While there are a few farmers' markets that continue to run throughout the winter and spring seasons, they usually take place on Saturday mornings and are not always convenient. One of the wonderful things about Toronto's farmers' market scene in the peak season is that there are so many markets, scattered throughout the city, conveniently located near either home or work for most people.

During the summer, markets at Nathan Phillips Square on Wednesday mornings and Metro Hall on Thursday mornings are both extremely popular. Workers in the downtown core frequent these markets not just for grocery shopping but use them to grab snacks of baked goods or fresh fruit. When the markets shut down in the fall, this large population is under-served.

This past January, Gurth Pretty of Cheese of Canada, who also happens to be a vendor at the NPS and Metro Hall markets in the summer, arranged for a monthly take-over of the CBC atrium with some of the farmers and food artisans from the local market scene.

“Toronto has only four other venues at this time of the year. There are not enough venues for the amount of vendors,” he says. “During the summer months, there are markets everyday throughout the city. The CBC liked my idea of establishing a seasonal indoor market at their 250 Front Street West location.”

Vendors at the first two instalments of the Regional 'n' Artisanal Food Market were mostly of the food artisan variety. Prepared foods such as baked goods, pickles, granola and crackers were the mainstay of the offerings.

“Consumers have to remember that there are no strawberries nor asparagus grown in Ontario in February,” Pretty explains. “The local vegetables and fruit available at the market are either stored (potatoes, carrots, garlic), slightly processed (pickled, canned, frozen or dried) or grown in hot houses. The production of fruit and vegetables in Ontario is seasonally-influenced. I look forward to each growing season. My mouth waters when thinking of fresh Ontario fiddleheads, strawberries, peaches and leeks. I eat seasonally and process the season's bounty to enjoy them later in the year.”

At last month's market there was some stored produce available – Kawartha Ecological Growers has cabbages, root vegetables and eggs on offer at their booth. Pretty also points out that he manages the market so that there is a good cross-section of products available and not too much competition amongst the vendors. So customers can find some root veg, eggs, bread, cheese, crackers, jams and preserves, chocolate, honey and baked goods.

Okay, so customers are not going to manage to get all of their grocery shopping done in one fell swoop, but people really did seem to appreciate the market and the artisanal food on offer. When I arrived at the official start time at last month's market, St. John's Bakery had already sold out about 50% of their stock (many vendors actually set up at around 8 or 8:30am to catch the on-the-way-to-work crowd). And Dawn Woodward of Evelyn's crackers remarked that most of her sales were for snack items such as her lavender shortbread cookies.

With only 8 to 10 vendors, the market is small – but there's a great vibe. The space is bright and open (one of the things fans of the NPS and Metro Hall markets love is that the vendors are not all crammed together, and Pretty has continued that design trend as much as possible), and has a wonderful feeling of community about it.

The Regional 'n' Artisanal Food Market takes place on the last Thursday of the month (Pssst! That's tomorrow!) at the Barbara Frum Atrium in the CBC Building (250 Front Street West) and runs again on April 29th. By the end of May, vendors will be back at the outdoor locations at Nathan Phillips Square and Metro Hall. Vendors include:

• Cheese of Canada (Canadian cheese/dried apple and pear crackers),
• Kawartha Ecological Growers (vegetables/preserves/eggs/meat)
• More than Pies Baking Co. (biscotti and bars)
• Toorshi Foods (savoury pickled vegetables)
• Warner Farm (Niagara fruit products)
• ChocoSol Traders and Chocolatiers (cocoa and coffee)
• Nieuwenhuis Meadows (frozen lamb)
• From These Roots (flower & fruit jam/salsa)
• St. John’s Bakery (sourdough organic breads)
• Evelyn’s Crackers (organic crackers)
• Granola Girl (homemade granola and cookies)
• Staite's Honey (honey and related products)

Skeins of wool from Nieuwenhuis Meadows.

Oh my... pie and more from More Than Pie.

Empty baskets at St. John's Bakery.

Sweet hat and sweet honey from Staite's.

If you're not addicted to Evelyn's Crackers, you probably haven't tried them yet.

The land of chocolate.

Cheese of Canada booth, with plenty o' cheese and those tasty apple crackers.

These little honey-drenched donuts from Staite's are the reason so many people go home with bottles of honey. They're sooo good.

Pickles, in various degrees of fiery, from Toorshi.

It's Black Friday in the US, and Buy Nothing Day for those who oppose all that consumerism, but here at TasteTO we espouse a a kinder, gentler approach to the inevitable holiday shopping. We call it "Buy Something Good Day" (no, seriously, it's an alternative day I made up about 10 years ago), and the premise is to neither go hogwild in the line-ups fighting to get cheap crap, or to boycott shopping completely, but rather to shop conscientiously, buying only what you truly need, and when buying gifts, to source beautiful products from local independent artisans so your dollars go back into the local economy and support craftspeople.

There is no better place to do that than at the One of a Kind Christmas Show and Sale, which runs at Exhibition Place until December 6th. With something like 700+ artisans offering everything from clothing and jewelry, toys, furniture housewares, food and art, there's something for everyone.

