Restaurant starting the year by collabing for a good cause all month long in Toronto
Published January 7, 2026 at 3:47 pm
A restaurant in Toronto is kicking off the new year with a fun and meaningful new collab in an ongoing series, and the collaboration between an Indigenous chef and the Palestinian restaurant will be going on for the entire month of January.
Louf is a Palestinian restaurant in Toronto that’s been running a series called Reclaiming the Plate where they collaborate with all kinds of different chefs from different backgrounds representing a wide range of cooking styles and cuisines.
The chef that will be featured during this month’s collaboration is Chef Charles Catchpole from Couchiching First Nation in Treaty 3 territory. For the entire month of January, the restaurant will have a special dish on its menu created together by Chef Charles Catchpole along with Louf’s own Chef Fadi Kattan.
The dish is designed to be a warming comfort eaten during the winter months, something that will heat the body from the inside out. For their collaborative dish at Louf, Chef Charles Catchpole along with Louf’s own Chef Fadi Kattan have created and are serving up an item called waashkesh with riz bare. A very earthy and bold dish, it’s made with ingredients originating in both Palestine and Turtle Island.
The best part is, the creation and serving on the menu of the collaborative dish is all for a good cause. A portion of the proceeds from selling the collaborative dish, waashkesh with riz bare, will go towards Foodshare Toronto, a local food-focused charity based in Toronto.
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Foodshare Toronto helps people access food by addressing systemic barriers and fights for the right to food by working with community-led initiatives and working alongside communities affected by food insecurity and poverty.
Chef Charles Catchpole is behind Indigenous catering and foods company Charger Foods, as well as urban micro farm Gitigaanes (Ojibway for “little farm”) which specializes in growing Indigenous produce.
As for Louf, it’s run by Chef Fadi Kattan, who’s also known for founding other Palestinian restaurants around the world including Fawda Restaurant in Bethlehem and Akub in London’s Notting Hill.
“It’s an honour to collaborate with Chef Charles and share the Louf kitchen while celebrating Indigenous foodways and Palestinian heritage,” said Fadi Kattan, co-founder of louf Restaurant.
“We have shared values and beliefs in preservation of culture through cuisine, from the land to the dish.”
The Louf restaurant collab with Chef Charles Catchpole and Chef Fadi Kattan will be running from Jan. 1 to Jan. 31, 2026.