A Taste of Home, Away from Home
Robert Michon Manager, Communications, ARTA
As multicultural Canadians, our diverse culinary traditions are an effective and delicious way to showcase our heritage and to pass it on to future generations.
But have you ever met someone from the same country as your ancestors and found that your tastes didn’ t quite line up? That was the reality for ARTA members Gordon and Cathie Gordey, along with many other Canadians with Ukrainian heritage, when Canada began welcoming large numbers of Ukrainians seeking safety from the full-scale Russian invasion of their country beginning in 2022.
Gordon and Cathie have long been involved in the Ukrainian community in Canada, and they were eager to step in and help when newcomers started arriving. But they quickly discovered, as many did, that their idea of authentic Ukrainian food differed from that of the Ukrainian newcomers they were meeting. Earlier this year, the couple paid a visit to DON’ YA Ukraine’ s Kitchen, a restaurant in Edmonton that is staffed entirely by newcomers. They were invited into the kitchen to chat with the women working there about food, while doing one of the most Ukrainian activities possible— pinching perogy dough to seal the filling inside.
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