In case you haven’t already heard the news, we have officially launched ACQTASTE Issue Two. Most of our stockists have copies in stock and some are still awaiting their shipment. Check with a stockist near you to see if you can get your hands on a copy!

Located on the cement roof of a lively Parkdale restaurant unexpectedly lays an assortment of luscious vegetation. Lemon balm, mojito mint and stinging nettle just to name a few, breed vivaciously out of plastic bins, which supply the restaurant below. It’s an excellent type of sustainable urban agriculture that the creators hope will soon be more commonplace than novelty.

The Container System

A Conversation with Katie Mathieu & Victoria Taylor
Interview By Abby Ainsworth
Photography by Antonio Fernandez
Video by Abby Ainsworth

Tell us a little about yourselves and your relation to the garden.

VICTORIA: Ok, my name is Victoria Taylor and I’m a landscape architect working in Toronto. I’m interested in green roofs and growing food and restaurants and eating food. So when I bought this building in 2009 with some partners, I was very interested in getting something going on the roof and I was looking for the right person to do it with. Then I met Katie and she had all this interesting experience with growing food.
KATIE: My name is Katie Mathieu. I’m a chef, permaculture designer and a farmer. About five years ago I went to a farm school on Cortes Island in British Columbia called Linnaea Farms and studied organic agriculture and permaculture. Then I had the good fortune to work for Michael Stadtländer for seven months and now I’m interested in studying container systems – the urban systems that are smaller and more complicated.

How did you two meet?

KATIE: Parts and Labour was doing a cattle call for bartenders and a friend of mine was going to it. We were hanging out in the morning and I just kind of went along, as a joke. I got an interview and I totally blew it but was kind of curious about the space so I came back and met [chef] Matty at the back door of the restaurant. Matty and I got along right away and we started talking about animal slaughtering and planting and he suggested that we start a couple buckets up top, just as a casual thing and then all of a sudden I was meeting you [Victoria] – we had coffee at the Drake. Yeah we had a blind date! [laughs] And all of sudden it just kind of blew up.

When you first started the garden what were you growing and how has it evolved?

KATIE: Peas and radishes and carrots and greens – stuff that I knew were small and could survive. Then we got really excited about tomatoes last year. We thought that because it was hot up here it would be easy to grow heat-loving plants but when we got 25 tomato plants when they were babies it was too hot for them. There was too much wind, it was too exposed and they suffered for it. And so that was something that we did a couple this year because we really like them and they did produce a lot of tomatoes but not as much as you would expect. We did a lot of chives and a lot of herbs for the kitchen downstairs. They were really excited about having those on rotation and being able to come up and get them. We have a big container of Cuban mojito mint for the bar this year. We started growing different kinds of mint last year but we got the mojito this year and Rob, our bar manager really likes it.

What’s the difference between Cuban mojito mint and the mint that we’re used to?

KATIE: It’s still a mint. The family is called lamiaceae. It’s still a common mint but it’s a specific variety that has a rounder leaf and less of – you know how spearmint has a finishing note that kind of tastes like toothpaste? Mojito mint has a rounder, chubbier finish that doesn’t compete with the high notes in booze and it’s Hemmingway’s mojito mint of choice.

Was this the first time you were ever growing it?

KATIE: Yeah. Everything else is pretty familiar; everything else was stuff that I’d worked with before so I’ve got comparisons for all of them.

And are the comparisons from Stadtländer’s farm?

KATIE: …and Linnaea Farms. Big time.

What are some of the less common items grown in the garden?

KATIE: Lemongrass, Stinging nettle, purple sage, okra chickweed, and red plantain.

Who would be able to get your herbs and who would you sell them to other than just the restaurant?

KATIE: Private clients that are interested in establishing bins and friends and family.
VICTORIA: We have brought people up here and they’ve said, “Can you help us start a small roof garden on our garage at home?” We made small, little models like that. What we would really love to do is massive roofs like this, figure out what it would be like to be on a commercial rooftop that has a structure and make it like a real farm. We’re interested in both forms.
KATIE: I’m interested in irrigation right now too. We have buckets underneath the hood fans in the kitchen. There’s condensation that comes off of them and when it’s really, really hot you can get four eighteen liter buckets on a really busy night. So things like that, like figuring out how all these machines and systems around us can accumulate and bring in water.

