Latest news with #Australian-inspired
CBC
19-04-2025
- Business
- CBC
Vegemite can stay on Ontario cafe chain's shelves for now, Canadian food regulators say
Social Sharing An Ontario café chain has scored a win in its fight with Canadian food regulators to keep selling Vegemite at its stores. Earlier this year, the Canadian Food Inspection Agency (CFIA) told Leighton Walters, an Australian-Canadian dual citizen who owns the Found Coffee chain located in Toronto and Guelph, that the batch of Vegemite he'd imported to sell at his stores was non-compliant with Health Canada regulations. That put roughly $8,000 worth of Vegemite, which Walters has already paid for, in jeopardy. But in an email to CBC News sent late Friday, the federal agency says a health risk assessment from Health Canada has since determined that the level of risk to human health from the added vitamins in Vegemite is low when consumed in suggested serving sizes. "As such, the CFIA will work with the importer to allow the product to be sold in the short-term, including revised labeling, while we collaborate with Health Canada, the manufacturer, and the importer, to find a longer-term plan for Vegemite sales across Canada." Ordered to take Vegemite off shelves Walters had been importing jars of the Australian staple for five years to offer at his Australian-inspired cafes. "It's an iconic Australian product ... we've been so proud to serve it to thousands and tens of thousands of Australians, Canadians, travelers and tourists," he told CBC Toronto last week. WATCH | Toronto café owner fights to keep Vegemite on his shelves: Australian owner of Toronto café chain fighting Ottawa to save $8K of Vegemite 5 days ago Duration 2:13 But he recently stopped selling the product after Canadian regulators flagged his latest shipment of Vegemite from Australia because the spread is enriched with Vitamin B, which is only permitted in certain products in Canada. Walters also told CBC Toronto that CFIA has also ordered him to destroy the Vegemite he removed from his shelves, but an agency spokesperson denied that in an email, saying Walter was only ordered to remove it from his shelves. After going public with his story last week, and contacting the Australian Trade and Investment Commission for help, he gained the support of Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese. In a post to X Friday, Albanese said his government had discussed the issue with Canadian officials and thanked them for allowing Walters to have Vegemite back on the menu. "This is a win for Australian industry, but it's also a win for those people in Canada who get to enjoy this wonderful product that is so much a part of Australian culture and indeed, Australian pride as well," he said.
CBC
14-04-2025
- Business
- CBC
Australian owner of Toronto café chain fighting Ottawa to save $8K of Vegemite
It's hard to get any further from Australia than downtown Toronto, so for a dual-citizen like Leighton Walters, the quickest way to be transported home is to take a bite of Vegemite on toast. The yeasty spread, made from the byproduct of beer production, is hard to find in Canada, but back in Walters' home country, it's part of the national fabric. For five years, he says he's been importing jars of the stuff to offer at Found Coffee, his chain of Australian-inspired cafés in Toronto. Until recently, Found Coffee sold jars of Vegemite directly to customers, who could also order Vegemite on toast or pastries with the spread baked in. "I grew up as a Vegemite kid ... eating it for breakfast every second day," Walters told CBC Toronto. "It's an iconic Australian product ... we've been so proud to serve it to thousands and tens of thousands of Australians, Canadians, travelers and tourists." But earlier this year, Canadian regulators flagged his latest shipment of Vegemite, which is only produced in Australia. After inspection, they told Walters he would have to pull the item. The reason behind the decision has left Walters — and the local expat community that buys his imports — frustrated and confused. "Pulling Vegemite off our shelves hits at the core and the heart of our brand," he said. "It would be similar to a Canadian entrepreneur moving to Australia, starting an amazing poutine shop and then bringing in this beautiful, sort of high quality, unique maple syrup from Canada, and then the Australian government turning around and saying, 'No you can't serve that maple syrup because the trees weren't in a controlled environment when they were tapped' or 'They're too sweet.'" It's also put roughly $8,000 worth of Vegemite, which Walters has already paid for, in jeopardy. Food authority says import not up to Canadian standards Emails provided to CBC Toronto by Walters show that the Canadian Food Inspection Agency (CFIA) told him in January that the batch of Vegemite was non-compliant with Health Canada regulations. "The Vegemite product being sold was found to have added vitamins which are not permitted in this product as per the Food and Drug Regulations and is therefore not permitted to be sold in Canada," a CFIA spokesperson told CBC Toronto in an email. "As a result, the café was informed of the non-compliance and voluntarily removed the product from its menu and retail offerings." Some products, like cereals, white flour and certain juices and milks, may be sold with added vitamins under Canada's Food and Drug Regulations, but spreads and condiments aren't included in the list. All Vegemite products are fortified with Vitamin B, according to the product's website, suggesting no Vegemite products should be permitted to be sold in