SUZANNE BARR
AVLING KITCHEN & BREWERY AND TRUE TRUE DINER TORONTO, ONTARIO
In July, Barr launched two Toronto projects for which she is head chef: Avling Kitchen & Brewery and True True Diner. Barr is no stranger to being busy and has an impressive résumé. In 2018, she travelled the world, speaking at the MAD Symposium in Copenhagen and the Women in Hospitality United symposium in New York City. She also earned Best New Restaurant and was featured in Maya Gallus’s documentary film The Heat: A Kitchen (R) evolution. She is one of Canada’s most respected chefs. With her passion for local community, food security, and advocacy for people of colour and LGBTQ+ communities, she breaks down barriers everywhere she goes.
WHY IS IT IMPORTANT TO YOU TO USE YOUR PLATFORM AS A RESPECTED CHEF IN TORONTO TO SUPPORT THE PEOPLE IN YOUR COMMUNITY?
I have always put myself in scenarios where I may be the first person to do it or one of the only. That attitude comes from my great grandmother, my cultural background and my ancestral history. I’m the child of an entrepreneur who fought hard and managed to develop a business, from his garage. I think this is the path I was always meant to take. I finally found it. I feel very grateful for my platform because I know it’s a challenge. It’s a challenge at times because my son and my partner need me, and my family wants to see me more. But they’re all supportive and understand my mission and the work that I put in.
WHAT WAS THE BIGGEST DECISION YOU HAD TO MAKE OR HURDLE YOU HAD TO OVERCOME TO GET TO WHERE YOU ARE TODAY?
Opening the doors of our restaurant Saturday Dinette, my first non-catering Toronto-based project, I found out I was pregnant. My pregnancy was the biggest game changer for me. It totally changed the trajectory of what we’d planned to do within that space. It taught me to keep moving forward. It also put me in the conversation with working parents, working moms, and showed me what it means to bring a child to work, especially in the restaurant industry and as a small business owner. I had my son in his carriage and stroller while I was on the line cooking and I would nurse in between services.
WHAT IS YOUR GOAL WITH ALVING KITCHEN & BREWERY?
The concept is a conversation about the future of breweries. The idea is to offer a kitchen environment and a brewery environment, animal procurement programming and rooftop garden programming. It’s also to be innovative with the space and to show guests the spirit of the brewery: working relationships with the farmers, artisan markets, bakeries and so on. The front of the house can share with guests where we source our fish, our beer grains and what we do with them after they’ve been used, what’s happening on our rooftop garden and what’s going to happen in the spring, the different programming and different ways to keep people active within in the space.
WHAT DISH WOULD YOU MAKE IF YOU WERE HAVING A GROUP OF PEOPLE OVER FOR DINNER?
A whole roasted chicken, for sure. It’s perfect in every way and simple. Salt, no oil. Little pepper. Little fresh lemon in the cavity. Sometimes a little garlic. Roast it in the oven, high heat, then drop it down to finish it off.