BEND THE
ORDINARY.

THE TASTE BENDER CANADA STORY

ONE CHEF.
ONE BIG IDEA.

Taste Bender Canada was born in 2021, during the COVID-19 lockdowns. But the story started a little earlier.

In January 2019, Chef DK was just starting his professional cooking career as a dishwasher at a renowned Japanese izakaya near Yonge and Sheppard. Within three months, he was trusted to lead the kitchen whenever the manager or executive chef was away. The specials he created kept selling out, and that gave him the confidence to find a way to put his own food in front of people.

He started small. At the T&T Waterfront Night Market, he tested his philosophy with the public. When customers came back for seconds — and sometimes thirds — he knew the food connected. He returned at the Nathan Phillips Square Christmas Market, where he was able to test more original dishes and see how Canadians responded.

Then 2020 happened. The COVID shutdowns cost him his kitchen job. It was a hard moment, but it made something clear: if he wanted to keep cooking and keep building, he needed to create a place where no one could stop him from cooking.

When people were allowed to sell baked goods from home, Chef DK turned his attention to desserts and baking. That was the beginning of Taste Bender Canada.

As a Korean-Canadian chef, he kept coming back to one question: what is Canadian cuisine? Family visiting from around the world would come to Canada, but no one was especially excited to eat “Canadian food.” And when people asked what Canadian cuisine was, it was hard to give them a real answer.

Taste Bender Canada was born to change that. To create Canadian cuisine. To help define our food, our flavours and our own table — before Chef DK is done cooking.

Anything we put on the table, edible or drinkable, is made from scratch with one goal: to create a flavour of Canada.