Frank Moyo Finds His Groove
By Ayah Victoria McHail
If you’ve caught the fever and have been hooked on his you’ve ever heard a song by Frank Moyo, it’s likely music ever since. The charming social media sensation has gone viral on TikTok and Instagram, amassing nearly 1 million followers. His tunes are catchy, his aura captivating, and his enthusiasm for Italian culture is highly infectious.
“I think the best thing about what I’m currently doing is getting to see all the videos I’m sent of students learning Italian through my songs, he says.
The songs he’s referring to are hits like “The Cheese Song” that catapulted him to fame. In it, he professes his undying love for cheese, rhyming off a list of Italy’s most prized favourites, such as caciocavallo, gorgonzola and provolone. “The Buongiorno Song” introduces everyday greetings with gusto. Learning how to conjugate verbs is made an achievable feat in “The Essere Song”.
Born Francesco Muoio (Frank Moyo is his stage name), in Toronto, Ontario on June 10, 1993 , the musician is actually an elementary school music teacher who’s as passionate about instilling a love for music in his students as he is about performing in front of international audiences.
“My music has given me the opportunity to play for thousands of people all over North America and Italy. Travelling and meeting new people has been incredible.”
Irrespective of where he finds himself, there’s a wondrous place embedded in his soul, which always grounds him and here he constantly returns. Moyo’s roots lie in Cosenza, Calabria. Being Italian and specifically Calabrese are inextricable parts of his identity, and his heritage has left an indelible impression on him.
“The stories of my grandparents’ youth and inevitable departure from their homeland left such a mark on me. When we first travelled to Italy, I could feel the very same void the had talked about.”
Calabria, My Compass
Old flavours, new voices, a journey that changed everything
By Silvana Longo, Travel Editor
When your roots come knocking, you don’t ask why. You just open the door.
Up until my mid-teens, as the daughter of Calabrian immigrants growing up in Canada, I didn’t quite understand my parents or where they came from.
Despite being surrounded by the dialect, the food and the gestures, there were two worlds I lived in: the one beyond the front door called Canada, and the one you stepped into where you heard Calabrese with a touch of Italiese being spoken in the home, along with a whole host of cultural peculiarities.
Happily, the language of food always spoke to me. Heavenly scents like the smell of roasted peppers in September, or waking up late on a Sunday morning to the sizzle of polpette frying next to the big pot of tomato sauce, were unmistakable beloved aromas that preceded our weekly pasta asciutta ritual lunch.
At age 16, my natural curiosity led me to open the door to my roots, and I finally visited Calabria. Something in me shifted. What once felt out of place in suburban Toronto suddenly made sense. Somehow, walking on those narrow cobblestoned streets, meeting relatives I had only heard about, the mystery began to unravel. I didn’t just feel welcomed, I felt seen. So different from home, yet deeply familiar on a soul level.
That first trip cracked something open in me. Since then, I’ve spent years digging into my roots—not out of nostalgia but out of a sense of responsibility.
I wanted to understand the land, the language, the contradictions and the resilience of the place that shaped my family and therefore shaped me.
That personal journey has run parallel to my professional one. As a journalist, and travel editor at Panoram Italia magazine, I’ve spent the better part of a decade curating stories that connect Italian-Canadians like myself to the places, traditions and evolving narratives that define our shared heritage.
Daniele Corona
Italy’s culinary gift to Canada
By Rita De Montis
You can say Daniele Corona, executive chef and partner of Toronto’s award-winning DaNico restaurant, is Italy’s culinary gift to Canada.
The dynamic chef has distinguished himself in a most demanding industry and, upon meeting him, one can see he pulses with a cutting-edge brilliance reflective in the tiniest of details in every dish that leaves his kitchen. He admits he is driven with passion born of his Neapolitan roots. He has, in essence, been creating one sensation after another since arriving on Toronto’s landscape a few short years ago.
He arrived with a plethora of culinary gifts he honed during an impressive career that started when he first entered the industry while still in his early teens.
His awards are substantial and impressive: He is the first and only Italian chef to be awarded twice with a Michelin star for two different restaurants, starting with the Liberty Entertainment Group’s Don Alfonso 1890 Toronto and later with Da Nico, his first solo restaurant venture in partnership with Nick Di Donato of the iconic Liberty Group.
It should be noted that both restaurants have garnered a respectful amount of industry awards including the coveted 50 Top Italy’s Best Italian Restaurant Outside of Italy, as well as the Tre Forchetti (Three Forks) by Gambero Rosso.
There’s a slew of other prestigious culinary and wine awards, but the icing on the proverbial cake came when Corona was named Chef of the Year by 50 Top Italy.
“My journey has been one of striving for perfection, and to showcase my use of fresh, high quality local ingredients and develop recipes and menus to highlight them,” said Corona in a recent interview. “It has been my passion and my continued commitment.”
Where did it all start? In the traditional Italian kitchen and with memories of a love deeply bonded with every dish created by those he holds dearest: his family.
Here’s what Corona had to say about his passions and his love of work.
Fatta in Casa
The fresh pasta movement
By Cassandra Marsillo
“I don’t follow trends. That’s a big mistake,” expressed Graziella Battista, chef and owner of Graziella, an iconic Italian restaurant in Montreal’s Old Port. “Cooking is about inspiration through the ingredients.”
Since opening her first restaurant, Il Sole, on Saint-Laurent Boulevard 31 years ago, she has been adamant about serving fresh pasta to diners. Today, Restaurant Graziella remains one of the top Italian restaurants in the city, particularly noted for its seasonal pasta dishes. “Pasta is just too important; it has such weight in our culture and heritage. It has to be done right.” Movement or not, she has never wavered from this philosophy.
When it comes to creativity, Graziella affirmed that making pasta from scratch remains a perfect vessel for chefs.
“It’s an art that allows you to express yourself in so many ways, especially with stuffed pasta. You can make this incredibly flavourful filling and then your challenge is to match it with the ideal sauce that will complement and not overpower it.”
Pasta is deceptively simple. It’s made with a handful of ingredients and can require very few tools, if any at all. But it needs time, technique and the ability to adapt to conditions beyond your control: temperature, humidity, the water you use, can all affect your dough and how it cooks. Along with Battista, I spoke to chefs Jonathan Agnello (Stellina, Mare), Marco Bertoldini (Siamo Noi), Joseph D’Alleva (Rita), Mauro Petraccone (Pasta Casareccia), as well as restaurateur Massimo Lecas (Novantuno Hospitality) to understand why more restaurants are taking the time to make their pasta in-house.
Pasta la Vista
Montreal and Toronto’s top pasta destinations
By Cassandra Marsillo and Rita De Montis
World Pasta Day is October 25—a time to celebrate this famous food in all its delicious goodness. Pasta has long been a part of Italy’s landscape. It has a history that dates back centuries, bringing people together with just a handful of ingredients while being a great source of sustained energy. Both Montreal and Toronto are teeming with some of the most amazing pasta joints, where it is made fresh daily. Here’s a small sampling of the two cities’ pasta paradises.
