Toronto Food and Wine Festival

The first-ever Toronto Food and Wine Festival took place at Evergreen Brick Works over the course of 3 days from September 18-20. This event brought in several high profile chefs and it was quite the humbling experience to be invited to see some of the best culinary talents all under one roof. You can literally feel the energy of everyone's excitement!

I had the wonderful opportunity to attend all weekend and it was great to see Samuel Adams among the other beverage vendors available on hand. It's also always great to see familiar faces like Matt Dean Pettit from Rock Lobster Food Co.

If you were lucky enough, you could have witnessed Matt coaching students from George Brown College at Taste Canada's cooking competition to create his coconut curry lobster dish. Unfortunately, I missed out on this demo but you can try your hand at this very dish which you'll find is a recipe in his award winning 'The Great Lobster Cookbook'.

Sometimes at a food event, you really just need a place to sit down away from all the food vendors. Chef's Talks provided the perfect escape! Matt Dean Pettit alongside Pay Chen, talked about how he got into the industry from his very first job as a bus boy at the age of 13. His passion to be involved in the food industry is infectious and I quite remember my first lobster roll experience at the Toronto Underground Market when Matt was still doing pop ups around the city. As a fellow foodie, I'm pleased to see the growth of Rock Lobster Food Co. and all the latest projects that Matt has becoming involved in. 

Between all the food I was having, I found myself gravitating back to this craft beer booth to grab some Samuel Adams to quench my thirst. I believe in the growing connection between this brewery and food. Their quality beer paired well with my food choices at this food events such as the Chicken and Waffles from The Dirty Bird. I also find the need to mention about the delicious Romana-style funghi pizza from Levetto which a sample was conveniently given to me during Matt's appearance at Chef's Talks.

It's a pleasure to support a fellow Toronto Chef and see Samuel Adams be involved in such a tasty community-driven event such as this one-of-a-kind Toronto Food and Wine Festival! It was a truly delicious time getting to feed my phone and I can't wait until next year.

Photo credit to Jeffrey Chan courtesy of Samuel Adams.