The best made-in-Toronto food and drinks

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Big Mac

Matty Matheson’s new food line includes four flavours of boxed mac and cheese, but Cracked Pep Pep—ditalini in a peppery white cheddar sauce—is the best of the bunch. Perfect for a quick late-night cacio e pepe fix. $4

Umami Dearest

Pay Chen recommends: Chef Marvin Palomo’s XOXO sauce reimagines the iconic condiment—a savoury blend of dried seafood, chilies and fermented black beans—with three kinds of shrimp. $19

Cool Cucumbers

Pay Chen recommends: Crunchy and garlicky with a hint of sweetness, the oi-kkakdugi from Kimchi Korea House is the ticking clock of cucumber banchan. It’s best devoured within two days of opening—and those are owner Michelle “Mama” Lee’s orders. $10

Hot Potatoes

Chef Anthony Rose recommends: Pally’s sweet, salty and ultra-crunchy kettle chips (from Woofdawg’s sausage king, Stephen Payne) have cult snack potential and pair perfectly with summer picnics. $3-$5

Mellow Yellow

Barrel-churned from grass-fed Ontario Jersey cow cream, St. Brigid’s Creamery’s golden blocks are 84 per cent butter fat and made for melting—ideally on something fresh from the oven. $14

Cherry Pick

Chef Steven Molnar recommends: Studded with tart organic cherries, this 65 per cent bar from ChocoSol balances bright fruit, sea salt and rich stone-ground chocolate. It’s bold, not bitter—and just the right amount of sweet. $10

Lucky Cloves

Chef Missy Hui recommends: Manning Canning’s fiery and fragrant Angry Pickled Garlic is delicious stirred into pasta, folded into egg salad or tossed on a charcuterie board. For a truly bold move, skewer one as a martini garnish. $9

Inside Scoop

Chef Patrick Kriss recommends: Ruru Baked’s Honeycomb Cereal Milk ice cream, a custard-rich flavour made with sponge toffee, is a deluxe grown-up treat that channels Saturday-morning cartoons. $14

Tap That

Restaurateur Jen Agg recommends: Forbes Wild Foods harvests this dark and complex syrup from Goderich-area maple trees. No chemicals, no shortcuts— just smoky brilliance in a bottle. It’s the pinot noir of pancake toppers. $12

Beet It

Made with Humera sesame seeds—an Ethiopian variety prized for their natural sweetness and high oil content—this stone-milled tahini from Parallel gets an earthy kick and magenta glow from powdered beets. $9

Batter Up

Chef Craig Wong recommends: Think Bisquick, but with a conscience. STAC(S) original pancake mix doesn’t contain any weird additives, just fluffy flip-and-go goodness. Plus, a portion of the proceeds from each box goes to food banks and youth programs. $14

Hot Stuff

Chef Patrick Kriss recommends: Papaya, coconut milk and scotch bonnets come together in Mado’s pepper sauce, which is smooth, sunny and just spicy enough to wake up tastebuds. No Hot Ones–style heroics (or milk) required. $11

Bubbled Waters

Chef Mikey Kim recommends: Barbet is sparkling water with spritz appeal—no booze required. Bold blends like Deep Dive (peach, yuzu, mint) and Love Bite (grapefruit, ginger, juniper) bring the party, minus the proof. $38 for a 12-pack

Tasteful Noods

Two ingredients, three shapes. Sundays Pasta Lab’s fresh casarecce, campanelle and rigatoni—all made with just semolina and water—are stage-five sauce clingers. $6

Flour Power

Liberty Village bakery Brodflour has its own mill that grinds organic Canadian grains (Red Fife, rye, spelt, einkorn) on-site. The flour is fragrant, nutrient-rich and so fresh it belongs in the fridge, not the pantry. $7 to $9 per kilogram

Open Sesame

Chef Missy Hui recommends: Okazu’s curry miso is the pantry MVP you didn’t know you needed. The blend of organic miso, sesame oil, turmeric and cumin is a curry-kissed umami bomb. $15

The Real Dill

Chef Anthony Rose recommends: Tymek’s pickles—naturally fermented, unpasteurized, and made with Ontario cucumbers, whole garlic and half the salt of the average jar—are probiotic-packed perfection. $7

Italo Pop

Bartender James Grant recommends: First fizzed in 1950s Toronto, Brio blends bitter Italian chinotto into a cola-adjacent soda with herbal swagger vouched for by both nonnos and bartenders. $16 for a 12-pack

Cut the Mustard

Creamy, bold and made entirely from Canadian mustard seed, Kozlik’s dijon has stayed true to its recipe for over 60 years. Grey Poupon wishes it had this kind of bite. $7

Boss Sauce

A Corso Italia institution since 1960, Tre Mari’s jarred tomato-basil sauce tastes like it came straight from Nonna’s stovetop—and it basically did, because it’s straight from Nonna Mary Deleo’s recipe book. $9

King of the Grill

This Southern-style barbecue sauce gets depth from molasses, brightness from tomato paste and earthy heat from mustard bran. From Lawrence LaPianta, the pitmaster behind Cherry Street Bar-B-Que’s three Bib Gourmand nods, it’s a condiment with clout. $10

Taco the Town

Some of the city’s top Mexican kitchens roll with Maizal’s nixtamalized corn tortillas. They make Old El Paso taste like styrofoam. $6 for a half-kilo