Canada. That's not the case though. It's still available to purchase at specialty retailers around the country and is sold online by Amazon Canada. CFIA confirmed in its email that Vegemite is not banned in Canada. CBC Toronto followed up with CFIA for clarification on why Vegemite is generally permitted for sale despite appearing to contradict regulations, but did not hear back before publication. Walters notes that Marmite, a similar spread made in the U.K. that also has added vitamins, was explicitly deemed a legal product for import by CFIA in 2020, after a shipment was mistakenly rejected that year. But a spokesperson for Health Canada said in an email that the addition of vitamins is limited to certain foods "to help ensure that Canadians get sufficient but not excessive amounts of certain nutrients in their diet." "Some food manufacturers choose to produce products for import that meet Canadian regulations so that they may be legally sold in Canada," said spokesperson Charlaine Sleiman. She said Vegemite sold in Canada must be altered to meet regulations. Walters says the regulations are personal to him for another reason. He suffers from spina bifida, and research suggests that folate, a type of Vitamin B that is added to Vegemite, taken during pregnancy reduces the risk of a child being born with the condition. Indeed, he spoke with CBC Toronto from his hospital room, where he's recovering from surgery — his 65th hospital admission. "To some Vegemite is Vegemite, but to me it's more about trying to make sure that no on else has to go through what I've been through with my life," he said. Australian expats question CFIA, say Vegemite is a staple food Walters says he decided to take Vegemite off his shelves to avoid any penalties while he fights the decision. He's also reached out to the Australian Trade and Investment Commission for help. In the meantime, many Australian expats among Walters' clientele have rallied around Found Coffee to question the CFIA. Ray Wood, who was born in Melbourne but has lived in Ontario since 2008, says Walters' story has been making the rounds on local Australian expat Facebook groups, garnering outrage and support from fellow transplants. He said he was baffled to learn Vegemite wasn't up to Canadian regulations and reached out to Walters immediately. "What the heck's going on? Vegemite's a national Australian icon," Wood said. "How could it suddenly be threatened like this?" He said Australians in the group are trying to spread the word, and ask why Walters' chain is being targeted, in hopes the decision will be overturned. "Why would the Canadian food authorities single out one store when the product is available everywhere, as are very similar products?" Wood said. Keane Scheffel, who's also originally from Melbourne and frequents Found Coffee on his morning commute, says he can't understand what CFIA is trying to protect Canadians from. "I don't see why it should be an issue," he said. "There's no need to stop it. It's something that Australians have eaten for a long, long time." He says he has enough Vegemite to last a while and isn't worried about running out any time soon, but he is worried about the hit that this could take on Walters' business.
The Guardian
16-02-2025
- Entertainment
- The Guardian
Don't Tell Dad: ‘It's a class act'
Don't Tell Dad, 10-14 Lonsdale Road, London NW6 6RD. Snacks and small plates £5-£14, large plates £18-£29, desserts £9, wines from £36 Don't Tell Dad in London's Queen's Park is a self-declared neighbourhood restaurant in a knowingly dishevelled neighbourhood. It sits on a part-cobbled, mews-style lane which was once home to stable blocks and very much looks like it. If you want to snoop at the red-rust frontage on Google Street View, however, you can't. It's a private street, through which Google's cars may never pass. Lonsdale Road, once the property of the Church Commissioners, is now owned by a single landlord, Feldberg Capital, which is gently turning it into an ever-so-random-on-purpose leisure destination. Josh Katz's Middle Eastern-influenced grill restaurant Carmel is here, as is the Australian-inspired Milk Beach and an outpost of Pizza Pilgrims, alongside a micro-brewery, a yoga studio, co-working spaces and a macrobiotic deli where they crochet their own fermented sea-vegetables. Perhaps I made the last one up. This reads like an eye-roll at the tastes of the infuriating, lotus-eating middle classes and the sort of businesses which pander to them. As I'm one of those infuriating people, I'm basically rolling my eyes at myself. Lonsdale Road has a lovely, rackety Copenhagen vibe and I would be thrilled if it were part of my neighbourhood. By day, Don't Tell Dad is a bakery serving brown butter hazelnut croissant, and pear and whisky Danish, by head baker Keren Sternberg, formerly of Layla. By night it is a restaurant serving many other things. It fits in here perfectly. The restaurant was founded by local Daniel Land, the former banker behind quick-service pasta chain Coco di Mama, and is named in memory of his sister Lesley, who died suddenly not long ago. As a child, Lesley was always good for skulduggery of which their parents should know nothing. She came up with plans and urged her brother not to tell dad. It's a sweet back story to a restaurant of innocent if serious pleasures; the kind only the most puritanical of fathers could find it in themselves to disapprove of. Anywhere which braises oxtail down until it is a sticky mess of uber-gravy-slicked meaty threads, tops a heap of it with dripping-fried breadcrumbs, and then puts all of that on a small crumpet and