Theme: Shaping the Future of Restaurants

Have your eating habits been affected by the lockdown? Can food still bring us together in social-distancing times? How do you feel about the new experience in restaurants? How are the recent events impacting the way you choose restaurants you go to?
These questions and many others will be discussed by a panel of Montreal restaurant professionals in an interactive and intimate TEDxMontréalSalon.
And don’t worry, we won’t grill you on your bread-making skills! 🧑🍳🥖

To make sure the event is accessible to everyone, we have opted for a Pay-what-you-can registration. 100% of your donations will support the creation of future events and bring local ideas to our stage (or your computer screen!).

Virtual Event // Événement Virtuel
51 Sherbrooke Ouest
Montreal, Quebec, H2X 1X2
Canada

Lesley Chesterman

Food critic and writer

Lesley Chesterman attended the Institut de Tourisme et d’Hôtellerie du Québec before working as a professional pastry chef and cooking teacher in Montreal and France. In 1998, she began her career as a food writer, primarily at the Montreal Gazette as a food columnist and restaurant critic for 20 years. Her work has also appeared in publications including Gourmet Magazine, The Art of Eating, Nuvo, Food Arts, Fool Magazine, the New York Post and Eater.com, as well as the French publications Le Devoir and Caribou Magazine. Lesley also participates in two weekly radio shows on Radio-Canada and on CHOM FM. In 2018, she collaborated on and hosted the documentary, “100 Ans à Table”, focused on the history of Quebec cuisine and televised on Télé-Quebec. In October 2020, she will release her third book, Chez Lesley, published by Éditions Cardinal.

Mandy Wolfe

Co-Founder of Mandy's Gourmet Salads

Mandy Wolfe is one of the co-founders and owners of Mandy's Gourmet Salads, a privately owned chain of healthy fast food, founded in Montreal 2004. She is the Head Chef of the company’s eight restaurants. She is also the co-author of the bestselling Mandys Cookbook. When she's not running the salad business with her sister and partner Rebecca, she is helping the Welcome Collective settle refugee claimants in Montreal, and raising her four kids with her husband.

Marc Cohen

Founder and chef of Lawrence

Hailing from University College London’s statistical science program, Kent expat Marc Cohen’s natural next step was to pursue… cooking. In London, he studied at Leiths School of Food and Wine and worked at Gordon Ramsay’s The Narrow and Magdalen, before making his way to Montreal in 2008. At age 25, Cohen and his partners opened Lawrence, a restaurant in the Modern European style focusing on locally sourced ingredients, and then Boucherie Lawrence, which specializes in whole animal butchery, and larrys, the bustling wine bar next door.