Born in Toronto but raised in Florida, Suzanne muses on the spaces that shape our relationship to community, ourselves, and food. Returning to Toronto later in life, the city is inextricable from Suzanne’s culinary journey. She charts her life through Toronto’s many historic streets, corners, and storied buildings: from her first restaurant, the Saturday Dinette, at the corner of Gerrard St. East and Logan Ave; to her position as the inaugural Chef-in-Residence at the Gladstone Hotel across town; her staff who commute in from Scarborough; and her second restaurant, housed near St. Lawrence Market, where former Mayor John Tory was among her first guests.

It is not only the city’s infrastructure that impacts Suzanne, but the interplay of different cultures and histories within the Toronto communities, married through the creation and consumption of delicious meals. My Ackee Tree is a fresh, honest reflection upon her Torontonian roots and a joyful celebration of food, intertwining the two as Suzanne delights in exploring the history of Black food through the use of locally sourced ingredients. She describes the coarse-ground grits from K2 Milling found at the heart of her grits dish, beloved by customers and ceremonial to Suzanne, allowing her to connect “to the past, and to labour performed by [her] ancestors.” This intersection of place, past, and identity, intertwined through the art of cooking and serving her community, is at the core of Suzanne’s story. My Ackee Tree is a triumph of creativity, soul searching, place, and motherhood that asks, “How can I keep the things I love?”