Terroir Symposium is:
an annual gathering of Canada’s elite hospitality industry. Our audience includes influential chefs, food writers, wine and food experts and business leaders. Terroir symposium attracts people who are serious about the business of hospitality and who are dedicated to the development and refinement of their careers.
The Terroir Symposium is a not-for-profit event driven be a committee of industry professionals. The team strives to deliver an annual symposium to educate, network, share resources and build the community that helps to strengthen our industry. The 2011 symposium will focus on the balance of artistic creation and traditional craftsmanship in our hospitality industry.
Terroir Symposium’s Mission
To deliver an innovative annual symposium that encourages community, culture and education to enhance the hospitality industry.
Terroir Symposium’s Goals
• To provide a forum that fosters education and passion for the food and beverage industry
• To support a community of professionals within the hospitality industry and a culture of sharing and networking.
Program:
Terroir V 2011 – Tradition & Technique
Tuesday, March 1st, 2011
7:30 am – 6:30 pm
Hart House, University of Toronto
7 Hart House Circle
“The path to greatness is along with others”-Baltasar Gracian
We believe the dining experience is a feast for the senses. The ambience of the dining room and the graceful, effortless choreography of the hosts and the servers reflect this harmony. We encourage our chefs to showcase their brilliance, originality and technique so that their plates are seen as works of art. Our plates reflect and respect the balance of tradition and innovation while displaying the spirit of our chefs and artisans.
Terroir values the unique contributions of all who are part of the alchemy that, through professional skills and artistic merit, transform the earth’s bounty into a vision. The fields and farms are our muse, the crafts persons are our artists and the dining experience is our chef-d’oeuvre.
While we value the traditions and technique of our industry as our guiding principles, ultimately it is the final product – the plate in front of you – that we enjoy as a true art form. At Terroir, we honour and celebrate the contributions of all to this art form…and then we drink!!
Program
7:30 a.m. – 8:45 a.m. : Registration & Breakfast
9:00 a.m. : Opening remarks by Conference Chair, Arlene Stein
9:15 a.m. – 10:00 a.m. : The Art of Hospitality
11:00 a.m. – 12:30 p.m. : Concurrent Sessions
Session I: Brand New YOU! Branding from your soul.
Session II: Riesling Kamp: “A Slow Train Coming”
Session III: The Origins of Taste
12:30 pm 2:00 p.m. : Secret Lunch
2:00 p.m. – 3:30 p.m. : Concurrent Sessions
Session IV: Social Media Smackdown!
Session V: The Importance Of Terroir: a philosophical approach to understanding a sense of place in viticulture
Session VI: The World of Steak: A Structured beef tasting
3:30 p.m. – 4:30 p.m. : Keynote Speaker
The Pleasure of Dining: A Discussion with Chef Fergus Henderson
4:30 p.m. – 6:00 p.m. : Networking Reception
Program Details
7:30 a.m. – 8:45 a.m. : Registration & Breakfast
Breakfast hosted by Angeline’s Restaurant and Inn
Bloomfield, Prince Edward County
Executive Chef Michael Potters
9:00 a.m. : Opening Remarks
Opening remarks by Conference Chair, Arlene Stein.
9:15 a.m. – 10:00 a.m. : The Art of Hospitality
Hospitality can be defined as anticipating guests’ needs – whether they know them or not. A great restaurateur must not only foresee food trends but also those of style, formality and ambience. Crafting a successful restaurant requires one finger on the collective pulse of a dining public and another on the trends that shape the restaurant landscape.
We open this symposium with expert restaurateurs Sal Howell – The River Café Calgary, Chris McDonald – Cava Restaurant, Toronto & Craig Flynn – Chives Café, Halifax as they talk about how they have created unique restaurant experiences that have captivated diners for many years.
11:00 p.m. – 12:30 p.m. : Concurrent Sessions
Session I: Brand New YOU! Branding from your soul.
Brands with soul share a passion and motivation with consumers and have a clear reason for being. They are harbingers not only of business, but of key values which add power to contemporary brands. Join our training experts for this fast-paced, hands-on workshop as you analyze the attributes of your personal and business brand. Participants will be divided into small working groups to explore how you can define your brand, how it links to excellence, and how to assess and market it. Roll up your sleeves for some fun and informative learning and leave with some concrete ‘take-aways’ for you and your business. An eye-opener for restaurant owners, chefs and sous chefs, caterers, front-of-house and bar managers. If you’re interested in opening a business in the food & hospitality sector, don’t miss this workshop!
Session II: Riesling Kamp: “A Slow Train Coming”
A facilitated tasting with Charles Baker – Stratus, Charles Baker Riesling, Ontario.
John Szabo Master Sommelier, Tom Penachetti – Cave Spring Cellars, Ontario, & Randall Grahm – Bonny Doon, California.
