What joy to be sampling the remarkable efforts of five remarkable chefs after a three-year drought from the Kitchen Party’s regional culinary competitions. The warm up events for the Canadian Culinary Championship, to be held in early February 2023 at the Shaw Centre, launched in Ottawa on September 26th. James Chatto, national culinary advisor for the CCC, and one of our seven judges for Monday’s evening of grand and glorious eating, has a brilliant account of the competition and, with his blessing, here it is.

We’re back, baby! Canada’s Great Kitchen Party hit the ground running last night with the first event of our 2022 campaign – Ottawa-Gatineau. After a three-year hiatus (filled with some pretty fabulous, not to say creative, fundraising virtualities) the Kitchen Party is happening again, with all its trademark verve and energy and passion.

The venue was the stately old house that is home to Le Cordon Bleu cooking school and everyone present was fully aware that this was something of a teaser for the Canadian Culinary Championship which takes place here in the Nation’s Capital over three days next February. Last night was a brilliant way to identify a local champion to take on the rest of the country at the CCC.

It was an enormous treat to sit down in judgement again, tucking in my napkin and welcoming a sucession of dazzlingly intelligent, delicious and visually exquisite dishes. Together they were absolute proof of something we all know well: that the food scene in Ottawa-Gatineau is exceptionally strong these days – not to mention uniquely collegial and close-knit. Which of course presents a real problem: we only have one gold medal to give away.

How on earth was a winner found? Thank goodness we had a dazzling jury of judges, led by our Senior Judge for Ottawa-Gatineau – Anne DesBrisay – author, restaurant critic, and vastly experienced palate who has been a star of our organisation since the first event in 2007.

Judging with us tonight was the great Sheila Whyte, culinary guru, entrepreneur and owner of About Thyme, Ottawa’s premier catering company, and an essential part of our team for almost as long as Anne; Janet Boileau, publisher, traveller, culinary historian, who can explain the ancestry of every element of every dish and who brings a unique global perspective to our adjudications; Marc Lepine, Chef of Atelier, two-time Canadian Culinary Champion, and the inspiration for a whole generation of cooks; Cory Haskins, chef, student of food and Academic Chair for culinary arts at Algonquin College – in other words, the man who carries the future of Ottawa’s food scene in his hands; and, of course, Chef Ian Carswell of Black Tartan Kitchen, crowned Ottawa-Gatineau’s Kitchen Party champion in 2019 and only now relinquishing the title. As is customary at our party, he got the gastronomical ball rolling with a stunning little canapé of boar cheek with apple boar baklava, a dot of smoked cheddar chantilly and another of apple gastrique, a moment of boar fat “snow” and a foam made from apple and Dunrobin whiskey – the whole ensemble gone in a single bite. 

All the dishes last night were of the highest quality – courageous, provocative statements from chefs who are true artists. Let me make special mention of the gorgeous red deer tartare from Chef Wapokunie Riel-Lachapelle of Terrasse Nikosi in Wakefield, Quebec, and of the delectable lamb from Chef Dominique Dufour of Gray Jay – both dishes that would have podiumed in most competitions. But this was a truly stellar field. 

We awarded the bronze medal to Chef Justin Champagne of Perch. He centred his dish on a thick-cut fillet of lake trout from Lake Huron, killed using the humane Ike Jime method and aged for seven days at 1° C, which has the effect of making the flesh a little more dense and the flavour a touch more intense. The fish was quickly cured with fresh cedar then poached for 20 minutes in a warm dashi broth made from Canadian seaweed, aged mirin, shoyu and koji. It had a beguiling texture, quite firm, almost sticky, and altogether delicious. Chef had placed the fish over some dots of n’duja-like blood pudding infused with alder catkin and foraged sumac that added a subtle extra funkiness to its flavour. Beside the protein were three tiny perfect chanterelles that had been pickled in sake and were seasoned with dried fennel flowers and commas of a tangy fluid gel made from charred tomatoes, dulse and gochujang. A foamy sauce was created by emuslifying koji (grown at the restaurant in cedar trays) with cultured butter. Marigold greens and bachelor’s buttons gave us a pungent little garnish while the whole dish was set over a woven quilt of translucent cucumber ribbons. A tiny roasted sunflower tuile in the shape of a leaf was the finishing touch. The trout was very much the centre of the dish, its unique taste and texture playing off the various other components so that each mouthful created a new effect and a different angle of appreciation. Chef chose a big, bright, refreshing wine as accompaniment – the 2020 Chardonnay from Stratus, which handled the complex flavours really well. 

