Tucked away on a quiet street in the historic St. Patrick’s Ward community is Appetizingly Yours, an event planning and catering company that opened its doors in the city 25 years ago.
It was three years ago when Lana Tarrant was hired to work at Appetizingly Yours.
“I was a bank manager for fifteen years when decided to change careers and attend Stratford Chef School,” she said. "From there, I went on to work at Appetizingly Yours as the head chef."
When the previous owner decided to retire, Tarrant made the decision to purchase the company as well as the 7,200 square foot building on Garibaldi Street.
In July 2015, Tarrant and her team had the idea to expand the business and start a bakery inside the building.
Before opening the bakery, the main focus of the company was to help people with all budgets design and plan events. Since the launch of the bakery, Tarrant has seen the local community come together in her place.
“As soon as we opened the bakery we started seeing people in the community stop by and start learning more about what our business is all about,” said Tarrant.
Although Tarrant and her staff offer baked goods made from scratch, they also make sandwiches, soups, pizza and other homemade foods for the storefront.
“Our bestsellers are the croissants and they take two days to make," she said. "Our sourdough is another bestseller and it takes three days to make.”
Tarrant learned how to make the sourdough bread while training under other chefs in Stratford. She has a live culture that she uses to make her well-loved sourdough that has been alive for six years.
“I feed my culture every day. I even named it Oscar, and I bring it with me on vacation,” she laughed.
Tarrant believes that food can bring a community together, and hopes to show others that passion and hospitality is a game-changer in the event planning industry.
“My team is incredible and committed. They are passionate about food and hospitality. We don’t serve boring meals or dry chicken at events. I think showing people what we can do with food and how unique it is can be inspiring to others,” said Tarrant.
She knows that the industry is constantly changing and hopes to continue to change with it.
“Many exciting new things are happening at Appetizingly Yours. We recently had a film crew here filming an upcoming episode for Chopped Canada,” said Tarrant.
The Canadian reality TV Show features real Canadian chefs competing against each other for a $10,000 prize.
Tarrant was also recently informed that she has been nominated for a Women of Distinction Award, run by YMCA – YWCA of Guelph.
Although Tarrant has been keeping busy since she became owner of Appetizingly Yours, it hasn’t stopped her from helping others reach their dreams too.
“You can connect with people through food,” said Tarrant, who is passionate about helping other small business owners. “This building has much more space than I need, so I decided to rent out some of the space to allow other people to live their dreams. Soon, I will have two small businesses in the building, creating food and fulfilling their dreams too.“
Find out more about Appetizingly Yours here.
