Food Day Canada evolves into a celebration for Canadians to share their food, stories, recipes and favourite restaurants
Canadians had an opportunity to take a seat at the table to celebrate Food Day Canada on July 30.
It was an occasion to acknowledge the work of farmers, chefs, researchers, home cooks and barbecue masters.
From bison tartare to black oysters to corn on the cob and bottled wines, foodies spent their long weekend indulging in Canadian cuisine.
“It’s permission to eat all things Canadian, eh,” said Crystal Mackay, Food Day Canada co-ordinator based in Guelph, Ont.
“The tagline is to shine a light on Canadian cuisine, to take one day a year to really celebrate the incredible food we have in Canada and against our traditionally humble way to say we have amazing food.”
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About 50 iconic Canadian features and buildings were lit up to acknowledge the homegrown food event.
Newfoundland’s Confederation building, the CN Tower in Toronto, Niagara Falls, the Winnipeg sign near the Canadian Museum for Human Rights, the SaskTel Centre in Regina and the legislative assembly of British Columbia in Victoria all acknowledged the day by shining lights.
“It’s called Food Day Canada, but we treat it like a season. Like Christmas, you don’t have to celebrate just on the day, and with the idea that once people start eating and enjoying Canadian ingredients more often, it’ll continue the other 52 weeks of the year,” Mackay said.
It was the 19th time the event was held. In the first few years it was called the World’s Longest Barbecue.
At that time, many chefs and people in the food industry were not focused on sourcing and buying Canadian grown beef, said Mackay, but simply used whatever their food service providers offered.
Since then, Food Day Canada has evolved into a national celebration for Canadians to share their food, stories, recipes and favourite restaurants.
This year’s event illustrated that much has changed in acknowledging and supporting Canadian grown ingredients and products, Mackay said.
“We have over 11 million impressions on social media, over 11 million celebrations and cheers to Canadian farmers that happened on the weekend.
“Farmers are usually pretty humble and just busy growing food, not talking about it, so the rest of the country were cheering them.”