You were saying you want to expand– what would be your ultimate garden? Would it just be for restaurants or would it also be a communal garden?

KATIE: Community access would be amazing. Not just because you need the expert hands but also because I think it’s the only way to really get the model to expand and grow and the only way to teach people effectively, to get people involved from start to finish. I think that’s the only way you really get what works and doesn’t work in the system. You have to watch it all the way through. That’s what the farm schools are about.
VICTORIA: And have it so that the public can come up here safely, have proper railings, have something other than just a ladder at the back. Have it so that people of all ages can come up and have a time to work on their garden up here, bring school groups. It would be great to have a place like that.

Is there a particular plant you’d want to introduce or take away?

KATIE: I like perennials. They like the bins.
VICTORIA: Yes, they do really well.
KATIE: I want to do more of them. They’re super effective, they produce really well. I really like the lemon balm too. It’s good for cold and flu and anxiety and I think it’s kind of funny to have that growing in a city, you know? I think it’s appropriate.

Victoria – How often do you come up here?

VICTORIA: Well, whenever I can. In the evenings and in the summer I come up here and hang out and do what I can and then on the weekends sometimes we have little work sessions. I’m here a lot at the beginning when we’re setting up for the season and then breaking it down, bringing everything inside. But Katie is really hands-on all week because I have another -
KATIE: You have another job!
VICTORIA: Another full-time job.

Since your background is landscape architecture, did you design the layout here?

VICTORIA: Yeah, we worked on that together with an engineer. We had to try and figure out structurally where we could have the weight and where the weight bearing walls are from underneath. There’s not really that much to design, but just figuring out what containers we were going to use and the soil mix too, talking to different soil suppliers. We wanted something that was really light but high in nutrients. So just doing some of that background research.

How often do you guys replenish your soil?

KATIE: It depends on what crop it is. Like a lettuce or things that are heavy feeders, they need to be replenished more often.

Can you talk a bit about your bin system?

KATIE: The bottom third is a water reservoir. It’s basically a recycling bin, a few pieces of election sign material and PVC pipe. Rooftop Garden Projects in Quebec made the prototype out of garbage and now they produce it and distribute it to people. So the water goes into the PVC filling pipe from the surface of the bin and goes down into the reservoir and then there are three areas of soil that extend into the water reservoir and act as candle wicks and they’ll pull the moisture up into the base of the soil and allow the roots to self regulate how much water they draw. I don’t think the plants would have survived up here without it because a heavy plant needs a lot of water. The big plants in two days with a heat wave would be bone dry. If I fill the reservoir up and soak the soil in a heat wave I would come back two days later and it would be cracking bone dry.
VICTORIA: Yeah it gets hot up here.

What’s the perfect weather for everything up here?

KATIE: How it was last week – 28, 25, 26 degrees (Celsius). Hot enough for everything to fruit and flower but not so hot that everybody gets all stressed out. Right now all the beets and carrots and peas and radishes and lettuce are super excited about this! They’re really into it!

Tell us about the hops that you’re growing.

KATIE: I’m growing three varieties for my cousin opening Bellwoods Brewery on Ossington and he’s starting a city-wide hops project and we were just studying to see how they do in bins and they’re only supposed to grow eight to ten feet in the first year and not produce hop cones and they grew 20 feet and produced cones.
VICTORIA: Oh, I didn’t know that.
KATIE: Yeah, hops love bins. It’s crazy, they did so well and they’re so attractive. And everyone likes beer, so it got a lot of people excited about roof gardens. The interest is always touch and go with urban agriculture but everyone got stoked about beer and it got a lot of attention.

Where do you see this type of system in five years?

KATIE: Hopefully just a casual thing that’s running all over the city and is not a big deal anymore, where everybody kind of knows what to do and the information isn’t precious or new and it’s just normal and everybody’s got their infrastructure going.

