What to know
- AYLA is inviting Torontonians to submit a meaningful family recipe along with the memories, people and traditions connected to it.
- Chef and co-owner Kevin Shawcross says the idea was inspired by simple meals shared with his grandparents and his belief that food can transport people to another time or place.
- The restaurant will select the submission that connects with its team the most and reinterpret the recipe with some of AYLA’s own culinary style.
- AYLA hopes to invite the selected person or family to the restaurant for dinner, conversation and a chance to try its version of their cherished meal.
A Toronto restaurant is inviting the public to dig through old recipe boxes, family group chats and memories around the dinner table for a chance to see one of their most meaningful dishes reimagined on its menu.
AYLA, located on the second floor at 794 Dundas St. W., has launched a call-out for your family recipes — a community storytelling project asking people to submit a treasured family recipe and explain the person, tradition, or place connected to it.
The restaurant will select one submission and create its own take on the recipe. The finished dish will be shared on AYLA’s social media channels and served at the restaurant for a limited time.
“At AYLA, food has always been a way for us to tell stories about where we’ve been, the people who have shaped us, and the cultures and flavours we carry with us,” Kevin Shawcross, chef and co-owner at AYLA, told Now Toronto.
“Now we want to turn that around and hear the stories of the people who come through our doors and the community around us.”
The idea began with memories of his grandparents
Shawcross says the project grew from memories of his grandparents and the meals they shared with their family.
“My grandparents were not wealthy by any stretch, but I always remember the experiences being rich with food and people gathering around the table to eat and laugh,” he said.
Some of his most meaningful food memories are connected to dishes that were not elaborate or made with expensive ingredients. One involves picking wild berries with his grandmother, who would serve them to Shawcross and his cousins with warm cream and sugar for dessert.
The dish was simple, he says, but it came from a place of love.
Shawcross also remembers his grandfather preparing beef bourguignon using whatever canned vegetables and meat he had available. It may not have been fancy, but Shawcross says it has never tasted better.
“We believe that food is something that can transport you to a time, a place or a memory,” he said.
Those experiences led the AYLA team to think about the recipes and memories carried by the people who visit the restaurant every day. While its menu has allowed the team to tell its own stories, Shawcross says the restaurant now wants to give its community an opportunity to do the same.
AYLA wants more than a list of ingredients
Submissions can range from a grandmother’s signature dish and a meal prepared every Sunday to a recipe passed between generations or adapted so many times that a family has made it entirely its own.
The recipe does not need to be polished or professionally written. In fact, the restaurant appears especially interested in the recipes that are difficult to recreate precisely — the ones made from memory, recorded without the exact measurements or scribbled on an old piece of paper.
However, AYLA is placing just as much importance on the history surrounding the food as it is on the recipe itself.
Through its online submission form, it is asked to identify the dish and explain who the recipe came from, whether that is a grandparent, aunt, parent, cousin, family friend or the person submitting it. They are also encouraged to share the smaller details that make the recipe special, including family traditions, disagreements over the proper method, shortcuts, secret ingredients or instructions that were never written down.
Another section asks submitters to describe the flavours, textures and aromas they associate with the food, along with the people who would normally be sitting around the table and the other dishes that might be served beside it.
Old recipe cards and family photos can be submitted
People can upload a photograph of the original recipe card, cookbook page, handwritten note or even a text message containing the instructions. Those without a written copy can simply describe how the dish is made.
The form also allows residents to submit photos of the finished food, the person behind the recipe or their family eating it together. Up to five files can be attached to each of the two upload sections.
Once a story is chosen, AYLA will bring the dish into what it calls the “world of AYLA,” interpreting the recipe through the restaurant’s own culinary style while recognizing the people and memories behind the original recipe.
The initiative connects closely with AYLA’s identity. The restaurant primarily draws from Hong Kong cuisine and the different cultural influences carried by its founders, who first met in Hong Kong.
The selected family could be invited to AYLA
In the coming days, the restaurant will review the submissions and select the story that connects with the team the most.
Shawcross says AYLA will then try to do the recipe justice while adding some of the restaurant’s own style to its interpretation.
If the selected person or family is available, the restaurant hopes to invite them for dinner and a conversation—and, of course, give them the opportunity to try AYLA’s version of their cherished meal.
For the chosen family, the project will offer more than the chance to have a familiar dish served at a Toronto restaurant. It will also give a personal recipe, the person who created it, and the memories attached to it a new audience.
“Every recipe tells a story,” AYLA said in its Instagram announcement. “We want to hear yours.”
