Le Virunga

Sandy's culinary journey began at the age of 7 when she learned the secrets of cooking alongside her grandmother, a professional chef whose contagious passion for gastronomy profoundly influenced her life. While Sandy's music career took off, the culinary arts always remained a source of inspiration and grounding for her. After her grandmother's passing in 2014, Sandy found immense comfort in cooking, which proved to be therapeutic. This path led her back to school, where she earned a Bachelor’s degree in Hospitality and Restaurant Management from George Brown College in Toronto in 2023.

From 2016 to 2020, she ran Patty Party, a catering business that paid tribute to her mother's 1990s restaurant. At the same time, she honed her skills at various establishments, including the highly acclaimed Le Virunga. Today, Sandy brings together her passions for cooking and music through SVR X SOUND, a collaborative platform she co-founded with artistic director and photographer @herflysoul. This unique project seamlessly blends gastronomy, music, and visual art.

Sandy's dishes pay homage to her Haitian and Québécois heritage as well as her travels. Through immersive culinary videos, audiences are invited to explore Caribbean fusion recipes paired with carefully curated music Mixes & Mashups, offering a complete and memorable sensory experience. 

The story of cheffe Maria de Frias combines culture, diversity, identity, art and daring. And that's exactly what we find in her approach to gastronomy. Coming from a family of entrepreneurs, Maria worked in several trades before training as a professional chef at LaSalle College in Montreal and devoting herself to cooking, a passion she has always had within her. After visits to Bitoque and Mess Hall (now the Centrale), it is in her own restaurant, the Virunga, that she combines spices from Cameroon, Beninese side dishes, Tanzanian marinades and Quebec products. The cuisine of Virunga is a sweet encounter between Quebec and Africa. She offers us authentic dishes brought up to date offering a different vision, but just one of a current Africa and in perpetual evolution. Cheffe Maria takes us on a journey from the forests of Central Africa to the shores of the Gulf of Guinea, appropriating every flavor, every scent that she encounters on her way. The result is a daring and modern menu, but with a strong identity, which invites sharing and discovery.
Her dream: to see recipes from her continent integrate the daily life and eating habits of all households in the world, one spoonful at a time.

Descendant from Central Africa's Bantu peoples, Bibish is a Congolese-born, Quebec-based playwright and author deeply involved in Montreal’s theatrical scene. Her work focuses on popular education and the decolonization of expectations and imaginaries.Her novel *Samantha à Kinshasa* was adapted for the stage by Philippe Ducros under the title *Bibish de Kinshasa* in 2015, where audiences enjoyed her storytelling infused with scents, music, and visceral truths. Her first play for young audiences, *La parole créatrice de kaku mama*, will be featured in the 2025-2026 season of Maison Théâtre, directed by Maxime Mompérousse. She is currently developing *Blue band et Mojito*, a tribute to her late mother, in collaboration with Albertine M. Itela (director) and Moridja Kitenge Banza (scenographer).  

Bibish actively collaborates with artists, theaters, festivals, universities, community centers, and cultural institutions that provide her platforms to express herself and co-create. Among her projects are *Neechemus* by Émilie Monnet, *La Reine Nzinga* with Alexis Diamond and Tatiana Zinga Botao, *Bongo te tika* with Angèle Séguin, *Home Dépôt* by Anne-Sophie Rouleau, *Jusqu’où te mènera Montréal* by Martin Faucher and Marcelle Dubois, and *Vendre ou Rénover* at Théâtre d’Aujourd’hui. Her participation spans both Montreal and international events, including the Théâtre Jeune Public residency at BIC in Quebec, the Festival TransAmériques (FTA), the International Theater Day celebrations, the Jamais Lu Festival, Les Francophonies en Limousin (France), the Avignon Festival, Bamako’s literary season (Mali), and Kinshasa’s Book Festival (Democratic Republic of Congo).

As co-director of the 20th edition of the Jamais Lu Festival alongside Marcelle Dubois, Bibish also serves on the board of the Quebec Association of Playwrights (AQAD) and is a member of the Quebec Center for Playwrights (CEAD). She regularly facilitates memory-writing workshops, conducting sessions in Luanda, Angola (2021); Kigali, Rwanda (2014); Montreal, Canada (2012); Rio de Janeiro and Niterói, Brazil (2009); Limoges and Marseille, France (2009); and Kinshasa, DRC (2008). 

Marie Louise has been residing in Montreal since 2010.

The story of cheffe Maria de Frias combines culture, diversity, identity, art and daring. And that's exactly what we find in her approach to gastronomy. Coming from a family of entrepreneurs, Maria worked in several trades before training as a professional chef at LaSalle College in Montreal and devoting herself to cooking, a passion she has always had within her. After visits to Bitoque and Mess Hall (now the Centrale), it is in her own restaurant, the Virunga, that she combines spices from Cameroon, Beninese side dishes, Tanzanian marinades and Quebec products. The cuisine of Virunga is a sweet encounter between Quebec and Africa. She offers us authentic dishes brought up to date offering a different vision, but just one of a current Africa and in perpetual evolution. Cheffe Maria takes us on a journey from the forests of Central Africa to the shores of the Gulf of Guinea, appropriating every flavor, every scent that she encounters on her way. The result is a daring and modern menu, but with a strong identity, which invites sharing and discovery.
Her dream: to see recipes from her continent integrate the daily life and eating habits of all households in the world, one spoonful at a time.