for sale at the end of the event, so you can take home some of the amazing new flavours you have discovered.
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$79 +HST
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With more than twenty years of experience in the food industry, and over twenty five years in film, television, and content creation, Dyson Forbes has a unique set of skills well suited to food marketing and education. He has worked with Forbes Wild Foods almost from the start. As well as marketing wild foods, Dyson leads foraging trips for small parties, and does presentations to chefs, student chefs, and organizations with an interest in food. He is involved in several on-line initiatives about food trends, farming and resource management, and cultural development.
@forbeswildfoods
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The Depanneur is where Interesting Food Things happen. For more than a decade The Dep has been showcasing Toronto’s remarkable culinary diversity by hosting unique food events.
@thedepanneur

COOKING CLASS: Ethiopian Injera by Asmait Merhatsion
2025-09-14 12:00 - 14:30 (America/Toronto) | CSI Spadina, 192 Spadina Ave., Suite 501, Toronto, Ontario, M5T 2C2, Canada
Anyone who has enjoyed a meal at an Ethiopian or Eritrean restaurant knows that soft, springy injera, a fermented sourdough flatbread, is the centre of the meal. Injera is made with teff, a tiny, highly nutritious and gluten-free grain that flourishes in the highlands of Ethiopia. More than just a bread, injera is also an eating utensil; in Eritrean and Ethiopian cuisine it is used to scoop up the meat and vegetable stews it is served with. A large round injera lines the tray on which the stews are served, soaking up their juices as the meal progresses. When this edible tablecloth is eaten, the meal is officially over, but leftover injera is often incorporated into a variety of breakfast dishes. A versatile grain, it is also used in baking, porridges, and also to brew beer and other beverages.
In this fun, hands-on workshop Asmait Merhatsion will introduce participants to the process of making injera from scratch, starting with preparing the batter using a special sourdough starter to start the fermentation that gives it its airy, bubbly texture, and slightly tangy taste. Everyone will get a chance to make their own injera to take home on the mogogo, a traditional round griddle. Participants will also learn how to make shiro, a thick paste of chickpea flour cooked with a blend of spices, ginger, garlic, onion, and tomato. A light meal will be served with fresh injera along with shiro and another vegetarian stew for everyone to share. We will wrap up the class with a traditional Ethiopian coffee and a tasty teff cookie. Participants will leave with a small package of teff and sourdough starter to take home, as well as an opportunity to purchase additional homemade Eritrean products prepare by the chef.
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Asmait Merhatsion was born in Eritrea, and moved to Canada with her family from Israel in 2022. She started to cook at home at a young age as was typical for girls in her community. When she lived in Israel, a friend invited Asmait to start teaching cooking workshops with her. From then on she began to work with people from all over the world, making dishes together every weekend as an extra income source for her family. Here in Canada, she graduated from Newcomer Kitchen’s food entrepreneurship program, and now hopes to continue to pursue her favourite thing — cooking — as a way to promote her culture and to start her own business.

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Every week, The Depanneur invites TO’s best culinary talents to lead fun, hands-on workshops. @TheDepanneur