Of course, we're mostly interested in the food-related items and we arrived early yesterday morning to peruse the aisles before the event opened to find a fab selection of great stuff. Follow the clicky for an array of gorgeous food-related goodies.

Above image: Peas in a pod - handmade serving dishes from Wellington Pottery.

OOAK also offers exhibition space to artists. These "kitchen squares" by photographer Steven Crainford caught our attention right away.

The folks at Sweet Dove Herbs have a wonderful selection of herbs and teas that they grown on their own farm in Beaverton, Ontaro.

One of the themes of this year's event is the teapot, and these felted tea cozys from Trifly Design would be a wonderful gift for anyone who enjoys a cuppa or two. Lots of food-related designs as well.

Lest you think I wasn't going to get to the food... the Flavours section is packed with good stuff this year, from candied salmon to preserves, but this display of candied nuts always catches the eye. These are from PremiYum and range from sugar-free to lots of chocolate.

We know there's great wines in Niagara, and great fruit, and together they make great wine jellies, like these ones from Tracy's Wine Jellies.

Also made from Ontario's bountiful harvest are the preserves from Rootham Gourmet.

I was taken by these salt and pepper shakers because they reminded me of a flock of birds. They're from PMO Design.

For those who prefer their pepper fresh, the beautiful pepper mills by Sylvian Tremblay will definitely be on their wish list. (This carrot-shaped one is on mine!)

This mustard  from Organics and Gold comes in a variety of flavours and is made from organic Canadian mustard seed.

Okay, these are the only two food-related items in Noelle Hamlyn's booth, but I adored her fabulous handbags made from old books and vintage fabric so very much that I needed an excuse to include her stuff. I am having a serious case of the gimme gimmes.

If you sample nothing else at the OOAK show, stop by Mr. Vinegar's booth for his award winning Sweet Sunrise vinegar. Made from honey and orange juice, it will blow your mind.

Because we all have to eat and some of us are messier than others... these totally cute leather bibs from Mally Designs don't stain and wipe clean.

Kyla Francis was still setting up her booth when we visited but we couldn't leave without snapping some shots of her cool silk-screened glassware.

Edible Gardens offers a variety of vinegars, spreads, preserves and oils. We loved the display for their mission fig spread.

These fruit print aprons come in the very best packaging for gift-giving - pie boxes! Earth Angel Designs also offers aprons and bags in a variety of funky retro-inspired fabrics.

Got a Goth, or a Hitchcock fan on your shopping list? Blackbird Pottery by April Gates should fit the bill. We really loved her cute but slightly creepy stuff.

Who knew you could make so many tasty things out of beets? Grace Lallamand of Beetroot Delights did - she makes jelly, chutney, marmalade and other sauces from the ruby root.

We take so many photos and collect so many cards as we wander through the show, and I can't positively match an artisan to the image for this box of cool little oil bottles that remind me of autumn gourds. I think/hope they belong to ceramic artist Alexandra Ratte, but the website is not yet operational, so I can't say for sure.

Got a baker on your holiday shopping list? This cupcake cake tester (complete with a magnet so it can live on the fridge) from Vincent Van Designs should make them joyous.

And it wouldn't be Christmas without shortbread - these ones from Coach House Shortbread company come in a variety of both sweet and savoury flavours that range from dark chocolate and fleur de sel to cheddar and chipotle.

These tapenades from Cook's Gourmet might just be the inspiration for a similar line sold by a certain supermarket chain. I'm a diehard fan of these and have been buying their black mission fig tapenade for years.

Every year I go to OOAK, and every year my shots of the crostoli never turn out because they're wrapped in cellophane. This year, one of Vincenza's Crostoli was unwrapped for media to enjoy - but not before I finally got my shot of this lovely cookie tree.

These no-calorie cupcakes are actually soap. Demo also does other food-shaped soaps including cheese and pineapple upside down cake.

And finally, any hip chick will appreciate one of these wonderfully cute aprons from Domistyle.

That folks, is just a quick overview of the food-lovers delights to be found at this year's One of A Kind Show and Sale. I didn't even get to the fruitcake, hot sauce, gourmet Asian food, bean treats, Indian chutneys, cranberry puddings, pickles, nuts and fudge, toffee or lobster. The One of a Kind Show and Sale runs at the Direct Energy Centre at Exhibition place until December 6th. Adult admission is $12.

Food with intention.

Those three words form the core philosophy behind Alba Lisa Gourmet Foods, an artisanal Mexican tortilla, soup and catering company owned by Alba Lisa Quinn and her husband, Ted.

Their recipe for success is simple and endearing. Take one Canadian teaching abroad, add the lovely and talented Quinn from Mexico, pepper with globe-trotting international teaching adventures, exposure to unique cuisines and cultures, and mix in a desire to return to Toronto to share your homemade tortillas with the world. That, in a nutshell, is the Alba Lisa story.

