Episode 23: The Business of Baking with Olivia Yetter

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Whether you like the holidays or not, there’s no denying the comfort that winter baking brings. There’s a tremendous amount of art and chemistry that’s involved, but we often don’t think about the business side of bakeries as well. This week we’re exploring the business of baking with one of my all-time favourite bakers, Olivia Yetter!

Olivia is a Toronto-born cook at a vegan restaurant called Fresh. In her spare time, she owns and operates OY’S Joys, an artisanal custom made bakery based out of her home in Kensington Market. OY’s Joys focuses on hand crafted, homemade, flavour forward ingredients in their treats and plated desserts.

Olivia prioritizes using ingredients that have been grown or crafted locally, such as freshly milled organic flours, cold pressed oils, free range eggs, fresh fruits, and more. Sustainability is at the heart of OY’s cooking and baking. Though she’s not creating healthy treats, Olivia’s desserts are made with real food and have been carefully flavour profiled for an elevated taste experience. Olivia is quite experimental with her baking and always interested in trying to new flavours and experiences. We explore all of these ideas in this episode and break down what it means to be in the baking business, both for creativity and experience!

Listen in the player above, or download on any major podcasting platform.

Get social with Olivia:

Website: www.oysjoys.ca

Instagram: @oysjoys

Episode 22: Food Taboos and Pregnancy Loss in the Indian Diaspora with Anu Lotay

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Pregnancy is a fascinating time for many reasons, but key among them is the intensity of food taboos and perspectives on what is or isn’t good for prenatal health. My guest this week, Anu Lotay, is an anthropology PhD candidate at the University of Victoria and research director at VPIRG. She explores the unique and challenging field of pregnancy loss for women and their families in the Indian diaspora. She seeks to understand the roles of culture, transnational family networks, gender differences, and experiences with Canadian healthcare systems to manage infant loss.

In this episode, we explore how the role of food taboos and beliefs impact pregnancy within Indo-Canadian women, and how pregnancy loss is understood or experienced in relation to food. Anu discusses how food is seen as not only physically nourishing or harmful during pregnancy for Indian women, but also how food prep and sharing is used to symbolize different experiences and shape relationships between pregnant women and their mothers or grandmothers. Indo-Canadian women engage with multiple and often competing guidelines for pregnancy and loss in Canada, and Anu expertly navigates this complex issue throughout the episode.

Listen in the player above, or find on any major podcast platform!

Resources:

Get Social with Anu

  • Twitter and Instagram: @anulotay

  • Website: www.anulotay.com

Episode 20: Ashley Wood of Manifest This! Podcast on Food Blogging, Mindfulness, and Vegan Motherhood

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I’ll admit, I had a hard time capturing the conversation I had with this week’s guest in one simple title - I’d argue none could do this justice! I’m speaking with Ashley Wood on today’s show, the host of Manifest This! podcast and international Akashic Records reader. Ashley Wood is a healer, spiritual teacher, intuitive guide, and mother dedicated to empowering women to live their best life. She is passionate about vegan living, yoga, animals, and the outdoors. She lives in Winnipeg, Canada, with her husband Ben and daughter Ivy, and cats Bose and Feesh. Together, they create and produce Manifest This! and own Lot 49 Dairy Free Foods.

I first came across Ashley online when a friend recommend checking out her vegan food blog back in 2013, and I instantly fell in love with the joy and peaceful nature within each recipe post - she provided a lot of inspiration during the two very snowy Winnipeg winters I made it through! Since then, Ashley has gone on to become an amazing mother and an internationally-recognized podcast host and Akashic Records reader. This gradual shift made so much sense, given that Ashley radiates a kindness and wisdom that comes through even during an inter-province Skype call!

We speak in this episode about her journey through life and the ways that her vegan lifestyle has influenced and interacted with different periods of growth from her: from the reasons she became a vegan and longtime connection to nature, to her early food blogging days to the creation of her podcast and shift in focus to something that aligned more with her own spiritual goals and passions. This interview paints a beautiful audio-portrait of a woman who’s honesty and grounded nature has inspired thousands of women internationally to explore their spiritual side a bit more, and it was such an honour to speak with her on topics we both feel so passionately about!

Check out the full episode in the player above, or download on iTunes, Spotify, Stitcher, iHeartRadio and Google Play!

Learn More About Ashley!