What would you say to someone who hasn’t grown anything out of a box or on their roof? What’s the easiest thing to start growing?

KATIE: Lettuce is pretty gratifying. With regard to seed sowing, it’s recommended that you just scatter it on top of the dirt and then rough it in, which is pretty easy for anybody to do. Then they come up pretty quick and they’re tasty, they’re super familiar and their lifespan is pretty short so it’s not, you know, it’s not a lot of time for tears. [laughs]

What would you like people to understand with the knowledge of what you two have started?

VICTORIA: Well, just that it’s possible. Even if there’s not access now, all you need is to put up a ladder, be safe about it and then get it going. Soil and water can get heavy, so checking with an engineer or architect before putting up something this size (or any size) is really important.
KATIE: I just really like studying it. It’s really nice instead of just thinking about it and talking about it. It’s really nice to be doing it – and doing it wrong and figuring out what’s killing things. [laughs] It’s been great to learn.

Toronto has had its fair share of clothing related pop ups but of late the food centric variety has taken off, and LA CARNITA is leading the pack.

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  Words by Chuck Ortiz & Photos by Antonio Fernandez

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  a) JON LOVETT - SPIN Braised Oxtail with Ancho Chilis and Sweet Pickled Onion Slaw. b) GUY RAWLINGS - APT 303 & LUCIEN: Compressed celery & biters, corriander emulsion, 3 month fermented serrano peppers & pork rinds. c) ANDREW RICHMOND - LA CARNITA: Steak tartare w/ confit Jalapeño aioli, watercress, sorrel & raddish slaw.

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  TUM founder, Hassel Aviles lends a helping hand to La Carnita co-founder and hubby, Andrew Richmond. Is there a harder working couple in Toronto right now than these two?

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  La Carnita co-founder, Amin Todai

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  Guest chef, Guy Rawlings & girlfriend Kim Montgomery rocking the La Carnita x Apt 303 mashup tee. (More on Apt. 303 coming soon!)

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  Toronto legends, DJ X and DJ Mastermind, enjoying some tacos before their set.

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  La Carnita co-founder, Andrew Richmond

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It’s always impressive to see how a chef’s cuisine can win over the palates of diners and food critics, as it is not always an easy undertaking. But what I find even more impressive than that is how anyone, let alone a chef, can win over the palates of their own family.

THE WALSH’S

INTERVIEW BY ABBY AINSWORTH
RECIPES BY ANTHONY WALSH
PHOTOGRAPHY BY CHUCK ORTIZ

Acquired Taste Magazine had a chat with Corporate Executive
Chef of Oliver & Bonacini Restaurants, Anthony Walsh while he
cooked a Sunday meal with his family. Half focused on the
questions and half cooking and delegating to his sous for
the day, his three kids who would rather eat kimchi than
macaroni, Acquired Taste got to see a side of the chef’s
cooking style where it was first and foremost about family.

It seems like anything Korean influenced is hot these days. From the Momofuku empire to the popular Kogi truck, people just can’t get enough of their bold flavours. If you haven’t heard of Seoul Sausage yet, don’t worry because you will hear a lot about them real soon. They are the new upstart out of Los Angeles that have taken Korean flavours and infused them into sausages. We caught up with the guys behind Seoul Sausage to find out more.

SEOUL SAUSAGE

A Conversation with Seoul Sausage
Photography by EISEN NEPOMUCENO

Where did you get the idea to turn Korean BBQ into a sausage?
CHRIS: I was watching a show on Food Network on Kogi tacos and saw how well they were doing and thought to myself, “DAMN! Why didn’t I think of that?!” So I just sat there afterwards and thought about how else I could incorporate Korean flavours in a familiar form. Then boom! It came to me. Everyone loves Korean BBQ and everyone loves sausages, so why not put the two together?

