Workshop
工作坊
Collective Island
共飲之島
About the Program
Taiwanese Hakka chef Ted Liao presents a series of immersive workshops exploring the relationship between food, land, sound, and cultural memory. Inspired by this year’s curatorial theme, “Islands in the Wind,” the experience examines how flavour can carry stories of migration, colonial history, terroir, and evolving cultural identity through the lens of Taiwanese Hakka cuisine and island botanicals.
Using Canadian ingredients such as maple syrup, seasonal fruits, and spices alongside Taiwanese elements including Grass Jelly Herb, Shiso, Lei Cha, and Shell Ginger, participants will create handcrafted cola beverages inspired by the flavours of Taiwan. Through aroma, sound, storytelling, and sensory interaction, the workshops trace the connections between colonial sugar culture, modern soda drinks, and the landscapes that shape our tastes and memories.
More than a cooking class, “Collective Island” is a shared exploration of memory, place, and the future of food. Drawing from Ted’s ongoing work in sustainable cuisine, Hakka culture, and plant-based gastronomy, the workshops invite participants to experience Taiwan through flavour, conversation, and collective discovery.
This program requires a small materials fee. Limited capacity; please click the link to reserve your spot.
Ted Liao is a Taiwanese Hakka Chef, television host, and sustainable food innovator, best known as the co-founder and Chef of Monsoon, a Michelin-selected restaurant in Taiwan known for its contemporary plant-based Neo-Hakkanese cuisine.
Born into a Hakka family, Ted’s work explores the relationship between land, memory, migration, and flavour. Rather than replicating tradition, he reimagines Hakka food culture through a contemporary lens. He uses fermentation, wild mountain botanicals, local agriculture, and storytelling to create immersive dining experiences rooted in Taiwan’s cultural landscape.
With a background in food science and brewing technology, Ted has developed a distinctive culinary language that combines sustainability, terroir, and cultural identity. Under his direction, Monsoon was selected in the Michelin Guide Taiwan for 3 years and received the Michelin Bib Gourmand in 2023 for its ingredient-driven philosophy and sustainability-focused approach.
Beyond the restaurant, Ted’s practice extends into interdisciplinary collaborations spanning art residencies, educational initiatives, cultural exchange projects, and television. His award-winning show on Hakka TV, “A Meal & A Meet,” received the Best Lifestyle Program award at the Asian Television Awards.
For Ted, cooking is never only about flavour, but a form of cultural storytelling that connects people, land, and the future.
From the Curating Team
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TAIWANfest Toronto is grateful to be held on the traditional, ancestral, and unceded territories of many nations, including the Mississaugas of the Credit, the Anishnabeg, the Chippewa, the Haudenosaunee and the Wendat peoples, that is now home to many diverse First Nations, Inuit and Métis peoples. We acknowledge our privilege to be gathered here, and commit to work with and be respectful to the Indigenous peoples of this land while we engage in meaningful conversations of culture and reconciliation.