Two Chefs. Two Foodways. One Shared Table.
Presented by Maple Leaf Foods, Presenting Sponsor: Independent Restaurants Day
Independent restaurants are where food culture stays alive—because they’re built on relationships: to place, to community, to memory, and to the people who show up hungry for something real. On Independent Restaurants Day, one session is designed to slow the room down and make space for exactly that kind of connection.
Two Chefs. Two Foodways. One Shared Table is a collaborative cook-through and conversation featuring Chef Chris Commandant and Chef Moeen Abuzaid. The collaboration will bring Indigenous and Arabic cuisines together—not as “fusion,” but as a shared table rooted in land, lived experience, and the ways food carries identity forward.
Not a mash-up. A meeting point.
This session is as much about storytelling as it is about technique. As the chefs cook, they’ll move through persoalized ingredients and methods, surfacing thoughtful links between traditions.
Set ahead of The Chefs’ Exchange, the cook-through establishes a tone of collaboration that’s increasingly familiar across restaurants and bars—seen in pop-ups, co-chef nights, shared plates, and kitchens, and cultures that open their doors to one another.
Chef Chris Commandant: Cooking as sovereignty, teaching as service.
Chef Chris Commandant, Executive Director, Indigenous Culinary of Associated Nations, is a member of the Kanienkeha Wahta Mohawks First Nations community near Bala, Ontario. His work is rooted in the preservation and sharing of Indigenous culinary traditions and teachings—especially around food sovereignty, food security, and traditional cooking methods. With classical culinary training, he blends Haudenosaunee cuisine with contemporary technique, creating refined interpretations inspired by the Muskoka region and the memories it holds for him.
His current interests point to where independent restaurants are heading: sustainability, and the reclamation of food that can be transformed and used to feed those in need—a lens that blends practicality with responsibility.
Chef Moeen Abuzaid: Heritage-forward cooking, built for the realities of now.
Chef Moeen Abuzaid, Executive Chef and Owner of Arbequina Restaurant, brings a different—but deeply compatible—perspective to the table.
Based in Toronto, Abuzaid’s cooking draws from Arabic flavours shaped by his upbringing in Amman, Jordan, refined through more than a decade in New York City kitchens, and now grounded in local, seasonal Canadian ingredients at Arbequina in Roncesvalles Village. His craft has been recognized by the Michelin Guide, and his approach is thoughtful, sustainable, and rooted in heritage—without losing a sense of forward motion.
Two Chefs. Two Foodways. One Shared Table.
Presented by Maple Leaf Foods
Monday, March 9 | RC Pop Up Experience – The Chefs’ Table | Hall 1 | 2:00 – 3:00 PM
Get the full session details here.