With macaroni and cheese once again as its theme, the biannual showdown took place at DFC’s Canadian Cheese Counter at the Toronto Food & Drink Market.
Chef Feswick’s truly unique Canadian macaroni and cheese experience starts with combining the distinctive nostalgia of home-styled comfort classics such as Cheddar, sage and mushrooms, and finishes by pairing them with the luxurious flavours of hazelnuts, Blue cheese and Jerusalem artichokes.
This year’s three other fierce competitors included Andrew Farrell, chef de cuisine at 2 Doors Down Food + Wine in Halifax, Nova Scotia; Nicole Gomes, executive chef at Nicole Gourmet in Calgary, Alberta; and Thompson Tran, chef and owner at The Wooden Boat, Port Moody, British Columbia.
The esteemed judging panel consisted of Afrim Pristine, proprietor at The Cheese Boutique in Toronto, Ontario; Vanessa Simmons, cheese sommelier at Savvy Company; Georgs Kolesnikovs of cheeselover.ca and the Great Canadian Cheese Festival; and Rita DeMontis, Sun Media food editor.
Cheese lovers across Canada can access these macaroni and cheese recipes and find tips for making the perfect dish by visiting The 2016 Grate Canadian Cheese Cook-off.
DFC hosts proAction media event
In April, DFC hosted a media event to launch Canadian dairy farmers’ long-standing commitment to sustainability through the farmer-led proAction Initiative.
Held at Ottawa’s Canadian Museum of Agriculture and Food, the event showcased the six proAction modules: animal care, milk quality, food safety, traceability, biosecurity and environment.
DFC President Wally Smith kicked off the press conference portion of the event and was joined by Pierre Lampron and David Wiens, two DFC board members who are particularly involved with this initiative, who also spoke and answered questions from the audience.
Stakeholders and media were given the chance to talk to dairy farmers and experts as they toured various kiosks and even met a milk truck driver who explained the meticulous data collection and quality testing all milk undergoes during collection.
DFC took this opportunity to release its new proAction video, which demonstrates the organization’s commitment to sustainability to the general public. The video was widely viewed on social media, garnering about 4,000 views on Facebook alone within the first three days.
On the same day as the media event, Minister of Agriculture and Agri-Food Lawrence MacAulay congratulated DFC for its Canadian Quality Milk program, now known as proAction’s food safety module, for successfully completing the Canadian Food Inspection Agency’s Food Safety Recognition Program.
Qualification for the Food Safety Recognition Program is assessed through an extremely thorough review process.
The recognition signifies that DFC has a solid infrastructure in place to manage the information related to on-farm audits conducted by validators, that the program is in line with Hazard Analysis Critical Control Point principles and that we offer comprehensive training capacity for those performing the audits.
DFC is the second organization, after Chicken Farmers of Canada, to achieve this recognition for its food safety program. PD
Founded in 1934, Dairy Farmers of Canada (DFC) is the national organization which defends the interests of Canadian dairy farmers and strives to create favourable conditions for the Canadian dairy industry.
Working in accordance with supply management principles, DFC promotes safe, high quality, sustainable and nutritious Canadian dairy products made from 100% Canadian milk through various marketing, nutrition, policy and lobbying initiatives.
Driven by a strong sense of community and pride, DFC and Canadian dairy farmers actively support a number of local and national activities. Visit dairyfarmers.ca for more information.
PHOTOS: Photos provided by Dairy Farmers of Canada.