We gave the silver medal to Chef Éric Chagnon-Zimmerly of North and Navy, whose dish was unlike anything I have ever seen on a plate. Charcuterie is his passion but the inspiration for this creation came from his childhood – specifically the duck-themed paraphernalia that decorated his family’s cottage, and his grandfather’s collection of kaleidoscopes. In some ways, it could scarcely have been simpler – three circular slices of charcuterie, extremely thinly cut, laid out so that they were slightly overlapping in the centre, dotted with various embellishments in a pretty pattern. But oh, the meticulous labour that had gone into the dish! First he made a duck mortadella, studded with flecks of pork fat, raisined ground cherry and hazelnuts that looked like jewels when the sausage was sliced. Around it he wrapped squared-off strips of dark red duck breast, stuck on with a solution of transglutaminase and leek ash. Then the whole thing was rolled tightly, warmed sous-vide to activate the “meat glue” then frozen and sliced. Chef pointed out that the result looks like stained glass – but only the intricate fanciful stained glass windows of Harry Clarke come close in beauty. The three slices were finished with a multitude of tiny effects, flavours and textures: dots of duck fat aïoli, little red fife wheat berries toasted until they were crunchy, elderberry capers, specks of crabapple fluid gel, green sorrel and tart pickled sea buckthorn berries. The final flourish was a scattering of edible gold leaf. “Slide your fork under a slice and roll it up then eat the whole thing in one,” Chef suggested. We did as we were told. It was a wonderful mouthful, full of contrasts and surprises but with the rich flavour of the duck a clear continuo. The pairing was a beer – Dominion City’s “Untamed Land” Emer Wheat Saison that drank like a sour beer, adding its own acidity to that of the sea buckthorn. 

            Winning the gold medal by a substantial margin of points and a unanimous decision was Chef Briana Kim of Alice. Her dish – plant-based like everything at Alice – was a wonderful adventure for the palate and merely listing the ingredients does not do her creation justice. She served it in a bowl – a timbale of the solid elements hidden under a miniature glass cloche filled with kombu smoke which was lifted off to release the scents of salty ocean, seaweed and campfire – hints of the flavours to come. Before we tasted, Chef poured a broth into the bowl, enisling everything – a rich opaque liquid made from green tomatoes fermented in brine for two years, blended with koji butter and smoked kelp broth. This soup became the medium for the whole dish, part of every spoonful – for we were only given a spoon to eat it with, forcing us to combine elements, not pick them apart for separate analysis. Working down from top to bottom,  the crown was a delicate tuile flavoured with “funk dust,” a fine powder of fermented and dehydrated seaweed, onion and mushrooms. Beneath it was a layer of dime-sized potato slices that had been confited in black garlic oil, creamy tofu and fennel pollen. Below that, looking like strands of pulled pork, were fragments of rhubarb jerky that had been preserved in honey for a year, giving them an almost citric intensity and a delightfully chewy texture. Then came smoked maitake mushrooms that were cured in a seaweed and black garlic syrup. Below everything was a wonderfully earthy, toothsomely soft porridge of charred corn and toasted barley. So many deep, resonant flavours – such skillful use of fermentation so that umame was created without anything brash or sour! Chef Kim’s pairing was impeccable – Pearl Morisette 2019 Irreverence, a remakably lightweight, smooth, sophisticated blend of Riesling, Gewurztraminer and Chardonnay with a dash of Pinot Gris, each fermented separately in various ways and then aged together in a combination of concrete vessels and foudres. 

            So the Kitchen Party campaign has begun and we have our first champion. I can only say that Chef Kim, who won gold at Ottawa-Gatineau once before and knows what lies ahead, will be a most formidable competitor at February’s Culinary Championship! 

Conceived 15 years ago as a series of coast-to-coast culinary competitions in support of Canadian athletes and local charities, the Kitchen Party has become a fixture of Ottawa’s autumn social calendar, attracting hundreds of ticket-buying food fans to taste the work of local chefs, enjoy the talents of Canadian musicians, and support the needs of national and community causes.

Winning chefs in Ottawa (and eleven other Canadian cities) then moved on to compete at a national event, hosted in cities that have included Toronto, Whistler and Kelowna B.C. and, most recently, Ottawa.

