My Food Journey: Chef Pamela A. LeonForde

On the evening of Sunday, November 15, 2026, the Canadian Museum of Immigration at Pier 21 hosts My Food Journey: Chef Pamela A. LeonForde — a night of curated vegan tasting dishes, storytelling, and music built around one chef's migration story. Each small plate is a chapter, tracing a route from Saint Lucia and across Africa to England and finally Nova Scotia, after the concept LeonForde calls Roots Without Borders: A Culinary Journey of Heritage, Healing & Home. The setting could not be more fitting: Pier 21 is the historic ocean terminal where roughly a million newcomers stepped ashore into Canada, now the national museum that tells their stories — and this evening tells one of them through food. It is one of the most distinctive food events on the fall Halifax calendar, steps from the boardwalk in our Halifax waterfront guide's home territory.

LeonForde is the founder of Café Caye Mangé in downtown Yarmouth — Nova Scotia's first Afro-Caribbean vegan restaurant and the province's first Black female-owned plant-based café. A Saint Lucian-born, certified plant-based nutritionist who left a corporate career to cook, she has spent the years since building a reputation as one of the Maritimes' most original plant-based voices (the café's home turf is covered in our Acadian Shores guide). Expect a curated menu of Afro-Caribbean and globally inspired vegan small tasting dishes, music that follows the same cultural thread, and a welcome that invites guests into the stories behind the flavours on the plate — how meals carry identity, belonging, and home. Visitors building a food-first trip around the evening will find the rest of the city's tables in our Halifax dining guide.

Practical details: the event starts at 6:00 pm, in person, and is presented in English. Tickets are $125.00, with registration through canadahelps.org via the link on the museum's event page (follow the Register button). The museum is at 1055 Marginal Road on the Halifax waterfront, an easy walk from downtown hotels — see our where to stay in Nova Scotia guide for neighbourhoods — and accessibility notes for the waterfront are in our accessible travel guide. For questions, contact the museum at 902-425-7770 or info@pier21.ca.

Make the most of your time in Halifax Metro - pair My Food Journey: Chef Pamela A. LeonForde with our Halifax Dining Guide, culinary trails guide, and Best Day Trips from Halifax. They're each packed with itinerary ideas, local tips, and everything you need to extend your stay.