When did you decide to start the Seoul Sausage Company? What made you want to?
CHRIS: It was when I moved to L.A. in summer of 2010. I decided to make a batch of the sausages I had been working on for Ted (one of co-founders) and he thought it was amazing. He suggested we debut it at the L.A. Street Food Festival (a sampling event held at the Rose Bowl) to let the L.A. foodie community decide for itself. Within a matter of a few weeks, Seoul Sausage went from feeding a couple friends to over 1000 people trying our sausages. The reception was overwhelmingly positive and we had this really crazy line going. Longer than most of the highly anticipated vendors at the event! We knew we had something special brewing that day.

How did you learn to make sausage?
CHRIS: YouTube and patience.

On your website, you guys put it out there that you have a bunch of friends and family over to help make the sausages on the weekends. Would you say that is part of what Seoul Sausage is all about?
TED: We are so lucky to have such good friends and family supporting us since day one. We wouldn’t be anywhere without them lending a hand at these events, which is the reason why we recently threw the fan appreciation event – a day to thank everyone that supported us this past year by doing what we love doing: cooking, eating, having a drink, and just having a good ole time with everyone there together.
YONG: Yeah…Early on we realized that Seoul Sausage had to be a reflection of our people and culture. Our product is a sausage, but it’s the people that make it a real celebration.

Did you come up with most of the recipes that Seoul Sausage uses on your own or are they based on family recipes?
CHRIS: It’s a combination of both. I grew up watching my mom making traditional kalbi and spicy pork and the recipe had always been stuck in my head. I suppose my personal touch comes with the condiments and bread that I pair them with.

How do you attempt to meld an entire Korean BBQ meal into one sausage?
YONG: Eating Seoul Sausage is a different experience than dining at a Korean BBQ restaurant but I think we did a good job of capturing all the essential elements that constitute that perfect Korean BBQ bite. For the Kalbi sausage, we pair it with a kimchi relish and garlic jalapeño aioli. This is as traditional as Korean BBQ gets and will take you back to the day you tried Korean BBQ for the first time. For the Spicy Pork sausage, we pair it with an apple slaw to capture a nice spicy, then cool balance. The taste you get to experience with Seoul Sausage are all familiar flavours to any Korean BBQ connoisseur but it makes it that much more awesome that it all comes wrapped within a nice baguette bun.
CHRIS: The one thing, however, that we couldn’t fit into our sausages was the Soju…

How would you describe the Seoul Sausage Company in three words?
YONG: Korean BBQ flavour explosion.
TED: Big Asian sausage.
CHRIS:  Love in a bun.

What is it like to serve your sausages to massive line ups of people at festivals and events?
TED: A big motivating factor for us is the diversity of our customers. We knew that the people that already enjoy Korean BBQ would love it, but we are absolutely blown away by the response we’ve received. For those that have never tried Korean BBQ, it’s definitely less intimidating when you’re trying something that looks like a traditional hot dog. And these were the people that loved our sausages the most.
YONG: It’s great. We get non-Koreans asking for more kimchi with their sausages. That usually puts a big smile on my face and I always do a double take. “Wait… did you ask for more kimchi?” Sure!

Do you see a food truck or retail space in Seoul Sausage’s future?
TED: We have a brick and mortar in the works as we speak. You can follow us on twitter and facebook for all the latest updates and news.
CHRIS: Yeah we will have a big opening party. Drinks on us!

I honestly can’t remember the last time I had a go-to spot to eat at on the Danforth. Sure, there are countless Greek restaurants scattered about but nothing that really sets itself apart from the rest. So, to say I was excited when news broke of a possible Libretto on the Danforth is an understatement. We met up with Co-owner Max Rimaldi during the last phases of construction to get a glimpse at the long awaited pizzeria.

LIBRETTO DANFORTH

Words & Photography by CHUCK ORTIZ

FRONT BAR
“If you go to our Ossington location, there is typically a wait so we just take your phone number and send you across the street. Now we can do that here.”

MAIN DINING ROOM
“The center here is the main dining area. There is going to be a banquet across the dark wall. This lighter side will have huge chalkboards, kind of like Ossington. We really want to use the chalkboards as part of the menu now. I love walking into a restaurant like The Black Hoof for example, where I can make my way through their chalkboard menu. I don’t want a menu in front of me because it’s very formal. When the menu stays on the wall it allows food to keep on rolling.”