This year, like so much of life lately, accommodations have been made. The national gala cancelled, the Plan-B became a pared down, local-only, series of events. Organizers invited about half-a-dozen chefs to create three-course dinners with matched wines to be home-delivered to a number of hungry supporters. Those take-away meals took place in Ottawa last night, as did an online, Zoomed-in show hosted by Denise Donlan and featuring some fine Canadian music curated by Jim Cuddy of Blue Rodeo.

As for the culinary competition, it too experienced some modification. On Wednesday afternoon, Thyme & Again’s Sheila Whyte and I (standing in for the usual seven-strong panel of culinary judges) were despatched to the six participating restaurants to evaluate the main dish of the 3-course meals they would deliver to last night’s at-home events.  With only outdoor dining allowed, we sampled impressive competition plates on restaurant decks, parking lots, a laneway, and one (Yannick LaSalle’s dish, from red zoned Chelsea, QC) in the backyard of a volunteered Ottawa home. Much of it under bucketing rain.

Marks were awarded for taste, presentation, technical achievement, wine compatibility and the elusive ‘wow’ factor.

Chef Yannick LaSalle, our 2019 Canadian Culinary Champion, built his dish around local Quebec lamb, Les Fougeres’ extensive garden, and happy memories of a Moroccan adventure. Harrissa spices, preserved lemon, orange, mint and sumac mingled forcefully with lamb three ways, the rare loin, braised shoulder and fragrant sausage, encircling a brilliant pile of orange-ed risotto (cooked in carrot juice) perked with pickled nasturtium buds and toasted pine nuts, and dotted with ruby red currants and mint leaves. A most delectable and pretty plate. His wine was the 2017 Syrah from Meldville Wines.

Scallops stared in the dish from chef Jason Sawision of Stofa restaurant, three whole beauties, seared to a golden crust, the anchors in a life ring of lovely elements. These included a carrot purée, braised red cabbage, baby roots glazed and stained with nori butter, shavings of crisped maitake mushrooms and a few dobs of what chef called an almond pudding. Laid on top were crunchy triangles of chicken skin studded with thyme leaves, ringlets of shaved celery and bright citrusy leaves of lemon balm. A pouring of piping hot lobster-chicken jus completed the pretty affair and Stofa’s sommelier Shane poured the Stratus 2016 White; bold, highly aromatic and gorgeous with the dish.

Onwards to the Holland Avenue deck of The Soca Kitchen, where the dynamic husband and wife team of Gustavo and chef Daniela Manrique served a dish inspired by their Venezuelan roots, an homage to the families they miss. The main component was a rich and subtly sweet stew of goat meat, long-braised in coconut milk, set on a yuca torte in a pool of saffron bisque. Perched on top was a raw asparagus salad, candied kumquats and a wobbly scallop, torched and dusted with fennel pollen. The dish was earthy and bright, rich and refreshing and the wine Gustavo poured – the elegant 2016 Small Lot Merlot from Thirty Bench was a very fine match.

To the ByWard Market next, where Restaurant e18hteen chef David Godsoe served duck – aged, brined, cold-smoked, spice-crusted, honey-glazed and roasted with hay from a friend’s farm. A tidy pavé with the confit leg, crowned it with a tranche of seared foie and turned the duck skin to a crackly crisp. Duck three ways met beets three ways, including pink kisses of fermented beet meringue. Duck adores cherries and here they were, some pickled and whole, a little more in pink dots of gelée. In a shiny copper pot was a juniper-steeped, gin-spiked gastrique enriched with duck demiglace. The chosen wine, poured by sommelier Kate Forsyth was the spicy and hugely juicy Two Sisters 2016 Cabernet Franc.

To our 5th chef, and to a canopy-covered empty lot just north of restaurant Fauna, where we were introduced to chef Billy Khoo’s dish. He presented a remarkably moist and crispy-skinned ballotine of guinea hen with a farce (stuffing) of rich lobster. He cooked the bundle sous vide, smoked it lightly with orange peel and served it with an unctuous, fabulous sauce Américaine, roasting and cooking down the lobster shells and hen stock with brandy and finishing with cream. Also on the plate, a yellow splat of pumpkin purée enriched and flecked with browned butter,  three little confit potato parisienne, some wilted black kale, briny sea asparagus lightly sautéed in olive oil, some wispy fennel fronds and a pile of crunchy fried, lightly seasoned taro curlicues. The dish arrived sous-cloche, preserving the treat of more lovely bitter-orange smoke, warming both the dish and our frozen faces. The wine chosen by sommelier Mike Rothon was an unfiltered orange wine, a 2019 viognier riesling from Therianthropy, five months on skins and stems, we were told. I didn’t adore the wine on its own, truth be told, but it was magnificent with the dish, slicing through the richness, loving the blood orange flavours, and managing the smoke like a champ.

