Celebrating Artisanal LA One Bite at a Time

By Heather Kuklin

Back in October Artisanal LA was held on the 2^nd and 11^th floor in the LA Mart building. I love that place! So many studios and showrooms, you could spend days wandering around. We started on the 11^th floor until we realized that the food was on the 2^nd floor. We quickly went back downstairs to the grub after grabbing a coffee from Verve.

Pretty much the second we got downstairs we ran into my friend Ducky, a fellow food lover, photographer, and rad chick (you’ll find out more about Ducky when she photographs and curates my “LA ice cream tour” for FGFS).

Let me start off by saying that this place was insane. It was totally fucking overwhelming. Booths upon booths upon booths upon booths. It was all stuff I was interested in, which was the super amazing part. From raw vegan cashew cheese to fierce lady butcher demos, Artisanal LA had it all. I renamed it, “The hipster county fair.”

I think the highlight of the day was the butcher demo from Lindy & Grundy. They’re an absolutely epic lesbian couple that own the best meat market in town. They’re located in West Hollywood and I wish they would open up on the east side but they’re worth the schlep. Check out their website and get to know them better. They made butchering a pig look so fucking cool I almost signed up for their apprentice program. I could follow in the footsteps of my great grandfather, who was a butcher.

As I bid adieu to the real pig I approached a booth that made coconut bacon. It was vegan, gluten free, and delicious! I was pleasantly surprised. I bought three bags.

I decided to mix it with my Nary Dairy cashew cheese. Raw, vegan, gluten free, and soy free cashew magic. Okay, Nary Dairy is MIND BLOWING!!! Seriously, I’m their biggest fan, for real. It tastes like cream cheese, like for real cream cheese, I mean it! If I could jump into a pool of Nary Dairy, I would. My two favorite flavors are the smoked and the garlic. In my world, there is no such thing as too much garlic. The family that started Nary Dairy, Allen and Lois, are like, the cutest things ever — I’m totally biased because I also work with them at the commercial kitchen we both use to manufacture our goods. I was hooked from day one and it’s only gotten better, if that’s even possible. I wish you guys could taste it. I need to stop talking about it because I’m out of it right now. I ate almost two tubs while walking around yesterday.

There were so many different booths it is hard to remember them all. Baked goods, meat, coffee, coffee, coffee, coffee, coffee, succulents in cute glass containers, coffee, confections, clothing, art, kombucha, beverages other than coffee, and probably a lot more stuff I didn’t get a chance to get to. After about 4 hours we were spent. I am so glad I decided to not have a booth and just be a spectator. If you’re in LA next year for Artisanal LA I highly recommend going, totally worth it.

Kitten and the Bear Adding a Sweet Edge to Parkdale

A small new shop is opening up in Parkdale that is going to add a bit of soft & sweet edge to a neighbourhood perceived as rough and tumble .  Introducing Kitten and the Bear (1574 Queen Street West), founded by Sophie Kaftal and Bobby Zielinski, who have decided to bring their artisanal preserves shop from New Jersey back to Toronto, where they originally met.

The idea behind Kitten and the Bear is simple: offer up jams that are beautiful and simple but that will have one-of-a-kind flavours.  Sophie tells us that, “Especially from the spring through the fall, we get many (ingredients for our jams) locally sourced and freshly picked. We have specific family farms and vendors that we work with, and we develop our flavours based on what is in season, both in Ontario and throughout Canada, as well as highlighting unique, rare, intriguing, or simply delicious ingredients”  One example of this is an Elderflower jam that we were able to test out while in the shop.  All their Elderflowers come straight from Quebec.

To develop their simply elevated flavours, Sophie told us they have used a process in the past called “flavor mapping,” (similar to Chef Grant Achantz in Chicago) and taken from their favourite French chefs jamming recipes and tried to use trial & error.  Sophie tells us, “Our preserves have their fresh taste and color due to our whole procedure and cooking process.  (From that) we now have developed over years of jam making something that results in a fresh, fruit forward preserve, bright in color and flavour.”

Flavours include (but are not limited to):

·       Donut Peach and Basil
·       Gooseberry and Orange Blossom
·       Raspberry and Fresh Violet Petal
·       Ontario Strawberries with Rose Petals

Setting up the new brick & motar in Parkdale was a big move and decision.  Bobby tells us the decision to move back to Toronto was based on where they wanted to be for the next ten years of their lives and where they set up shop was extraordinarily important.  They came down for a week in February of this year from Jersey to work with a realtor and had originally thought about the Dundas West area.  Bobby tells us,  “We toured some spaces that were huge and had really cheap rent but at the end of the day, it just didn’t feel like our shop.” By happenstance, their friend (sous-chef at The Saint Tavern) pointed them in the direction of Belly Kitchen in Parkdale, who was going to be renting out it’s space.  Bobby tells us, “We contacted the former owner about renting the space and she told us she wanted someone to take it on full-time and here we are.”

Setting up the shop has come with exciting new changes for the married couple, which they have likened to inviting people in to their own kitchen.  For starters, they will offer up an in-house tea service.  Bobby tells us that all of their teas will be hand-picked by Sloane Fine Tea Merchants and housed in their own tea sommelier chest and served in fine china.  If tea isn’t exactly your thing, then no need to worry; they’ve got their coffee game on lock too.  Working with the gang from Pig Iron Roasters, they will have the best in Pour Over coffee the city has to offer.  You’ll also be able to purchase jars of jams, jam samplers, scones and other goodies in-house.

With the shop set to open in the coming weeks, and new branding by in-demand Designer Chad Roberts (the man behind those lovely Attwood Blend sacs from Balzac’s Coffee Roasters), both Sophie and Bobby are looking forward to inviting both the community of Parkdale, the city of Toronto and longtime fans of Kitten and the Bear into their shop for a little bit of jam, conversation and most importantly, good food.