DOWNSTAIRS
“So this is the lounge waiting area. Down here we are going to have a chalkboard menu serving little snacks called “Sfizi”, which means, “a little snack”, in Italian. We want to keep it really simple here, just 4 or 5 snacks and 1 or 2 good cocktails. We are all about doing a few things as best as we can. We are also going to have a DJ setup in the corner, not for dancing but to help create a vibe.”

PRIVATE DINING ROOM
“This is the semi private-dining area. It’s going to be a really large oak table. Again, communal going on as well.”

We’re waiting with bated breath for the arrival of the second Libretto. It might be hard to picture it now but then again, if you’ve been to any of their other restaurants you probably get the picture already.

A conversation with Odd Bits author Jennifer McLagan.

ODD BITS

Words by MIKA BAREKET
Photography by CHUCK ORTIZ

MIKA: Are you telling us to stop eating chops and sirloin?

JENNIFER: No. I am trying to expand your horizon by giving you more choice. If you limit yourself to chops and sirloin then you will miss out on lots of different tastes and textures.

MIKA: What’s the right balance of common cuts versus odd bits in our diet?  I mean, should we be eating brains all the time?

JENNIFER: Sure you can eat brains for breakfast if you want – they have a similar texture to scrambled eggs – but I doubt you will.
Odd bits are all legitimate cuts and parts of the animal. I think we should eat the whole animal, so the right balance would be the balance that the animal provides.

MIKA: The audience in our Odd Bits class were some of the loudest-mouthed guys I know, and yet they were very quiet, almost silent.  Are people still freaked out about hearts and tongues?

JENNIFER: Perhaps they were quiet because there was so much good information! I think some people are surprised by these cuts, however I find there is lot of interest in how to prepare and cook them, especially amongst chefs and food lovers. For them it is like a new frontier to explore and it challenges them. One chef was wowed when a dish was presented inside a pig’s bladder. This is not new, but a classic French presentation not often seen today except at restaurants like Le Bristol where chef Eric Frechon presents a poulet de Bresse cooked in a pig’s bladder and also a fabulous rendition of tete de veau.

MIKA: In your intro to Odd Bits, you tell us to demand meat that is raised naturally and humanely.  How do we make our demands?

JENNIFER: You must know where your meat is coming from and how it was raised. Shop at a good butcher who knows his suppliers, at farmer’s markets or buy directly from suppliers. Ask questions. If you don’t like the answers, go elsewhere. You have to take responsibility.

MIKA: Without resorting to trickery, how do we encourage our squeamish friends and children to try meat that is outside the box?

JENNIFER: Start children young and expose them to as many different tastes and textures as you can. For your friends, perhaps the best way is to introduce a small amount into a dish, like some heart into a beef stew or make heart kebabs that are a mixture of another cut and heart. I have converted a lot of people to brains with my brain and mushroom ravioli.

MIKA: You divide your time between Toronto and Paris.  Lucky.  How does your cooking change from city to ville?

JENNIFER: Yes I am lucky. I don’t think my way of cooking really changes. I cook daily and shop at least every second day to see what is fresh and in season. I have less freezer space in Paris, so I have to get out in the markets, which I love. I find odd bits so much easier to buy in Paris. Even in the supermarket, where I rarely shop, they have pig’s ears and tails, gizzards and liver.

MIKA: You’ve won the most prestigious awards for writing in your field. Why aren’t you a household name?  I’d imagine that all things the same, you’d be a national hero in France, or Spain, or Italy…

JENNIFER: I doubt I will ever be a household name, which is fine with me. Today in the food world you need to be on television or relentlessly promote yourself, and that is not my thing. I do hope that I can make some people think about what they are eating and realize the importance of having a food culture.

…

A conversation with Toronto Underground Market founder, Hassel Aviles.

