Eatdrink #76 March/April 2019

12 | March/April 2019
tunes playing while we are busy baking and
serving up drinks and treats,” she says.
For the first four years the bakeshop
specialized in vegan desserts — mainly
cupcakes and mini-pies, along with a few
seasonal goodies — but recently added
savoury baked goods to the menu. “We always
wanted to expand our menu to include lunch
items, but we had space constraints,” says
Connon. “Since we moved to our new space
(on Adelaide Street at Princess Avenue) we
have a larger kitchen and, one year in, we are
ready to branch out.”
The first offering, a mushroom and
lentil pot pie, was an instant hit with both
vegan and non-vegan clients, she says, and
customers can expect to see more options
going forward. “The Boombox Bakeshop has
been shaped by the Old East Village and vegan
communities, and we will always be a vegan
shop — there is no meat, dairy or eggs on the
premises. Our goal is to make great tasting
vegan food for everyone to enjoy.”
Margaret Coons
Owner, Nuts for Cheese
“I started experimenting with nut cheeses
when I worked as a chef at the vegan
restaurant Veg Out,” says Margaret Coons,
owner and self-described “big cheese” at
Nuts for Cheese. “The restaurant kitchen was
actually my first production facility — I used
to rent it after the restaurant closed and stay
Margaret Coons
eatdrink.ca |@eatdrinkmag
up through the night to create my cheeses.”
Cheese-making might seem like an odd fit
for someone with a BA in English Literature,
but Coons is also a trained and certified vegan
chef. “I became a vegetarian when I was 12 and
started experimenting with food and cooking
for myself at a young age,” she says. “The
process of mindfully creating and delighting
in food helps me stay rooted in the whole
reason behind my business: a love of good,
shared food.”
Nuts for Cheese crafts dairy-free and vegan
cheeses from cultured organic cashews. “I
experimented with sunflower seeds, hemp
hearts and miso, but I ended up sticking with
cashews because they are really versatile,” says
Coons. “Getting the texture and mouthful
feeling just right is both a science and an
art. For people who cannot or choose not to
consume dairy, finding something to replace
that rich, savoury experience of cheese is a
challenging journey.”
Her cheeses seem to have hit the mark,
with word-of-mouth propelling distribution to
stores across Ontario and into Quebec. “The
rate at which we’ve grown has definitely been
a huge manufacturing challenge,” says Coons,
who is proud to note that all products are still
hand-crafted, right here in London.
Michele Lenhardt
Pastry Chef, Rhino Lounge Bakery & Coffee
Shoppe, Museum London
“For me baking is an art form,” says Michele
Lenhardt, whose passion for pasty-as-art has
led her to positions as pastry chef in decidedly
artistic settings — first at the Art Gallery of
Ontario, and now at the Rhino Lounge Bakery
& Coffee Shoppe at Museum London. After
moving to London 12 years ago she created the
Black Walnut Bakery Café in Wortley Village,
which she owned and operated for five years
before moving to her current position.
“The most satisfying aspect of cooking and
baking for me is creative experimentation
and recipe development,” says Lenhardt, who
studied Baking and Pastry Arts at George
Brown College as well as Advanced French
Patisserie. “It will often take two or three
times to get it to where I want it to be. One
of my specialties is the vegan donuts that
I created for the Rhino.” They have proven
to be popular, and are now also available
at Locomotive Café — but only on Fridays.
Lenhardt also produces pastries for Jess
Jazey-Spoelstra’s North Moore Catering, The