I’m Marie Pascual, a Scarborough journalist and former line cook. Writing about the people, places and systems that shape everyday life.
01 / SELECTED BYLINES
Published Works
Reporting, essays, and stories published elsewhere.
01 / Toronto Star
This Vietnamese family bet everything on one bánh mì — and it paid off
Food & Drink Feature October — 2025
02 / CBC
First Person: I grew up sharing food and meals. But that isn’t always the Canadian way
Personal Essay July — 2025
02 / FROM THE FIELD
Reported Essays
Reported essays and dispatches on labour, place, community, and the systems shaping everyday life.
The Workers Building What Toronto’s Restaurant Industry Never Had
Inside the Society of Hospitality Workers. (Originally Published on substack 2026/05/04) In the spring of 2024, a chef working two jobs in downtown Toronto stopped getting paid by one of them. She and four co-workers…
The Keys to the Kitchen
How Slammie Sammies was locked out of its own restaurant. Originally Published April 2, 2026 on my substack. THE MORNING OF MARCH 6 On the morning of March 6, Pedro Dos Santos drove to 828…
I spent $1500 to stand outside NOMA’s LA Residency
The thing about Noma is that in the industry it’s like saying Kobe Bryant. Everyone knows Kobe. My mom knows Kobe. Outside the industry, Noma sounds like something you get from drinking on an empty…
Fresh, But Not Home
What Vietnam taught me about eating alive, and why Canada’s local food movement still leaves immigrant kitchens behind. It’s been two months since coming back from Vietnam, and the Canadian winter has already started to…