TORONTO UNDERGROUND MARKET

INTERVIEW by ABBY AINSWORTH & CHUCK ORTIZ
Photography by CHUCK ORTIZ & ANTONIO FERNANDEZ

We recently gave you a quick glance at Hassel Aviles, the woman behind the recent, hugely successful Toronto Underground Market. Here we give you a more in-depth look at her life as well as her inspiration and thought process behind the venture. We chatted with her before the first market and with the next TUM right around the corner [October 22nd] this might help get you pumped up for it. Not that you needed another reason though.

ACQ: Tell us a bit about your background in the culinary world before TUM.

HASSEL: When I was about eighteen I started out as a hostess; I always worked front of house in the restaurant industry. From there I went to server then bartender then all three at the same time. [laughs] You know, typical restaurant chaos. And I’ve also, since I was little, loved to cook. My Mom used to make everything from scratch. You know, microwaves did not exist in our household and she would whip up mayonnaise from scratch and things like that.

ACQ: Where are your parents from?

HASSEL: My parents are from Chile. Everybody always wonders where I’m from because of my last name and they always think I’m mixed for some reason. But, no, both my parents are from Chile. But, to be honest, there’s not that much famous Chilean food or famous Chilean restaurants for that matter so what I like to eat is not necessarily based on that. But yeah, I love to cook, I love to bake, all that kind of stuff. But I’m too relaxed to work in the back of house. I have so much respect for chefs and people that do that for a living but it’s just that I’m not cut out; I’d be fired in five minutes, you know what I mean? [laughs] Because I’m slow and I like to chat and pump up music and drink wine.

So, the way TUM started was when Andrew started his food blog – Andrew’s my husband – and he really wanted to start something but, as you know, it’s so hard to start in this industry unless you have a lot of capital or a space already or – you basically need a lot of money to start a restaurant, to start anything in the food industry, really.

Because when you first start out you have to rent a commercial kitchen, you need a space, equipment etc. It’s really expensive! So we thought, “How can we get this on a smaller scale? How can we start and grow?” And there weren’t that many options, to be honest. And every time we had to rent a commercial kitchen it was adding up. If you’re doing it as a one-off, it’s not a big deal but if you’re doing this as a living it’s so expensive. So I started to do research. I have an online marketing background as well, not food related but after I left the food industry I got into marketing and then eventually online marketing. And so I thought, “Why don’t I just research a bit of what other foodie cities are doing?” And I always knew if there’s someone like Andrew, there’re thousands of people like Andrew that are just as frustrated. So I started a blog and a Twitter account and a Face Book page and it just went crazy.

ACQ: What do you mean by you “started?”

HASSEL: I literally clicked “start a Tumblr page.”

ACQ: But what did you call it?

HASSEL: The Toronto Underground Market and I based it on the same thing in San Francisco. [Iso Rabins of the San Fransisco Underground Market] So I thought, “Okay, I love what he’s doing but I’m going to have to tweak it because Toronto is way more rigid and there’re so many more bylaws.  But I love the idea of helping people start; I love the idea of helping people get their food out to the community, to the public; I love the idea of not having to spend hundreds of thousands of dollars just to test out a recipe. So that was the original idea behind it. When I started the Tumblr page I honestly initially thought, “this is going to be a hobby, it might take like six months or so to even get some buzz, I’m going to have to pitch it to people.” I really thought that was the way it was going to go. And instead Twitter went bananas and media started contacting me and hundreds of e-mails started pouring in saying things like, “Thank you for doing

this!” and “How can I be part of it?” and “I’ve waited for this!” Like really crazy e-mails and I was just so touched and I thought, “Okay, clearly I hit the mark on something.” Yes, Andrew and I have been frustrated forever and I knew that there were other people out there but to actually hear from them directly is something completely different.

ACQ: So who were/are you hearing from?

HASSEL: Now it’s been four months so it’s totally different the kinds of e-mails I’m getting but –

ACQ: But at the beginning it was people who weren’t working in commercial kitchens…

HASSEL: … or they were and they were spending lots of money on them. So the idea of being able to go to a market, sell your food, keep your profits and only have to pay $150 plus all of whatever you need to – like produce and that kind of thing – is amazing. It doesn’t exist in Toronto.

ACQ: So what does the “Underground Market” mean?

