Gourmet Food & Wine Expo

Held at the Metro Toronto Convention Centre every year in November, the Gourmet Food & Wine Expo delivers over 1,200 samples of the finest wines, spirits, and beers from all over the world. Every year, around 35,000 guests attend the show for the tutored tastings, the exhibits, and to get the inside scoop on what’s new in the world of food and wine. The event started on Thursday and will end on Sunday. I am going to buy my tickets online right away to hold my place for tomorrow evening!

Two celebrity chefs will be among the crowds that guests are able to meet and greet with. One that I am particularly hoping I meet is Kevin Brauch who has been in the television and radio scene since 1988, and has since become The Thirsty Traveler, which involves traveling the world, tasting exotic flavours, sipping on localized scotches, wines, and rums, while meeting many new interesting people along the way. That is pretty much my dream job.

The other celebrity guest is Rob Rainford who is the Food Network’s master of the grill. He will be at the Marlin Travel booth on Friday and Saturday. At the booth they are running a promotion for the chance to win a trip for two to South Africa where Rob Rainford will host a 14-day tour of the country. The trip includes round-trip flight, and meals with the 14-day itinerary. I think I might stop by that booth as well.

Traditional Italian tomato and mozzarella appetizers

The Connoisseur’s Corner will be leading modern and innovative wine seminars and tastings every hour on the show floor. Seminars are 45 minutes and cost only $5. The theme country of this year’s Food and Wine Expo is Portugal where guests can explore Portuguese wines and foods as well as live entertainment. Another thing that may interest some is the Mott’s Clamato Caesar School. For those of you not from Canada who do not know what a Bloody Caesar is, you are missing out. That is all I am going to say. This seminar will teach guests how to make a mean Caesar, Canada’s National Cocktail. The seminar will teach “students” four different ways to make the cocktail as well as what to pair it with food-wise.

Many wine and food tastings will be going on around the vicinity as well as demonstrations at the Food Network Stage featuring well-known chefs, as well as Toronto’s rising chefs. There will even be a grape stomp where Team Canada (two Canadian winemakers) will be facing Team Portugal (Two Portuguese wine makers) in the first annual Championship Grape Stomp.

The show only costs $15 to get in, however it is advised to buy tickets beforehand as Saturday nights are the busiest nights and you do not want to waste valuable food and wine tasting time waiting in a line.

For more information, click here.

Photo credits: get directly down, Mr. T in DC