Restaurant Industry in Canada during Covid 19

It's hard to believe that it's been just over a month since I went to my last big Food Industry Show.  At the beginning of March I visited the Restaurant Canada Show at the Enercare Centre in Toronto.  This show is one of my favourite shows of the year. I look forward to it so much because it's a chance to check out what's new in the Restaurant Industry and I also get to hang out with many fellow foodies and people I have met in the industry over the past almost 10 years of blogging.

I meant to write this post a whole lot sooner but everything blew up just after the show with the shutdowns of businesses and people including myself moving to working at home for continued services.

Sadly the whole Restaurant Industry changed in a matter of a couple of weeks after the show.

A little bit about the show before I move to the reason I am posting this now.

At the show this year there weren't any glaring trends that I could see but there was a lot of focus on more gluten free, and keto focused products.  There was a lot of meat and fish with a whole area focused on Seafood.  My friend Matt Dean Pettit had a booth for his Matty's Seafood brand so as I was whipping around the show I had a quick hi and then dashed off to a last minute Sea-cuterie platter workshop at the other end of the show.  I did a post about it previously on the blog.

I went to the show 2 days in a row because there are so many workshops and talks and things to sample.  It's really hard to sample all the food you want to try in one day.  I had to skip things I have tried before and looked for favourites like of course the Oysters because it's something I don't eat often and all of the new products are what I generally look out for.

I didn't see anything that stood out as innovative this time but there was more of quality and sustainability.

This year the country that was spotlighted was Peru.  We got to sample a delicious Peruvian breakfast that included some incredible Ceviche.  Yes ceviche breakfast was the first thing I tried on the first day of the show and it was great

These artichokes were one of the more interesting things I tried.  I wish I could remember the booth it was at though.  I was really rushing to see and try as much as I could.

I tried fantastic Procciutto, empanadas, tostadas and so much more but for some reason I didn't get photos of everything.  I didn't actually eat as much as I have in the past so there were less photos.

My friend Vicky was busy sampling at the Unbun booth, where I tried the samples that the Pro  what the chef had whipped up at the booth while Vicky was busy telling people about the Keto friendly buns.

Let's chat about the people at the show.

Besides Vicky and Matt there were a bunch of other people that were there that I want to shout out.


Fellow food blogger Joyce from Joyce of Cooking was joined by Joanna Sable for a talk about Influencers in the food industry (bloggers and others).  It was a very informed talk.  Joanna Sable's mom has been a food producer for many years and Joyce worked in restaurants and is now a restaurant marketing consultant.  I learned a few things I didn't know about even.

Emily Richards was doing cooking demos for as she called it "fluid" dairy products or what you would call milk type of products for Savour Ontario.  I just missed her demo but stopped to see what she was cooking and it sounded very interesting.

I also sat in on a Harassment in the Workplace talk presented by Workers Safety and Prevention Services who provide Joint Health and Safety Committee training among other food industry educational training.

Christine Manning of Manning Canning was there with her healthy Soda's.  I tried the one with Ginger since I figured it was the best one for digesting all the samples I was wolfing down that day.

The booth that I kept going back to a few times over 2 days was the Pluck Tea booth because I fell in love with their Verbena Blues iced tea.  Check out the color when mixed with lemon juice.  It was so refreshing.  I need to get some for the hot summer days if we ever get any.

I also loved the Coconut Cold brew at Station Cold Brew.
Kraft had a Peanut butter sauce. I guess meant for Thai cooking.


But mostly I loved running around with my foodie friends trying to see and try everything.  It's hard to believe this is the last time I got to hang out with my blogger pals.  I hope that Covid 19 doesn't last too much longer and the Restaurant Industry can get back to providing the much needed delicious food and for us it's a way of socializing while doing what we love.   We all want to thank all the people that work in the Food Industry.  We appreciate and Love you and miss you all and hope that you can all get back on your feet very soon.

So back to the reason I am posting this Blog Post today specifically.

Today is the 1st day of #TAKEOUTDAY.  Every Wednesday from today until it's not needed anymore the Restaurant Industry in Toronto want you to support your local restaurants by ordering Take Out food so keep these restaurants going.

You can find your local restaurant through Restaurant Canada's - Canada Take Out website at  https://canadatakeout.com/

While we want you to stay home we also don't want to see great restaurants have to close down because of lack of business from the self isolating practices.   Be careful how you get your take out and if you can have it delivered even better.

Support restauranteurs like Trevor Lui seen with us crazy bloggers on the first day of the Show.  Trevor has been responsible for many restaurants like Kanpai and recently Popa at Bayview Village.

Restaurant workers work really hard and don't make a lot of money and they provide us with delicious food and are a source of good times and community for all of us.

Please support them and thank them because they are struggling to keep their doors open at this time.