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Toronto’s Best Empanadas

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Chef Steve Gonzalez’s picks

If thereโ€™s one thing that gets chef Steve Gonzalez going, itโ€™s an empanada. โ€œI can eat them any time day or night,โ€ the Petty Cash and Baro chef says. โ€œItโ€™s funny cause I didn’t really grow up eating baked empanadas. What I ate when I was a kid was deep-fried, Colombian style.โ€

While he does serve his own deep-fried rendition at Baro โ€” a beef, pea and potato-stuffed affair โ€” Gonzalez is forever sniffing out more empanadas and empanada-like dishes around town. Hereโ€™s his list of the top five crushable foods wrapped in a crust.

Latin Taste

Over at Kensingtonโ€™s petite Latin Taste stand, chef-owner Lorena Ramos dishes out homey Argentinian and Uruguayan food. โ€œThey make these things called pasqualina โ€” literally like a large format empanada thatโ€™s stuffed with spinach and egg,โ€ Gonzalez says. Devoid of spices other than a simple salt โ€˜nโ€™ pep combo, Gonzalezโ€ฆ

Forno Cultura

โ€œI'll eat anything from Forno Cultura at any given time,โ€ says Gonzalez of King Streetโ€™s subterranean Italian bakery. Here, chef orders the calzone, which is available every Friday through Sunday. Inside a baked shell, its guts are composed of whatever the kitchen is feeling, be it sopressata, a dreamy messโ€ฆ

Bitondoโ€™s Pizzeria

And then thereโ€™s Bitondoโ€™s. Chef Gonzalez heads to this Little Italy stalwart when heโ€™s in the mood for one of their panzarotti. Holding tomato sauce and cheese within its baked crust, the panzarotti can be spruced up with whatever toppings customers desire โ€œA dirty, fried, cheesy thing โ€” it isโ€ฆ

Jumbo Empanadas

Jumbo Empanadas does Chilean style empanadas. When here, Gonzalez always orders the beef one. โ€œTheyโ€™re delicious,โ€ he says of the traditional empanada that comes filled with a beefy mixture containing black olives, raisins, onion and hard-boiled egg, all housed in a baked crust. โ€œA lot of time people that makeโ€ฆ

El Almacen

Gonzalez heads to El Almacen on Queen West when heโ€™s hunting down an Argentinian-style baked empanada. Co-owner Estela Rodriguez makes five kinds of empanadas: three meat and two veg. Carnivore-friendly options come stuffed with beef, chicken, or ham and cheese; veg versions hold spinach and mozza or just plain corn.โ€ฆ
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