gather around the table with friends and family. It is a moment of connection, with many elements: the soil and animals that provide the food, the people who harvest, the people who cook, and the people around us nurturing our souls.
Casa London: How would you describe a culinary scene of London? How do you think it will evolve?
Ali: I totally wouldn’t consider myself and expert (yet). But from what I've noticed since I moved here, we have a LOT of great talent in our kitchens and we're surrounded by great farmers producing delicious food in Southwestern Ontario. I'm confident that we can propel our city to be known as a great food city. We just need to encourage more people to support our local businesses and spread awareness about how great we are. It's not that we are not good enough; it's that people just haven’t discovered us...yet. As every good thing in life, it will take time to drive people from other cities to London, but every little bit counts. We hope this cookbook will start a movement that will spread across the province. Our chefs are ready to up their game, but they need to feel the community’s support to go beyond their limits.
Casa London: What is in the future for Forest City Cookbook? Have you thought about next part of the project or even about some spin-off project?
Ali: The Forest City Cookbook will be a one-time craft (exclusive) edition, where we will only print the quantity of books that we pre-sell by the end of 2017. So the future of the cookbook, in terms of availability, will be very limited. The cookbook itself, I hope it will be something to treasure for many years to come in as many London homes as possible. We expect this cookbook to be a physical proof of the power of food and how we can achieve great things if we all work together and help each other. We expect it to be a work of art, a culinary tour guide, a representation of the past and the present and an inspirational piece that will motivate people to reconnect with their food and where it comes from. Food is love and it is special, as this cookbook will be too!
I haven't thought much about what comes after this project, so I think I will just let it flow and see what happens. What I do know, is that it will be definitely related to food!
Casa London: What have you to say to potential buyers? What differs Forest City Cookbook from other culinary books?