What an amazing turnout and successful pre-Food Revolution Day event hosted by fellow Ambassador Dorothy Pang! It was buzzing Saturday at Nella Cucina with her vegetarian culinary competition- a Master Chef-like challenge where teams of 4-5 produced one or more dishes using specific ingredients from a 'mystery box' in one hour! The 'boxes' they were handed were pretty simple containing beets, lemon, garlic, ginger, kale and a Good Food for Good sauce. A huge pantry of ingredients was available for them to choose from to encourage more creativity. Excited resourceful cooks worked together to create a phenomenal meal using only vegetarian ingredients. The winning team produced an impressive array of dishes, including a dessert combining beets and dark chocolate. It was great to see true creativity and the coming together of unexpected flavours from different cultures!
Unfortunately I wasn't able to attend, and the content of this post was made possible with the accounts from Dorothy and Food Rev team mates Carol Harrison and Linda Matarasso!
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| Credit: Carol Harrison. The colourful rainbow pantry! |
Carol Harrison and Linda Matarasso helped out with the judging, photo-taking and social media! Twitter and Instagram was a-buzzing with their renditions of the bustling activities.
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| Credit: Linda Matarasso. Carol checking out the ingredients |
After the team huddle on what to make with the ingredients, the kitchen fired up with action!
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| Credit: Dorothy Pang |
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| Credit: Avra Shayna |
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| Credit: Carol Harrison |
21 minutes left... the heat is on!
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| Credit: Dorothy Pang |
The judges looking at the great spread of dishes and making their final decision...
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| Credit: Dorothy Pang |
A beautiful collection of the teams' dish presentations.
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| Credit: Linda Matarasso |
Dorothy says, "The teams were incredible... very impressive dishes!" The winning team created these combination of dishes for a complete meal- a simple pasta with roasted vegetables using red peppers, kale, onions, mushroom and Good Food For Good Chiltomate- a Mexican simmered sauce, a mixed vegetable salad, chocolate covered beets and strawberries, and phyllo wrapped bananas. That sounds amazing and dee-licious! All team photos credited to Dorothy Pang!
Here were the other fabulous teams showcasing their creative dishes!
And of course the night would not be made possible without the wonderful team from left to right- Richa Gupta, Founder of Good Food for Good, a sponsor for the event, Food Revolution Toronto ambassadors Dorothy Pang, Carol Harrison and Linda Matarasso.
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| Credit: Linda Matarasso |
Linda Matarasso says, "Everyone had a great time and made new friends and challenged themselves to think outside of the take out box to support Food Revolution Day."
Carol Harrison had this to say, "Tonight was proof again once more of the power of cooking & eating together to make for a memorable evening. I had folks share with me their cultural food traditions from the Philippines & Iran, watched as people shared their culinary skills & get fearless cooking with an unfamiliar ingredient. Chanting the "sign it, share it" at the end as a big group was the icing in the cake."
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| Photo Credit: Linda Matarasso |
The winning prize for each team member was some bath products from Detox market and a Sobeys gift card. Raffle prizes were aroma and Sobeys gift cards, gift certificate to Lee Restaurant, chopsticks from Susur Lee and a gift basket with Good Food For Good sauces.
Other sponsors for the evening were some awesome food and beverages for the crowd to enjoy: Amazing Vegan Caesar wraps from Rawlicious and Rise Kombucha's fermented teas were a huge hit- the ginger flavour had a great kick to it and Hibiscus & Rose Hips a hit with everyone! Delicious vegan chocolate cookies from Sweets from the Earth and the fantastic Peruvian coffee from Boxcar Social were perfect for ending the tasty evening. Thank you for the great eats and treats!
Dorothy shares on Facebook- Fantastic turnout and event! SO great to see true creativity and the coming together of unexpected flavours from different cultures. Only made possible by @nellacucina @sobeys @rawyorkville @boxcar_social @aromaespressobar @sftebakery @risekombucha @goodfoodforgood @detoxmartketTO #FoodRevTO #foodrevolutionday @foodrevtoronto #betterfoodforall @DetoxmarketTO @aromaespresso @ifeelrawlicious @RISEmother
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| Credit: Dorothy Pang |
Photos courtesy of Linda Matarasso
This sweet guy Henry who was part of the winning team is one in a million... he stayed and helped clean up with the girls which took two hours! A true winner of the night in our books! The team loves you!!!
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| Photo Credit: Carol Harrison |
The official Food Revolution Day is May 15th with so much happening. Please sign and share Jamie's petition for better food education around the world www.change.org/jamieoliver. We now have over 720,000 signatures from 182 countries, help us take it to a million!
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