Bryan LaveryForest City Culinary Experiences, London, OntarioInquire
Ethical GourmetCulinary EntrepreneurCultural Geographer

Fifty years of craft,
no longer bound
to a single address.

A farm-to-table, Slow Food-inspired approach to curated culinary experiences, custom catering, and a lifetime of food writing, rooted in Southwestern Ontario.

Book an experienceBook catering
Bryan Lavery
Two ways to the table

Come hungry. Leave with a story.

Every experience and every menu is built by hand, farm-to-table and Slow Food-inspired, around your date and your guests.

From $150 / guest
Forest City Culinary Experiences

Book an experience

Guided, bespoke tastings through the Covent Garden Market and River District, meeting the growers and makers who feed the Forest City.

Plan your experience
Formerly Blackfriars
Bryan Lavery Catering

Book catering

Custom, curated catering for cocktail parties, holiday tables, and multi-course private dinners. Cooked in your kitchen or ours, never off a template.

Discuss your event
On the calendar

What is coming next.

Dinners, tastings, and appearances across London and Southwestern Ontario.

Oct
22
2026
St. Paul’s Cathedral, London

Harvest Dinner

A farm-to-table gourmet experience in the candlelit nave of St. Paul’s Cathedral, with 100% of the proceeds funding the work of Paul’s Place.

Details & ticketsRead more
Bryan Lavery working dough at the counter
The Manifesto
“Our recipes were never mere instructions. They were records of a season, a repository of wisdom that remains as relevant today as the day it was created.”
Bryan Lavery, on stewarding the archive
Recognition

Awarded for a life in food.

Five decades of farm-to-table, Slow Food-inspired advocacy, honoured across Ontario’s tourism and culinary community.

2011

Travel Media Award of Excellence

For Ontario's Southwest Culinary Guide, with Chris McDonell and Kathy McLaughlin.
Ontario Tourism Awards of Excellence
2018

Innovative Experience of the Year

Ontario's Southwest, for a standout, innovative culinary experience.
Ontario's Southwest Tourism Awards
The Globe and Mail
2020

Ontario Tourism Award of Excellence

Culinary Tourism Experience, under the Forest City Culinary Experiences banner.
Tourism Industry Association of Ontario
London Free Press
2026

Ontario's Southwest Luminary of the Year

Honouring his contributions to the regional tourism industry.
Ontario's Southwest
London Free Press
Heart of an Artichoke · by Bryan Parker Lavery

The writing.

Essayist, memoirist, and food writer. A biting, literate defence of culinary history, published on Substack.

Aug 17, 2026

Dignity at the High Table

The Big Night: Our Regard for Food has Flourished into an Interesting Film Genre

Read on Substack
Aug 13, 2026

The Integrity of the Plate: A Food Writer’s Manifesto

To stay abreast of the culinary scene, I talk and meet with restaurateurs, chefs, farmers, and food artisans.

Read on Substack
Aug 10, 2026

Blood Memory and the Afterlife

Fifty years ago, my life pivoted on the axis of a single, extraordinary summer.

Read on Substack
More on Bryan’s writingRead all essays on Heart of an Artichoke →
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New essays, straight to your inbox.

Food, place, memory, and the occasional diatribe from Bryan Parker Lavery. No filter.

Coming soon · Slow food, deliberately

The Forest City
Culinary Archive

Fifty years of recipes as records of a season. A living archive that highlights the seasonality of our ingredients and our deep roots in the community, still advocating for a more thoughtful way of eating. A curated few will be open to all; the rest will live within the cookbook.

From the archive
Now building · The Forest City Culinary Guild

Keeping the table open.

The proposed Forest City Culinary Guild revives an unyielding, Slow Food-inspired ethos in London, a new table for the next generation of chefs, growers, and advocates, and the seed of a Slow Food-inspired festival for the Forest City. The most radical thing we can do is slow down, look toward the farmer, and taste the terroir.

Come in soon