LCBO Food & Drink Spring 2022

WONDER WOMEN

CHESTER SUGGESTS SERVING LANEWAY NO 33 GIN (LCBO 19443, $98.95) ON THE ROCKS, AND CHIN RECOMMENDS PAIRING ITWITHHER JUNIPER-CURED SALMON (RECIPE P. 109) TO COAX OUT THE SPIRIT’S COMPLEXITY.

MORE SPIRITED WOMEN

Jessica Chester Co-founder of Laneway Distillers, Toronto Sisters in Spirit

Melissa Bernais, distiller, Paradigm Spirits After a decade spent working in tech, Bernais followed her dream, becoming a distiller at this woman-­ owned London, Ont., distillery.

Even though Jessica Chester is known amongst friends and family for her love of complex gins, the vodka-based Cosmopol- itan was the cocktail that gave her a “lightbulb” moment. It was in Manhattan, as Chester sat at a bar and watched the staff mix up her first proper, legal mixed drink. “I realized that what I was getting was the bartender’s time and skill at balancing flavours,” she says.

Years later, she found her- self bonding with neighbour Reagan Soucie, who she met in the laneway behind their houses in west-end Toronto, where she moved after years working in New York and London. Before long, the dynamic duo went on, in September 2020, to launch Laneway Distillers. Chester, born in England, says she and partner- in-gin Soucie, who hails from Northern Ontario, challenge

each other in all the right ways— including dreaming big, which is part of the reason their portfolio is so ambitious: two gins, a vodka and a gin-based liqueur, so far. “I’ve been called aggressive, something I’ve started to think of as a compliment.... If I’d been a man, I would have been called ‘passionate,’” she says. “I think Ontario has amazing opportuni- ties, but you have to be fearless to make the most of them.”

Miranda Drexler, part-time distiller, Dixon’s Distilled Spirits Although Drexler has a day job in real estate, she still spends plenty of time at the Guelph distillery where, at 20, she started as a distill- ing apprentice.

Hawaiian-born Eva Chin has cooked her way around the world, but at the heart of her cuisine is the farm in Oahu where she grew up. There, her grandmother taught her about the land and how to communicate through food, something that Chester heard loud and clear when she first dined at Momofuku’s Ko¯jin (Chin’s previous restaurant) and immediately became her biggest fan. Eva Chin Executive chef, Avling Kitchen and Brewery, Toronto Farm-to-Table

JESSICA CHESTER BY KATIA TAYLOR PHOTOGRAPHY; MELISSA BERNAIS BY PARADIGM SPIRITS BY CHRISTINE REID

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SPRING 2022 FOOD & DRINK