Taste is why local food has such great legs

AFTER MORE THAN 20 years of pioneering local food and trying to understand its appeal, Guelph and Kitchener restaurateur Bob Desautels thinks he’s finally figured it out.

Local food, he says, simply tastes better.

For one thing, it’s often fresher. And freshness and taste go hand in hand.

As well, in some cases, new technology – such as the miles of greenhouses in the Leamington area – is making local food available on a more consistent basis (for example, decent-tasting tomatoes in winter).

And the feel-good element of local food cannot be undervalued. As unscientific as this sounds, a lot of people think local food tastes better because if they wanted to, they could meet the farmers who grew it or raised it. In fact, they might think they already know them, as more farms brand their products.

All these factors are giving local food legs to run ahead of the food-trend pack.

This insight into the market has helped make Desautels a leader … so much so that Thursday, at a glitzy ceremony in Toronto,

Desautels, owner of Borealis restaurants and the Woolwich Arms in Guelph, was named the Ontario Hostelry Institute Gold Award Honoree in the Independent Restaurateur of the Year category. Alongside him was his wife Sue and fellow awardee Isadore Sharp, founder of the Four Seasons hotel chain, receiving a lifetime achievement award.

These awards don’t leave Toronto very often. If they did, Desautels would have likely won years ago, based on the way he helped usher in this area’s local food movement as far back as 1992.

That’s when, at what’s known locally as the Wooly, he served his first local food dish, venison Bourgogne, and poured his first local craft brew, a Wellington Arkell true ale. Bison burgers and Niagara area wine followed, long before it was trendy to serve either, let alone find them on a menu.

Now, he offers much more, in part because Ontario farmers continue diversifying. That increases options for him and his patrons (and indeed, for all consumers). For example, his table menu at the Wooly notes even the jalapenos on his Spicy Arrow Burger are a product of Ontario, as is the Thornloe cheddar, not to mention the Yu Ranch 100 per cent grass-fed beef. Superb.

That dedication to locally sourced cuisine is one of the reasons the institute recognized him. But perhaps the best is yet to come.

This summer, as Desau- tels turns over corporate operations of his restaurants to his son Court, he and his daughter Emily are set to launch a branded condiment line called Fresh From The ‘Hood, a nod to his company’s corporate name, Neighbourhood Group of Companies. This line will also bear the moniker he trademarked years ago, A Taste of Ontario, and will feature four new items that are staples in the pub food business: ketchup, mustard, vinaigrette and barbeque sauce.

But in keeping with Desautels’ style, there’ll be a local twist to each one. For example, the ketchup will be flavoured with basil and sundried tomatoes. Beer will help fashion the mustard’s taste. The vinaigrette will feature fresh tarragon. And the barbeque sauce will blend maple syrup, smoke and thyme.

And there’s yet another local connection: all these Taste of Ontario products are being developed in partnership with Rootham Gourmet Preserves, located just outside Guelph. Rootham products are sold in most Canadian provinces; to some, no doubt Fresh From The ‘Hood products will be seen as local, no matter where in Canada they’re purchased.

And next summer he and Sue are taking to the road to populate a website and blog he’s starting called Locovores Digest, which will feature profiles on branded products, and farms, from across Canada.

Congratulations to a true local food pioneer.