“And they were, like, looking at each other, going, ‘We’re supposed to do the cooking?’ And I’m like, ‘Yeah, yeah. Just come cook,'” said Len Senater, owner of The Depanneur, an eclectic food kitchen in Toronto.
“All of the sudden, the timber of the whole thing changed and they were talking and laughing and cooking and chopping and, it became … just the whole place was just full of life, and I think that’s really when we said okay, this is an amazing thing that we really should do.
“I’m Len Senater. I run The Depanneur here in Toronto. The Depanneur is a place where interesting food things happen. It’s a venue I established about five years ago to showcase the amazing diversity of culinary talent we have in the city.
“You know, as the news stories started coming out that there were families that were in the hotels for extended periods of time that didn’t have access to kitchens, couldn’t cook for their family or themselves, and I mean, I have this big kitchen; it’s not being used necessarily during the day. … Could I just invite them to use the kitchen so that they could use it to make food for themselves and their family?
“It seemed like a pretty simple idea and kind of a natural extension of the way we open our kitchen to people anyways. If you combine newcomers with kitchens, all of these incredible opportunities start to emerge. So, they have an incredible skill set, and how do we recognize the skills they already have, and how can we create a path where they can take the skills they have and turn them into ways they can support their families? We win, too, because it makes the city a more delicious place to be, and we’re getting these amazing foods that a lot of people have never tried before.
“There’s also this idea that although this issue was born in a specific crisis of this particular group not having kitchens for a short period of time, what became clear is that the essential idea is much bigger than that. This can be done with any newcomer community, or any marginalized community, in any kitchen willing to open its doors, in any city in the world.
“So part of this project is also trying to figure out how to unpack that idea and realize the full potential. Can we open-source this idea and get it out into the world where its impact can amplify and magnify wherever it lands?”
This video includes a video from CTV News. Music provided courtesy of APM Music.
Canada Day VIP Iftar with Mayor John Tory
Yesterday was an incredibly special night for the Newcomer Kitchen. Last week we were approached by Mohammad Al Zaibak with an invitation to prepare the meal for a VIP Canada Day Iftar hosted by Kirstine Stewart and Zaib Shaikh, with some of Toronto’s most distinguished guests, including Mayor John Tory. How could we say no?
With the super-human efforts of Cara Benjamin-Pace, together with the amazing Newcomer Kitchen cooks, Tolga & Murat of M&T Boutique Meals, Hiyam Samara of Akram’s Shoppe and Maria Abdelkader, we pulled together what many guests told us was “the best Iftar they ever had”. The ladies got a private audience with the Mayor, and our multi-talented co-ordinators, Esmaeel & Rahaf, ended the evening with a beautiful performance of traditional Syrian folk songs and original composition, “Thank You Canada”. I’m sure the applause could be heard around the block!
It was an incredible amount of work, undertaken by an amazingly tough and talented group of women – most of them fasting through the whole 3 days of preparation – all determined to raise the profile of the Newcomer Kitchen’s FundRarz campaign, and help us get this idea into any kitchen, in any city in the world.
Newcomer Kitchen project gives Syrian refugees a taste of home in Toronto | The Globe and Mail
Four-year-old Jore Almasri poses outside the Depanneur, where her mom is inside taking cooking with other Syrian women. (Fred Lum/The Globe and Mail)
Newcomer Kitchen project gives Syrian refugees a taste of home in Toronto
by MAHNOOR YAWAR — The Globe and Mail
Sinaa Fakhereddin does not like eggs. She makes that clear to a kitchen full of strangers when she is asked to add an egg to the pot on the stove. Never in her life has she made sauce with eggs and she’s not about to start now. The other women are tense, not willing to argue with a 67-year-old woman who has seen more and done more than any of them.
“Mom, just add the egg. It doesn’t matter,” mutters 27-year-old Muhammed Aboura, laughing.
Ms. Fakhereddin arrived in Toronto just a week ago to join her son, who has been here a year. The two are Syrian refugees sponsored by members of the United Church of Canada, and they are keenly aware that they haven’t gone through the hardships that many others in the kitchen have, most of whom are on government assistance.
Mr. Aboura is just relieved to have his mother here, safe and protected from the Syrian regime. “I got to eat my mother’s cooking for the first time in three years last week. I couldn’t stop crying,” he says.
He watches her carefully, ready to jump in and help communicate if necessary. He spent time researching how to help newly arrived women adjust to life in Canada, and it led him to the Newcomer Kitchen.
READ THE WHOLE ARTICLE
Newcomer Kitchen FundRazr is live!
THIS IS IT! Our FundRazr campaign is live!
If the Newcomer Kitchen project has touched you in any way, then this is your chance to be a part of creating an opportunity for joy, pride and dignity.
Please support us in any way you can, and share this post, and help us to make our world a more delicious place to be.
https://fundrazr.com/newcomerkitchenTO
Newcomer Kitchen at Luminato!
Newcomer Kitchen at Luminato Festival
The Neighbourhood Food Festival is on Saturday, June 18 (12pm-8pm) and Sunday, June 19 (12pm-6pm), on Front Street, across from Union Station.
Our Newcomer cooks will be making 2 types of fatayer — the likely ancestor of all modern “pizzas” — following traditional recipes from the As-Suwayda region in southwestern Syria. Soft, hand-rolled dough is topped with either spiced ground beef, tomatoes, parsley and pine nuts (Sfeeha صفيحة), or with a uniquely Syrian combination of spicy pepper paste, walnuts, mint and olive oil (Harra حارة ), and served with some fresh vegetables on the side. We will also include a small square of Sfouf صفوف, a delicious golden semolina cake with turmeric, anise and pistachio. Access to the event is free and open to the public, with each food dish priced at $6. Come down and support these amazing ladies and their incredible achievement!
