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La-toya Fagon is the executive chef and owner of Twist Catering.
Born in Canada of Jamaican descent, she grew up cooking and eating “island foods,” and fell in love with creating these dishes at a young age. After graduating from George Brown’s Culinary Arts program, she continued to train at top restaurants and hotels throughout Toronto, Europe, and Mexico.
Having gained years of experience, La-toya’s creativity flourished and she began to fuse her traditional Caribbean ingredients and culinary style with Mediterranean flavours. This brought a taste of something new to the familiarity of home-style, soulful goodness. After months of experimentation, determination, and hard work, La-toya tapped into her entrepreneurial spirit and Twist Catering was created.
“I love everything about food - the smells, the flavours, the tastes, the texture and colours, and mainly the raw essence with a twist.”
Chef La-toya’s drive for excellence and her knowledge of food, combined with her innovative spirit, has led to many ‘firsts’ for Twist Catering over the years. Twist was the first female black owned business hospitality partner for TIFF, and Chef La-toya was the first food expert on the Marilyn Denis Show in Toronto, and personal chef to the Toronto Raptors.
And, as evidenced by her many television appearances, Chef La-toya’s creativity, entertaining personality, and ability to engage audiences makes her a welcome presence wherever she is.
Thomas Bachelder is an internationally recognized Canadian winemaker - and Le Clos Jordanne’s original founding winemaker - with a speciality in the production of cool climate Pinot Noir and Chardonnay. His terroir-revealing wines with distinct, complex minerality helped to propel a young Niagara region into the global spotlight in the mid to late 2000s. His efforts were instrumental in showcasing how old world, Burgundian winemaking techniques employed on new world terroir - with minimal intervention - could produce exceptional wines.
Originally from the dairy farming belt east of Montreal, Quebec, Thomas grew up on his family’s farmland, helping to foster a love of agriculture from a young age. In 1985, Thomas was first introduced to winemaking when he received a “Beaujolais-style” home winemaking kit for Christmas. Originally interested in winemaking as a hobby, it was his honeymoon trip to Burgundy with his wife, Mary Delaney, that inspired him to become a full-time winemaker. leclosjordanne.com
His career began in 1992 when he moved to Burgundy to work as a winemaking assistant for two esteemed Domaines, Domaine de la Créa, Bligny-lès-Beaune and Domaine Marius Delarche, Pernand Vergelesses. Following this and a stint in Oregon, he was invited back to Burgundy to join the historic Château Génot-Boulanger where he was able to introduce some new world winemaking notions, into one of the old world’s most traditional villages. A move back to Oregon in the late 90’s saw Bachelder create some of the greatest Pinot Noirs in the state during four vintages at Lemelson Vineyards.
In 2003, Bachelder became the founding winemaker of Le Clos Jordanne. Enamoured by the Burgundy region, Bachelder had been hesitant about making wine in Ontario, but he quickly fell in love with the unique nature of the project and the limestone-laced, micro-climate of the Jordan Bench. Le Clos Jordanne became a passion project, and he viewed it as an incredible opportunity to put Canada on the winemaking map.
Leveraging a decade’s worth of experience obsessing over the marriage of new and old-world techniques, Bachelder and Le Clos Jordanne won almost immediate attention and praise. In 2009, the 2005 Claystone Terrace Chardonnay generated global recognition after winning fi rst place in the Judgement of Montreal competition. It was only the second wine he had produced at Le Clos, earning Bachelder Winemaker of the Year in that year’s Ontario Wine Awards.
Bachelder left Le Clos Jordanne in 2010 and continued to produce world-class examples of cool-climate wines in Oregon, Burgundy, and Niagara, under his own label, Bachelder. He recently added a new varietal, Gamay, to his portfolio. His technique continues to showcase the personality of the region, with little winemaker intervention and extended time in the barrel. Now, Bachelder will return to execute the rebirth of Le Clos Jordanne, bringing with him his immense knowledge of this particular vineyard, his passion for the region and his unique, terroir-focused style.
“The Grand Clos is a magical place on the Jordan Bench, arguably one of the top sites for Pinot Noir and Chardonnay in all of Niagara.”