If there are two words that describe the taste of Ottawa these days, they’re ‘fresh’ and ‘local’.
With recent food scares and a rising interest in environmental issues, Ottawans are becoming more conscious about where their food comes from and increasingly demanding that it be local. And that’s opening opportunities for restaurateurs and producers, a conference heard yesterday.
“They’ll ask if it’s local, if it’s free range, and where we get stuff,” Basil Yu, a sous chef at Murray Street, said yesterday at the annual Savour Ottawa Networking Summit and Trade Show. “People are getting more health-conscious.”
With local food, people can see what the animals are fed and how they’re raised, said Thom van Eeghen, co-owner of Kanata’s The Elk Ranch. Addditionally, he said, buying local “reduces the carbon footprint.”
Van Eeghen raises free-range elk on his?Kanata farm. The Elk Ranch supplies many of the city’s independent grocers and fine restaurants.
“There’s a personal relationship,” said Murray Street restaurant co-owner Steve Mitton, who gets his elk from Van Eeghen. “I know that they treat their animals well. I can’t do that with a New Zealand farmer.”
It also boils down to taste, said Heather Hossie, coordinator of Savour Ottawa. “Food that is coming from a great distance away is picked before its ripe and ripens en route,” she said.
