The Enlightened Feast

Online ticket sales are now closed. Tickets will be available at the door for $125.00 General / $106.25 Gardiner Friends

Ivy Knight in conversation with Laurie Woolever + Sheila Heti

Co-presented by The Food Dudes & C.L.A.M.

Reflecting on the new enlightenment in the worlds of cuisine and food culture, former-line-cook-turned journalist Ivy Knight guest curates this unique culinary experience. The lineup features a collective of feminist chefs brought together by C.L.A.M., the Confederacy of Love and Acceptance Among Mammals. Working with Executive Chef Bianca Azupardo of CLAY restaurant, these Indigenous and settler chefs from across North America will create a feast showcasing ingredients that will delight as much as inform. Expect an adventurous menu that steps off the well-trodden path of Canadian cuisine, featuring tastes of fresh seal meat, pickled cattails, chewy jellyfish, and more.

Catherine Tammaro, Wyandot Small Turtle Clan Tradition Keeper and artist, will open with a small ceremony of thanksgiving, following by an exclusive on-stage conversation between Knight, New York Times best-selling author Sheila Heti, and long-time Anthony Bourdain collaborator Laurie Woolever. Speaking to the restrictive gender dynamics that have ruled professional and home kitchens since the dawn of Escoffier, the panel will shed light on how principles of equality can help us navigate toward a post-patriarchal society and the next age of enlightenment.

A portion of the proceeds will be donated to Sovereign Bodies Institute (SBI), an organization founded by Annita Lucchesi, creator of the #MMIWG database. SBI is working to generate new knowledge and understandings of how Indigenous nations and communities are impacted by gender and sexual violence, and how they may continue to work towards healing and freedom from such violence. Guests will also receive an edition from Catherine Tammaro’s “Sacred Container” series.

C.L.A.M. Chief Collective

Jennifer Dewasha (ONE65, San Francisco), Liberty Rivers (Mill Street Brew Pub, Ottawa), Hans Vogels (Momofuku, Toronto), Joseph Shawana (KūKûm Kitchen, Toronto), Jane MacDonald, Kyle Deleary (Oyster Boy), Kate Chomyshyn & Julio Guajardo (Balam, Toronto)

Ivy Knight cooked professionally for ten years before becoming a writer. She is a regular contributor at Condé Nast, VICE, Playboy and The Globe & Mail. Her side hustle is creating bespoke events with a focus on food. Past clients include Gail Simmons, Christina Tosi, and Anthony Bourdain. She is currently touring her speaker series, The Industry Sessions, across America with stops in Miami, Chicago, Brooklyn, and LA. Knight created C.L.A.M. in the summer of 2019 to advocate for equality in kitchen culture.

Sheila Heti is the author of eight books of fiction and non-fiction, including the novels How Should a Person Be? and Motherhood. She was named one of “The New Vanguard” by The New York Times book critics, a list of women writers from around the world who are “shaping the way we read and write fiction in the 21st century.”

Laurie Woolever is a writer and editor whose byline can be found in The New York Times, GQ, Food & Wine, Lucky Peach, Saveur, Roads & Kingdoms, and others. For nearly a decade she worked as assistant to Anthony Bourdain. In 2016, they co-authored Appetites: A Cookbook. She is the co-host of the popular podcast “Carbface for Radio” and is currently at work on two books for ECCO; a travel book that she and Bourdain began co-authoring before his death in 2018, and an oral biography of his life.

C.L.A.M. Chefs

Jennifer Dewasha apprenticed under Joel Robuchon and was on the opening teams for Daniel Boulud restaurants in Las Vegas and Toronto. She is currently Chef de Cuisine at ONE65 in San Francisco. She is from the Wahta Mohawk First Nation in Bala, Ontario.

Liberty Rivers is an apprentice cook working at Mill Street Brew Pub in Ottawa. She is currently enrolled at SAIT in Calgary. Her goal is to be part of the movement to revive and reinvent indigenous cuisine in Canada. She is an Ojibwe from Manitoulin Island.

Hans Vogels spent five years in Susur Lee’s kitchens before joining the opening team of Momofuku Noodle Bar as Executive Chef, where he has worked closely with David Chang for the past seven years.

Joseph Shawana was raised on the Wikwemikong Unceded Reserve on Manitoulin Island. He is the chef and owner of KūKûm Kitchen where he is known for his fine dining approach to indigenous ingredients like seal, cattail hearts, and milkweed.

Jane MacDonald is originally from Antigonish, Nova Scotia and has been cooking for close to two decades. MacDonald has studied in France and is a frequent visitor to Mexico. In Toronto, she has honed her skills at Canoe, Scarpetta, and Lee. She brings this wealth of experience to her new title as Regional Chef for Chase Hospitality Group, overseeing all seven of their diverse properties.

Kyle Deleary is Anishnawbe and grew up on the Chippewas of the Thames First Nation reserve. He spent a year cooking at Thomas Keller’s Per Se in New York before moving to Toronto to work at Canoe. He has been Head Chef at Oyster Boy for the past four years.

Kate Chomyshyn and Julio Guajardo are the chef team behind Balam, the city’s most in-demand culinary consulting company. Together they opened El Rey, Quetzal, and Rosalinda for Grant van Gameren and are currently working on Bar Vendetta, Jen Agg’s redo of the Black Hoof space.

Due to the social nature of this unique culinary experience, small dining parties may be seated with other guests.

About the exhibition

Food and dining were transformed in Europe during the age of Enlightenment by profound changes that still resonate today. What many of us eat, the way food is cooked, and how we dine continues to be influenced by radical changes that occurred in France from 1650 until the French Revolution in 1789. Savour: Food Culture in the Age of Enlightenment explores the story of this transformation with rare objects, fascinating histories, and amusing stories. Learn more

Co-Presenters

Presenting Programs Sponsor

The W. Garfield Weston Foundation

Sponsors