The first annual Black Foodie Week is happening this week

Written By

Nadia Boachie

4 years ago

BLACK FOODIE Week (BFW) is a digital celebration of Black food culture in Toronto spearheaded by founder of BlackFoodie.co, Eden Hagos and her team. Beginning September 20 to September 27, this week long event is connecting people with Black-owned restaurants in the city and celebrating the beauty of African and Caribbean food. Through interactive sessions led by chefs and experts, people can participate remotely in a variety of different events throughout the week. This is the first year this digital celebration of Black food culture is being held and if you haven't yet had the chance, there is still time to get involved.

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Hey again 👋🏾 Years ago after a pretty traumatic experience with racism eating out, I made it my mission to highlight and spotlight Black food experiences, restaurants, chefs and more. This means more than 1 list to me, it means LISTENING to Black people who tell you they get served last when they eat out. It means having a social media feed that isn’t necessarily pretty or themed because we speak up when shit happens to black folks whether or not it’s trendy. It means we post cultural ingredients/ dishes that aren’t always instagrammable. It means hosting lives with Black food entrepreneurs who are grappling with their new reality and still finding ways to support their community. It means hosting food battles to raise people’s spirits and celebrate black foods. It means you open yourself up to trolls who hate your blackness but more often than that it means you don’t get invited to things. I’m Black, been Black and will always be BLACK. I don’t get to go back to “normal” next week when there’s a new fad. Anyways, everybody sharing Black content creators and food bloggers, can you tag all those brands you and I use? Let them know we’re here & they should be working with black folks to produce these new black initiatives.✌🏾

A post shared by Eden | Food, Travel, Culture (@edenthefoodie) on Jun 4, 2020 at 9:29pm PDT

Events are streamed through Facebook or hosted via Instagram. Participants can purchase free tickets online and can cook-along with the city's best culinary masters, learn about wine/beer pairings with favourites like jerk pork and curry chicken, attend a virtual Ethiopian coffee ceremony and get tea and tips from industry leaders during three incredible panel events.⁠

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Kicked off @blackfoodie.co week with the Mayor of Toronto @johntory @edenthefoodie introduced the Mayor to Ethiopian food at @rendezvous.to a community favourite for over 18 years. They spoke about the importance of the work @blackfoodie.co does to support Black businesses & the exciting events coming up for #BLACKFOODIE week. A big thank you to Banchi, owner of @rendezvous.to for the great intro to Ethiopian cuisine. #blackfoodieweek #ethiopianfood

A post shared by BLACK FOODIE™ (@blackfoodie.co) on Sep 22, 2020 at 7:47am PDT

Earlier this week, Mayor John Tory sat down with Eden Hagos to enjoy Ethiopian food and coffee at Rendezvous Restaurant on the Danforth. They spoke about Black food businesses in this city and how they contribute to much of Toronto's food culture and diversity. Some of the featured guests in this week's events include celebrity chef and cookbook author Raquel Fox, Chef Bashir Munye who specializes in Somali cuisine and Chef Noel Cunningham who specializes in Jamaican cuisine, to name a few.

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This week, we at @blackfoodie.co are challenging you to visit three Black-owned restaurants over the next 8 days. Use our interactive map to find spots in your neighbourhood and share your experience on social using the hashtag #blackfoodiechallenge. Join us in supporting the Black businesses that keep our city thriving. Drop a 🙌🏾 below if you’re ready to take the #BLACKFOODIEchallenge and tag a friend below too👇🏾 #blackfoodie

A post shared by BLACK FOODIE™ (@blackfoodie.co) on Sep 21, 2020 at 11:12am PDT

Using the hashtags #BLACKFOODIEchallenge, BlackFoodie.co has also created an interactive map that shows Black-owned restaurants in neighbourhoods around the city to encourage people to visit and order from them.

There’s something for everyone during BLACK FOODIE week so if you want to show support for Afro-Caribbean restaurants and chefs, or simply want to quench your curiosity about the variety of Afro-Caribbean foods in your own backyard, head to the website or Instagram page for more information.

We’ll see you in there.