#catertoronto

Episode 18 has us waking up to the many barriers new food entrepreneurs face in Toronto, and then we how to fix ourselves the right stiff drink for the occasion.  

First, Jess speaks with Vanessa Ling Yu about how to demystify the process of starting a food business for marginalized Torontonians. 

And then Mark Bylok helps Bryan craft the perfect whisky collection and gives us all a greater vocabulary to find what we want in a brown liquor. 

^^^^^^^^^^^^^

THANKS!

Huge thanks to Vanessa Ling Yu of caterToronto for spending time with Jess. If you’re interested in volunteering or learning more about them, check out the site here or find them @caterToronto.

And thanks to our podcast bud, Mark Bylok, for changing the way we think about whisky. You can find the podcast, The Whisky Topic, co-hosted with Jamie Johnson, here.

Thanks, as always, to Erik Betlem and Ken Stowar from CIUT for letting us record with them.

MORE equitable pay along food chain! ISO cafes/retailers who want in? Where would you like to see us?

We're building relationships for inclusive community food systems. For example, we supported product development and retail entry of Kyopo Kitchen's vegan kimchi into Paintbox Catering and Bistro, and then at West End Food Co-op. We connect farmers to producers to eaters.

Less for the Subway Sandwiches of the world. MORE for diverse, dignified, delicious!

Read more about us http://thedepanneur.ca/2015/04/02/table-talk-vanessa-yu/

Through the power of people in our network, we're rotating vendor's goodies at The Farmers Market at Sickkids, providing experience, exposure, and economic outcomes through large orders, and growing staff & supports to scale up from a few "good ideas" to better jobs and careers in the food business.

Sometimes we're super fast and other times we're slow and steady. caterToronto is not so much a new idea. Rather, we're instigating the connections that make it easier for us to all eat a little more YUM! Need support as a new food entrepreneur?

i think i broke at least a few hearts this weekend when gushing excitement about a future project: vegan kimchi.

it went like this: me: "yah, and we're buying a whack of napa cabbage from a friend of a friend who runs a small local, organic farm. helps him because it's a big, single drop off. we'll use them to make vegan kimchi and with that, all sorts of fun! straight-up, juiced in caesars, diaspora cabbage rolls, aging for potency taste-testing, all sorts of.. ." them: "oh that's going to be so goo... [voice drop. silence. blank stare into nowhere. crunched eyebrows..]"