Chef Nick Benninger and Farmer Mark Lass proudly show off their very special pig roast.
Those of you who are regular readers of Good Food Revolution will be well aware of our love for the annual Savour Stratford and Perth County Culinary Festival.
Although we usually take the train down there, last Friday we merrily fired up our Waze app and asked it to take us out of the Toronto urban conurbation and its associated arterial network. It took us onwards, through the country roads less traveled, en route to Stratford in our little Autoshare car.
As is to be expected with any harvest festival in this part of the world, the weather can often be an issue. This year we were thankfully spared the snow and cold that last year’s Fall threw at us, and the rain clouds stayed away for most of the weekend’s festivities.
This year’s program was seriously jam packed, and it was rather tricky to get to each and every seminar/demonstration that we had originally planned to take in. We did however manage to spend some quality time with Vikram Vij and his spices, get utterly drenched in a downpour before watching a great production of Coward’s Blithe Spirit, learned to be a little more mindful with Tea Sommelier Karen Hartwick and Medicinal Herbalist Melanie Stevenson, find tranquility in another fashion with Master Beer Cicerone Mirella Amato and her marvellous selection of brews, discover some excellent new recipes for wholegrains with the extremely entertaining Chatelaine Food Director Clare Tansey, get lost in the Perth County backroads trying to find Shakespeare’s Pies when our phones were dead, get a bit upset that Shakespeare’s Pies had sold out of both their Steak and Kidney pies as well as their delectable Tourtières, sneak in an afternoon nap, witness the stage spectacle that is Tommy (The Musical), have a romantic morning stroll alongside the River Avon, listen to a fascinating session led by Author Naomi Duguid about her culinary travels in Burma, and pick up a plethora of amazing vegetables from Soiled Reputation.
As always, the weekend’s celebrations of all things tasty culminated in the Savour Stratford Sunday Tasting Event, and it was to this fantastic gastronomic exposition that we brought our trusty camcorder in an attempt to capture the atmosphere for our readers.
Our verdict was that the food and drinks at Sunday’s Grand Tasting were seriously the best yet, and that is truly saying something seeing as it is always exemplary!
Our thanks go out to all involved in the organisation and planning of Savour Stratford for another job well done.
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Edinburgh-born/Toronto-based Sommelier, consultant, writer, judge, and educator Jamie Drummond is the Director of Programs/Editor of Good Food Revolution… And he thinks that Savour Stratford simply gets better and better each year.
