by Tracey Bowers-Lee
Latoya Fagon has been in the catering and event planning business for more than fifteen years. Her company, Twist Catering, is infused with a Caribbean vibe and is located in east Scarborough, Ont.
Fagon recently won CBC’s Fridge Wars. She has also been a food consultant on the Marilyn Denis Show and a personal chef to the Toronto Raptors.
She spoke to me about the changes she has made to her business structure since social distance guidelines were implemented in March.
How have you been handling the social distancing guidelines?
I’ve been going from the house to the kitchen, house to the kitchen. Even like now, I was doing banking, depositing my cheques online. So, I’m not even going into the bank. We are a catering and event planning company, right? But due to what's been happening, we've had to switch the business model. So, that's why four days a week now, we do the curbside pickup.
Tell me how curbside pickup is working for your business?
It’s been interesting because my business is based on social gatherings, and that is a thing of the past as of right now. It’s different, zero interaction, you know, like you basically call pull up, pop your trunk, or have your back door open, we drop the food, see you later. There's no communication, there's no talking…
It's definitely, you know, financially a big difference, right? Like, you make money from big parties, not from daily stuff. But I am grateful that I can make something right now. So, I don't want to come off [as] not being grateful. God knows I am.
What would you be doing if the pandemic didn’t happen?
We have such a wide range of services. Right now, I'd be going into wedding season. I've had three weddings cancelled on me. So, wedding season would be big right now, especially baby showers, bridal parties, things like that. And then we get ramped up for summer, all the festivals. For a while now I’ve been working with Restaurants Canada.
So, getting ready for all those festivals and then I headline Jerkfest. You know, I was Chef Caribana. I don't know what's happening. I was supposed to be on the chef stage for CNE. TIFF. I don't know what's happening.
So yeah, I'm going to take some six-figure financial losses this year and there's nothing I can do about it. I just dumped $150,000 into a space that can't be used because the space was to be rented out…
There's really nothing that we didn't do. We've worked on film sets, we do personal dinners, you know, for the last four seasons, I was a personal chef to the Toronto Raptors. I've closed that door now. I'm grateful for that opportunity, but I wasn't meant to be a personal chef…
I need to focus on Twist. So, now we're trying to get into more meal preps and meal plans. Corporate catering, like companies, we will take care of their weekly lunches or their meetings, things like that.
What do you think the hospitality industry will look like after the pandemic is alleviated? Do you think things will go back to normal?
I’m going to say no. I think people need to understand something. It's like when 911 happened. The world changed forever. We can't go back to what we were. I don't see people being fully comfortable sitting on a patio with their food open and 50 people around them talking, eating, spitting…
With just industry people I know and how we're seeing it, my industry, the hospitality industry, is definitely the industry that I believe is going to be hit the absolute hardest. It really has been hit the absolute hardest than any other industry, right? Because when all of you will go back to work, there's no guarantee. A lot of restaurants, I know personal friends of mine, they are closed now and, with what's happening, they will not be reopening.
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