A tweep who goes by the handle @missfish (Andrea Tomkins) tweeted about being in Toronto this past weekend: sitting in Dundas Square, taking a picture of Yonge street empty (quite the sight for those of us familiar with downtown Toronto), visiting Pottery Barn on Bloor, and attending an event at the Pantages Hotel. Yesterday (May 26, 2009), she put up a blog explaining the event she attended while stricken with a bad cold and advocated eating locally. It is yet another good read in the "Fish Bowl."

Regarding her weekend, the event was funded by Hellman's (the mayonnaise company) and was organized by a marketing firm called Harbinger. Accordingly, its intention was to discuss the subject of "local food", which Hellman's believes is simply buying Canadian. Andrea was one of eight Canadian foodies invited. I've a feeling her following as a trusted writer and recognized blogger on family and parenting factored into her invite as well. That said, as always she encouraged comments with her blog post.

When I arrived, most comments involved Ottawans speaking about the virtues of eating locally and their experiences. As a local foodie, I added my two cents. They follow:

#REALFOOD

A discussion about local food in Ottawa needs to mention Savour Ottawa. When you go to outdoor markets, producers and retailers who show their Savour Ottawa posters demonstrate that they have been audited by a third party organization to either produce local products or employ local food in their products. The poster provides a level of assurance that you are supporting local farms or businesses that support local farms.

Some outdoor markets for example sell produce that is no different than that of the larger grocery stores. Clearly, bananas are not grown locally. With respect to garlic (as is stated above) and onions, they are also not in season. However, wild garlic is and some producers are also bringing green onions to market.

As an avid foodie, I try to eat, not only locally, but also seasonally, and support restaurants that do the same. Look for those that have seasonal menus (menus that change often - monthly, weekly). Many openly support local farms. Atelier on Rochester, for instance, is again modifying their menu because forage-able spruce tips are quickly going out of season.

Andrea, feel free to remove the following link if you feel it is inappropriate. It links to my blog and new ways I?ve discovered to enjoy local asparagus and fiddleheads, simple and delicious.
http://www.foodieprints.com/item/1552

The hash tag (in twitter parlance), #REALFOOD, is being tracked by Hellman's and raises funds for Evergreen, "a national charity that works to make our cities more green by funding community gardens, facilitating outdoor classrooms, and collecting monies for said projects from corporate donors."

Thus, foodiePrints is now responsible for two "actions": a comment and blog post.

Unfortunately, in my haste to mention Savour Ottawa in the comment, I neglected to point out another Ottawa destination for local food, Chef Tracey Black's Epicuria. Epicuria is a food store and catering business that was recently and successfully audited by Savour Ottawa to be both a local producer and retailer. Regarding the former, like many modern restaurants, Epicuria maintains its own garden. You don't get more local than that! Go check it out.

Particulars:
Epicuria
419 Mackay Street
(613)745-7356

One of Ottawa's social networking visionaries and a founder of the 12 for 12k charity, Susan Murphy posted a very interesting piece on her personal blog about how those of us on the web are often too busy with it to notice when important developments occur. As examples, she points to Google openly considering "Rich Snippets" and the launch of Wolfram Alpha.

She feels, and rightly so, that we who use the web are often so mired in it that we may be stifling innovation because we simply don't ask for more: more accessibility, better user interfaces, quality search results etc. We're just too busy twitter'ing, facebook'ing, and blogging.

In response, a commenter replied:

I?ve heard these arguments for years, Susan, and as valid as they seem, nothing?s going to happen?from the perspective of a critical mass shift?for YEARS...there is one web...Your blog post is information, this comment is information; how will John the Plumber who?s never touched a computer or cellphone in his life use what we?re creating?

Well, a chef answered the question in his blog, called d8c, encouraging others in his field to look to new tools like Wolfram Alpha. It is a short but important read.

The following is my comment to Sue's blog. It responds to the "Joe the plumber" comment:

Sue, you?re not the only one pointing people to try new tools to drive innovation in the direction of the semantic. Ari Herzog mentions Joe the plumber. How about Jonas the Chef?

In his latest blog, which was pointed to me by the Exec. Chef/Owner of Epicuria, Jonas points to Wolfram Alpha as one of several new tools that people in his industry need to start paying attention to. Wolfram Alpha provides more ?value? than traditional tools like Google. It readily gives information that chefs can ?really use.?

Such more than likely stems from Wolfram Alpha?s strengths: 1) careful input of selective information from reputable sources and 2) natural language interface. The tool thus carries automatic legitimacy and authority. Not only can it reason, which is already novel, but it reasons with information that was already selected to be legitimate.

And yes, this is also Wolfram Alpha?s weakness because the information base, upon which the tool reasons, needs to be maintained. It will be labour intensive. Semantic technologies aim to add meta data to existing user-generated information so semantic-aware application can reason with it. Wolfram Alpha is essentially a proof of concept, employing a closed information base.

I feel Jonas is alluding to chefs to think outside the box, perhaps think at the molecular level and try avant garde techniques using such things a cryo and immersion circulators.

In the same vein, everyone should try new things, especially with respect to the world wide web. There is much to do to make the semantic web a reality, but the impetus must be put to the ?nerds? to move in that direction.

I want more leverage-able information with my first query. I want to be able to converse with the web, be it on a smart phone or computer, with conversational prose. I want to be able to make use of crowd sourcing beyond summarizing dozens of blog entries, tweets, or conversations in an online forum. I want all information on the World Wide Web to be more accessible.

I think Joe the plumber would appreciate such too. This is especially true when he becomes aware of services like AskAroundOttawa that recommend him, by name, to potential clients because he does good work.

BTW, many thanks to Chef Tracey Black, the mentioned Executive Chef/Owner of Epicuria, for tweeting about Jonas' latest blog post during the weekend. It was worth occupying my guests with the Wii and sneaking into the bedroom with my laptop to read it.

To this end, I would like to encourage innovation in the culinary field as well. This is why, I am arranging dinner at Ottawa's arguably most "avant garde" restaurant, Atelier (540 Rochester Street) as a pre-Canada Day event.

There, its executive chef, chef de cuisine, and pastry chef balance the newest tools and techniques with local and seasonal ingredients. Last week, chef/owner Marc Lepine even served rhubarb from his own garden. The dishes he and his crew fashioned from the spring vegetable more than likely defy imagination.

I will blog and tweet about the event properly this week.

Essentially, I would like 18 food enthusiasts, be it Ottawa's own or visitors to the city, to join me on June 29, 2009 to try new dishes and support new ideas. Please disregard the hype about Atelier practicing "molecular gastronomy" because working with science in the kitchen is essentially what all chefs do regularly. As Jonas encourages, Atelier's chefs just happen to think about making dishes at the molecular level. They employ novel methods to prepare them. It is more of an evolution of the professional kitchen, than a cuisine in its own right.

Particulars:
Atelier Restaurant
540 Rochester Street
(613)321-3537

Epicuria
419 Mackay Street
(613)745-7356