A farm-to-table, Slow Food-inspired approach to curated culinary experiences, custom catering, and a lifetime of food writing, rooted in Southwestern Ontario.
Every experience and every menu is built by hand, farm-to-table and Slow Food-inspired, around your date and your guests.
Guided, bespoke tastings through the Covent Garden Market and River District, meeting the growers and makers who feed the Forest City.
Plan your experienceCustom, 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“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.”
Five decades of farm-to-table, Slow Food-inspired advocacy, honoured across Ontario’s tourism and culinary community.
Essayist, memoirist, and food writer. A biting, literate defence of culinary history, published on Substack.
Conversations about the Homelessness Crisis and Dinner
Read on SubstackRevision in Real Time
Read on SubstackThis essay addresses the frequently asked question of why Blackfriars Bistro decided to cease operations after thirty years of culinary service in London, Ontario, framing the end of its brick-and-mor
Read on SubstackFood, place, memory, and the occasional diatribe from Bryan Parker Lavery. No filter.
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.
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.
Join the Guild