HASSEL: It’s a coined term. I get a lot of slack for that, so I went online and started looking at the definition of “underground,” the definition in the dictionary.  Yes there’re the ones that don’t apply – but there are a couple that talk about the underground as an alternative and things coming, you know, in a different way and that’s exactly what this is. It is an alternative way to share food; it is an alternative way to start out in the industry. And it is, in one way or another, helping people come from the underground to above ground because, yes I have some chefs involved that are completely established and all of that, but the majority are newbies. The majority are people that a) maybe never cooked in a commercial kitchen or b) have only been in a farmers’ market or c) never done either of those and literally have just cooked for friends and family. And so in that sense it’s really exciting.

ACQ: What was the main way that people were contacting you?

HASSEL: It was all through e-mail or Twitter. Twitter I will say is probably the biggest reason why so many people have even heard of it. With social media, once you understand how to use it, it’s an amazing free business tool. And you can actually niche your market. You’re not just shouting from the rooftops to whoever just happens to walk by that day. You’re actually, directly marketing to people that actually care about what you’re saying, as you probably already know. That’s the only reason that I was able to do this, because I understood how social media marketing works.

ACQ: How many vendors do you have so far?

HASSEL: So for September we have 26 vendors. We have already opened up registration for October and we’re going to be accepting 60 vendors. So what happened last time was we accepted 60 vendors but then, you know the way things go, from 60 we went to 45 and from 45 we went to 33 and from 33 we chose the 26. I had initially been saying I was going to get between 30 and 40 and I could have if I really wanted to but I was like, “You know what? I know how first impressions go. I need to make this as good as we could possibly make it.”

ACQ: The best of the best?

HASSEL: Exactly. And actually I had a couple other people tell me, “Oh, that’s so good that you went down in numbers! That’s so smart!”

And at the same time, I mean, it’s still a lot! I have 26 vendors and I also have 1200 people coming. I sold 600 tickets in one day and since then it’s been a week and I have sold 1150 so there’s 50 more tickets left. And so it’s still so exciting for the vendors because they’re like, “Wow, 1200 people are coming!” You know? “My little, like, whatever I’m cooking is going to be sampled by potentially” – let’s say half them try your product, that’s 600 people!

ACQ:  So, $5 gets you in…

HASSEL: … and then each vendor’s between $2 and $8, most of it’s like $5 and under.

ACQ: Out of the people that aren’t well-known chefs is there anyone that stands out?

HASSEL: Absolutely. There’s a couple like that, I think. But who knows? I met them once and I tried one dish, you know? It’s like, for example, my husband Andrew. He’s doing La Carnita taco pop-ups…

ACQ:  Your husband is La Carnita?

HASSEL:  Yes! So La Carnita and Toronto Underground Market are actually a family. [laughs]
Yeah, he’s my husband. So a lot of people have asked, “What’s the deal with La Carnita and Toronto Underground Market?” I’m like, “They’re not related, other than the fact that La Carnita will be a vendor at the Toronto Underground Market and we sleep together.” [laughs] That’s about the only relation. Other than that we have nothing to do with each other!

ACQ: What do you want the guests to get out of this event?

HASSEL: That’s a good question. I definitely want them to feel like they’ve tried things that they don’t try every day and that were really good. Because we did actually put a lot of thought into who was going to be in or out. I’d also like them to leave feeling like everything flowed nicely.

ACQ: Yeah. Not just another chaotic kind of market.

HASSEL: Which it kind of will be on one level. But on another level I’d like for there to be a little bit of method to the madness.

ACQ: Of course.

HASSEL: So like I said, I have kind of a home cook background and an online marketing background but I have no experience with events. So that has been a huge learning curve for me. I have, like, six event planners helping me out. So, that’s what I’m saying, if someone can walk away thinking, “Wow, that event was pretty well-organized. Things went really well” I would be so relieved, because it’s been crazy trying to organize this. The logistics are kind of a nightmare. It’s an amazing concept but it’s logistically a nightmare.

ACQ: Do you think that Toronto could have hosted something like this and could have been as successful five or seven years ago?