calls it a snack, is fine by me. A few years ago, perhaps pre-Covid, a restaurant like this in London would most likely have been found in what my kids call Central and I call the West End. (Sidebar: when did this change? How dare the young people come up with a name which makes so much more sense?) But the gravitational pull of the capital has shifted, from the middle to a little further out. Why drag into town if it can be avoided? It has the feel of somewhere you might stumble into and then out of again. There's an open kitchen, soft lighting, cosy banquettes and booths, and a beautiful tiled floor, all of it picking up the colours from outside, as if bathing you in the glow of a guttering hearth. The orange ducted ceiling is, like the music, low (gentle club beats in the dining room; showtunes by the loos). Try to get a table, rather than a seat at a counter. The curve-backed stools look comfortable, but aren't quite. No worries. An oxtail crumpet will quickly soothe the wriggling. Head chef Luke Frankie, formerly of Noble Rot and the Drapers Arms, has written a menu I'm going to call Cosmopolitan English: these are dishes which are both rooted very much in the here, but also reference over there. Among the small plates there's an impressively deep-filled crab tart of white and brown meat in a thin, flaky pastry shell, spun through with green herbs, which tastes like something straight out of Jane Grigson's cookbook English Food. But there is also a shuddering cairn of fritto misto which, with its inflated, glowing batter, is more Tokyo tempura than Italian antipasto. This one is announced as a fritto misto of winter vegetables, so you can feel good about your life choices, while celebrating the delicate art of deep-fat frying. There may have been slivers of squash and torn cabbage leaves hiding under the carapace. Who cares? It comes dribbled with a little honey, and dusted with chilli flakes. Abandon cutlery. This is work for fingers. As a foil against the fried goods, order the panzanella of impeccable, taut-skinned tomatoes with torn pieces of their own dense sourdough to soak up the dressing, topped with snowy fleshed fillets of fried sardine. It's a summer afternoon on the beach, here amid a London winter. After which Don't Tell Dad stops being one of those small-plates restaurants you've started whining to your tolerant friends about, and just serves up plates of dinner. A piece of sea bass, cooked so the bronze sear has edged deeper into the fillet, lies on a textured purée of nutty Jerusalem artichokes. Or there's what amounts to the whole of a thumping mallard, complete with shot, for an extremely keen £28: both legs, slow-cooked then crisped, and both breasts, spiced, roasted and rested. Cooking wild duck like this isn't something to which you can turn your hand. It takes experience to make sure it doesn't tense up as it cooks, like a Mastermind contestant in the black chair. The skin is dark and rendered, and there's a sweet carrot and date purée which is the ideal foil to the gamey meat. For salt there are bacon lardons. For greens there's kale. Like the crab tart, there is something very English about it, a pleasing whiff of damp field and meadow under glowering skies. For dessert they offer madeleines. Make sure to leave time because, just as at St John where I first came across this proposition, they will be baked to order. I watch the tray being slipped into the oven. They arrive 10 minutes later, hot and crisp-edged, with a little orange cream to drag them through. The wine list by Bert Blaize, author of the book Which Wine When, is concise, big on bottles by small producers and has a good choice by the glass and 500ml carafe. Have one each. Daniel Land, responsible for feeding a lot of City workers, has talked effusively about now wanting to create something for where he lives: an adaptable space that changes through the day. The result may not always be cheap. It may feel like a neighbourhood restaurant for well-heeled neighbours. But that doesn't change the fact that it's a class act. Trust me, this is one you can mention to your dad, and anyone else for that matter. The big news in the London restaurant world this week is the announcement that cult Leytonstone Thai restaurant Singburi will end its recent sabbatical by reopening in Shoreditch. The new venture, which has been described as Singburi 2.0, is a joint enterprise by head chef Sirichai Kularbwong (son of the original founders who have now retired), Nick Molyviatis of Kiln and Oma, and Alexander Gkikas of Catalyst. The new incarnation will open later in the spring. Meanwhile Shaun Moffat, formerly of Manteca in Shoreditch, and more recently of the Edinburgh Castle in Manchester's Ancoats and then Maya, is staying in the city to open a restaurant called Winsome on Princess Street. It will, he says, serve 'thoughtful British cooking'. He'll be joined in the business by Owain Williams, one of the team behind Liverpool's Belzan and more recently Medlock Canteen. The Midland Grand Dining Room at the St Pancras Renaissance Hotel, formerly the Gilbert Scott, is being taken over by Victor Garvey of Sola in Soho. 'A dining room of this stature deserves a menu that matches its grandeur,' Garvey has said, describing his plans for the room as 'Old world, new ideas, to honour the foundations of classical French cuisine while embracing modernity.' The opening menu includes tuna with white peach, duck with boudin noir and calvados apples, and guinea fowl with Armagnac prunes. Three courses will cost £75 and it opens on 25 February ( Email Jay at or follow him on Instagram @jayrayner1
