Taste Real

Taste Real from the Ground Up is a branding strategy that has been designed to promote locally grown food in the Guelph Wellington area in Canada. This new local food movement works closely with Guelph Tourism and six Economic Development Officers who represent the municipalities of Wellington County to create more opportunities for culinary tourism with the belief that access to healthy, sustainable, local food improves the health and economy of the local community. The Taste Real logo advertises how food tastes real when it is grown, prepared, presented and enjoyed locally. Taste Real combines the efforts of volunteer business stakeholders, the Guelph Wellington Local Food Team and the Ontario Ministry of Agriculture Food and Rural Affairs. This initiative is recognized by the Ontario Tourism Culinary Alliance and strives to build community awareness through memorable local food experiences for consumers.

Principles of Taste Real

Taste Real’s initiative consists of three principles:

• Vision Statement: Commitment to growing a local food community in Ontario.
• Mission Statement: Creating memorable experiences with food, drink and farms from the success of passionate and proud people from Guelph Wellington.
• Values: Combining the heritage and tradition of both rural and urban communities.

Field Dinner

In association with the Taste Real brand, the Taste Real field dinner serves as a fundraiser to support and preserve the development of Guelph Wellington Local Food. Partnered with Appetizingly Yours Events & Catering, the field dinner is described as an effort to “help raise funds to grow one of the most vibrant, local food economies and food tourism regions in Ontario.”

The premise of the dinner is a ‘back to roots’ or ‘field/farm to fork’ ambience, taking place at a local Wellington County farm where chefs prepare alfresco courses using local ingredients paired with local wines. Diners are free to peruse the site as chefs prepare assigned courses—once the dinner bell sounds, it signals that guests are to take their place at the long table stretched through the field. Until the bell rings however, there is time to socialize, grab a drink, listen to music, and check in on how the real time painting of the event is shaping up.

The inaugural Taste Real field dinner took place on September 12, 2010 at Deerfield Farms in Erin, Ontario. Chefs included Brian Schmeler, Jake Tyson, Sauna Edwards, Laura Marshall, Drew Renelt, and Chris Jess—as well as a slew of volunteers, service staff, and culinary assistants. Method’s for cooking involved charcoal barbecues and an open fire pit. The 2nd annual Taste Real field dinner takes place on Sunday, September 11 at Strom’s Farm in Guelph, Ontario.

“As chefs and mentors we source the local best possible ingredients available, Taste Real From The Ground Up is a great opportunity to gather chefs and local producers to showcase the symbiotic relationship that is crucial for the perfect ingredient and therefore the perfect flavour.” - Brian Schmeler, head chef, Appetizingly Yours Events and Catering.

Farmalicious

Farmalicious is an event held by Taste Real where restaurants in Guelph and Elora participate in featuring locally grown food on their menus to celebrate the harvest season. This initiative allows guests to enjoy meals that are fresh and produced with products that are locally grown. In 2011, the event began each weekend starting on August 5, 2011 with Fat Duck Gastro Pub and will end on October 13, 2011 with Minto Township’s “Savour the Flavours.”

List of participating restaurants:

Staff and Coordinating Committee

While Taste Real is reliant on membership, it does maintain a staff as well as a coordinating committee.

Staff

• Kate Vsetula - Project Coordinator
• Gayl Creutzberg - Outreach Coordinator
• Christina Mann - Event and Communications Assistant

Coordinating Committee

• Bob Desautels, Neighbourhood Group
• Katie Normet, Rivers Edge Goat Dairy
• Arwa De Groot, Mapleton’s Organic Dairy
• Amy Strom, Stroms Farm
• Steph Toohill, Sante
• Terri Manolis, Envers of Morriston
• Brendan Johnson, Everdale Organic Farm & Learning Centre
• Ingrid von Cube, Appetizingly Yours Events & Catering
• Alan Boivin, Delta Hotel Guelph
• Mark Kenny, University of Guelph, Hospitality Services
• Chris White, Chair, Econ. Dev. Committee, Guelph Eramosa
• Sue Trerise, Tourism, Economic Development, City of Guelph
• Dave Rushton, Economic Development, Centre Wellington
• Dale Small, Economic Development, Wellington North
• Belinda Wick-Graham, Business & Economic Manager, Minto
• Jana Riechert, Wellington Waterloo Community Futures
• Christine Chapman, City of Guelph

Local Business Members

The following local businesses are a few of the participating members in the Taste Real program:

• A list of all participating business members can be found at the Taste Real website.

External links

• Taste Real Official
• Appetizingly Yours