Cuisine Canada Scene is taking a short break until September. Next month we’ll be back with a shiny new board, a new approach to sharing the best of Canadian cuisine and a short list of nominees for the Canadian Culinary Book Awards.
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Got suggestions on what you’d like to see here in the future? Drop us a note in the comments section or send us an email. We’d love to hear from you.
Photo © Micky. Published under a …

Food Day Canada
Saturday, July 31, 2010
6:00 PM Your time
Cities, restaurants and backyards across Canada
Until last year, Food Day Canada was known as The World’s Longest Barbecue. It is always held on the Saturday of the first weekend in August, which this year happens to fall in July. When I began the event in 2003, the goal was to collectively celebrate the food of Canada, specifically beef because of BSE and the devastation it caused to that industry. After that first event, I expanded the scope to include all ingredients harvested …

Recently, Cuisine Canada members received an email informing them that the deadline for Cuisine Canada Board Member nominations had been extended. Unfortunately, not all computers could read the attached information and some members were left wondering when the new deadline is.
Uh… Tomorrow. That’s Wednesday, July 21st.
So, if you wanted to nominate someone and didn’t, now’s your chance.
The rules?. Cuisine Canada members may nominate themselves or another member (with their agreement, of course. Please, no surprise nominees). Just send the nominee’s contact information and a short biography to cuisinec@uoguelph.ca. Yes, …

The Edna Lifetime Achievement Award celebrates someone who has contributed to the promotion of regional cuisine and who exemplifies that region through his or her work. Last year’s winner was Chef Robert Arniel of St. John’s, Newfoundland.
Are you a member of Cuisine Canada and know someone worthy of claiming the 2010 title?  If so, check out the information on the Cuisine Canada website and send your letters of nomination to the University of Guelph by August 16, 2010.
While the nominator must be a member of Cuisine Canada, the nominee does …

With hundreds of world-class wineries, and increasingly home to a number of Canada’s best chefs, the Okanagan Valley is a top global food and wine destination. It’s also now host to the Okanagan Food & Wine Writers Workshop, based out of Penticton, British Columbia, a two-and-a-half-day workshop with professional development seminars open to writers of all levels. From September 16 to 19, 2010, food and wine writers and editors from Canada and the US will gather to eat, sip, nosh and talk about the hottest topics in the world of …

Summer 2010 Fancy Food Show
By Dana McCauley
With over 180,000 products showcased by 2,500 Exhibitors at New York City’s Javitz Center, the National Association for the Specialty Food Trade (NASFT) Fancy Food Show offers an interesting glimpse into the current culinary landscape. Here, in no particular order, are my observations:

Pink peppercorns were featured in chocolate products by New Tree and Vosges. At New Tree the chocolate was dark while Vosges used lemon scented white chocolate as foil to this sweetly spiced berry.

The show was, quite literally, saturated with teas and …

Last year, I posted my Canada Day menu and no one (!) posted back. You’ve had a year now to get used to this whole blog-comment-box thing, so I’m trying again.
To celebrate Canada’s 143rd birthday, I’m grilling beef kebabs made with Canadian-grown beef and served on homemade flat bread made from Canadian wheat. A fresh green salad dressed made with local cucumbers, Canadian feta, homegrown herbs and a canola-based dressing will help offset the sugar high the homemade butter tarts will induce. To drink? Red wine –  VQA, of course.
So, …

Long in the works, a national honour for the food sector has finally been awarded.  The Nation’s Table is the Governor General’s award for excellence in the food and culinary sector.  Founded by Jean-Daniel Lafond, the award intends to celebrate the leaders and innovators who best exemplify social values, innovation, and cultural impact that we honour in our Canadian food system.
The inaugural inductees range from restauranteurs, chefs, food processors, and scientists.  Of note, awardees include long-time Cuisine Canada supporter  and member Rob McLaughlin, as well as past Culinary Book Award …

There’s a stereotype that all the excitement in the Canadian food sector lies in a few locales.  That’s wrong – there are delights to be found across the country and  good things are cooking in Manitoba — or are being served up in their raw, marvelous, unprocessed glory.
Here’s a quick rundown of some of the exciting and interesting finds from Manitoba:
Cold Pressed Prairie Oils
We’ve all seen cold pressed canola oil.  How about cold pressed flax, sunflower and  hemp for salad dressings, dips, or finishing oils.  Grown locally, and …

When Jo Marie Powers retired from the School of Hospitality and Tourism, University of Guelph, in 1998, as a volunteer activity she began the Canadian Culinary Book Awards. In the beginning this was a way of collecting cookbooks for the University’s culinary collection (now numbering more than 12,000 titles) and letting Canadians know who our super-star authors and publishers were. Soon it became such a fun activity that it became her primary retirement activity.
Last fall, Jo Marie turned the awards over to Fiona Lucas and a team of four headed …