Teaching globally and always travelling with her tortilla press in tow, Quinn amassed a repertoire of cross-cultural uses for her toothsome homemade rounds. While away, they were the one thing connecting her to her Mexican heritage and helping to keep her grounded; an essential tool when one is so far from home. Along with her husband, she also taught at a school they owned in Chihuahua, developing "a curriculum for children about food," that saw them educating kids from the age of 3 all the way up to 12 on how to cook. Five years later the desire to settle down beckoned, and an opportunity to sell their small school allowed them to come to Toronto and find their home.

The business began humbly enough, producing both corn and flour tortillas for gatherings of family and friends. Back then production runs of 300 tortillas were common, and after encountering numerous happy faces and satisfied stomachs, it became clear that they had found their niche, and the desire to take the tortillas to market emerged and strengthened.

In conjunction with the Toronto Food Business Incubator, Alba Lisa Gourmet Food has been producing contemporary Mexican fare for a little over a year and a half. Speaking with Quinn, her passion is infectious, and mere moments after we've met, we are giggling like schoolgirls who've known each other forever. Such is the charm of Quinn; her bubbly personality and outgoing nature make you immediately comfortable in her presence. These qualities translate to her enthusiasm for the business; discussing how they got to where they are today, her demeanour becomes increasingly animated.

"We started with our little press, everything handmade, making about 3000 tortillas a month by hand," and it took "a year to go from, let's say, making 300 tortillas for family and friends, to making over 10,000 that we're making right now," she informs me as we discuss how mechanization is allowing them to grow. A newer and larger machine is on order, and once delivered, they will be able to make 1000 tortillas an hour. The growth of their business has been organic but throughout, the recipe has stayed "simple, but very authentic". Canada's trans fats regulations do not allow Quinn to prepare the tortillas in the style that her Mexican grandmother might have, but she feels her adaptive recipe encapsulates the same traditional flavour.

The educator in Quinn is not idle either, and even with a successful tortilla enterprise, she still finds time to work with Dish Cooking Studio (390 Dupont Street), helping them "set up a cooking school for children". Having worked as an instructor for Dish (decisions regarding format are still pending as Dish changes ownership) she explains why she loves to work with children, "you teach them to be self sufficient, you teach them to be independent in the kitchen and hopefully inspire them to be in the kitchen and be confident".

Working for a cooking school provides another avenue for product exposure, as the deliciously homespun tortillas are paired with multicultural preparations such as curries, Peking duck, mini pizzas and quiche cups. The possibilities are endless, and as we discuss how I personally first used them (corn for grilled pork tacos and flour for cajeta [Mexican caramel] roll-ups) she informs me with a wink and a smile that cajeta tortilla is a traditional Mexican snack food, a delicious treat children grab between playtime and dinner.

Not content to rest on her laurels, she also has several new product lines in the works. In addition to the classic corn and flour tortillas already on offer, September promises to bring an organic line to market, including new organic spelt tortillas, plus organic versions of the aforementioned wheat and corn. Alba Lisa Gourmet Foods has not forgotten price conscious shoppers either, producing a best value tortilla (sold under the Monterrey brand, named after the area in Mexico where she hails from) on behalf of Price Chopper (locations throughout the GTA and Ontario).

As if that wasn't enough, the company also prepares fresh, seasonal, vegetable-based soups using almond milk, currently "only in a few stores" including Rowe Farms (105 Roncesvalles Avenue, and others), Fiesta Farms (200 Christie Street), Nancy's Cheese (260 Dupont Avenue), and Harbord Bakery (115 Harbord Street) but in August they will also be available at Pusateri's (57 Yorkville Avenue). The line of 8 soups is unique because "there's more protein in it, there's less fat, they're a little bit healthier but they're also very yummy".

The soups are available in the following flavours: crimini and white mushroom, roasted tomato, roasted garlic sweet potato, asparagus (Spring), sweet red pepper (Summer), corn (Autumn), roasted beet and potato chive. An official launch in September will see the soup line expanded to additional stores across the GTA.

As for the outlook beyond that, it seems the sky's the limit for Alba Lisa Gourmet Foods. Quinn seems happiest when discussing their evolution, so who knows what new and delectable culinary inspiration she and her husband will dream up next?

Until then, she leaves me with a new use for her flour tortillas perfect for the sweet tooth in all of us;

"Shallow fry this one in a pan until it becomes puffy. Remove and drain on paper towels, then sprinkle it with cinnamon and sugar, or a drizzle of maple syrup and ice cream. Delicious!"

Yes, Alba Lisa, it is.

Porsha Perreault is a freelance writer, voracious eater, amateur charcutier, and chocolate enthusiast living in Little Italy.  She can often be found sourcing the newest developments in heirloom and heritage fruits and veg and other local delicacies at farmer's markets around Toronto or blogging about her obsession with food at Foodie and the Everyman.

Small images by Ed Rek for Alba Lisa Gourmet Foods. Used with permission.

Who is the person who doesn’t like cake? How could anyone not like it? Cakes are such happy-making things. A cake makes every occasion a special one, and no special occasion is really complete without one.

"Of course we love what we do. Cakes are fun," says Barbara Accogli who, along with her sister and business partner, Monja Chiara, runs CakeStar, "Edible Art for Any Occasion." Currently operating from the Bona Via Bakery, their parents’ bakery in Scarborough, Accogli and Chiara have been working in the family business since their early teens.