Our final stop was at Gezellig on Richmond Road where chef Shane Brown had set up tables in an empty parking lot. By then, the skies were clear and we celebrated with a bit more duck. A lovely Ontario fall plate of stone fruits, bitter greens, and the last of the season’s corn. Brown had boned and whiskey-marinated the duck before stuffing it with a farce of the leg meat, liver, and port-poached nectarines, the stuffing wrapped in collard greens, the package trussed and roasted to juicy result. He sided the meat with creamed corn and pickled peaches and served an umeboshi (pickled plum) mostarda as condiment. Cave Spring’s Lauren Hayes-Van den Weghe poured us the 2018 Estate Pinot Noir and the match was spot on terrific.

Five hours later, soggy and cold, but extremely well fed, Sheila and I tallied our marks and hashed it out over mugs of mint tea, came up with our winner and called head judge James Chatto in Toronto with the news. Big congratulations to chef Billy Khoo and the entire Fauna team!

With the Canadian Culinary Championships of February 2021 cancelled, there will be no onwards competition of coast to coast gold medal chefs, gathered to crown a national champ. Billy Khoo is allowed bragging rights for sure, and also an invitation to compete again, properly you might say, in our next running of the competition. At the Great Kitchen Party of 2021, we hope to have ten chefs squaring off, and a full contingent of judges, including the KP champion of last year’s competition, chef Ian Carswell of the excellent Black Tartan Kitchen in Carleton Place.  

My thanks to all the chefs this year, to our chauffeur Sylvie Bigras, and to my co-judge, the intrepid Sheila Whyte.

I’m acquainted with a great number of restaurants in this city, but perhaps none as well as Joe’s. I wrote Coconut Lagoon’s first review in 2004, and for the next dozen years, as the little restaurant gained confidence and clients, wrote a number more. I watched it grow from a staff of three to a team of 17 (and I had the pleasure of witnessing the over-the-top joy of that team when they won Ottawa’s Gold Medal Plates culinary contest in 2016).

Most recently, I’d spent a good many hours in the CL dining room. I’d typically show up between services and interview Joe, his brothers Majoe and Thomas, his long serving chef de cuisine Rajesh, his baker Yassein, (who taught me how to make parathas!), his star front-of-house man Malkit… and others, for the Coconut Lagoon cookbook project — the one that has now caught the attention of the prestigious Taste Canada Awards.

It’s had a life, this poor scorched place! 853 St Laurent Blvd was a sports bar in 2004 when the Thottungal brothers bought the turnkey operation with pooled savings and a bank loan. They scrubbed and painted and put up posters of their home province of Kerala… But for a chef who’d worked at the Saudi Arabian Oasis Resort, the Royal York, the Park Hyatt, the Windsor Casino, and the Crown Plaza, it was a pretty plain place on a busy suburban street. Still, for Joe, this restaurant was an opportunity to realize a dream. For the length of his career in commercial kitchens, he was a chef who had cooked the food of other places. It felt time, he told me, “to be an Indian chef again,” to offer the food of his childhood, to reconnect with that spice heritage so imbedded in his taste buds. There was no shortage of Indian restaurants serving the more familiar food of the north back then. Coconut Lagoon would be the first to bring the southern coastal cuisine of Kerala to Ottawa.

It was a dream with a rocky start. For the first few months Joe, Rajesh and Majoe averaged six diners a day, most of them Kerala expats looking for the flavours of home. Others would walk in to try this new ‘Indian’ restaurant, notice no butter chicken, no naan, no tikka masala on the menu (what the heck??) and leave without trying. But then came some positive press, and word got around this was a good place to eat. Tables began to fill. The walls did as well, with more glowing reviews, and framed letters of thanks for the team’s many charitable works. Joe was named Chef of the Year in 2008 by the Canadian Culinary Federation, so that plaque went up. As did recognition for the three podium finishes at Gold Medal Plates, including a silver medal at the Canadian Culinary Championships.

Coconut Lagoon needed more seats to accommodate its growing fan base and to stretch its ability to offer more events — collaborative dinners with guest chefs (including one from the UK with a Michelin star), wine and beer paired tasting menus, fun pop-ups, more charity events. The restaurant also needed a spiffing up.

