The Third TUM

The latest edition of the Toronto Underground Market (TUM) took place on May 4th at the very popular Evergreen Brick Works. This was the last traditional TUM before the summer season, but don’t worry, it’ll be back in September to begin the fall editions at the same location.

As usual there were some returning vendors and first time vendors. Walking through the venue one can easily identify the first timers. They were usually the ones with the smaller crowds, the smaller signage and the most nervous looking, but, they were also some of the most enthusiastic vendors to talk to. The common thread was their love of cooking for family and friends who were so impressed by their creations that they encouraged them to try out for TUM.

Thistletown High School Chefs

Keith Hoare (upper right) and his latest group of students

Keith Hoare is one of those teachers we all hear stories about, the one who inspires and positively changes the lives of their students. Keith, a trained chef, and his wife ran their own catering company for 21 years. A lot of students passed through his catering kitchen during that time and he always enjoyed teaching them how to properly run a kitchen – from prepping to cooking to serving. About six years ago he realized that teaching kids the culinary arts is what he wanted to do so he sold off his catering business and made the leap into his new role of full time teacher at Thistletown Collegiate Institute.

Two years ago Keith approached his grade 10 students with an amazing idea for a school trip. He suggested they go to Italy to get a true culinary experience but to do so the kids needed to raise a lot of money. They started fundraising by holding bake sales, garage sales, car washes and selling their food at TUM (they’ve actually been a vendor at TUM between ten to twelve times). All that time and effort finally paid off this past March when Keith and his students were finally able to embark on a seven day trip. While there they did the usual tourist activities but they also attended culinary classes such as chocolate making. This year’s batch of grade 10 students are currently fundraising for a trip to France and Spain.

How ‘Bout Those Meatballs

(Top left, clockwise) Sebastian Callucci, Alex Raphael, Ada Cimino, Christian Callucci & Dilene Santos

You know Sebastian Gallucci is at a food event when you walk into the venue, hear a bell ringing, look over and see a crowd surrounding a stall and cheering. Sebastian is the most energetic and entertaining vendor that I’ve ever seen at TUM or anywhere else for that matter. Always interacting with his customers, so much so, that even though you’ve received your meatball slider you still want to hang around his stall and witness his show.

The company was started about two years ago in Sebastian’s kitchen when the 5 members of his team got together and came up with their idea for their ‘ballsofcheesygoodness’. Their meatballs are a combination of Italian, Argentinean, Portuguese, Canadian and Lebanese flavours all blended together. Their sauce is his Italian grandmothers’ secret recipe with their own little twist thrown in.

The inspiration for the meatballs comes from Sebastian’s family. His dad owned a very successful restaurant back in the 90’s and him and his brother basically grew up in the kitchen learning many different skills from making tiramisu to garlic bread.

According to Sebastian they decided to focus their attention on meatballs because there isn’t a big demand for such a classic old-school dish, but they plan to change that one meatball at a time.

Tre Cugini

Michael, Chris and Matt

Tre Cugini literally translates to Three cousins, a name which may not be so apt considering the trio consists of two brothers and their first cousin.

Last year brothers Matt and Michael Furfaro and their cousin, Chris McGimsie, came up with the idea to start their company when they got together at a funeral, of all places. They all have a love of food so naturally that was what the conversation centered around.

The brothers’ dad and Chris’s mom are just two out of eleven siblings and food has always played a huge role in their family’s life. Their grandparents had to feed their large family so they mastered the art of creating “poor man`s food”, which basically means, creating delicious meals with the very basic of ingredients. The trio adopted this philosophy and applied it to the dishes that they’ve created over their three times at TUM.

Even though the cousins share a love of food they all have very different careers. Chris is the owner of a successful construction company called Oddjobbers Inc., while the brothers are employed with the Toronto Catholic School Board, Matt as a school counsellor and Michael as a teacher.

What`s next for the trio? Right now they’re focusing on their respective careers but as far as their catering business goes, they’ve been developing many new dishes, each with a unique Italian spin.

Rebel Food Inc.

(L to R) Araz, Aren, Evan & Christine

Evan Arkarakas is the man behind Rebel Food Inc. based in Richmond Hill.  He started this company about nine months ago after spending a lot of time working in different restaurants and other food based companies in and around Toronto.

Right now the main focus of Rebel Food is in corporate catering with his menu consisting of delicious gourmet sandwiches and salads. As with many of the vendors who come to TUM, Evan is hoping to eventually move his company into a retail space.   He’s hoping to use TUM as a way to get  exposure and he has been getting a lot of positive reviews for his food in which he makes almost everything from scratch.

His dream is not an impossible one for TUM has launched quite a number of very successful restaurants in it’s short history.