Food stylist Jill Chen runs a luncheonette program called Freestyle Farm out of her photography studio, just west of Spadina Avenue on Richmond Street, each week. Every Monday to Friday since November of 2018, between the hours of 11 a.m. and 2 p.m., foodies across Toronto are able to place an order and pick up hot, handmade lunches straight from Chen’s in-house kitchen.
“I was always feeding clients lunches,” says Chen, “and I thought, why don’t I do dumplings on the side, for fun? I wanted to make use of the space and I’m cooking anyways, so why not?”
Chen quickly realized that her idea served a lunchtime need in a busy area, and so she signed up with the Ritual app in November this year. With companies like TouchBistro — which hosts around 300 employees on site — living in the same building as Freestyle Farm, business has been booming. Prices range from $4 – $13 for takeout only, and everything on offer is handmade by Chen herself. She also offers gluten-free dumplings for a small upcharge.
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Certain menu items are mainstays, like Chen’s popular scallion pancakes and Shanghai dumplings, but patrons might also arrive to freshly baked cookies, handmade pastas, or Chen’s homage to the now shuttered Spadina favourite, Jackpot Chicken.
Chen and her partner are also passionate about urban farming: they grow food year-round, experiment with aquaponics, and are cultivating an orchard at their Toronto home. While the output isn’t enough to sustain 5 weekly lunch menus, Chen likes to add ingredients from their constellation of urban farm projects where she can.
Freestyle Farm may have started as a side gig, but Chen’s passion for cooking what she loves is creating a lunchtime community in a fast-paced Toronto area. Her loyal customer base is expanding, and Chen even offers intermittent wonton and dumpling classes on the weekends where in addition to a homemade lunch, you get to take home what you fold.
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