Toronto’s Best Empanadas

Chef Steve Gonzalez’s picks

If there’s one thing that gets chef Steve Gonzalez going, it’s an empanada. “I can eat them any time day or night,” the Petty Cash and Baro chef says. “It’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.”

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

Latin Taste

Over at Kensington’s petite Latin Taste stand, chef-owner Lorena Ramos dishes out homey Argentinian and Uruguayan food. “They make these things called pasqualina — literally like a large format empanada that’s stuffed with spinach and egg,” Gonzalez says. Devoid of spices other than a simple salt ‘n’ pep combo, Gonzalez…

Forno Cultura

“I'll eat anything from Forno Cultura at any given time,” says Gonzalez of King Street’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 mess…

Bitondo’s Pizzeria

And then there’s Bitondo’s. Chef Gonzalez heads to this Little Italy stalwart when he’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 “A dirty, fried, cheesy thing — it is…

Jumbo Empanadas

Jumbo Empanadas does Chilean style empanadas. When here, Gonzalez always orders the beef one. “They’re delicious,” 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. “A lot of time people that make…

El Almacen

Gonzalez heads to El Almacen on Queen West when he’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.…