The Depanneur

10/05/2026

32+ recipes. 12+ countries. One free cookbook that brings a refugee family's kitchen into yours.

"Tastes from Home" is filled with more than 100 pages of beautiful photos and recipes, each shared by a resilient individual who left their country of origin to make a home in Canada. This is your opportunity to hear the real stories, and experience the rich cultural backgrounds and traditions of former refugees.

Every dish tells a story. Download the cookbook and you're one step closer to meeting the people (and stories) behind the recipes.

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10/05/2026

Giving Thanks 🙏🏼 There is always much to be grateful for

For millennia, our agricultural forbearers felt the harvest as a time for gratitude. The hot, hard work of summer is waning, the bounty of autumn is palpable in the cooler air, trees heavy with apples, the ground thick with squashes. The wheat is reaped, the corn drying, pork is being salted or smoked for the winter ahead, maybe a fat duck has found its way into a confit pot. The abundant gift of nature was something you could sense, and with it, as with all gratitude, comes a reciprocal impulse to acknowledge, to give back, to say thanks. In so doing we can savour and amplify the feeling of thankfulness, one of our rarest and most precious moments of grace.

So it is no surprise then that food and gratitude combined into their own dedicated holiday, Thanksgiving. For something ostensibly modern and secular — it's only been a holiday for around 150 years — it reverberates with impulses more ancient and spiritual. For many Indigenous peoples, this reciprocal relationship with nature, of receiving of her gifts and the reciprocal duty of her care, is a central tenet from which all relation to the world emanates. Thanksgiving as a North American holiday might be infused with a revisionist, literally white-washing colonial mythology, but its very existence still nods to lessons learned, however begrudgingly, uncredited, misunderstood, or unrealized. We are still learning from it, ever so slowly, ever more urgently, as the weight and cost of purposefully ignoring it for so long becomes too heavy to bear.

Gratitude is genuinely abundant, like kindness and generosity, in that it is the opposite of zero-sum: the more you feel it, the more you express it, the more you have, the more others have, the more we all have. Traditions all over the world say a word or prayer before sitting down to a meal: the dua in Islam, the bracha in Judaism — Maori, Hindu, and Japanese cultures all have their own. A few seconds of ritual transforms the mundane, necessary act of feeding yourself into a momentary opportunity to reflect on the nature and provenance what you are eating, to express thanks, to flex the muscle of gratitude — for the food itself, for the pleasure of eating it, for the miracle of consciousness that makes any of this possible. In the English Christian tradition it is called grace, just in case you needed a reminder why it exists.

If you need something to feel grateful for this season, amid all the very real, genuinely hard, sometimes terrible things in the world: Last year renewables overtook coal as the world's largest source of electricity. Thanks to global collaboration and intervention, cripplingly painful Guinea worm infections are down from about 3.5 million a year in 1986 to 10 cases last year, a drop of more than 99.99%. Malaria vaccines saved around 1 million lives in 2024.

Let a meal shared be a gentle reminder that even when things are bad, they can also be better, and they are always better together. Hope to see you around the table.
— LEN

Check out all the Interesting Food Things happening at The Depanneur in our latest newsletter.
https://mailchi.mp/thedepanneur/2018-2693170

Where Interesting Food Things happen — check it all out in this week's newsletter!

10/03/2026

SAT OCT 24 - Indigenous Food Lab with Chef Charles Catchpole

The Depanneur is proud to host the Indigenous Food Lab, a monthly residency designed as a place to experiment with the possibilities of a dining experience rooted in First Nations traditions. It is a laboratory to explore a Canadian concept of terroir – the flavour of a place – and help rediscover and redefine what Indigenous food was, is, and could be.

For more than two years the IFL has been led by Chef Taylor Parker & his team. This month, for the first time we open the Lab to a new voice. Charles Catchpole is an Anishinaabe chef, entrepreneur and urban farmer from Couchiching First Nation in Treaty 3 territory. His Indigenous Food Lab debut is a reminder that there is no single "Indigenous cuisine" – only many nations, many places, and many ways of cooking with the land.

As a proud northern Anishinaabe chef, Charles weaves together his professional background in fine dining with his experiences as a new farmer. He strives to create dishes using a sustainable approach, using as many elements of each ingredient as possible. An expressive and thoughtful speaker, he will also share stories about his culinary background, the importance of Indigenous Food Sovereignty, and his journey to becoming an urban farmer using organic methods of growing traditional foods.
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Weather, timing, season, and the caprice of Mother Nature will determine exactly what will be shared with us. The IFL has typically avoided pre-determined menus for several reasons; you can read more about them here.

Wild rice from Treaty 3
Charles brings manoomin – wild rice – from his home territory, a staple of Anishinaabe foodways for generations.

Game
The final protein will be confirmed closer to the date, depending on what is available.

Locally grown root vegetables and herbs
Grown at Gitigaanes ("little farm" in Ojibway), Charles's urban Indigenous micro-farm at Flemo Farm in Toronto, which specializes in Indigenous, local and lesser-known varieties of produce.

Foraged ingredients
Wild gathered food such as milkweed pods, mushrooms, elderberries & hawthorn have always been an indelible part of the Indigenous seasonal pantry.