TABLE TALK: Peter McClusky on Garlic
2025-09-18 18:30 - 21:00 (America/Halifax) | 1033 College Street, Toronto, Ontario, m6k 2b5, Canada
Peter McClusky is a local garlic producer and the driving force behind the Toronto Garlic Festival. His book, “Ontario Garlic: The Story from Farm to Festival” is a social, scientific and cultural history of garlic’s journey from Central Asia to Ontario that weaves archival research with stories and anecdotes from farmers, gardeners, chefs and scientists.
Peter will be discussing some of the topics covered in his book such as garlic’s origin in Central Asia 10,000 years ago and how geography and adaptability to diverse growing conditions facilitated its adoption into cooking pots around the world. He will also talk a bit about garlic and the mechanics of human taste – how our mechanisms for tasting food plays a part in the real and perceived taste of garlic.
He will also give a bit of a sneak peak of what people can expect to see, taste and do at the 2025 Toronto Garlic Festival, coming up on Sept 28, 2025 (on Spadina Rd from Davenport Rd to Dupont St.; admission is free!)
Signed copies of Peter’s book will be available for purchase.
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Dinner by Len Senater
Garlic-cuterie board
A selection of different kinds of pickled and preserved garlic products from around the world including: Czosnek Marynowany (Polish spicy pickled garlic), Yan Tang Suan (Chinese sweet garlic), Torshi Seer (Persian pickled garlic), Maneul Jangajji (Korean preserved garlic), Ninniku Zuke (Japanese soy sauce garlic) and Lahsun ka Achar (Indian garlic chutney), and classic French Confit Garlic, served with fresh bread, fresh yogurt cheese, and crudité.
“40 Cloves” roasted chicken -or- “40 Cloves” layered roasted vegetable tian
Made with freshly-harvested Ontario garlic provided by the Toronto Garlic Festival. An old French bistro dish introduced to America by James Beard in the 60s, remarked upon by Julia Child, and popularized by Jane and Michael Stern’s 1991 cookbook American Gourmet. Served with potato & celeriac mash, and steamed green beans with roasted almonds and a fresh lemon-garlic vinaigrette.
Dark chocolate mousse with black garlic ganache
Originating in Korea, black garlic transforms the pungent raw bulb into a dark, sticky-sweet ingredient through a long, slow fermentation, creating unexpected notes of caramel and balsamic vinegar.
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Peter McClusky has grown more than 48 varieties of garlic in Ontario over the last 15+ years. He is the founder of the Toronto Garlic Festival, an event that attracts 4,000 visitors and celebrates the cultural diversity of one of most widely used ingredients in the world. He is also the author of “Ontario Garlic: The Story from Farm to Festival” (2015, The History Press), that narrates the social, scientific, and historical account of Allium Sativum’s journey from Central Asia to Ontario. @torontogarlicfestival
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Len Senater is the founder and proprietor of The Depanneur, who happily cooks for his friends and neighbours.
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Every month The Depanneur invites a local food personality to talk about something that interests them while Dep founder Len Senater cooks dinner for everyone.

SUPPER CLUB: Feast of the Parsis by Niloufer Mavalvala
2025-09-20 18:30 - 21:00 (America/Toronto) | CSI Spadina, 192 Spadina Ave., Suite 501, Toronto, Ontario, M5T 2C2, Canada
Parsis are a Zoroastrian community descended from Persians who migrated from Persia around 7th century, with most settling on the west coast of India. Over the past 1300 years, while it has adopted many Indian culinary ingredients and techniques, Parsi food has remained a unique regional cuisine that still echos flavours and techniques from ancient Persia.
Niloufer Mavalvala is the award-winning author of several books on Parsi cooking and our guide this evening she shares a traditional family style meal of traditional Parsi dishes, along with stories about the food and Parsi culture. This is a unique opportunity to dive into a rare and fascinating culinary tradition and learn about Parsi culture, traditions, customs, and heritage.
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Malido & Sherry
With roots in the Persian plateau, malido is a kind of sweet snack made by combining finely crumbled bread or whole wheat flour with ghee, jaggery (raw sugar), dried fruits, and nuts. It is very commonly featured at the holiday table; tonight, paired with a nip of sherry, it makes a lovely ‘amuse bouche’ to begin the evening and awaken the senses for the coming meal.
Sali Murghi
Succulent chicken stewed in a richly spiced gravy sweetened with apricots. Served with sali (crispy potato straws) and crusty bread for soaking up the fabulous sauce!
Dhansak
Perhaps the most famous Parsi dish — and for good reason! Families take great pride in their version, and Niloufer’s is no exception. She declares her mother’s ‘the best, hands down’, so tonight she recreates these flavours and memories for us. A simmering cauldron of lentils, lamb and spices is served over rice and a bed of caramelized onions, accompanied by kachumber, a refreshing, finely chopped salad to offset the richness of the meal. Served in the traditional way, on a banana leaf.
Lagun Nu (Parsi Wedding Custard)
A dessert with colonial roots but which has been assimilated and made traditional, this sweet custard is a staple of Parsi wedding feasts. Created by tweaking an English-style custard towards Persian tastes, fruits, nuts and spices are added to deepen the flavour and turn a humble sweet into something layered and complex.
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Niloufer Mavalvala is an experienced home cook and a multiple “Best In The World” cookbook award-winning author, who believes her passion has a purpose. Her passion is teaching cooking, and her purpose is to spread ancient Parsi cuisine far and wide. She enjoys cooking for others, having been influenced by her family of good home cooks, particularly her mother and aunt. She was born and raised in Karachi and has lived in several cities, including Dubai, London, and Toronto. Niloufer enjoys welcoming people from other cultures and cuisines because she feels that food connects us all and that breaking bread together is the easiest way to bond. Follow her on Instagram, Facebook, and her website, Niloufer’s Kitchen. nilouferskitchen.com | @nilouferskitchen

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Every weekend The Depanneur invites a guest chef to host a fun, family-style dinner party.
@thedepanneur

