Masterclasses offer in-depth explorations of food topics, presented by experts and accompanied by demonstrations and tastings.

Maiz, the staple grain of many pre-Colombian civilizations, is now one of the most widely cultivated crops on Earth. But along the way, so much of what made corn culturally central and sacred is under threat of being erased by industrial commodity products flooding the global market. In response, artisanal producers like Iván Wadgymar are returning to heritage varietals and traditional processing techniques, along with zero-waste agricultural practices. This produces a higher quality, more authentic, and far more delicious product that honours this precious gift of nature and culture.

Join Ivan for a journey into the origins of maiz in Mesoamerica and discover how millennia of skillful crop domestication created a foundational food for Pre-Columbian civilization that lived the centre of their cosmology. These sophisticated agricultural practices coevolved with the technologies like nixtamalization, which transforms the nutritional profile of corn, and creates the masa used in tortillas, tamales, and even the ubiquitous supermarket corn chips. The place maiz holds in Mexico’s socio-political-economic web has undergone dramatic changes from the colonial period until now, and projects like Maizal help protect this unique cultural inheritance, from seed to table.
—–

Today’s tasting menu showcases the versatility of maize in Mexican cuisine, featuring corn, beans and herbs grown by Ivan himself.

Atole (hot) & Tejuino (cold) – 2 maiz based beverages

Tamales de frijol – maiz dumplings, stuffed with heirloom black beans, wrapped corn husks and steamed (vegetarian)

Esquites – a popular Mexican street food made with whole pozole (nixtamalized corn kernels) (vegetarian)

Panuchos – A specialty of the Yucatán, small tortillas stuffed with black beans before griddling, topped with cochinita pibil (slow roasted pork with annatto and citrus)

Totopos (fried tortilla chips) and homemade salsa will also be on the tables to snack on.

—–
Iván Wadgymar has some unfamiliar job titles for a Torontonian: tortillero, molinero, and sembrador, each one taking him deeper into the heart of an ancient culinary tradition. As a tortillero, he runs Maizal Tortilleria making artisanal Mexican tortillas and totopos (aka tortilla chips) using locally grown organic corn. As a molinero he processes raw corn using the traditional nixtamal method that transforms it into the raw masa dough that is the foundation of much of indigenous Mesoamerican cooking, making it more digestible and nutritious in the process. As a sembrador (sower), he grows his own heirloom varietals of corn and other vegetables, herbs and spices in the sustainable permaculture tradition of the small milpa farms of Mexico. Together, he connects land, seed, process and product in a way that is a celebration of both our local terroir and his hispanic heritage, putting the culture back into agriculture. Along the way he both protects and reveals the unique flavours of a culinary tradition that is both ancient and very much alive.
@maizalto