Maison Zoe Ford
Our Story
Zoe Ford is a Montreal based food company with a passion to feed you well. Our ultimate goal is for you to enjoy baking and cooking by creating exceptional results at home; to allow you to truly sit back and enjoy something delicious.
Since 2009, Zoe Ford Catering has been crafting crowd-pleasing menus featuring a variety of bright, sophisticated flavours from fresh, interesting ingredients that celebrate the seasons. Now that we created an at-home collection, our products are designed to bring that joy to you every day- to do some of the work for you by sharing our incredible recipes and top quality ingredients which allow you to create fresh, bakery quality results with ease! This is the new way to create from scratch and we cannot wait for you to get into the kitchen!
Meet
Chef Jo Notkin
Chef Jo Notkin, Maison Zoe Ford Inc, Founder
Jo Notkin started Zoe Ford Catering in 2009 so she could feed people the type of food she loves to eat at parties- Beautiful, simple and delicious. She considers sharing food to be one of life’s greatest joys. Jo named the company after her late grandmother (whose real name is Esther Finestone) from whom she inherited her fresh aesthetic, keen eye for detail, creative spirit and penchant for the art of hospitality.
Jo is a native Montrealer with ties to the seaside town of Gloucester, Massachusetts, near to where Zoe was born and where she spent summers growing up (and discovering the sheer magic of lobster parties and strawberry rhubarb pie made by hand). Beyond her role as a caterer, Jo has been many things: among them, a creator of jewelry for Aldo Shoes while in her late teens, a champion oyster shucker in her 20’s, a designer and manufacturer of sustainable textiles in her 30’s, and in her 40’s a chocolatière, a chef and a contestant on Food Network Canada’s Top Chef Canada Season 8. Jo is a proud supporter of the NDG Food Depot.
Who is Zoe Ford?
A.k.a. Esther Finestone, The Inspiration Behind Maison Zoe Ford
Zoe Ford, Jo’s formidable and inimitable late grandmother, understood the joys of fine dining and elegant entertaining. She set a fabulous table (even when dining alone) and always had three of four types of cookies in the pantry. Born Esther Finestone in 1908, Zoe took on the “more sophisticated-sounding” moniker as a beautiful debutante growing up in the Boston suburb of Chelsea, Massachusetts. From her earliest days, Zoe cultivated a brassy disposition and a reputation for insisting on the absolute best of everything, from dress cuts to cuts of meat. She took great pride in hosting flawless social functions, creating extravagant menus featuring things like tomato juice cocktail and gravlax garnished with cucumber, capers and shallots. Zoe Ford Catering takes cues from the original Zoe Ford’s impeccable aesthetic sense and fierce dedication to being the ultimate hostess. We think everyone should have a little Zoe Ford in their lives.