Session III: The Origins of Taste
Joshna Maharaj & Bettina Schorman
12:30 p.m. – 2:00 p.m. : Secret Lunch – Brown Bag & Bubbles
Please join us for an eclectic “Secret Bag” Lunch that will evoke memories of simpler times while elevating the status of the classic brown-bag lunch. Lovingly prepared by seven of Toronto’s finest chefs, each bag will contain different and delicious items reflecting the vision and showcasing the skills of each chef. Vegan and vegetarian options will be available, but you won’t know exactly what’s in your bag until you open it! Keep yours to yourself, share or trade goodies with your new colleagues, but most of all enjoy! You lunch will be served with some of Ontario VQA’s finest wines and bubbles.
Participants; Donna Dooher – Proprietor & Executive Chef, Mildred’s Temple Kitchen; Jamie Kennedy – Executive Chef, JK Kitchen & Gilead Café; Marco Tucci – Executive Chef, Hart House, University of Toronto; Alex Johnston – Proprietor & Executive Chef Provenance Cuisine; Scott Vivian, Proprietor & Executive Chef Beast Restaurant; Karen Viva Haynes, Proprietor & Executive Chef Viva Tastings.
2:00 p.m. – 3:30 p.m. : Concurrent Sessions
Session IV: Social Media Smackdown!
Join culinary tourism expert and social media darling Rebecca LeHeup (@OntarioCulinary) from the Ontario Culinary Tourism Alliance as she shares her social media keys to success and pulls out tricks of the trade with @Stevedolinsky. Rebecca will show you how to best utilize your social media networks and leverage them to help create the best brand advantage for the digital age.
Presenters: Rebecca LeHeup, Executive Director, Ontario Culinary Tourism Alliance; Steve Dolinsky, Food Journalist and Broadcaster, Chicago.
Session V: The Importance Of Terroir: a philosophical approach to understanding a sense of place in viticulture.
Presenter: Randall Grahm
Session VI: The World of Steak: A Structured beef tasting
Led by Mark Schatzker, author of “Steak: One Man’s Search for the World’s Tastiest Piece of Beef”. He is a columnist for the Globe and Mail and a frequent contributor to Condé Nast Traveler.
Mark Schatzker obsession with steak sent him on a year-long journey spanning four continents in searchof the perfect steak. Along the way, Schatzker tried every cut, from as many different breeds of cattle as he could find, raised in every possible way. Still hungry, Schatzker raised his own grass and apple-fed beef in Grey County with the help of legendary chef, Michael Stadtländer.
Join Mark Schatzker for a “horizontal” beef tasting. Sample steak from different cattle breeds — Angus, Wagyu, Longhorn, to name a few — “finished” on a variety of different feeds, ranging from grain to grass. From carpaccio to asado, Schatzker will speak to the world’s preparation techniques and steak cultures as participants (literally) chew the fat.
Chef Matty Matheson & Matty DeMille – Parts & Labour, along with producers, First Light Waygu, YU Ranch & Scotch Mountain Meats
3:30 p.m. – 4:30 p.m. : Keynote Speaker
The Pleasure of Dining : A Discussion with Chef Fergus Henderson
“Life should be about conversions, shouldn’t it? Pleasure should be infectious.”-Fergus Henderson, St. John Bar & Restaurant, London UK
Chef Fergus Henderson is world-renowned as a pioneer and industry leader in the ‘nose-to-tail’ dining experience.
“Any time you see cheeks, tripe or marrow on a New York City menu,” Anthony Bourdain has written, “you can feel the ripples of his influence.”
Henderson opened St John Bar & Restaurant in London in 1994, having had no formal training in cooking; his approach was dictated by what he had learnt from his mother and the principles of his training as an architect.
In 1999 Henderson published Nose to Tail Eating: A Kind of British Cooking in which he provides recipes incorporating trotters, tripe, kidneys, chitterlings and other animal parts. Says Henderson, “It seems common sense and even polite to the animal to use all of it…”
He was awarded an MBE by Queen Elizabeth in 2005, and published the sequel, Beyond Nose To Tail in 2007.
Having received a Michelin Star in 2009, St John is now a Mecca for chefs and hospitality leaders as a place of comfort and inspiration; a restaurant specializing in crispy pig’s tails, headcheese and pot-roasted pig’s head has become an international destination.
In this exciting discussion, Chef Henderson shares his story; why he left his career as an architect to pursue his present craft, and how his experience might inspire other chefs to realize their artistic vision on the canvas of a dinner plate.
4:30 p.m. – 6 p.m. : Networking Reception
Reception to feature; Gordon Food Services, The Belworth House, Beaus Beer, Southbrook Vineyards, Henry of Pelham & St. Germain Liquer