This post should have been made last week, but, I guess it is better late then never.
From Sunday to Tuesday of last week, WindsorEats headed on up the 401 to a little town called Toronto for the 2009 Ontario Culinary Tourism Summit.
The WindsorEats Wine Trail Rides were acknowledged on stage in front of 350 delegates for winning the Ontario Culinary Tourism Experience award for 2009. Kevin Brauch, famous as the Thirsty Traveller host as well as being a regular on The Iron Chef: America, handed us the award. We even got to talking to him afterwards and he seemed very keen on what we do. Very nice guy.
This conference was fantastic. The passion that restaurant owners, chefs and farmers from across the province had for using local and in-season produce and meats was absolutely fantastic to see, yet a little sad as well since Windsor/Essex seems to be falling behind in this area. I do have to admit, though, that going to the summit has reinvigorated and filled me with many new ideas to pursue with WindsorEats for our area. Windsor-Essex has the potential to be just like Prince Edward County (or ‘The County’ as it is known) and dare I say it, maybe even better.
We hope to see WindsorEats achieve many things in 2010. At the top of our list is to push harder for the use of local produce, meats, cheeses and anything local! This region has so many things to be proud of and it’s time we celebrate that!
