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Roger Mooking
Mark McEwan What sparked your passion for food and can you tell us a bit about how you got into the food industry? One of the first jobs that I had was in a restaurant in Buffalo, New York called Mindy’s Wine Cellar. At a very young age, I saw the inner workings of a restaurant and found it to be such a pleasurable place to be. I got to experience good food being cooked, interesting clients, and interesting drinks coming off the bar. After that, I continued to work in restaurants while in school, but I said to myself one day, “Why don’t I take a year off and book into a hotel, start an apprenticeship program, and see if I like it?” And I got involved and never looked back. I found myself immersed in it.
How has the pandemic forced your business to pivot?
How has culture played a role in your culinary career?
The pandemic has forced my business to pivot in a bunch of ways. We’ve focused a lot of our efforts on growing our retail business through e-commerce and home delivery. We recently partnered with INABUGGY to launch a 3D virtual shopping portal — a first of its kind in Canada. The portal enables customers to visually shop for groceries, enhancing engagement for McEwan Fine Foods shoppers and beyond. We’ve also broadened our food offerings and have worked hard to make them diverse and interesting for our clients. The pandemic certainly opens your eyes and imagination as to what you might need to do to survive. You can’t be complacent. You have to keep reinventing.
Culture is the framework for any endeavour. We enter every situation with our cultural roadmap as a guiding principle. My family is filled with and embraces so many nationalities, and I draw on this dynamic reference point in all aspects of my culinary career. Whether I'm testing or developing recipes, travelling with an inquisitive spirit, or working on marketing campaigns, I bring an open and inclusive mindset showcasing how dynamic and powerful our world is. Selecting, preparing, and sharing a meal is very intimate and every tradition has its own practices. Embrace new experiences, enjoy, and keep an open mind.
David Rocco How did you get your start cooking? I was born Italian and into a food-obsessed family. My earliest memories are about food, which was always front and centre in our home. As a result, you learn from seeing your mom and Nonna prepare those great family Sunday pranzo or lunches. So, on some level, food was always part of my childhood and upbringing and is where I learned from osmosis or just being in the environment.
Travel is an integral part of what food means to you. How have you adjusted to the lack of travel during the pandemic? Over the course of the last 10 years I have, on average, travelled 20 weeks of the year, so the pandemic was quite the adjustment. Being home and spending that much time without
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As a restaurateur, how have you adapted to the massive shift in dining habits since the pandemic started?
Twist by Roger Mooking is inside of Pearson International Airport and our customers are travellers. We've had to take significant measures to protect those who still need to travel for a variety of reasons. We've done this through the implementation of additional safety and cleaning protocols, social distance separators, removing tables for additional social distancing, contactless menus, reducing the number of menu items, and staffing appropriately for the unpredictable number of customers at the various stages of health and safety mandates. It’s like being on a rollercoaster in a tornado with the knowledge that one day the storm will pass.
Eden Hagos
having to hop on a plane was a nice change of pace, which also inspired my kids to pick up a camera and begin filming us cooking. That inspired us to create Dolce Homemade, our latest series filmed right from our home. The other exciting opportunity that came up for me as a direct result of being home from the pandemic was the decision to create a new venture, David Rocco — Bar Aperitivo, a cicchetti and aperitivo bar opening in Yorkville this summer. I’ve always said, “If I ever opened a restaurant, it would be an aperitivo bar.” This new project will be a small bar serving vino, prosecco, Negroni, and spritz, and little bite-sized snacks to go along with your cocktail. It’s how my wife Nina and I would eat in Italy when we lived and worked there.
Tell us about BLACK FOODIE and your focus on changing the global conversation around Black food culture. BLACK FOODIE is a versatile digital media platform and agency that celebrates and explores Black food culture. We love storytelling and using food as a channel to explore themes like identity, culture, history, and more. Our interactive content leaves our community feeling seen, represented, and empowered to explore our recommendations. We change the global conversation around Black food culture by centering Black voices. At BLACK FOODIE, we create content, events, and campaigns that bring joy to our community and help us preserve Black food traditions and we’re not afraid to address the many ways racism plays out
in the food world. We’re committed to creating opportunities and making space for our community.
How can Canadians support local Blackowned food businesses?
Have an open mind and be ready to try something new. There are so many new flavours, dishes, and ingredients to try. I encourage folks to also think outside the takeout box. Now more than ever, we need to support our local Black-owned restaurants, but there are plenty of other tasty and easy ways to support Black-owned food businesses. Try buying Black-owned food products, shopping at your local Black grocery store, and hiring Black caterers.
Publisher: Sierra Nardella Business Development Manager: Julia Colavecchia Country Manager: Nina Theodorlis Content and Production Manager: Raymond Fan Designer: Lauren Livingston Web Editor: Karthik Talwar Front cover photos courtesy of The McEwan Group, Align Creative Minds, Francesco Lastrucci, and Reynard Li. All images are from Getty Images unless otherwise credited. This section was created by Mediaplanet and did not involve National Post or its editorial departments. Send all inquiries to ca.editorial@mediaplanet.com.
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