Chef Suzanne Barr’s Pumpkin Hummus

Suzanne Barr’s cooking hops across borders with enough ease to make us all jealous right now. The Toronto-born chef, whose name first popped onto our radar from behind the counter at the beloved Saturday Dinette, is as deft at whipping up oxtail stews and zucchini latkes as she is buckwheat flapjacks, five-napkin cheeseburgers and white-bean shakshuka. She cooks with an insatiable wanderlust—and a bottomless spice drawer to back it up. Like all great chefs, she brings something unexpected to even the most recognizable dish, which is why her signature pumpkin hummus was one of the highlights of her menu at True True Diner: it’s familiar, yet unlike anything you’ve ever shmeared on pita before—and perfectly on-point for the arrival of fall. She balances the sweetness of roasted buttercup squash and the nuttiness of tahini—the unheralded star of all great hummus. She adds in a few other twists that pay homage to her own culinary journey while respecting the integrity of the dish. Dishes like this are why True True Diner was named one of Toronto Life’s Best New Restaurants in 2020—a few months before it closed during the pandemic. Thankfully, you can learn how to make the dish at home.

Longo’s and Toronto Life will show you how when we go inside Barr’s kitchen on October 1 at 7PM, premiering on Toronto Life’s Facebook.