Books Ashley Mentioned:

Get Social with AnthroDish:

Episode 19: Tara Hattangadi on Food Security and Mental Health for University Students

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For many, the years spent at university can be a challenging time due to academic stressors as well as personal and emotional difficulties. During this important and liminal period, food security is crucial for health and psychological wellness, as well as academic performance and success. This week’s guest, Tara Hattangadi, is a recently defended Masters student who’s work explores the impact of food insecurity on mental health and wellness of university students.

Tara’s research sheds light on the importance of food security and demands that sufficient support during this key period be made widely available to all students – which includes university wide programs to facilitate equitable access to healthy foods. 

In this episode, we talk about her masters research and the exploratory route she took to engage in this very massive, under-researched problem of food insecurity amongst university students in Canada. She outlines what food insecurity looks like for students and why it’s important that we look at university students as an at-risk group. Poor diet has both short and long-term implications on mental health, student success, and social wellbeing, and Tara seeks to highlight how to improve access for students struggling to find healthy and affordable food. Tara’s passion for food systems and food security both in and out of the classroom has grown since the inception of her research, and she is determined to continue the dialogue about how to improve access to affordable and healthy food for university students across Canada.

Listen to the episode in the player above, or download on Spotify, iTunes, Stitcher, or Google Play! (And if you LOVE listening, please subscribe, rate, and review!)

Resources:

Social:

Instagram: @tahrannosaurus or @sustainabindi

Episode 21: Melissa Melottey on Irish Palates and Food in the Entertainment World

I’m doing something a bit different this week - I had two incredible women whose identities intertwined with their vegan lifestyles, so I thought it would be cool to release BOTH episodes this week for a dual-perspective look at plant based lifestyles! (And will continue to do this from time to time when similar topics keep popping up.) What I think is especially cool about the interviews this week is that these two women grew up in completely different worlds, and have some similarities and some striking differences in their plant-based lifestyles and mindfulness.

So my second guest this week is Melissa Melottey! Melissa is an actor based out of Toronto, ON, who is the host of the Qriket Live gameshow and the NamaSLAY podcast. We met at the Rose of Tralee, which is an Irish beauty pageant (yes, you read that right), and since then I’ve constantly been inspired by her uplifting attitude and her drive to make it in the acting business.

In this episode, we explore our Irish heritage and the ways in which these bland Irish palates started her lifelong journey and exploration of food. We also speak about how her relationship with food has been impacted by the physical and mental demands of being an actor, plant-based lifestyles, and some of the interesting connections between mindfulness and food.

Check out her full episode in the player above, or download on iTunes, Spotify, Google Play, Stitcher, or iHeartRadio!

Want to keep up with Melissa? Check her out here:

Get social with AnthroDish! to keep up with Melissa? Check her out here:

  • Facebook: @AnthroDishpodcast

  • Instagram: @anthrodishpodcast

  • Twitter: @anthrodishpod

  • And if you love what you’re hearing, please give us a rating and review on iTunes!

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Episode 18: Cuban Coffee Magic with Monica Mustelier of Little Havana Cafe

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For those of you who know me, you know I am a big time lover of coffee – in that I both have a severe dependency on it, but I’m also fascinated by the process and art that goes into creating coffee. Needless to say, I am really excited to share this week’s guest, Monica Mustelier! Together with her husband, Joshua, she owns Little Havana Café, which is a Cuban coffee trailer in Toronto, ON.

On the roots of their business, Joshua has said "we didn't want Little Havana Café to be just another food truck where you can get a regular cup of coffee. We made a very conscious choice to be as authentic as possible while sneaking in sustainable and organic ingredients where we can, right down the the build of the trailer and all of its repurposed materials."

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 In this episode, we talk all about Monica’s early life along with some important cultural identities she connects with, and how that’s shaped her passion and desire to run the café. We explore the roles that coffee has played for Cubans in Miami, break down what organic foods means to Cubans, and the ways in which she’s brought the some of the magic from her summers in Miami up north to Toronto through her coffee. So curl up with a good cafecito and check out the episode here in the player above, or on any major listening platform of your choice!

 

Get social with Little Havana Cafe!

Instagram: @littlehavanacafe

Facebook: @littlehavanacafe

Website: littlehavanacafe.ca

Resources Mentioned:

Afro-Latina Dance @ The Junction

Facebook Group: Cuba in Toronto

Lula Lounge Toronto