COOKING CLASS: Full-Day Croissants & Viennoiserie Intensive by Leo Baduria
2025-09-28 10:00 - 16:00 (America/Toronto) | CSI Spadina, 192 Spadina Ave., Suite 501, Toronto, Ontario, M5T 2C2, Canada
One of The Depanneur’s most popular workshops!
Join artisanal baker Leo Baduria for a full-day, in-depth exploration of the fundamentals of Viennoiserie, the magical butter-laminated pastry that is at the heart of croissants and many other classic European pastries from France to Denmark. Creating croissants from scratch is a somewhat complex, multi-day process, but Leo has expertly constructed a full-day workshop that will cover the all the steps so that you can begin making them at home. You’ll learn how to make your own brioche dough, and the processes of mixing, kneading, rolling, rising, laminating and shaping required to make Croissants, Pain au chocolat, Pain aux raisins, Kouign aman, Chaussons aux pommes, Palmiers and Brioches.
Working with some pre-made doughs, as well as making your own dough from scratch, will give participants a chance to get hands-on experience with every step of the croissant-making process, an opportunity to make a variety of classic pastries that will be baked off in class, as well as prepare additional dough to be taken home to be finished, baked or frozen.
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$159 +HST
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Leo Baduria‘s introduction to fine breads started in Montreal where he lived from 1977 to 1988. This beautiful city boasts a large number of fine boulangeries in just about every quartier where one can find a superb baguette for dinner or croissant for breakfast. This growing fascination with French breads led him to try baking his own baguettes via several books on French baking. Over time, Leo assisted several bakers in Montreal, France and Italy – learning techniques that he would incorporate in his own baking – and has since given several sold out bread workshops to bread lovers who wanted to learn the artisanal way of making bread. Leo’s approach to baking is one that respects the soul of the living yeasts, the quality of grains used to make the flour and the enjoyment of the whole baking process from start to finish.
@mywindowtotheworld
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Every week, The Depanneur invites TO’s best culinary talents to lead fun, hands-on workshops. @TheDepanneur

COOKING CLASS: Intro to Whole Animal Butchery by Chef Taylor Parker
2025-11-21 18:30 - 21:00 (America/Toronto) | CSI Spadina, 192 Spadina Ave., Suite 501, Toronto, Ontario, M5T 2C2, Canada
Breaking down a whole animal is not only more cost-effective than buying pre-cut parts, but it give you much more control over the resulting cuts, allowing you to optimize them for specific dishes. Join Chef Taylor Parker for an in-depth introduction to whole-animal butchery. This hands-on, day-long workshop will cover the techniques and cuts for three primary types of animal encountered in the kitchen: quadrupeds, fish and fowl.
We’ll start with an introduction to butchering whole chicken. Everyone will get hands-on experience learning how break down a chicken into its component parts, and there will be a demonstration of some more advanced techniques like deboning, Frenched breasts, and wing lollipops. We’ll follow up with a fish butchery demonstration with an opportunity for everyone to learn how to fillet and debone a whole fish. We’ll prepare some snacks from the freshly butchered chicken & fish to enjoy in class
Next up is learning how to break down a whole quadruped (most likely a whole, small pig, depending on availability; the same techniques apply to all). You’ll learn all the main primal and sub-primal cuts, as well as some more specific types of cuts. There will be demo and discussion of the best applications of different cuts, from steaks and roasts to ground meat and sausage, as well as more advanced techniques like removing silver skin, Frenching ribs, and preparing scallopini.
All participants will take home generous, vacuum-sealed portions of the meats they prepared in class, along with notes and recipes.
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Taylor Parker is of the Mohawk Nation, Bear Clan, from Six Nations of the Grand River.
Taylor is a proud father, chef, forager, gardener, and friend. His extensive knowledge of native North American plants brings rarely seen ingredients and flavours to his dishes, with the philosophy that food is a conduit to connect people back to the land. Taylor is passionate about bringing like-minded Chefs together to share, educate, and collaborate on unique dishes that seek to define modern First Nations North American Cuisine. He also heads up The Depanneur’s monthly Indigenous Food Lab dinner..
Taylor has spent much of his professional life working in a diverse range of kitchens and catering. He currently runs MT Hospitality focused on unique hunt, fished and foraged First Nations inspired events and dinners, and is also the co-owner of For4ged Candle Company in Brantford, Ontario. @turok_parker
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Every week, The Depanneur invites TO’s best culinary talents to lead fun, hands-on workshops. @thedepanneur
