LCBO Food & Drink Travel 2025

CHEF’S DAY OFF

Playing Favourites Air Canada Signature Suite’s executive chef shares her top recent food and drink experiences.

BY JESSICA HURAS

Raised in Timmins, Ont., with the wilderness at her doorstep, chef Alison Parisi developed a deep appreciation for the local bounty that flourished around her—and a love for homegrown ingredients. These days, Parisi brings her locavore philosophy to life in the Air Canada Signature Suite at Toronto Pearson Airport, where she teams up with renowned chef David Hawksworth to create a fine-dining à la carte menu centred on Canadian ingredients. The duo partners with suppliers like 100km Foods, updating the menu twice a year to highlight the best of what’s in season. Here, she shares some of the food and drink she’s been enjoying lately. 1 Quetzal, Toronto They’ve had a Michelin star for 4 Flame + Smith, Bloomfield

three years in a row, and the head chef, Steven Molnar, is a former co-worker of mine. What they do is very unique. It’s Mexican cuisine, all cooked over fire, and they do it to such a high-quality level. They make their own tortillas and grind the corn for their masa in-house. quetzaltoronto.com 2 Botanist, Vancouver It’s a beautiful restaurant in the Fairmont Pacific Rim Hotel. Over the years, I’ve gotten to know some of their chefs, including exec utive chef Hector Laguna, who I used to work with at Nota Bene in Toronto. The food really piqued my curiosity, and they have an amazing bar team. They’ve won many awards, including recognition from Michelin. botanistrestaurant.com 3 Planta Queen, Toronto you don’t even notice you’re not eating meat. I like to try a little of everything and I’m always very full afterward. They turn fruit into sushi, so the watermelon looks like tuna, for example. It’s so fun. I love their dan dan noodles and truffle fried rice as well. plantarestaurants.com I love to hit up Planta Queen. The food is plant-based, but

It’s in Prince Edward County, which is a great place for food and drink in general. Everything is cooked over a flame in a wood burning oven, so they make crazy good steaks, and they’re into using local ingredients. Beyond the food, they’re big on sustain ability and supporting other local businesses, which I also like. flameandsmith.com

5 Famiglia Baldassarre, Toronto I have a true love for Italian food, and my favourite place for it in the city is Famiglia Baldassarre. They do lunch three days a week, and you have to get there early, but it’s so worth the wait. Any of their stuffed pastas are great, and I love their long noodle dishes like pappardelle or tagliatelle. famigliabaldassarre.com

I recently did a trip to Italy and travelled to Florence, Calabria, Rome and some smaller places in between. I loved trying the dishes each area is known for. In Calabria, for example, I had amazing seafood and shopped at local butchers for octopus and sea bream.

FOOD COURTESY OF FLAME + SMITH

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———————— TRAVEL 2025