With years of solid baking experience supported with Accogli's expertise in interior design and Chiara's skills at make-up artistry, starting a specialty cake business allowed them to combine their respective skills in a field that involves appropriate design, architectural balance, and a sure hand with the cosmetics.

"We really enjoy working with each other," Accogli says. "It's the perfect partnership. We love bouncing ideas off one another. We really encourage each other to explore, to use our creativity and create something extraordinary." So no sibling rivalry? "No, none at all."

Whether it’s creating a cake-sized replica of Sneaky Dee’s, an edible Louis Vuitton handbag, a giant Ferraro Rocher, or a four-tiered showpiece with cascades of hand-modelled gum paste flowers and fondant scrollwork, each CakeStar piece is unique and personal.

“I love working with the clients. Some of them know exactly what they want right away. Others will want more guidance. Most of the time, I can come up with a design in under five minutes,” explains Accogli. “That’s one of the reasons we got into this - getting the chance to design and create something new and wonderful every day. But we will repeat designs if the client sees something on our site and wants us to recreate it.”

But it’s not all about the design. Cakes are meant to be eaten after all. “I’ve done a lot of research,” says Accogli, “and we really do make a beautiful buttercream.” And while chocolate cake continues to be a perennial favourite, the dulce de leche filling is proving to be a hit. Cakes are available in vanilla, chocolate, lemon, carrot and brownie and with a range of available fillings including cappuccino, amaretto, raspberry white chocolate, chocolate and cognac, and rum caramel.

CakeStar also makes fancy cupcakes and cookies; their Breakfast at Tiffany's cookies decorated in white and trademark blue icing.

In business since 1998, CakeStar went big with a proper launch headlined by their anatomically detailed “Naughty Cakes” at the 2008 Everything to do with Sex Show in Toronto. “There was such a great reaction to the cakes,” Accogli says, “and things just took off from there” including a cake for the CBC's "How do you Solve a Problem Like Maria?" wrap party. And with the launch of their website this past October, business has been steady with an output of six to ten cakes a week.

Sounds like the fancy cake business might be recession-proof. “For some reason, just within the past month or so, there’s been a surge of birthday cake orders,” enthuses Accogli.

Accogli and Chiara are planning on relocating to a space exclusive to CakeStar in the coming year. "But it's great working with the family. They're incredibly supportive, they always want to see what we're going to come up with next. They're good parents."

Photos courtest of Cakestar. Used with permission.

At least once a week we receive email here at TasteTO from someone wanting us to cover some small local food business. The majority of these appear to be bakery-type businesses selling cupcakes, cookies or custom-made cakes. The emails are often referrals from friends or customers, and sometimes come in the form of professionally-written press releases from the business owners themselves.

As we’re always looking to support local independent food artisans, we always check out these leads, and often find professionally-designed websites, gorgeous photos of even more beautiful products, and what appears to be really skillful bakers and artisans wanting to take their hobby to the next level. Unfortunately what we also almost always find is that these businesses are operating illegally out of a home kitchen.

That’s right, I said “illegally”. People who make food at home and sell it to the public are breaking the law, because it is completely and utterly illegal to sell food to the public that has been prepared in a home kitchen.

Things such as school bake sales, or one-off events for charity often fly under the radar of various government officials. Some people even get away with the occasional bout of holiday baking to sell to friends or co-workers. But once someone decides that they want to take this hobby to the next level and become a business – even a part-time one – the next step is not to order business cards, photograph the pretty cupcakes, or make a fancy website complete with order forms. No, the next step is to look into the various requirements necessary to run a business, and specifically a food business, because they are many, complicated, and potentially expensive.

The first step is to register the business name with the province and to get a provincial sales tax number. Some prepared foods require the charge and collection of provincial sales tax that the province will expect to be remitted on probably a quarterly basis. PST registration also allows small businesses to be exempt from paying sales tax on equipment and supplies, so it’s a smart thing to do right from the beginning.

Federal GST registration is not required for businesses with total annual revenues of under $30,000, but registering also allows small businesses to recoup some of the GST paid out on equipment and supplies against GST charged.

Food preparation businesses in Toronto, regardless of where the prep facility is owned or rented, are also required to be registered with the city.

When it comes to the business facilities, some food prep businesses can be run from a person’s home, but only if it is a space that is completely separate from the kitchen where the family’s meals are prepared. Local zoning by-laws may also apply in some cases, as well as leases and rental or condo agreements. This space needs to meet local guidelines regarding food storage facilities, entrances, appropriate sinks for handwashing and dishwashing as well as appropriate material for floors, counters, etc. These spaces must be registered with the City to allow health officials to regularly inspect the premises.

Why is the City so adamant about food for sale not being prepared in a personal/family kitchen? Home kitchens have pets and people who are not part of the business wandering through at regular intervals. As an example, with two dogs and a cat, I can be pretty sure that I’m eating some pet hair every day, despite doing my best to keep my kitchen spotlessly clean. That’s (sort of) okay if it’s your own pet, but it’s really not cool (or sanitary) to expect someone to spend a lot of money on custom-made cupcakes only to find cat hair  - or worse if you happen to let Whiskers up on the counters - in the frosting.

