The Ivorian community within Toronto is small, but they are bringing the noise to support their team in the World Cup this summer.
As one of the only Ivorian dining spots in Toronto, Instant du palais offers authentic West African flavours to the city.
Toronto has a very small Ivorian community which is why restaurant owner, Carelle Lahouri felt the need to bring the cuisine to the multi-cultural city.
The Côte d’Ivoire (Ivory Coast) men’s national football team played against Germany at Toronto Stadium on June 20.
To gain deeper insight into Ivorian culture before Saturday’s match, The Brandon Gonez Show paid a visit to Instant du palais.
Instant du palais opened in Toronto four years ago and also opened a second location in downtown Ottawa.
Bringing Ivorian culture to Toronto.
Owner Carelle Lahouri says opening the restaurant was about more than food.
It was about representation.
Carelle Lahoouri is the owner of Instant du palais, one of the only Ivorian restaurants in Toronto.
“Côte d’Ivoire is a francophone side of West Africa. We are underrepresented here in Toronto, so we work on how we can make our flavours known by a large amount of people,” Lahouri told The Brandon Gonez Show.
Lahouri and her colleague describe the Ivorian culture as “warm” which comes not only from the beautiful weather, but from the people.
“I can tell you, 100% people from Cote d’Ivoire are all peaceful. You can never argue with someone coming from this country, never, never. That’s the thing about our culture. So yeah, I’m proud of it,” said Orsot, an employee at Instant du palais.
‘We have more than 73 dialects’
Lahourie shared that despite French being the primary language of Côte d’Ivoire, the nation is home to a variety of ethnic groups.
“We have more than 73 dialects, and each dialect comes with its own culture, so it’s very multi- diverse, and this is what we want to show to the world,” she said.
Lahourie also shared ahead of Saturday’s World Cup game that even if there aren’t a lot of Ivorian supporters able to be out in the streets of Toronto cheering on the team, that wouldn’t stop fans from bringing the energy.
A small community with a loud voice
Toronto may not have the same large Ivorian population as some other diaspora communities, but supporters say that doesn’t stop them from showing up.
Ahead of Côte d’Ivoire’s World Cup match, Lahouri promised fans would make themselves heard.
“Even if we are 10 people, we make noise of 10,000 people. We will be there to support the country,” she said.
Côte d’Ivoire was defeated by Germany 2-1 on Saturday, and the team currently sits at three points in Group E for the World Cup.
Even though Ivorians didn’t see their team win, this game marked a very special moment for fans, especially those living in Canada.
Cote d’Ivoire men’s national football team (also known as The Elephants) defeated Ecuador 1-0 in their opening game of the tournament on June 14, when Amad Diallo scored at the 90th minute.
Team Ivory Coast fans will be cheering for their team on Thursday, as a victory against Curaçao will guarantee them a spot in the Round of 32.
Regardless of what happens on the pitch, many in Toronto’s Ivorian community say the World Cup has already delivered something meaningful.
For a few weeks this summer, one of the city’s smallest communities found itself at the centre of one of the world’s biggest sporting events.
