Road Tripping - Savour Stratford

Stratford is a happening place these days.  Home to former resident Justin Bieber and the Stratford Festival where current shows include King Lear which stars the great actor and Stratford resident Colm Feore.

Stratford is also home to some great artisan food producers including Cheese Makers Monforte Dairy.  Monforte Dairy sell their Artisan cheeses at many of Toronto's farmer's markets and are very popular in the markets.

I recently went on a road trip to Stratford for the day with some friends to check out the annual Savour Stratford Festival.  It runs all weekend long but I just drove up for the saturday.  I have been to Savour Stratford before a few years ago and was lucky to win a weekend stay and some Savour Stratford vouchers.  I enjoyed my weekend very much as I was able to spend the weekend hanging out with an old friend that lives in neighbouring St. Mary's.  I was lucky that the weather was beautiful and sunny that weekend.  Not like the day I visited this time around.   The drive to Stratford this time was grey and  drizzly.  I have to say that half of the festival is held outside where there is an Artisan Market.  That's what I went there for this year.  When we arrived the weather seemed indecisive, it drizzled then stopped then drizzled again and stopped while we were walking the Artisan Market street.   So it was open umbrella, close umbrella and so on for about an hour.  I was a little sad that there didn't seem to be as many vendors as there were the last time I visited.   There were vendors spread around the grass as well as the street last time and there were quite a few fresh produce vendors with spectacular produce.  This time there were more food truck and preserves vendors and less creative and quality produce vendors.   The last time I brought back a huge bag of amazing produce.  This time I didn't purchase anything.

After we walked through the Artisan Market we went to the Toronto Star sponsored cooking demos.  This year they were held in a Community Centre but the last time I visited it was in a tent on one of the main streets.  I think this was a good change because as it happens it poured while we were in the building watching the demos.  Good timing on the demos.

We watched Rich Francis who was one of the finalists from Top Chef Canada.  He made a Bison recipe and talked about Aboriginal native foods and techniques.  In this photo Alison Fryer, former owner of the Cookbook Store in Toronto introduces him.  It was great to see Alison and have a chat about what she's been up to since the closing of her store recently after 30 years in business.
I was able to sample a bit of the Bison and I liked it, although my friends didn't enjoy it as much.

The next demo was Derek Dammann who owns a restaurant called Maison Publique.  Jamie Oliver is also a part owner of this restaurant.  Derek worked with Jamie in the past and Jamie was instrumental in helping Derek open his very popular restaurant in Montreal.

In this photo the man on the left was a man from the audience and Derek on the right is preparing fresh Salmon.   He made a caviar type of thing that I have never heard of before.  He used Basil seeds that he said popped in your mouth like fresh caviar.  We left before the sampling because his Salmon was raw fresh Salmon and my friends weren't the Sushi loving types.  I would have tried it but we moved on before any samples were handed out unfortunately.  I guess I will have to go to Montreal to try his food.




After the demos we decided to walk around on the main streets and pretty much got stuck in one really great store with great things for the home.  I picked up some great plates that were discounted.  My new obsession is plates and placemats for my photos so that I can change up the style of what my dishes look like when I cook at home.

After a bit of shopping we decided to go and get something to eat.  I suggested a couple of places and we agreed to go to the Montforte Dairy restaurant on Wellington.
















 It's a small cozy space and when we arrived all the tables were filled in the restaurant so we headed to the patio.
Keep in mind that it had been drizzling and raining all day but it stopped when we arrived at the restaurant.  We sat down at a table with a large umbrella and just after we ordered our food it rained again.  We had the over head umbrellas and still popped out our umbrellas to make sure our backs didn't get wet.
Luckily I didn't get wet but it made for an interesting dinner for sure.

The Monforte Restaurant features all of their locally made cheeses.  I tried the Chicken liver mousse with a red pepper jelly and a goat cheese and pea crostini.  I also tried the stuffed Zucchini blossoms.  They were a bit tiny but tasted good.  Everything was very tasty but we didn't feel stuffed afterward. Most of the dishes were small lunch size plates.  

We decided to end our day after our dinner as the shops were already closing down and there was only ticketed dinners left at the festival.   We would have liked to walk around the waterfront but with the weather being dark, rainy and just gloomy we skipped that.  So we decided to head home while it was still light out,  after traffic headed out of Stratford but before traffic picked up in Toronto.  A rainy drive back to the City.  

It was a nice day but I have to say I didn't enjoy the festival as the first time I went because the weather was really a downer on the event and unfortunately my friend that lives in St. Mary's was out of town for the weekend so I didn't get the chance to visit with her at the same time this time around.

We hope to return to see King Lear and hopefully the weather will be nicer and my friend will be around to join us next time.

Savour Stratford Festival

Thanks to Twitter I was able to win a Free Weekend Stay in Stratford for the Savour Stratford Festival. I entered this twitter contest for a few reasons. 1. A cool food event to check out and blog about on this page. 2. Chuck Hughes from Chuck's Day Off was there. 3. My friend lives in St. Mary's and a free weekend stay to visit with her would be a bonus. So what did I have to lose??? nothing so I clicked...and I got lucky and won the free weekend stay at the Festival INN and along with that I got tickets to Beerology101 but I am not a beer drinker so I passed on that but I did attend BBQ, Blues and Beer..but the BBQ was limited and extra so we didn't stay long. But the best part of the package was vouchers for something called the Chocolate Trail. The chocolate trail were businesses on the Stratford main strip that had all things chocolate and had chocolate items that were given out free in exchange of a voucher. I split the vouchers with my friend but I was able to get 2 bars of chocolate, 1 milk and one dark, some Chocolate Ginger Tea, Chocolate Mocha sauce and my friend got a chocolate sundae too. YUM.
On the kickoff day I watched Paul Finkelstein (Fink) orchestrate a Pass it On session to teach a bunch of kids how to make an egg wrap. Something Jamie Oliver does as well. The idea being teach a kid who will then pass on the recipe and become self sufficient in the kitchen.

Another fabulous thing that was a part of the Festival was their great Farmer's Market. I have been to many Farmer's Markets in Toronto but this one was exceptional. The range of food and the freshness was amazing. I picked up things that I am sure most people don't ever find in their grocery stores. I got yellow and candy beets, purple fingerling potatoes and some purple peppers. I have already cooked up the potatoes and beets...great and the colors are amazing.

The Most Fun I had that weekend was seeing Chuck Hughes (chuck's Day Off) do a Cooking Demo. He was trying to talk over a steam whistle and music playing all over and the odd passerby but handled it all with humour. He made some sashimi/ceviche style fish with pickled radish and also caramelized peaches for dessert. Chuck is a great chef but he is also down to earth and entertaining when he does these cooking demos. Chuck's Day Off was already one of my favourite shows because Chuck always cooks things that are accessible to most people and sometimes he puts his little spin on his food which keeps it fresh. I am not a big tattoo person but Chuck has food related tattoos that all have special meaning to him which adds a lot to his character.

Overall the Savour Stratford Festival is a great event and was voted Ontario Event of the year last year and I can see why. It's a foodie's heaven. People that love fresh, local, good food congregate in a small and friendly community where everyone says Hi and wants to share their food with you. What could be better? I hope to return again next year and savour more of Stratford.