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Culinary experiences
Good eats north of 60
The Yukon's culinary scene is a blend of rustic northern ingredients and modern cooking, with a focus on sustainability, local sourcing, and traditional Indigenous practices. Game meats, foraged ingredients, and innovative techniques make it a destination for adventurous eaters. Despite its small size, the food culture has flourished in recent years, featuring notable chefs, award-winning restaurants, an eclectic mix of international cuisines, specifically represented in the local food truck scene, and Canada’s northernmost cooking school.
- Cultured Fine Cheese offers a curated selection of cheeses from around the world, including local Yukon-made favourites from Klondike Creamery. A must-visit for cheese enthusiasts, this boutique brings the flavors of international and regional cheese culture to the heart of Whitehorse.
- First People’s Coffee is an Indigenous-owned coffee company that uses its platform to share Indigenous stories and support Yukon First Nations artists. Partnered with Firebean Coffee Roasters, the company roasts its traditional Yukon wood-fired coffee and shares it with coffee lovers across the country.
- At Gather Cafe and Taphouse, located alongside Lumel Studios, guests can indulge in locally sourced Latin-inspired dishes, such as pork carnitas and arctic char tacos. The café’s décor and glassware is as colourful as the hand-blown glass created on-site.
- For those seeking healthy, plant-based dining, The Kind Café offers a gluten-free and organic menu featuring items like medicinal mushroom mochas, acai bowls, and carrot lox toast.
- Klondike Kettle Corn, a family-run business, makes popcorn in small batches with simple, wholesome ingredients. The company collaborates with other local businesses, creating unique blends with Yukon products, including artisan olive oils and birch syrup.
- Barbecue lovers can enjoy slow-smoked brisket, pork shoulder, and ribs at Smoke and Sow, a southern BBQ smokehouse in Whitehorse.
- For craft beer enthusiasts, Winterlong Brewing is a small brewery that produces unique beers crafted with passion. The tasting room offers locally sourced snacks alongside the brewery’s distinctive brews.
- Woodcutter’s Blanket, a historic cocktail bar and brewery, is housed in a 1930s log cabin adorned with faux moose. With house taps connected directly to serving tanks, visitors can enjoy the freshest beer possible in this iconic setting.
- Founded by locals who wanted to create a beer that reflected the spirit of the Yukon, Yukon Brewing offers a range of beloved beers, while its sister company, Yukon Spirits, has won multiple awards for its Two Brewers Single Malt Whisky.
- Each Thursday from May to September, the Fireweed Community Market in Whitehorse comes alive with over 40 vendors showcasing locally made, grown, or harvested products. Alongside these treasures, food trucks serve a diverse array of ethnic cuisines—ranging from Japanese and Korean to Indian and Filipino—highlighting both the long-standing and recent immigrant influences that have shaped the Yukon.
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Further north, in Dawson City, 240 kms south of the Arctic Circle, BonTon & Co is part of a movement to gain food sovereignty in the North. The cozy restaurant also gained recognition as one of Canada’s top-ten new restaurants in 2021.
Notable food personalities
- Chef Catherine ‘Cat’ McInroy, of Well Bread Cooking School, a culinary centre that offers private cooking classes for aspiring home chefs. Chef Cat shares her expertise in pasta, pastry, butchery, and more, while guests can take home a piece of Yukon history — an authentic sourdough starter dating back to the 1898 Klondike Gold Rush.
- Canadian chef, food writer, and cookbook author, Chef Michele Genest, is recognized for promoting the culinary heritage of the North, highlighting sustainable, seasonal, and traditional foods of the area, often incorporating wild game, foraged plants, mushrooms and berries into her cooking. Her cookbooks, The Boreal Gourmet and The Boreal Feast, showcase recipes that reflect the landscape and culture of the Yukon’s boreal forest. Chef Michele is celebrated not just for her culinary expertise but also for her storytelling, blending recipes with narratives about the Yukon lifestyle, food traditions, and the natural environment. Her work often seeks to inspire others to explore the ingredients around them and embrace the northern food scene, making her a key figure in promoting Canadian wilderness cuisine.
- Auriol Chocolates, a local chocolatier in Haines Junction offers residents and visitors a taste of exquisite, small-batch gourmet chocolates crafted with passion and expertise. Inspired by a love for sharing handcrafted treats, these artisan creations have quickly become a community favourite at the local market.
- Shaks Chocolate offers thoughtfully handcrafted chocolates made with Persian-inspired flavours and Yukon-sourced ingredients, proudly created in Whitehorse. As a first-generation Iranian Canadian, Shakiba ("Shak") shares the warmth of her culture, blends creativity with cultural flavours, and brings chocolates filled with joy, a Persian twist, and Yukon flair to the community.