Beyond being a celebrated chef, running two popular Toronto restaurants and appearing as resident chef on the Food Network Canada’s Wall of Chefs, Suzanne Barr has set herself apart as an advocate for marginalized people, as well as a healthier, more equitable foodservice industry and food system
In a recent Table Talk podcast with F&H editor and publisher Rosanna Caira, Barr said that her love of cooking was fuelled by “watching my mom and my dad cook. [I always say], they are two of the first chefs I ever worked for. They were always able to create something special — not just connecting me to my heritage, but also connecting me to an understanding of playing with food, having fun with food and challenging our taste buds.”
During her time in the industry, Barr has seen myriad changes and with the challenges COVID-19 has fuelled for the restaurant industry over the last couple of years, she says many people have realized that perhaps the lives they were leading “weren’t exactly what they wanted to lead,” resulting in an even worse labour challenge than in pre-pandemic times.
“It’s like that steam kettle in the kitchen — if you’re boiling water and you hit that boiling point and just let it kind of keep going, eventually the water starts to evaporate. And before you know it, your pot is on fire,” says Barr. “We’ve worked so many jobs where we’ve just shown up, because the harder you work, the more respect you get, maybe the more opportunities for promotion, maybe the more monetary.”
While restaurants are not going to become obsolete, Barr believes we are likely to see business models “that are quite different than what we’ve been seeing, such as worker-owned restaurant concepts, co-operative restaurants, shared restaurant concepts, catering halls, incubators, pop-up shops and even going back to a bit of the food truck era.”
To listen to the entire podcast interview with chef Suzanne Barr and to learn more about the barriers she’s had to overcome, click here.
