In May, the Chicago Sun-Times and several other newspapers published an artificial intelligence (AI)-generated summer reading list that included real authors’ names attached to fake, AI-generated book titles.
At The Grind, we received several pitches for this issue that turned out to be AI slop from scammers. This was the first time we’ve had to deal with it, which you can read about on our website.
There’s a certain irony here. Food, the thing we rely on for sustenance, the thing that real people grow and prepare, was being treated as an abstraction, something that can just be made up.
But food is anything but abstract. You can pick it up, look at it, smell it and taste it.
Food is also a big part of what makes Toronto the city that it is. You can find just about any dish here, and strike up a conversation about it.
That’s why we put together this food issue. It isn’t trying to cover everything, but we wanted to highlight stories that tell something real. About the workers, the dishes and the spots.
At the same time, many struggle to access food (see page 13). Food prices are out of control here (page 15), forcing people to take bad jobs just to get by.
Overseas, Israel is again using starvation as a weapon against Palestinians in Gaza. Huge areas of Sudan also face famine as the counter-revolutionary war rages on.
And things seem to keep unravelling.
The Trump regime is basically going to war with Americans in order to lock up and deport migrants.
Israel started bombing Iran (after informing the U.S. it would), setting off what could become a full-scale war (page 5).
In Canada, we’re seeing a hard right turn. Yes from Doug Ford, but also new Prime Minister Mark Carney. He’s proposing sweeping new police powers and the ability to strip pretty much anyone of their immigration status. And he’s pushing pipelines like the country isn’t on fire.
There is resistance to all this, but not enough. And, so, in typical Grind fashion, we’re holding the contradictions.
Toronto’s food is worth celebrating and talking about. We have an embarrassment of riches here. This can nourish us as we wade through what’s to come.
This article appeared in the 2025 Summer issue.
