October 23, 2007

Cooking demonstration at Thyme to Cook: Classic Comfort Food - With a Twist

100 Mile Meal Event
Press Release:  July 11, 2007

What’s old is new again as local and seasonal foods find their way home.

Local and seasonal eating has been the norm since the beginning of time, but with the change to urban living, industrialization, and faster forms outranks over the past century, the entire world has become an open food basket for anyone, anywhere.

While this has facilitated the explosion in cooking and eating global cuisines, there has also been a price to pay in terms of quality, the environment and even food safety.

The Slow Food Movement is the genesis of a growing philosophy that supports local, sustainable agriculture and resistance to the industrialization of food.  But over the past several years, the organic and environmental movements have added quality, taste, nutrition, safety and lower ‘food miles’ to the reasons for eating locally-grown foods.

Now a network of personal chefs has decided to bring the concept of local, seasonal eating to a dinner plate near you.  With a project entitled 100 Mile Meal Event, personal chefs across Canada are celebrating this country’s harvest during the month of September, with special menus and meals featuring products from food producers within 100 miles of their location.

The 100 Mile Meal Event is the concept of Mia Andrews, President of the Canadian Personal Chef Association (CPCA), established in 1999 to train and support personal chefs in providing healthy, convenient meals to their clients.

‘Because we cook for individual families, our business is already geared towards local demand,” says Ms. Andrews.  “With this project we can educate out clients about regional food producers.  The objective is to get them ‘turned on’ to supporting local farmers beyond the event itself.”

More information about the September event can be found at www.100MileMeals.net  – a website that includes links to local chefs and food suppliers across Canada.  The site also provides menu and recipe ideas and contains a blog where chefs write about their experience in researching and developing their menus.