We will be back at The Dep next week with more amazing Syrian meals for sale.
Huffington Post videos garner over 140K views!
Huffington Post Canada‘s Facebook Live broadcast, and their touching 1-minute mini-video summary of the Newcomer Kitchen project have together reached over 140,000 views and 5,000 likes on Facebook alone!
This Canadian Kitchen Is Opening Its Doors To Syrian Refugees — Newsy.com
WATCH THE VIDEO
The Depanneur, a culinary lab in Toronto, invites Syrian refugees to cook their native cuisine and share a taste of home with others.
By Jake Godin, Connor Hickox | May 27, 2016
“And they were, like, looking at each other, going, ‘We’re supposed to do the cooking?’ And I’m like, ‘Yeah, yeah. Just come cook,'” said Len Senater, owner of The Depanneur, an eclectic food kitchen in Toronto.
“All of the sudden, the timber of the whole thing changed and they were talking and laughing and cooking and chopping and, it became … just the whole place was just full of life, and I think that’s really when we said okay, this is an amazing thing that we really should do.
“I’m Len Senater. I run The Depanneur here in Toronto. The Depanneur is a place where interesting food things happen. It’s a venue I established about five years ago to showcase the amazing diversity of culinary talent we have in the city.
“You know, as the news stories started coming out that there were families that were in the hotels for extended periods of time that didn’t have access to kitchens, couldn’t cook for their family or themselves, and I mean, I have this big kitchen; it’s not being used necessarily during the day. … Could I just invite them to use the kitchen so that they could use it to make food for themselves and their family?
“It seemed like a pretty simple idea and kind of a natural extension of the way we open our kitchen to people anyways. If you combine newcomers with kitchens, all of these incredible opportunities start to emerge. So, they have an incredible skill set, and how do we recognize the skills they already have, and how can we create a path where they can take the skills they have and turn them into ways they can support their families? We win, too, because it makes the city a more delicious place to be, and we’re getting these amazing foods that a lot of people have never tried before.
“There’s also this idea that although this issue was born in a specific crisis of this particular group not having kitchens for a short period of time, what became clear is that the essential idea is much bigger than that. This can be done with any newcomer community, or any marginalized community, in any kitchen willing to open its doors, in any city in the world.
“So part of this project is also trying to figure out how to unpack that idea and realize the full potential. Can we open-source this idea and get it out into the world where its impact can amplify and magnify wherever it lands?”
This video includes a video from CTV News. Music provided courtesy of APM Music.
«Newcomer Kitchen» : le partage des traditions culinaires syriennes à Toronto — CBC Radio-Canada
«Newcomer Kitchen» : le partage des traditions culinaires syriennes à Toronto
Le vendredi 27 mai 2016
Quelques participantes à l’initiative Newcomer Kitchen. Photo : Jonathan Bouchard
Une initiative torontoise veut faciliter l’intégration des réfugiés syriens dans leur communauté d’accueil et ce par le biais de la nourriture. Il s’agit du projet Newcomer Kitchen. Ainsi, une fois par semaine, des réfugiés syriens se rassemblent dans la cuisine du Dépanneur, un espace culinaire de l’Ouest de Toronto où tous et toutes s’affairent à préparer des mets typiques de leur pays.
Initialement, le projet permettait aux réfugiés qui étaient encore logés à l’hôtel de se nourrir sainement. La mission s’est transformée au fil des mois. Maintenant, les participant vendent également des repas à la communauté.
Selon l’un des instigateurs du projet, le propriétaire du Dépanneur, Leonard Senater, ce projet permet d’assurer la survie de traditions culinaires de la Syrie. Ces rencontres hebdomadaires permettent également aux réfugiés de tisser des liens avec la communauté.
VIDEO: Newcomer Kitchen, une cuisine communautaire pour les réfugiés
AUDIO FIL: «Newcomer Kitchen» : le partage des traditions culinaires syriennes à Toronto
Toronto restaurant becomes Syrian home-cooking hub | Toronto Star
By KARON LIU | Food Writer
Thu., May 12, 2016
The Depanneur opens its doors to Syrian refugees itching to cook.
Inside a tiny corner west-end restaurant on a sunny Thursday afternoon, the sounds of someone playing the bongos and women singing Syrian folk songs fill the room as the dozen or so Syrian women sing and chat away at the stoves. On the burner are stockpots of cinnamon-scented beef simmering in creamy spiced yogurt. Pans of golden-brown semolina cakes are cooling on the counter, glistening with the syrup they were brushed with. These women aren’t just cooking; they’re preserving the cuisine of a country where millions of its people are being displaced.
Read the rest of the article
Newcomer Kitchen on CBC
Big thanks to Mary Wien, Matt Galloway and Errol Morris for sharing the Newcomer Kitchen story with their Metro Morning listeners & readers.
(just one note: I’m definitely not a professional chef, I just run The Dep)
AUDIO | ARTICLE
Amazing Newcomer Kitchen video by Suresh Doss
Syrian refugees find comfort at Toronto’s Depanneur – NOW Toronto Magazine
Thanks to Mary Luz Mejia and NOW Magazine for a lovely summary of The Depanneur’s fledgling Newcomer Kitchen project.
Source: NOW Toronto Magazine