A better choice than spending thousands of dollars to renovate a space in an existing home into an industrial kitchen is to rent industrial kitchen space. There are a variety of these available in the city at various price points. Foodshare’s Toronto Kitchen Incubator offers industrial kitchen space in their location at Bloor and Dufferin, and even offers workshops on how to start a food business. The Toronto Food Business Incubator in North York goes even further and offers not just kitchen facilities but support in creating business plans and principles, shared liability insurance and more. For food businesses ready to start cooking right away, The Friendly Kitchen rents their space by the hour.

Next up (oh, we’re not done yet!),the City of Toronto requires all food preparation businesses to have at least one person on site who has completed the Food Handler’s Certification course. This is a basic one-day safety and sanitation course with a written exam at the end of the day and applies to everyone, even the smallest one-person business, who prepares and sells food.

Finally, insurance. Businesses based out of a home should check with their insurance issuers – most home insurance plans are based on a standard amount of usage for kitchen facilities. Adding a business-specific food prep workspace (or even illegally cooking for profit from a family kitchen) may void many insurance policies. Some insurance policies may even become void simply by having business materials or stock in a private home (back when I ran a record label, I had a terrible time getting tenants insurance because the insurance companies didn’t want to cover my merchandise). And of course, liability insurance for a food prep business is just basic common sense.

There are plenty of resources available for people looking to start up a small food-based business. Enterprise Toronto is a great place to start, as they clearly list all the necessary registrations and licenses required. The Canada-Ontario Business Service Centre also has info on federal and provincial by-laws.

Yeah, I know, I’ve completely sucked all the fun and enjoyment out of baking and selling those lovely cupcakes and cookies. But a home based business is a business first and foremost and must adhere to the standards of the region in which it exists.

So before you start designing websites or planning marketing initiatives or (OMG what are you thinking???) soliciting customers via Craigslist or your personal but widely-read blog, and definitely before you start sending press releases to media outlets asking for coverage, make sure that you’ve got all your bases covered and that you’re running your business in an honest and legal manner. At which point, please do send us a press release or a link to your website. Once we know we’re not going to get some small home-based business busted by accidentally sending the health inspectors to your door, we’re happy to write about your indie food business here on our site.

One of the truly fun parts of this job is being able to attend trade shows to check out new and upcoming products before they hit the shelves. There are a few of these throughout the year and the most recent was the Ethnic and Specialty Food Expo held this past weekend at the International Centre.

As the name suggests, the Ethnic and Specialty Food Expo is designed to promote various ethnic foods, as well as specialty products, both local and imported, and these trade and media events are a way for companies, many of which are small, independent business, to promote their products to the media as well as make contact with potential wholesale customers.

Compared to the big boys of the trade show circuit like the Canadian Food and Restaurant Association show or even the Canadian Health Food Expo, this event is smaller than some others, taking up only three relatively short aisles of a hall at the International Centre. But we still managed to find some gems – great products that are either already on store shelves or will soon be, and are worth looking for.

Here’s what we loved…

It was the pin-up girls on the labels at Redhead Pantry that drew us to this line of BBQ sauces and mustards, but the product inside is pretty awesome too. Available in Toronto at Fresh & Wild, Per Se and Harvest Wagon Too.

Evelyn’s Crackers are local artisanal organic crackers were at the show in the Toronto Food Business Incubator section, and they’re a really nice product that we hope does well. Made with red fife flour and offered in a nice array of flavours, we liked these very much. The dal and coconut sticks might just be on the verge of becoming my favourite snack.

Himalaya Gourmet has actually been around for a few years, and we’ve been big fans since we first spotted them at the One of a Kind Show and bought one of everything they sell. Their line of chutneys, pickles and dips are some of the best to be found, and there’s always a jar of their mango chutney in our fridge.

L’Ancetre Dairy was also at the show, sampling their line of organic, animal-rennet free products that includes a variety of cheeses (including a new ricotta).

We tried a couple of products from Davis Imports, a local company that imports items from Mexico. Their agave nectar is a popular vegan sweetener and they were also offering amaranth bars with either honey or chocolate.

And speaking of chocolate, we loved the offerings from Taza Chocolate. This company from Somerville MA offers a stone-milled, unconched chocolate, similar to what Torontonians can get at Chocosol. These are a bit smoother and are hand-packaged as two thin discs instead of the traditional bar.

We’re always happy to try the samples at the Maureen’s Food World display, with her line of hot sauces, chant crackers (these are the awesome!), and amazing Jamaican rum cake.

For the folks who dig the prepared foods, we’re also happy to share the secret about Victory’s Kitchen. This company previously did private label products for a variety of high-end supermarkets and is now concentrating on selling under their own name. Offering a selection of soups, sauces, dips and more, we’re excited for these items to hit store shelves in the coming months.

