Cuisine Canada Scene

World Oceans Day: Sustainable Convenience

A Sustainable Fish on Every Table By Dana McCauley Since last spring when I started to work for a food manufacturer, I’ve received quite a bit of criticism from people who accuse me of selling out and abandoning the true and noble culinary path. Although I won’t say it doesn’t bother me, I can say [...]

Case Study: Chives Canadian Bistro

On March 1st, more than 400 chefs, food writers, food and beverage experts, restaurateurs and leaders in the hospitality field gathered at the Terroir Symposium in Toronto. While sessions ranged from steak tasting to social media, branding to (not surprisingly) terroir, the day opened with The Art of Hospitality. Chris McDonald of Toronto’s Cava Restaurant started [...]

Foraging Etiquette, Foraging Regulations

As you enjoy your long weekend hikes through the woods, and are tempted by the marvelous wild delicacies, please remember the following: -When foraging plants, remember the general etiquette: know your plants, and know about their life cycle.  Never take more than the plant can quickly regenerate within a year.  Some of my personal recommendations [...]

Building Direct Relationships Between Farms and Restaurants – Part 1

Today, many restaurants showcase local, Canadian products.  While sourcing these  products is becoming more of a main stream industry with typical wholesale marketing, building direct marketing chains between food producers and restaurants or other retail markets is a real boon for both the agricultural industry and retailers.  Producers retain value on their product, while restauranteurs or retailers have [...]

Slow Food, Slow Money…

Recent discussions with a friend of mine, Paul Spence, a cash crop farmer from Ridgetown Ontario, really brought home the crisis, the opportunity, and the barriers in diversifying in the agricultural sector today. We all know that many sectors of the Canadian agriculture are in trouble.  Case in point, the pork industry. It’s under catastrophic collapse from fluctuating [...]

Independence Day

Dale Kropf, founder of the Hometown Grocers’ Co-op, felt his customers were underserved with local products.  To address this, he left his six Sobey’s Foodland franchises, and became independent as L&M Food Markets. By independently sourcing product, rather than going through national level corporate buyers, Kropf is able to purchase more from local producers, and create more tangible links between [...]