CharGer Foods & Mnopgwad Preserves.
Charles will weave some of his own hot sauces, jams and preserves into the menu – a chance to taste how his signature flavours work at the table. He'll also bring a selection to sell at the event, so you can take some home.
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TIX: https://thedepanneur.ca/products/supper-club-indigenous-food-lab-with-chef-charles-catchpole
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Chef Charles Catchpole is an Anishinaabe chef and entrepreneur, and a member of Couchiching First Nation in Treaty 3 territory. Trained at Loyalist College and George Brown College, he has cooked at Canoe Restaurant in Toronto, managed the historic Arcadian Court, served as head chef at the Orchardview Conference Centre in Ottawa, and co-owned a restaurant of his own. Today he owns and operates Charger Foods, which sells a line of unique hot sauces, dressings, jams and preserves and runs a catering company specializing in Indigenous cuisine. He is also the founder of Gitigaanes, an urban Indigenous micro-farm within Flemo Farm in Toronto, where he grows Indigenous and heirloom vegetables – including beans, corn and squash grown using the traditional Three Sisters method. A passionate advocate for Indigenous Food Sovereignty, Charles is a chef who is as comfortable talking about soil as he is about sauce.
mnopgwad.com |

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Every weekend The Depanneur invites an amateur or professional guest chef to host a fun, informal dinner party.

10/01/2026

SAT OCT 17 - Japanese-Inspired Autumn Harvest by Caroline Ishii

Caroline Ishii grew up in Toronto as a third-generation Japanese Canadian, or sansei, and some of her strongest memories of home are tied to food. Her mother was born in Vancouver, but after losing her parents at a young age, she was sent to live with relatives in Japan; when she later returned to Canada and reunited with her siblings in Toronto, she recreated the food she missed using the Japanese and local ingredients she could find. Caroline's relationship with her mother wasn't always easy, but food was one of the places where they connected — her mother showed her how to make Japanese food, and somewhere along the way, Caroline developed the same love for those flavours.

Perhaps that's why autumn feels so meaningful to her. In Japan, the seasons are deeply connected to how people eat, and autumn is one of the great food seasons — newly harvested rice, mushrooms, kabocha, sweet potatoes, chestnuts, and persimmons. Caroline feels much the same way walking through a Toronto farmers' market in the fall: she wants to taste everything, and preserve some of that abundance before it disappears. That instinct is what brings her to takuwan, the Japanese daikon pickle she'll be serving at this dinner — for her, it carries memories of Japanese Canadian families adapting their traditions through difficult times, preserving what they had and keeping a taste of culture alive.

For this supper, Caroline is bringing together the Japanese home cooking she grew up with and the autumn harvest she loves cooking with today. These aren't necessarily the dishes you'd find on a restaurant menu — they're inspired by comforting, homemade food meant to be shared. The entire menu is vegan, but as with the food she served at her own restaurant and how she continues to cook today, the point is simple: the food must be delicious and beautiful, made with care and kokoro (heart).
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🌱 This menu is plant-based.

Yaki Mushroom Onigiri Ochazuke
Crispy mushroom rice ball in broth.
A play on ochazuke, the classic Japanese comfort dish of rice steeped in hot tea or broth, with a pan-seared mushroom onigiri and a fragrant green tea–dashi broth with kimchi-'cheese'.

Kinpira Lettuce Cup
Green beans, carrot, gobo (burdock root) and arame seaweed, stir fried in a light soy-sesame-maple glaze and served in crisp lettuce.

Harvest Dengaku Donburi
Harvest rice bowl
Cranberry–miso glazed, thick atsuage tofu in the style of dengaku — a centuries-old method of grilling skewers brushed with sweet miso. Served alongside tender kabocha no nimono (simmered local kabocha squash), over hakko genmai, a tradtional macrobiotic preparation of organic brown rice delicately fermented with azuki beans, revered for its nutritive properties and complex flavour. Garnished with a homemade shiso and roasted sesame furikake, and served with Caroline's homemade takuwan and shio koji pickles.

Dorayaki with Azuki & Matcha
Sweet red bean–chestnut paste pancakes with matcha cream.
Two pillowy Japanese pancakes sandwiching sweetened azuki (red bean) and chestnut paste, with with luxurious matcha cream.

Matcha-Ginger Chocolate Truffle
Organic fair trade chocolate truffle coated with matcha and filled with candied ginger.

Genmaicha Tea
Japanese green tea with roasted brown rice — a must for all Japanese home meals
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TIX: https://thedepanneur.ca/products/supper-club-japanese-inspired-harvest-by-caroline-ishii
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Caroline Ishii is a writer, award-winning chef, and storyteller whose work explores food, memory, identity, healing, and belonging. She is the founder and executive chef of ZenKitchen, Canada's first vegan whole-foods fine-dining restaurant, named Best New Restaurant of the Year. At Gold Medal Plates, she earned two silver medals and made history as the first woman chef to compete in Ottawa, and the first to present a vegan dish in the competition's history. She was also host of the 13-part reality-documentary series The Restaurant Adventures of Caroline and Dave (W Network, OWN, Asia Food Channel), and author of Rendezvous: Stories of Love, Loss, Identity and Belonging, The Accidental Chef, and Canadian Vegan Recipes (published in Japanese).
carolineishii.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.