We’ve written about the shortbread from TeaAura before, but their line of tea-based shortbread is worthy of another mention. Available at Bruno’s Fine Foods and Culinarium.

Another favourite of the show was the line of preserves from Harvest Crafters. Working out of Ancaster Ontario in conjunction with a group of Mennonite farmers, this company makes apple butters, jams, pepper jellies and a new product called wine drizzles that are like a cross between a fruit wine and a sweet balsamic vinegar.

Of course, there were many more products at the Ethnic and Specialty Food Expo, some of them truly fantastic, but as part of the premise of the event is to get local distribution for these items, we didn’t include them because there’s no assurance they’ll ever make it to shelves here. But fingers crossed that the fresh Hawaiian ferns and that really great line of UK condiments will make it to Toronto stores sometime soon.

Tea Aura Inc.
647-388-2816

Straying from a tried and true recipe can conjure up new tastes that might sound slightly questionable on paper, but the results can turn out to be pleasantly surprising. For Susan Ho, the owner of Tea Aura Inc., fiddling with a conventional shortbread cookie recipe by adding tea flavours sparked the first of many ideas she wants to undertake for her start-up business. Tired of the 9-5 office scene, she began envisioning life outside of the cubicle, "When I began thinking about a career change, my initial goal was to open a tea café. However, to be sure I wanted to take the route of becoming my own boss and a business owner, I decided to test the waters with my tea flavoured shortbread."

She invited me to the Toronto Food Business Incubator (TFBI) for a day to see her in action. During the interview, she was in the midst of producing a large batch of shortbread for a client. Through networking and researching, she found herself at the TFBI, a non-profit group that nurtures the development of micro-food related ventures in the city of Toronto. When I arrived at the facility, trays upon trays of the tea leaf shaped cookies greeted me, along with a subtle buttery aroma that filled the air.

Through positive reviews via family and friends as well as many recipe testing and development sessions, she has narrowed down the different shortbread varieties Tea Aura Inc. offers. All her products are made with finely ground loose leaf teas smattered into the cookie dough, with everything prepared and packaged by hand. Currently on her tea infused shortbread rotation are the following flavours: Earl Grey; Rooibos Chai; Matcha Green Tea; Chocolate Mint; and Lavender Currant, which is her best seller. Each bag contains 18 cookies, and is priced at $6.99. She expects to develop more flavours in time for the Christmas holidays, which is the ultimate shortbread season!

I asked Susan whether she still sees the tea café as part of Tea Aura Inc.'s future, which she answered with a resounding yes. She envisions that the café will hold innovative tea-flavoured foods of both a sweet and savoury mixture. However, she would like to see the cookies flourish first by increasing their availability in retail shops in Toronto and eventually across the country.

To pick up a worthy accompaniment to a cup of tea, Tea Aura Inc.'s shortbread can be purchased at the TFBI booth in the north market of St. Lawrence Market (92 Front Street East) on Saturdays and at Culinarium (705 Mount Pleasant Road).

Photos 3 and 4 from Tea Aura Inc. used with permission.

The number one most intimidating aspect of cooking Indian food is the spicing. Although every Indian family creates their own masalas for certain dishes, these recipes are often closely-guarded secrets, and for folks who didn’t grow up blending and grinding their family’s special recipe for curry or garam masala or chai, getting the proportions just right can be overwhelming enough to make them want to toss the whole thing and head to Gerrard Street instead.

One woman was confident enough to share her masalas with the world, however, and through her cooking school and a family-run business selling her spices, Arvinda Chauhan’s name has become synonomous with Indian food.

Arvinda had been running Arvinda's Healthy Gourmet Indian Cooking School for a number of years, where she began to sell bags of her spice blends to students. She would roast and grind the blends to order, using the family recipes passed down through the generations. Although still in high school, her daughter Preena (now the president of Arvinda’s) and her son Paresh talked about turning the spice business into a full-fledged company.

Preena explains how it came about, “I went on to do my Master's degree in Environmental Studies, with the focus of my research centring on sustainable food systems and the role of the private sector in contributing to this through more ethical and sustainable practices. In my Summer 2005 term, I attained a grant from the Ministry of Economic Development and Trade at the time to start my own ‘summer company’. Since I was closely tied to my mother's cooking school, and having always wanting to bring our spice blends to market, it was an opportunity I had to embrace.”

Since then, both siblings have come into the business full time, where the entire process remains very hands on. They have a 1200 square foot space in Oakville where they manufacture the spice blends, occasionally enlisting family members to help. The facility is fully health and safety compliant and is nut and gluten-free. This set-up allows them to maintain a high level of product quality and freshness. The recipes are the same ones Arvinda has been using for years, translated to bigger batches.

Ingredients are sourced based on quality, so Arvinda’s deals with a variety of suppliers to ensure the best end product in their line of almost a dozen items ranging from masala mixes, curries and tea to fresh frozen garlic and ginger. Preena admits to loving the curry masala and recommends using it to create a candied nut by combining it with pecans and maple syrup. I use it for a similar item made with cashews, and love to blend it with butter and brown sugar to drizzle on popcorn. She suggests a variety of unconventional uses for the blends and teas - such as using the chai masala in crème brule.

