For French artist Lucas Beaufort, choosing Toronto as the Canadian stop for his latest iteration of The Window Project was almost instinctive.
“I picked Toronto because I think it’s one of the most interesting cities in Canada,” says Beaufort.
But finding the restaurants he wanted to work with required a little more digging. He immersed himself in Toronto’s food scene online, combing through websites, blogs and Instagram to discover the places people genuinely loved.
One name kept appearing: DaiLo.
“People kept repeating that DaiLo was their favourite,” he says. “I thought, okay, that’s the place I should reach out to.”
It’s an approach that reflects the philosophy behind The Window Project. An artist, lifelong skateboarder, snowboarder and avid traveller, Beaufort has spent the past 15 years exploring the world, absorbing inspiration from the people, places and cultures he encounters along the way.
Food has always been part of that story. His father owned restaurants, and Beaufort spent summers helping him in the kitchen.
“I wanted to bring good food places together as a collective because I believe in that unity,” he explains.
The project began in New York last October and quickly took on a life of its own. After its success there, restaurants began reaching out to Beaufort themselves. When it came time for Toronto, he selected eight spots that he felt represented both great food and the spirit of the project.
For Beaufort, food has an accessibility that visual art sometimes doesn’t.
“With art, someone can look at something and say, ‘I don’t understand it.’ But everybody has to eat,” he says. “For me, this project is a way to show and promote good food and good people.”
That distinction matters to Beaufort. He is interested in restaurants that value fresh, seasonal ingredients and care about what they serve their guests. The project isn’t simply about putting his artwork inside restaurants; it is about celebrating the people and creativity behind them.
That makes DaiLo, and its chef and partner Nick Liu, an especially fitting collaboration.
For Liu, cooking has always been its own form of artistic expression. His dishes combine technique, culture, memory and imagination, taking familiar flavours and presenting them in unexpected ways. It creates a natural connection between the work happening on Beaufort’s canvas and what happens every night in DaiLo’s kitchen.
“A chef and an artist really aren’t that different,” says Liu. “We’re both taking ideas, memories and influences and turning them into something people can experience. Lucas does it on a canvas; I do it on a plate. What I love about this project is that it brings those worlds together.”
There is another unexpected connection within Toronto’s restaurant community. Chef David Schwartz, now co-owner of LINNY’s, previously worked at DaiLo, a detail Beaufort loved discovering.
“That’s the beauty of hospitality,” he says. “Everybody has a story from before, and it’s all about connection. Sometimes the stars just align.”
Finding His Way to Art
Beaufort’s own path to becoming an artist was anything but conventional.
He didn’t attend art school and, remarkably, didn’t begin drawing seriously until he was 27. He studied marketing and business because that seemed like the path he was supposed to follow, but eventually discovered that the conventional life wasn’t necessarily the one that suited him.
“Art was inside me from a young age,” he says. “It just took me some time to realize that I needed to paint.”
What began with one drawing became another and then another. Within a year, people were beginning to notice his work, and the life he hadn’t necessarily planned for himself began to emerge.
Beaufort also remembers growing up without anyone suggesting that his passions for skateboarding, travel or creativity could become a life.
“I realized you can be who you want to be. You just have to believe in yourself,” he says.
That doesn’t mean the work is easy. Quite the opposite.
“I work 24 hours a day, seven days a week, super hard,” Beaufort says. “But when you do what you love, you don’t feel like you’re working. Every day is a new adventure.”
Travel itself has become an essential part of his creative process. While exploring Toronto, Beaufort says he can walk more than 10 miles (16 kilometres) in a day without even thinking about the distance.
“I just look up, look around, capture images and logos and things, and talk to people,” he says. “That feeds me every day.”
Of all the places his travels have taken him, however, there is one country he returns to again and again: Japan.
“I would pick Japan simply because I’ve kept going there for the last 10 years,” he says when asked to name his favourite country for food. “With Tokyo, you can go to almost any place randomly and it’s going to be good.”
Create Your Own Window Project Culinary Adventure
The Window Project continues in Toronto through September 26, transforming some of the city’s favourite food destinations into stops on a creative culinary tour.
Along with DaiLo, participating spots include Dreyfus, Forno Cultura, Left Field Brewery, LINNY’s, Nice Slice, Ricky + Olivia and Restaurant Stop.
For diners, it’s an invitation to experience the project beyond the art itself. Follow Beaufort’s journey across Toronto and create your own culinary adventure, stopping in to see the installations while discovering, or rediscovering, each of the restaurants he selected along the way.
Each destination offers something completely different, but that may be precisely the point. The Window Project connects restaurants and neighbourhoods through Beaufort’s art while celebrating the individuality of the people and places behind them.
It is also a fitting extension of Beaufort’s belief that food can connect people in a way few other things can. The Window Project may begin with art, but experiencing it means exploring a city, meeting people and, naturally, eating very well along the way.
For an artist who draws inspiration simply by walking through a new city with his eyes open, Toronto provides plenty of material.
“Every day is a new adventure,” Beaufort says.
And until September 26, Toronto diners and people visiting the city can join him for part of it.
