On March 9th, I was fortunate enough to be part of the media team that covered the first Toronto Underground Market (TUM) of 2013, which was held at the Evergreen Brick Works. This event was catered by quite a large number of first-time vendors featuring an amazing variety of cuisines that ranged from Korean to Caribbean to Bosnian and more.
TUM Entrance
According to the official TUM website:
The Toronto Underground Market (TUM) is a social food market for the community to sample the food of Toronto home cooks. It is a venue for budding entrepreneurs to showcase their products. These vendors are not necessarily chefs, although some will be. This is a new kind of community market; not a farmer’s market, or a food festival, but something completely unique and new to Toronto.”
TUM has been the launching pad for some very successful and widely popular restaurants such as Fidel Gastro’s, La Carnita and Rock Lobster Food Company. Maybe one of the following vendors will be the next big thing on the Toronto food scene.
BRICKS AND MORTAR
On the right are Leslie Wilks & Steve Ejbick
Bricks & Mortar was started by Leslie Wilks and Steve Ejbick. Both Leslie and Steve each have about 10 years of experience in the food industry, Leslie’s experience coming from bartending and Steve’s from being in the kitchen.
When he’s not slaving over a hot stove, Steve works in the Sound Department for many of the movies and television shows produced around Toronto. It was during the filming of a food related reality show that Steve got the idea of starting up his own company. He approached Leslie, his close friend of over 5 years, with the idea and they both agreed that TUM would be the perfect place to start.
Leslie herself works as a bartender at a small neighbourhood pub in Bloor-West Village called Bryden’s, one of the first establishments in Toronto to start serving locally made craft beers.
In the future, the pair would like to do events similar to TUM to get people familiar with their name and start building a reputation for having some really tasty, made from scratch food. From there they hope to go into catering and eventually be able to open their own food truck. The friends are well aware of the challenges faced by food trucks in the city but are determined to work hard and fight to achieve their dream.
MEAT PIE MATES
Erynn Mayes & Monica Wizemann
The Meat Pie Mates is one of the few returning vendors at this installment of TUM. They made their debut at the last TUM of 2012 and have started 2013 on a high note by returning to the first one of the year.
The company was launched last year by three friends who all attended the University of Waterloo, Megan Chan, Erynn Mayes and Monika Wizemann. Erynn and Megan both spent time traveling and working in Australia. One day all three girls were out to dinner and it was while talking about their fondness for different foods that Erynn and Megan suddenly realized how much they were missing the Australian meat pies and began telling Monika all about it. Never having been to Australia, Monika naturally wanted to try the pies herself.
Soon after that night the three girls got together and attempted to create a recipe for the pies. They eventually succeeded in creating something that all three loved.
The young trio aren’t novices in the kitchen. Erynn is almost finished her culinary schooling at George Brown, Megan attended Le Cordon Bleu in Ottawa and Monika also attended various courses at George Brown. Besides having extensive culinary experience, the girls also have some very impressive academic qualifications. Erynn graduated from the University of Waterloo’s Business and Science program, Monika works in cancer research and Megan has an Accounting background.
In Australia these pies are sold at sporting events, bars, etc. It’s a meal that can be easily consumed while on the go, and it’s because of this ‘mobility’ that the girls think would be perfectly suited for being sold out of a food truck.
ELLE AND BEE CUPCAKES
Leah Wong
Leah Wong is another one of TUM’s first-timers. She has been baking her entire life and most of her skills has been learned by self teaching. She started selling her baked goods a couple of years ago when she needed to raise money for a volunteering trip to Ghana. She created a ‘for order’ bake sale where one would place their orders for cupcakes and cookies. Her products were such a hit that her customers encouraged her to start her own business.
Professionally, Leah is a freelance multimedia journalist who graduated from Ryerson University in 2012.
As for her plans for the future, Leah’s first love will always be journalism but she would definitely like to continue her baking as a side business. She wants to continue creating her cupcakes and hopefully branch out into other areas such as wedding cakes. Her first TUM outing was a big success for cupcake lovers snapped up over 450 of her sugary treats.
COOKIN’ IT LIKE A BOZ
Ksenija Hotic (far right) and her team
Ksenjia Hotic’s contribution to this installment of TUM were her widely popular cabbage rolls.
Ksenjia grew up working in the family owned restaurant. After that she moved on to a deli where she worked with a Master Butcher from Germany with over 40 years of experience. The seven and a half years she spent there gave her a very solid foundation in understanding the food industry.
Le Deppanneur, on College Street, was where she sold her cabbage rolls for the first time. That night she played the roles of guest chef and host to a supper club that was made up of twenty two people.
Even though Ksenjia is very busy with all her food related ventures, she does have a full time job at CAMH where she’s the Executive Assistant to the Physician-in-Chief. She’s also the owner/photographer of her booming photography business, Ksenija Hotic Photography. Her lovely photographs have been published in various local online and print publications such as PostCity.com and TorontoStandard.com.
[good-old-gallery id=”454″]
