Ottawa chefs to dish it out for Carefor

Fall fundraiser dinners meet pandemic rules

Carefor Health and Community Services will go ahead with a planned series of culinary fundraisers this fall, relieved that the Ontario government's latest COVID-19 regulations allow for their gatherings.

“We were preparing for the worst, but thankfully there's faith in the protocols that were put in place in restaurants,” said Robin Duetta, Carefor's staff member involved in community development and fundraising.

“People can go and dine in restaurants safely. They're following the rules and are taking great care in reformatting their spaces.”

Responding to rising pandemic numbers, the province on Thursday announced a rollback on social gathering limits in Toronto, Peel Region and Ottawa to 10 people indoors and 25 outdoors. However, the restrictions do not apply to events or gatherings held in staffed businesses, including restaurants or facilities such as movie theatres, banquet halls, or convention centres.

Carefor, the community nursing and health care organization that grew out of the Victorian Order of Nurses, will stage three Monday-night dinners at the banquet facility at 50 Sussex Dr. Duetta says the capacity of each event will be 36 people at “well-spaced” tables of two and four.

The Sept. 28 dinner will feature food by Jason Laurin of Essence Catering and Dominique Dufour, the chef-owner of Grey Jay Hospitality on Preston Street and a competitor on this year's season of Top Chef Canada.

On Oct. 19, dinner will be prepared by Bar Lupulus's chef Justin Champagne-Lagarde and Tu Hong, chef de cuisine at Aiana Restaurant Collective, the posh new fine-dining eatery in the Sun Life Financial Centre.

On Oct. 26, Michael Moffatt, the managing partner of Thyme & Again catering and formerly executive chef for the Beckta restaurant group, will cook.

Tickets are $125 a person for five courses, wine and tax. They are available at feastoffields.ca.

Last year, Carefor was the beneficiary of Feast of Fields, a revived annual fundraising event that was held at Ottawa City Hall and starred Ottawa-area farmers, producers and chefs. While that large-scale event could not be repeated due to COVID-19, the Carefor series effectively replaces it, and a few more small events next month are likely to be added to the series, Duetta says. phum@postmedia.com