It got that in 2017, with help from Project1 Studio. When Coconut Lagoon reopened from its renos in time for its 13^th birthday, it was a much more contemporary building of brick, wood and glass, and with renewed vigour in the kitchen and on the floor. And now, in its 17^th year, that building, that vigour is badly hurt.

So many restaurants are waiting for the day they can welcome us back. Coconut Lagoon, I suppose, will just have to wait a little longer.

But when that day comes, I hope to be first in line. With a great many, I imagine, lined up behind me.

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During this pandemic, Joe Thottungal and a core group of chefs and volunteers have been cooking at Coconut Lagoon’s sister restaurant, Thali, on O’Connor Street. To date, they’ve put out 20,000 free meals for the hungry, the homeless, the vulnerable, through a program called Food for Thought. Joe has announced this initiative will carry on. It needs our support. If you are able to help out: https://www.ocf-fco.ca/funds/food-for-thought-meals-fund/

A marvellous community-minded group effort, spearheaded by Poppa-Bean Coffee Company and Purebread Bakery. Now with eight vendors and counting, all with stellar product. Check it out and place an order. Everyone needs excellent coffee and bread these difficult days (did I mention hot cross buns!) among other treats (Comfort Cornish treats from The Great British Pasty & Pie Company!). Delivery starts this Friday (April 10).

The Vendors Project

Team STOFAThe Ottawa restaurant industry has always given big-heartedly its precious time and gastronomic treats to a worthy cause. And here’s yet another example of this generosity: STOFA (chef-owner Jason Sawision) was the first of three restaurants to host a pop-up dinner in support of the invaluable work of Citizen Advocacy Ottawa. Four courses for 35 lucky people with every penny donated to an organization serving the needs of many of our city’s most vulnerable. And I was one of those lucky people. Hurrah!

For more than 45 years, Citizen Advocacy has supported people of all ages across the disability spectrum — those living with physical, developmental, intellectual, mental health, age-related and multiple diagnoses challenges. 

Corey Fortier, who I knew for many years as a server at Atelier, is now the Development Officer for Citizen Advocacy. He and his small team have launched this dining series — “dining for inclusion” he calls it — with STOFA leading the charge, then Bar Lupulus picking up the baton in May, and a soon to be revealed third restaurant rounding things off beautifully in June. Stay tuned for firm dates, then circle them on the fridge calendar and get booking. A multi-course dinner at three of our city’s finest restaurants in aid of a terrific cause. What could be better?

For more information www.CitizenAdvocacy.org

Voila! The 2020 Canadian Culinary Championships podium. Silver medallist, Montreal chef Marc-André Jetté of Hoogan & Beaufort; gold medallist, Vancouver chef Roger Ma of Boulevard Kitchen and Oyster Bar; and bronze chef Emily Butcher from Winnipeg’s deer + almond. (First time Manitoba has been on the podium since Makoto Ono won the very first CCC in 2007).

After many years of being hosted in the west (balmy Kelowna for the past 9 year, but also Whistler, Calgary, Banff, Vancouver), the Canadian Culinary Championships have now a splendid new home. They are where they absolutely belong: in Canada’s capital. Or, at least, so says this Ottawa girl.

This was the 14th year I’ve had the honour of sitting on the judging panel for the CCC. It has become Canada’s foremost culinary contest, one that brings chefs from across the country (12 of them this year, winners, all, in their respective cities’ competitions) and puts them through their paces. They come to display their talents, to push themselves out of comfort zones, and to work their tails off over a weekend of challenges.

This year’s crop of chefs had exceptional culinary gifts. And infectious enthusiasm for the regional cuisine of their respective homes. We saw it over and over again: that keen desire to put their province (ocean, prairie, forest, plain), their passion and heritage on the plate. From the BC coastal terroir of Vancouver chef Roger Ma’s winning dish, to chef Butcher’s awesome ode to the humble turnip (“inspired by our harsh Manitoba winters!”), to the tasting of wild Newfoundland partridge that St John’s chef Kyle Puddester plated.

The weekend began with the Mystery Wine Competition, held at the Canadian Aviation Museum, and judged blind: we knew not which dish belonged to which chef. This is a contest where the match of food with wine counts for 30% of the marks. The wine was exceptionally food friendly, which helped. It was the 2017 Pinot Noir from Prince Edward County’s Closson Chase Winery.

Saturday morning in the kitchens of Algonquin College, the chefs met the Black Box. In it, wapiti eye of the round (from the fabulous Elk Ranch in Kanata), parsley root, haskap berries, pickled fiddleheads, rolled oats, black kale, and a wee jar of phytoplankton, powdered. The chefs who did more than sear a medallion of elk and serve it with a parsley root purée, haskap jus, and a kale chip rose to the top of the heap — for the BB, 30% of the marks are allotted for creativity with the ingredients.

