Corktown cookie exchange for Santa Claus Fund
Nineteen pastry chefs will, for one night only, serve one-of-a-kind treats for charity
Torontonians with a sweet tooth can get their fill of sweets at a one-night-only cookie pop-up featuring the city’s best pastry chefs.
The Charity Cookie Social is the third dessert social organized by Corktown’s Roselle Desserts as a way for local pastry chefs to show off their talents with experimental desserts. This year, proceeds from the gathering will benefit the Toronto Star Santa Claus Fund, which gives thousands of GTA children presents for the holidays.
“Being in the industry can be pretty lonely and no one has time to hang out. We thought it would be fun for all the pastry chefs to get together and make food,” says Stephanie Duong, co-owner of Roselle.
“This is a chance for chefs to hang out with other chefs and do things they wouldn’t normally do at their shops. Plus, chefs are usually in the kitchen and don’t usually interact with customers so this is a nice way for people to meet the people behind their favourite desserts.”
Previous socials were held at the tiny Roselle bakeshop, but as word spread and more pastry chefs wanted in, this year the event moved to larger digs on the industrial strip of Geary Ave., which in the past year has transformed into a dining destination with the opening of restaurants such as Parallel and Famiglia Baldassare.
Among the 19 pastry chefs are Cora James of Agora, Jill Barber of Blackbird Baking Co., David Chow of David H. Chow Chocolates, Michelle Lippiatt of Le Gourmand, Cynthia Leung and David Castellan of Soma Chocolatemaker, Michelle Edger of Sweet Escape and Steven Tran of the Four Seasons.
Duong says that for the social she’ll be making a matcha-raspberry meringue shortbread cookie: buttery raspberry shortbread rolled with meringue matcha to create a colourful swirled cookie.
“The pastry community in Toronto is really special,” says Duong.
“We’re a community that supports each other, everyone here is donating their time and efforts, and there’s no need to feel like we’re in competition with each other because everyone has their niche and doing the best.”
The cookie social takes place on Nov. 26 at 114 Geary Ave. Tickets are $70 and purchasing info, as well as the full list of participating chefs, can be found through Roselle’s Instagram profile @roselle_to.