Peter and Lara Neal and Chris and Wendy Neal launch Goodness.
The Neal Brothers, Chris and Peter, have built a business over the past three decades by working with small, family owned food producers and distributing their goods across Canada. In the past few years, they’ve widened their line of products to include their own brands of naturally made things like salsa and chips, often working with well known chefs like Vikram Vij.
Last week they launched their new cookbook Goodness: Recipes and Stories at the Toronto gourmet shop All The Best Fine Foods, with whom they’ve had a long relationship too. The book, like the party, gathers many of the farmers, coffee roasters, chefs and whatnot with whom they work. Goodness, the book, is also an act of philanthropy. The Neal Brothers have been benefactors to Toronto-based The Stop Community Food Centre, and now the national umbrella organization that it belongs to, Community Food Centres Canada. Half of the profits from Goodness are earmarked for CFCC.
Here are some of the folks who came to cheer Chris and Peter Neal on at their launch, all of whom were involved in the book and Neal Brothers. (The brothers were, of course, too busy signing books to circulate!)
All The Best’s Susan Merry and CFCC director Nick Saul.
The New Farm’s Gillian Flies and Mad Maple Inn’s Miriam Strienman.
Chef Brad Long of Cafe Belong.
Food writers Marion Kane and Valerie Howes.
Cookbook Store maven and George Brown speakers impresario Alison Fryer.
Chef and SupiCucu hot sauce maker Rossi Earle.
Pizza Libretto chef Rocco Agostino.
Real Food For Real Kids‘ Lulu Cohen-Farnell and David Farnell flank Goodness editor Tracy Bordian.
And it’s just not a party without radio host and restaurateur and general agitator Zane Caplansky.
Malcolm Jolley is a founding editor of Good Food Revolution and Executive Director of Good Food Media, the company that publishes it. Follow him on Twitter or Facebook.