10/01/2026

COMING UP!

THU OCT 8

⭐The Art of Tapas by Carole Nelson Brown ⭐

Spain's iconic small plates, reconsidered. In this hands-on class, Carole Nelson Brown pairs classic tapas bar staples along with some persona favourites that honour the soul of the originals but gives them a contemporary twist.

On the traditional side: pan con tomate, rubbed and torn the way it's done at every counter in Spain, and a few takes on versatlie sardine toasts. On the modern side: a quick & easy 'cheater' Spanish tortilla made with truffle potato chips, and stuffed mushroom caps with manchego-filled meatballs, finished with romesco sauce.

We'll cook both sides side by side, so you can taste exactly where tradition ends and the update begins. Expect some knife work, a little technique, and a table full of food at the end that you made yourself. Enjoy your handiwork with a glass of tinto de verano, Spain's favourite light, summery red w**e cocktail (optional).

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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.

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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.

➡Ticket link in bio or depanneur.ca

10/01/2026

COMING UP!

FRI OCT 9

The Nose Knows — An Introduction to W**e Tasting with Beverly Crandon

What does a glass of w**e actually smell like, before anyone tells you what you're supposed to find in it?

Most w**e tasting starts backwards: you're handed a glass, a list of tasting notes, and the quiet pressure to validate them. This class flips that order. You'll train your nose first, on real, familiar ingredients, then carry those sensory experiences to different kinds of w**e to discover what you notice on your own.

W**e aroma breaks down into a handful of core families that show up again and again: fruit, floral, earth, spice and oak. In this hands-on (er, nose-on?) workshop, Toronto sommelier Beverly Crandon will guide you through five aroma sets, and the ingredients behind those families. You'll smell and identify each before your nose ever meets a glass.

Once your nose knows what it's looking for, you'll move into a guided flight of five w**es — a sparkling w**e, an aromatic white, two contrasting reds, and one skin-contact (aka orange/amber) w**e — each chosen to showcase the aromas you just discovered. No memorized tasting notes, no wrong answers, just your own senses confirming what they already picked up on. (Specific w**es will depend on availability)

There will be some cheese boards to nibble on, and every guest walks away with lifetime access to the full Nose Knows course online, so you can revisit the aroma breakdowns, retrain your nose anytime, and keep building your palate long after the last pour.

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Beverly Crandon is a Toronto-based sommelier (Court of Master Sommeliers-certified), and founder of Fall Into Spice, which hosts w**e-paired dinners built around non-traditional food themes. She is also the creator of Black Grapes, an annual evening celebrating Black voices in w**e. She has shared her love of the grapes, regions, and w**emakers that rarely make the list on Global News Morning Toronto, The Good Stuff with Mary Berg, and CTV's The Social. | beverlycrandon.com

➡ Ticket link in bio or thedepanneur.ca

09/30/2026

SATURDAY NIGHT!

SAT OCT 3
Autumn in Greece with Peter Minaki

Passionate Greek food aficionado, cook, author and teacher Peter Minaki of Kalofagas.ca is back at The Dep with another night of authentic Greek specialities. In keeping with his Mediterranean Diet philosophy,

Housemade Bread & Olives

Shrimp Saganaki
Shrimp simmered in an aromatic tomato sauce with crumbled feta — saganaki refers to the two-handled vessel the dish is traditionally served in, not just the cheese it's often associated with.

Baby Arugula Salad with Fresh Figs
A celebration of the close of the fig season; figs, shaved graviera (think Greek gruyère) and a bright, three-citrus dressing.

Moussaka
Moussaka is one of the most famous and beloved Greek dishes worldwide: tender eggplant layered with a warmly spiced minced meat sauce, topped with a creamy béchamel. While viewed as a Greek national icon today, its roots stretch back to medieval Arab dishes — Its name comes from the Arabic word musaqqa'a, meaning "moistened" — which evolved through the Ottoman Empire. (It is said Ottoman chefs prepared over 40 different eggplant recipes for the royal court). In the 1920s, influential Greek chef Nikolaos Tselementes added a French béchamel sauce to the top, part of a trend to Europeanize" traditional Greek cooking by blending Mediterranean ingredients with French culinary techniques. This structured, layered version with golden baked béchamel on top became the worldwide standard for Greek moussaka. You can rest assured Peter's version will be exceptional. Vegetarian version available on request

Karydopita à la Mode
Spiced walnut cake, warmed with cinnamon and clove and soaked in syrup, made in patisseries across Greece and in most Greek homes — served with a scoop of ice cream.

Peter Minaki is a proud Greek Canadian and the creator of the popular Kalofagas – Greek Food & Beyond food blog. Kalofagas is the Greek word for “gourmet.” Living in Toronto and having a curious spirit, he refers to himself as “a tourist in his own town.” He welcomes every opportunity to try new foods and different cuisines.
| kalofagas.ca

➡Ticket link in bio or depanneur.ca