A homemade meal when you need it

When her son was born, Victoria Fodor started preparing large batches of food to freeze to ensure they’d have nutritious meals ready to eat whenever her schedule was too hectic.

“I’m the kind of person that can walk into a restaurant, taste something and go home and make it and not use a recipe book,” she says. “Once I see a recipe I always change it anyway.”

After a friend said she wished she could have Fodor’s food in her own home, Fodor saw a business opportunity for what would become Victoria’s Kitchen.

“I just started making food for her and then other friends were, like, ‘Can you make some extra?’ and so it just sort of grew over time.”

For the past four years Fodor has been preparing readymade meals, including soups like butternut squash and apple or curried sweet potato, as well as mains like lasagna and Moroccan chicken, to deliver straight to people’s homes.

“The eggplant parmesan, which is my nemesis because it takes the longest to make, is huge,” she adds. “I have certain people when they order, they order four, they never just order one.”

Fodor, who lives near Mt. Pleasant Road and St. Clair Avenue E., says she baked from her home kitchen until she started using a restaurant facility to prepare the meals.

Since joining up with St. Lawrence Market delivery service, Fooddel, this year, she has more time to come up with new recipes and to play in the kitchen, she says.

“The delivering wasn’t a highlight because it was a tonne of work driving around. What was nice was when I got there people were, like, ‘Oh thank goodness we’re going to have healthy food,” she says. “Just knowing that you are helping out people who are in a bind and they’re not going to order pizza that night.”

She says the majority of her clients are families with working parents and kids taking part in extracurricular activities.

“They love the idea that they can come home, just defrost it, heat and serve. It’s super easy and you know you’re not giving them junk,” she says. “If you ask anyone who has tried my stuff, they feel like they’re sitting at someone’s kitchen table eating dinner. It’s like home cooking.”