When the pandemic put the brakes on travel, Aashim Aggarwal came up with a workaround.
Just because the India-born, Canada-raised digital marketer couldn’t go anywhere didn’t mean his taste buds had to be grounded. Aggarwal set out on a mission to try food from every country — without leaving his hometown, Toronto.
“I just started getting takeout from all these different places,” Aggarwal said. “It was my way of traveling without traveling.”
At 94 countries and counting, Aggarwal is still eating his way around the world, no passport required. That’s not difficult to do in Toronto, one of the most diverse places on the planet. Half of the residents of this fast-growing metropolis — the fourth-most populous city in North America after Mexico City, New York and LA — were born outside of Canada.
A magnet for immigrants, Toronto boasts a deep bench of multicultural neighborhoods, each adding its own flavor and flair to the city’s 15,000-plus restaurants. It doesn’t have one Chinatown. It has three. More, if you include the suburbs. And lots of “Littles.” Little Jamaica. Little India. Little Italy. Little Tibet.
“There are all these enclaves of different communities … and you really see it reflected in the food,” said Toronto native and “Top Chef” judge Gail Simmons.
“Top Chef” producers picked Toronto as the main setting for the cooking competition’s 22nd season, debuting March 13 on Bravo. Three of the 15 contestants are from Chicago: Zubair Mohajir of Lilac Tiger, Coach House and Mirra; César Murillo of North Pond; and Bailey Sullivan of Monteverde.
During an interview in September on the “Top Chef” set, Simmons seemed downright giddy about being back in her old stomping grounds. She left Toronto 25 years ago to move to New York.
“Living in Canada, I always felt like we were the underdogs, the quiet ones compared to our louder neighbors to the south,” Simmons said. “But I think Canada has become a little louder and prouder lately, especially about its food. From a culinary standpoint, Toronto is booming.”
The Michelin Guide began sprinkling its coveted stars on the city’s restaurants in 2022. Michelin inspectors expanded their scope last year to include the greater Toronto region. A total of 100 restaurants representing 30 types of cuisine were singled out by Michelin in 2024.
One of the newcomers to snag a Michelin star is DaNico, a sexy, special-occasion spot housed in a former bank. Italian chef Daniele Corona uses truffles, mushroom extract and a rich, aged parmesan sauce to take staples like spaghettoni, a thicker form of spaghetti, to next-level goodness.
Another Michelin-starred gem sits just across the street. Quetzal specializes in high-end Mexican dishes; think dry-aged amberjack aguachile and smoky bone marrow served with shrimp and tortillas fresh off the clay comal. Almost everything on Quetzal’s menu is cooked over a wood fire. If you want an up-close view of the flames in the open kitchen (and you do), reserve a seat at the chef’s bar.
Michelin put 61 Toronto restaurants on its “Recommended” list, including a local comfort-food favorite. Maha’s Egyptian brunch is the edible equivalent of a warm hug. This family-run spot in Toronto’s Leslieville neighborhood serves Cairo classics like a velvety fava bean stew tricked out with crisp falafel, boiled egg, creamy feta and charred flatbread.
“It’s all the food I used to make for my children,” said Maha’s eponymous matriarch, Maha Barsoom, who immigrated to Toronto in 2000 with her two young kids in tow. Her daughter, Monika Wahba, now runs the kitchen and was a competitor on “Top Chef Canada.”
For the culinarily curious who are short on time, head downtown to Kensington Market. It’s not a market, per se, but an eclectic microvillage that’s long been a landing pad for immigrants. In addition to the hipster vibes, vintage clothing shops and artsy graffiti, there is all sorts of cuisine.
“With all this diversity, the food scene here can be a bit overwhelming,” said Christen James, whose job is to help visitors get a taste of Toronto. The Culinary Adventure Co. guide led me and a family from New York on a walking — and eating — tour of Kensington Market and neighboring Chinatown.
Over the course of three hours, we sampled Vietnamese spring rolls, charcuterie, vegan cookies and a dim sum spread at Rol San Restaurant, where you shouldn’t be allowed to leave without trying the deep-fried pumpkin balls filled with egg yolk custard.
Like many Torontonians, James hails from the Caribbean. (Toronto Caribbean Carnival, also known as Caribana, draws more than 1 million attendees each summer.) She was born in Trinidad and Tobago. And she made sure we tried a Toronto staple with Caribbean roots: Jamaican patties, a flaky pastry traditionally stuffed with well-seasoned ground beef.
“Everyone in Toronto has their favorite patty place,” James said as we ate our fresh-baked patties on the sidewalk outside the aptly named Crumbs. The gourmet patty shop’s croissant-like crusts also come filled with chicken curry and mixed vegetables.
Aggarwal, who dubbed his quest to eat food from every country in Toronto the Global Eats Challenge, leads food tours, too. That side hustle grew out of his robust social media following. A combined 150,000 TikTok and Instagram users tag along on his culinary adventures.
“My most popular tours are when people just say, ‘Aashim, take the wheel,’” he said. “I just pick the spots I think they’ll like.”
Aggarwal took me to Tre Mari Bakery for its famed cannoli made with unusual flavor combos, like blue cheese, fig and orange. We kept the Italian theme going with Bronte pistachio granita at Futura and a thick stack of breaded veal cutlets flanked by a kaiser bun at California Sandwiches.
We shot over to Loga’s Corner in Little Tibet for steamed beef dumplings, or momos, drizzled with bright orange hot sauce.
“There’s probably 25 momo spots within a kilometer of here,” Aggarwal said. “But these are my favorite. The wrapper is so silky.”
For Toronto’s signature patties, we went to Little Jamaica and joined the line of customers that stretched down the block at Randy’s. This legendary joint closed during the pandemic but came back, by popular demand, last summer.
“Look at that molten filling,” Aggarwal said, gingerly tearing the beef-filled turnover in half, unleashing an aroma of savory spices.
“I pretty much ate a patty every day from grade seven to grade 12,” he said.
His eyes widened when I told him this was my first one — ever.
“Really?” he said, smiling like a dad who just taught his kid how to ride a bike. “I love introducing people to food they don’t know. And there’s no better place to do that than Toronto.”
Lori Rackl is a freelancer.
