Article featured in the University of Guelph News.

Three Canadian restaurants offering innovative and creative dishes have won this year’s University of Guelph Good Food Innovation Awards.

The annual awards recognize food professionals who use Canadian ingredients, create innovative, healthy menu selections and follow sustainable management practices.

“Our judges look for the use of ingredients that enhance colour, aroma, taste and texture; the nutritional aspects of the foods; new recipe formulation and the creative use of ‘natural’ Canada; and a reflection of commitment to ecology in the choice of menu items or ingredients and their sources,” said Anita Stewart, Canada’s first food laureate at U of G and founder of Cuisine Canada.

This year’s judges were chef Michael Allemeier, Southern Alberta Institute of Technology; Judson Simpson, executive chef of the House of Commons and chairman of the Canadian Federation of Chefs and Cooks; and Alison Bell, culinary instructor at Invermere Secondary School, British Columbia. Gold award recipients are invited to the University of Guelph to meet with students and faculty, and to speak on their business, menu creation, and approaches to creativity and sustainability.

The Good Food Innovation Awards are sponsored by Stewart, the U of G president’s office, the Ontario Agricultural College, and the College of Management and Economics.

This year’s awards went to three Canadian restaurants – one in British Columbia and two from Quebec.

The gold award has been won by Sooke Harbour House on Vancouver Island for the second year in a row. Owned by Frederique and Sinclair Philip, the restaurant was lauded for its Food Day Canada menu.

Silver was claimed by chefs Charles Part and Jennifer Warren-Part of Restaurant Les Fougères in Chelsea, Que., for their inspired interpretation of ingredients of the Gatineau region near Ottawa.

Les Jardins Sauvages in St. Roch, Que., is owned by chef Nancy Hinton and her partner, François Brouillard. They took this year’s bronze for the restaurant’s “adventurous” Journée des terroirs menu.

Sue Bennett, director of university and community relations, said: “We will be giving some very honourable mentions to chef Mark Filatow of Waterfront Restaurant and Wine Bar in Kelowna, British Columbia; chef Alex Haun of Savour Restaurant in Chamcook, New Brunswick; Sal Howell of Calgary’s legendary River Café; chef Hamid Salimian from Diva at the Met in Vancouver; the inimitable Roary MacPherson of the Sheraton, St. John’s; and chef Ken Hodgins of Envers in Morriston, Ontario.”

Other honourable mentions go to Quebec’s Jardins de Métis; King Pacific Lodge, a luxury floating fishing lodge in northern British Columbia; and chef James Walt of Whistler’s Araxi.

Known as “Canada’s food university,” U of G has been involved with Food Day Canada since the event began in 2003 to encourage Canadians to buy, eat or prepare food grown, produced or raised in this country. The national awards were launched in 2010.

Contact:
Anita Stewart
Food Laureate
Ontario Agricultural College
University of Guelph
astewart@uoguelph.ca