Savour Stratford Perth County Culinary Festival: Day One

Way back in April, when I started this blog, I introduced myself with a little story about the day I suddenly decided I wanted to move with my family to Stratford. It was the Sunday of the 2009 Savour Stratford Perth County Culinary Festival. I was sitting alone in an empty hall three hundred kilometres away, where I'd hosted an all-local and garden-fresh chef's brunch all summer - apparently word didn't get out that we were going to serve through the fall. I called my wife, who was attending Savour Stratford. She told me about the concerts, the tasting tents, the farmers market, the charity barbeque, the learning centre, and the kids tent. When she was finished telling me about her weekend I asked her, "So, how would you like to move to Stratford?"

Fast forward one year... and surpassing all my expectations, Savour Stratford 2010 was indeed one of the best weekends I've ever had (that's ever). The culmination of the Perth County culinary calendar saw the fulfillment of a great deal of hard work and planning on the part of the Savour Stratford organizers, who welcomed me into their ranks this year and basically made all my local-food-event-dreams come true.

It all kicked off with the launch party on Friday night at Foster's Inn, the accommodation sponsor for the Festival. The promise of free drinks courtesy of Chateau des Charmes (Savour Stratford's wine sponsor) and free finger food brought out a big crowd that included members of all the various Savour Stratford committees as well as bloggers, volunteers, and attendees, who were all entertained by a great band called the Blues Daddys. 

Food included sushi rolls, gourmet pizzas and  Perth-County-Piggies-in-a-Blanket (above).

Saturday morning, the Festival itself kicked-off with a great outdoor cooking class led by none other than Stratford Northwestern Secondary School's Culinary Arts teacher Paul Finkelstein (aka the Food Network's Fink)! My family participated, with my little two year old Fisher throwing cheese into our egg scramble from his perch atop my shoulders. 

Is that a priceless Stacey family Savour Stratford moment or what?!? 

Apparently, I tricked Fink into taking part by forgetting to mention the wireless microphone, the fact that he was going to be teaching at the bandshell and not the Learning Centre, and a few other minor details such as the giant dance performance that served as the lead-in for his lesson. But Paul is a great sport, and he even managed a tongue-in-cheek thank-you to the Local Come Lately for setting him up.

You rocked it Fink!

Actually, Fink and I had another little project on the go for both days of Savour Stratford. Every year, the festival features Edible Embers, a charity BBQ all weekend where worthy causes can raise some funds by serving local food to the throngs of hungry attendees. As the final element of the Stratford-Wide School Garden project I worked on with the SNSS Culinary kids and nine other elementary schools in and around Stratford, we were serving a "Three Sisters Soup" at the charity BBQ. Paul's class had made the delicious soup using corn, beans and squash, the very ingredients we had grown in the school gardens!

The soup was a hot seller, and by the end of the weekend our high school volunteer Jenna (in photo above with me and Paul) had served-up enough soup to make $750 for the Stratford elementary school nutrition program!

At noon it was time for me to head over to the Monforte Dairy Kids Tent where I was presenting The Living Salad Bar along with my friend Alondra Galvez. We'd been planning for this all summer, planting window boxes full of chard, arugula, and other delicious, colourful greens months before.

Given the chance to pick, wash and spin-dry their own greens, add more colourful ingredients, then learn how to make a great dressing, the kids (and many of their parents!) went crazy for salads! Those are words you don't see together very often, so I think they're worth repeating: "The kids went crazy for salads!"

Actually, the kids also went crazy for The Salads at the bandshell's all-day concert, where the eponymous group played a rare acoustic set that saw people getting up on their feet and dancing. I also spent the afternoon checking out the massive farmers market, the Stratford Chefs School Learning Centre... and the beer tent!

After coming home for a quick nap, it was back to the riverside for the Savour Stratford party known as the BBQ, Blues & Brews event. As soon as we arrived we were greeted by the DeWetering family, who were roasting a few of their own pigs for the pork-on-a-bun that came with every ticket. Every ticket also afforded the holder six samples of amazing craft brewed beers from all over Ontario. For a review of the great beer on tap (that also includes my drunken antics gushing over a woman who I thought was Margaret Atwood) check out my brother-in-blog Matty Ian's post describing the fun time he had.

Legendary Canadian blues harmonica virtuoso Carlos del Junco was the headliner for the evening. He looked like he was having as good a time as the rest of us as he jammed with his incredible band and kept the well-fed crowd moving!

That was the end of day one of the Savour Stratford Perth County Culinary Festival. When I got home, I reflected: Could it have possibly been any better? I guess I would see tomorrow...