For more traditional uses, the spice blends can take a lot of the guesswork out of cooking Indian cuisine. “Our products, along with our recipes online do help people take the step in trying to make Indian cuisine for the first time,” explains Preena. “The most intimidating thing about trying to make a recipe from an Indian cookbook is the list of ingredients required. Some recipes may call for up to 15 different spices and herbs. With our products, our customers don't have to buy all of the spices individually, which is expensive and also stressful to find the right ones.”

The recipes on the Arvinda’s site demonstrate the best ways to use the spices, and also exemplify an attitude that I find welcoming and very community oriented. The idea of sharing knowledge is a very positive and forward-thinking approach. Customers are encouraged to write in and share their recipes as well. “It's really nice to get the feedback from our customers about the products,” Preena says. “What is amazing to hear are the creative and interesting ways in which our customers and clients have used our products - in ways I can't even conceptualize! I'm always learning from them, which is great.”

The company also has a conscience, with links to the Slow Food movement in their attitude toward cooking from scratch, information about CSAs (Community Shared Agriculture) on their website, and fair-trade certified tea leaves for their chai masala. Preena says she would like to have all of their spices be fair-trade certified in the future, although quality comes first, so more work will have to be done in terms of sourcing.

The spice blends save the customer from having to track down a variety of ingredients that all need to be roasted and ground. And because they are fresh spices and not pastes, it is easier to control the amount of oil in the dish, making these dry blends the healthiest of options for the home cook.

Arvinda’s Spice Blends are available in the GTA at fine food stores such as Pusateri’s, All the Best Fine Foods, Leslieville Cheese Market and Ying Ying Soy Food in the lower level of St. Lawrence Market. For anyone who enjoys cooking Indian food but doesn’t want the fuss of roasting, grinding and storing leftover spices, consider some of Arvinda’s offerings. As someone who loves Indian food enough that I occasionally make my own curries and masalas, I can definitely vouch for the quality and flavour of the Arvinda’s products that I have tried.
Photos of Preena and Arvina Chauhan, as well as Arvinda's products copyright the Arvinda's website. Used with permission.

A lot of food served up in restaurants is compared to art, both in terms of the craft involved and the final product that appears on the plate. Nowhere is this more true than the end result of the many dedicated hours a pastry chef puts into the follies created out of flour and butter and sugar. Cakes in particular require not only the knowledge of chemistry necessary to make a tasty product, but also expertise in physics, sculpture, design and even botany.

For special events like weddings, the cake may well be the centrepiece of the whole affair, with all eyes focussed on the intricate decorative details and all mouths waiting anxiously for a taste to see if the “inner beauty” matches the pretty outer bits.

Hinna Ahmed and Sarah Van Sinclair of Cakes on Cakes started making cakes together about three years ago, creating cakes mostly for family members at first, and then offering their services to the public earlier this year.

Hinna had a background in pastry, working at a Whitby bakery in the 90s where she learned the craft from a pastry chef freshly graduated from the Cordon Bleu. While both she and Sarah work on each cake they produce, the work is generally divided so that Hinna does the baking, piping and fondant work, while Sarah creates the buttercream icing and sculpts the floral decorations, an often arduous task that can be especially time-consuming depending on the requirements.

At present, their enterprise is a part-time one; they produce two to three cakes per month, with items ranging in price between $300 and $500, and make a point of working with the customer to personalize both the flavours and decoration. Their previous work ranges from a giant softball cake to a wedding cake decorated to resemble an Indian tapestry, to a birthday cake for Sarah’s Grandmother’s 90th birthday – a classic vanilla cake with a brown sugar and fresh pineapple reduction. Says Hinna, “I would prefer not to make the same style of cake twice; we like to pull inspiration from all sorts of things, our gardens, fabrics, wallpapers, books, and our own brainstorming ideas”.

Currently the two women work alone, but joke that they have a large official taste testing panel. They promote their business through a website and word of mouth. When asked about their plans for the future of Cakes on Cakes, they were both pragmatic. “It would be wonderful to say we make cakes for a living - imagine!” Sarah offered. “Cakes make people so happy! But I'm not sure I'd like to expand in the sense of more people... what we do is such a labour of love. A small pastry shop with Hinna would be lovely!”

Sarah and Hinna are able to make cakes in all shapes and sizes, from cupcakes right up to multi-tier creations with a different flavour in each layer. They are delighted to work with their customers to create a memorable one-of-a-kind work of art for any size group. They can be contacted through their website, Cakes on Cakes.

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Ah, the cookie. A simple treat that brings delight to millions. The cookie is the choice companion to cups of tea, the pacifier of boo-boos, the financial means for Girl Guides everywhere, and the choice prize handed out by the snarkily sarcastic. But for people with food allergies, finding tasty cookies and treats that won't make them swell up and fall down can be a difficult task, as most mainstream brands include eggs, dairy, nuts, definitely wheat, and sometimes even animal fat. What's an allergic vegan to do?

