It’s a time-honoured event that brings the country to the big city and once again Durham College (DC) is making its mark at the Royal Agricultural Winter Fair.

Sharing culinary expertise

This year Centre for Food (CFF) Chair David Hawey is providing his culinary expertise as he spends four days judging the semi-final and final competitions of the Egg Farmers of Ontario Road to the Royal chef challenge and the Toronto Invitational Chef Competition at the Royal Agricultural Winter Fair.

“It’s a huge honour to be asked to participate,” said Hawey. “The focus of these competitions is on showcasing the ingredients and using local produce whenever possible, which is closely aligned to the CFF’s own field-to-fork philosophy. It’s nice to see top calibre chefs bringing the philosophy to life and I am pleased to contribute my expertise.”

Culinary students also appeared on-stage on November 7 and 8, as part of a partnership with the Ontario Apple Growers. Under the guidance of Hawey they developed one sweet and one savoury apple-based appetizer and demonstrated how to prepare them in front of a live audience.

“It was really exciting to share these recipes with fair goers,” said Kristin Atwood, a second-year student in DC’s Culinary Management program. “It was both challenging and fun to take the skills we were taught in-class and use them to develop the dishes.”

Sharing information

With over 300,000 visitors attending the Royal annually, it is also a great opportunity for DC to reach prospective students and their families. The college’s recruitment team is on-hand for the duration of the event to showcase the over 140 market-driven programs offered at the college. These include the extensive suite of field-to-fork programs offered at the CFF in the areas of baking, culinary, hospitality, events, food and farming and horticulture, as well as programs with a science and engineering focus including pharmaceutical and food sciences.

For anyone who wants to visit DC at the Royal Agricultural Winter Fair, which runs until Sunday, November 16, stop by booth 518 in Hall A.