The finale on Saturday night was where the chefs, usually with some seasonal tweaks, reprise the winning dish from their regional competitions. From our bronze medallist, chef Emily Butcher, a celebration of the humble turnip. Other than a lightly charred hunk of perfectly cooked sable fish, cured in birch syrup, plus a brunoise of juicy apple, a bit of candied apple, a crabapple gel, some shredded romaine and crispy wisps of leek, it was turnips that commanded attention. Here was a disc of turnip cake studded with foraged porcini mushrooms and chunks of a sweet, chewy Chinese-style pork sausage seasoned with rice wine, soy and cinnamon. There were wee Hakurai turnips presented three ways — in raw shavings, lightly poached, and hollowed out to receive a shiny yellow frosting of Manitoba’s caviar,  whitefish roe. Chef then poured over a warm, sweet broth made with lacto-fermented turnip juice and caramelized turnip stock, rounded with a little cream and butter, and drizzled with celery-fennel oil. Her wine match: the 2018 Pinot Gris from Tightrope, on B.C.’s Naramata Bench.

Our silver medallist, chef Marc André Jetté of Montreal’s Hoogan & Beaufort, brought a mini hibachi with him, on which he grilled hundreds of luscious oyster mushrooms. These smoky beauties he paired with torched, pickled onion, delicate crisps of smoked bread, pale yellow dobs of matsutake mushroom gel, a rich earthy mushroom puree, red vein sorrel leaves and shavings of the aged, raw milk Louis d’Or cheese.  His pairing was the 2017 Métis Rouge from Niagara’s Pearl Morissette, a blend of Cabernet Franc and Pinot Noir.

And from our gold medallist, Roger Ma: set in a delectable shellfish emulsion, a ring of BC coastal pleasures including a solitary honey mussel, steamed and basted with miso butter, a soft disc of uni custard crowned with salmon roe jewels and dobs of a meyer lemon gelée, a slice of potato and scallion terrine wrapped in bull kelp and then some more bull kelp, a lightly pickled square and fried fronds to shatter in the mouth. Chef Ma chose the 2018 Unicus Grüner Veltliner from Culmina Family Estate Winery to match his dish.

Representing Ottawa, chef Ian Carswll of Black Tartan Kitchen in Carleton Place didn’t quite reach the podium, but it seems he reached something else. As he told the judges on Saturday night “This has been an amazing experience. The entire weekend challenged me both physically and mentally in a way I have never experienced and I feel so inspired from working with such great culinary talent around us.”

And then he added of the competition: “It was also absolutely terrifying.”

(My thanks to photographer Ben Champoux for the use of some of his terrific images.)

When it comes to Ottawa, it’s launched with great style, thanks to Ambassador Kareen Rispal and the team at the French Embassy Residence. I had the honour of attending last year, and I can tell you, it was delicious and instructive. Its focus, in 2019, was on the health of our oceans and waterways, and embassy chef Laurent Provence worked with BC chef Ned Bell (founder of, and passionate advocate for,  Chefs for Oceans).

This year, the dinner supports the Boys and Girls Club of Ottawa, and the chef featured is Beckta‘s Rich Wilson. Five courses with lovely French wines and I imagine it will be delicious! Here are the details:

I’m told the Grand Finale on Saturday night is now sold out, but that tickets remain for the Mystery Wine Pairing at the Aviation Museum on Friday January 31st. Join us! Details attached.

This will be the tenth anniversary of Food For Thought. the swanky soiree put on by the culinary arts program at Longfields-Davidson Heights Secondary School in support of food security. Under the direction of chef-teacher Kent Van Dyk, the student cooks are given the chance to work with the pros, all of whom donate their time and tutelage.  If you’ve a hankering for fine dining in a high school cafeteria for a bargain price (and who isn’t?), then Food for Thought on January 31st is where you need to be. Food and drink are created and executed by community chefs (look at that great line-up!) and their LDHSS student teams. The school jazz band plays, tables are served by students, and money is raised for both the Parkdale Food Centre and Cultivating Cooks. A great event. Get booking!

Date: Friday, January 31st, 5:30pm

Location: Longfields-Davidson Heights, 149 Berrigan Drive in Barrhaven

Reservations: Jane Lovsin, 613-843-7722 #2005