These days, folks once deprived of the joy of simple baked goods have found new hope in Eden Hertzog's New Moon Kitchen. This gourmet bakery started in 1997 offers a range of six types of cookies and four loaf-style cakes that are entirely nut, egg, dairy, wheat, cholesterol and preservative free. Whew! They're also made without the use of trans-fats, and all items are certified Kosher and vegan. And the best part is - they're all really good!

Hertzog started baking in high school at a local café and as a strict vegetarian was disappointed with the selection available, both in stores and cafés. At the ripe old age of twenty she started New Moon Kitchen with a mandate of excellent quality and customer relations. That she had found a way to fill a variety of much-neglected niche categories at a time when health and nutrition concerns were at an all-time high didn't hurt either.

Staff at New Moon obviously enjoy their jobs and Hertzog offers her laid back and respectful attitude as one of the elements that make employees feel like family, but there's something about standing around a kitchen baking cookies together that creates a familial bond as well. They use a big Hobart mixer and a cookie depositor to help them along but Hertzog admits, "As far as an industry standard, we are definitely handmade! For years we all had huge arm and hand muscles from all the hand-mixing and scooping."

The physical labour is one part of running a small bakery business and New Moon's president admits that it wasn't always easy. "It's difficult to say what I would have done differently because what I have noticed is that every mistake has been fruitful in one way or another. Some of the biggest, most hopeless disasters turned into incredible things. From a personal standpoint though, I wouldn't have worked quite as hard as I did in the beginning. There were many 16 hour days when I started up, and I was simply exhausted a lot of the time."

That exhaustion has paid off in the long term, however, and major retailers have begun to stock her wares. Whole Foods sought her out when they were opening their Toronto location and Pusateri's was happy to have her products. Says Hertzog, "When you have a good product, stores are very receptive."

The products themselves are healthful and allergy-friendly twists on old classics - cookie flavours range from ginger snappers, mokas (espresso, chocolate and cinnamon), chocolate mint, chocolate chip, and oatmeal, to a sunflower and sesame seed cookie that is the only one of the bunch that comes across at all like a nut-free, egg-free, dairy-free, wheat-free, preservative-free cookie. Loaf cakes come in chocolate, corn bread, carrot and banana flavours. The 'Nana Bread and chocolate chip cookies are the best sellers of the lot, but Hertzog confides that she's got two new products in the works, she's just waiting to ensure that the timing is right before launching them.

New Moon Kitchen products are available at a variety of health food stores and gourmet food shops across Toronto including Whole Foods, Pusateri's, The Big Carrot, Noah's, and a variety of restaurants and cafés - a complete list of retailers can be found on the New Moon Kitchen website.

For anyone finding the supermarket cookie aisle off-limits due to allergies or health concerns, or even folks who are simply looking for a more healthful version of traditional favourites, check out the products from New Moon Kitchen. They've got great-tasting goodies that everyone is able to enjoy. And that's definitely worth a cookie.

Some of the best food businesses start up small, in a home kitchen and at the urging of friends. Confectionery is the most obvious of these “cook as you go” business plans. All it takes is for one person to share some treats made by a friend or family member and a new business idea is born.

Such was the case for Fionna Hanna of Alice's Pastryland, who created a chocolate-covered toffee studded with pretzels; a combination of salty crunch, smooth dark melting goodness and the lingering sweetness of English-style toffee. Hanna originally made a batch at home and shared it with friends. Encouraged, she donated some to a craft show last fall and continued to tweak her product until she was satisfied, taking chocolate-making classes at George Brown to perfect her technique and working on a certificate in Bakery Arts.

When asked how she came up with the combination, Hanna admits, “The toffee is a combination of some of my worst vices; chocolate covered pretzels and toffee. I thought, ‘they are good separate but maybe even better together?’ When I couldn’t stop eating it, I thought, ‘this stuff is pretty good.’”

And she's not just tooting her own horn. The toffee is light and full of buttery flavour, with just enough sweetness and salt to keep salt-cravers, chocoholics and sweet tooths equally happy.

Working part-time at her toffee-making, Hanna sells her product via an Etsy website, although most of her sales are through word of mouth. While the goods are not yet available on a retail level in Toronto, she is more than happy to deliver orders throughout the city, and the Etsy service allows her to accept both credit cards and PayPal.

The toffee is made by hand in either 3 or 6 pound batches. As the chocolate is hand-tempered, small batches can be time consuming and anything bigger is tough to stir as the toffee thickens.

Hanna is looking to expand the line with both toffee chips (great for garnish on ice cream or added to home baking projects like cookies, cakes or truffles) and a milk chocolate version of the current dark chocolate toffee.

The next step? To get her toffee into retail shops and to increase sales online. Hanna has created a blog to help promote her product and of course, anyone craving her delicious toffee can visit her Etsy website and order a bag for themselves.

The Dark Chocolate Pretzel Toffee is $10 (US) for a half-pound bag. Price includes shipping, although Hanna will deliver any order in the Toronto area on request.

Do you or someone you know run a small independent food business? Want to be featured on Taste T.O.? Drop us a line - our Indie Food Artisan column runs bi-weekly on Sundays.