HASSEL: I wish it could have existed then for sure. I think that we’ve been trying to get there for a long time as a city. But – okay, I will say this. The only thing that kind of works out for the timing right now is that there are a lot of people really fed up with the lack of street food in Toronto.

Along with us there’s the Food Truck Festival and there’s La Carnita and the feeling is like, “Enough with putting us in a box.” Let’s try and think outside of the box.

ACQ: Yes, there should be more street food here.

HASSEL: Right. It doesn’t make sense. So in that sense it’s nice and timed for this fall 2011. But at the same time, yeah, this could have existed five years ago. It could have existed ten years ago if someone had put it together. For sure, because there’s always been amazing home cooks. Everybody knows somebody that makes an amazing thing at a dinner party, you know? Everybody!

ACQ: And people usually say to those home cooks, “You should start a restaurant!”

HASSEL: Everybody knows someone like that. So this is an event for people like that.

ACQ: What do you want out of this first event and where do you see it going?

HASSEL: This is the first of many – I see it that way. The way I see it now is, “I started a business.” I used to be a stay-at-home mom, so I have a nanny now that takes care of the kids and now I’ve fully put my everything into starting this. I see this going on for at least a couple years.

ACQ: I know it’s going to be once a month, but would you want it to be more than that?

HASSEL: No. If anything less. It’s too much. And sometimes it’s quality over quantity.

So next year I want to start getting into more specific things. I’ve already started talking to some people about thematic markets.

ACQ: That would be cool!

HASSEL: And some markets just for the industry people. Because I’ve gotten a lot of slack from them because it’s on a Saturday night. If you work in the industry you can’t come because you’re working. [laughs] You know? And I know a lot of people in the industry and they’re like, “What?!” So I’d love to make maybe one or two a year for industry people. Or, if it gets big enough, maybe do it Saturday and Sunday with different vendors? I don’t know. There’re so many options.

ACQ: Why did you want to do the market at night?

HASSEL: a) To differentiate myself from a farmers’ market, b) because that’s what they did in San Francisco. I was really inspired by what Iso did in San Francisco and I’ve been in touch with him on a regular basis. He’s been helping me out a lot. And he’s, a “share the love” kind of guy. He’s not like, “Oh, its mine! Why are you copying me?” He’s the opposite. He’s like, “Oh, what? You want that document? Let me send it to you?”

ACQ: Wow.

HASSEL: He’s amazing! So I’m really lucky, in a sense, that he’s helped me out so much and the second I’m like, “Oh, how are we going to do this?” I can just call him or e-mail him and he’ll help me out. So I really want to try and stay as true to what he started as I can. Unfortunately now he’s been closed down and he’s not doing that anymore. He did it for two years very successfully and now he’s starting a whole new empire. But I was just so inspired by what he did. So I really want to try and do that. And then if I change it in future I will, but for now I want to try to stay as true to what he started. So that’s why I copied the name, I copied the concept; I’ve copied a lot of things from him. Mine’s way more rigid in terms of the commercial kitchen and mine’s way more professionally marketed. Iso’s was just kind of just like, “Show up. Five bucks. Sign a waiver.” You know? While mine’s like Twitter and this and that and he didn’t do any of this kind of stuff. So our personalities are coming out through the markets.

ACQ: Have you talked to Suresh [Suresh Doss of Spotlight Toronto and Food Truck Eats] at all, maybe picked his brain about food festivals?

HASSEL: Yes! I got to know Suresh through all of this. I knew of him before but I didn’t actually know him personally. I will say though, no I haven’t really. Because I always feel like he must get that all the time you know? “Let me pick your brain!” So I try not to do that unless I absolutely have to. I’d love to try to keep that relationship friendly versus professional.

….

ACQ: Another cool thing is, you’re not a widely recognized name, where people would think, “She’s always in the food scene.”

HASSEL: No one knows who I am! [laughs]

ACQ: It’s really refreshing to see someone outside of the food industry is actually making something happen. Even though it’s your first event and it is sort of making a small shift, it’s going to be big jump in the long run.