By Adam Donnelly

Kamloops chefs connect with local producers at Farm2Chefs

Sep 11, 2017 | 5:14 PM

KAMLOOPS — When you go out to eat, how often do you consider just where it is that food came from? That’s the question many local chefs answered on Sunday, as the annual Farm2Chefs grazing event was held at the old Stuart Wood Elementary location, in downtown Kamloops. While the event gives local eaters an opportunity to taste the bounty of the area’s farms, it’s also a chance to think about the connection between what we eat and where it’s grown, while helping raise money for a local grant program Farm2Chefs offers.

It was a foodie’s dream on Sunday afternoon at the old Stuart Wood Elementary in Downtown Kamloops, as the Farm2Chefs Local Food Collaborative held its semi-annual grazing event.

“We have a bunch of booths with food, wine, beer… you can go through and taste local foods, beers, other beverages. It’s great,” Chef David Colombe, Farm2Chefs Board president explained.

The event is an opportunity to connect those on the front lines of cooking with the people in our local area who produce food. Colombe says sometimes local produce gets neglected at the farmers market because buyers simply aren’t familiar with it.

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“There’s a lot of local food that gets produced around here, so we want to make sure people know how to use it,” Colombe says. “They can see examples of how chefs use it in restaurants, on dishes.”

Local city councillor and farmer Dieter Dudy has been part of the Farm2Chefs collaborative since it began back in 2010 – the group started out of a desire to see more local produce used in the city’s restaurants.

“The hope is that if you went to a restaurant and you eat something that came from a local farm, you would then go and shop for local produce yourself,” Dudy says.

Dudy believes the beauty of this event lies in opening people’s eyes to the variety of local produce available to them

“Seeing the great things chefs can do with the product that’s available, and opening people’s eyes to that,” Dady says. “There are countless ways they can treat vegetables, or fruits, or protein.”

And while connecting chefs and producers with local eaters make for a fun and filling time, there is a community service piece to the Farm2Chefs mandate, thanks to Farm2Chefs grant which the proceeds of grazing event go towards.

“We want to try and find a program that might need a little boost,” Colombe explained. “[One] that can show the general public or people in need how to utilize this local food we have. We have quite a bounty, and a lot of times there’s quite a bit left over.”

Eating and drinking for charity, a movement we can all get behind.