What is The Local Café?

The Local Café is a roving cafe and bakery. We supply food at markets, festivals, cafes and through catering.

Our food is made from scratch and is simple and tasty. We source from farmers and producers in Southern Ontario, and through distributors that provide fair trade imports.

Most of the ingredients we purchase are certified organic. If an ingredient we have chosen to use is not organic it is because we have come to know the producer and admire their work.

Who is The Local Café?

The Local Cafe is made up of me, carole ferrari: proprietor, cook and conduit; Jennifer Helpern: designer and super organized coordinator; and Lisa Harris: markets and festivals leader.

I was born in Monte Carlo, Monaco, and raised in Monaco, South Africa, the United States and Canada by chef/resteraunteur parents. I have worked in the family restaurant from the time I was a toddler. Back then it was peeling garlic and grinding tomatoes. Now, to this day actually, it's running the kitchen of my mother's restaurant, Chez Laurent Restaurant, a 19 year old neighbourhood institution in North Toronto.

Over the years I have learned a lot about food, Not only through my family but particularly through various food jobs at markets, other restaurants and cafes, a dairy, an international conservation organization, a food security organization and through international volunteer opportunities and internships. But mostly I have learned about food through extensive travel in Central America, Sub-Saharan Africa, Western Europe, Vietnam and north and eastern Canada, particularly the James Bay Region. These are the times when I got to taste, question and participate in different people's food lives. In university I studied food systems and development, and philosophy at the University of Guelph and Mount Allison University.

Because I grew up in restaurants I come to the world with formidable skill in the kitchen and an innate ability to run a small food business. I find the small business model the most comfortable to work in and I identify with the sense of pride that comes from running your own show. And of course, the autonomy of having one's own business is empowering and really really great. That's partly why I started The Local Cafe.

From a very young age, maybe from being involved with food in both wealthy and impoverished places, I have been very worried and angry about the violence of hunger and malnourishment and their causes. This feeling has been the most powerful motivation of my life and it governs the direction of The Local Cafe. The Local Cafe exists to help mitigate hunger and malnourishment and to perpetuate healthy, viable and sustainable livelihoods. Our pricing formula, purchasing practices, and service options are guided by this purpose, and we are always working to figure out effective ways to do this better through the business.

Thanks for visiting! Please get in touch if you have any questions. My email is carole@thelocalcafe.ca, and my phone number is 416-534-0454.