Conference showcases local culinary tourism
About 150 people from the food and hospitality industry, along with local producers, shared their ideas about boosting culinary tourism in the Kawarthas during the two-day Feast on the Farm conference on Sunday and Monday.
The Culinary Tourism Alliance, in partnership with Peterborough and the Kawarthas Economic Development (PKED), hosted the conference at Lang Pioneer Village, near Keene in Otonabee-South Monaghan Township.
“We built this two-day event to feature local chefs, purveyors, beverage producers, distilleries, and breweries that have a focus on using local food,” said Joe Rees, director of tourism for PKED.
“So, the Culinary Tourism Alliance has a designation called Feast On, which is an audit process to look at a restaurant or food-service provider. If they’re using a certain percentage of local foods, they can get a designation which then puts them on a kind of a featured list.”
A third-party program that PKED and the Culinary Tourism Alliance also refer qualifying local businesses to is the Gros Morne Institute for Sustainable Tourism program, which provides hospitality and tourism operators with developmental training that enhances their services in a sustainable way.
“They put on programs around experience development,” Rees said. “We’ve probably got two dozen GMIST grads in Peterborough and the Kawarthas.”
Rare Escape, based in Peterborough, was one of the successful graduates of the program. The owners of the business, Tyler Scott and his wife Kassy, the former owners of the Rare Grill restaurant in Peterborough, provide their patrons with locally prepared food in the heart of nature.
“It’s all about how you can bring somebody to a place,” Scott said. “Making that place special with things that you can provide them, and the stories that you can tell.”
With the help of the Gros Morne program, Scott created a business model for Rare Escape. Kassy explained that within six months they were coming up with ideas of what Rare Escape’s experience would look like for their participants.
“It’s about having observational learning and trying to open up people’s minds to the outdoors and also the land that we can use,” he said.
Other successful tourism operators, including from Elmhirst’s Resort in OtonabeeSouth Monaghan and Ste. Anne’s Spa near Cobourg, also spoke about how their involvement with the Culinary Tourism Alliance has helped them work toward the United Nations sustainable development goals.
“We’re trying our absolute best to plant and grow as much as we need to operate,” said Michael Stevens-Hughes, of Ste. Anne’s Spa. “I walked the route of local procurement as much as possible, but we’ve kind of opted to produce as much of our own as possible.”