Photo courtesy of the Restarant Association of Newfoundland's Facebook page

Sometimes “Eating Local” can be a real pain. While it’s surely a great notion to support local farmers and food producers, it can get pretty confusing to determine what exactly constitutes a local product.

According to the Food Day Canada website, a “Product of Canada” label is the best place to start. But, there are dozens of federal and provincial regulations around “locally” produced labeling. Which is why Food Day Canada set out to create a list of truly Canadian foods and products, a comprehensive list that ranges from locally produced craft beers to Canadian beef to Newfoundland line-caught cod to Canadian cheese.

The list is a great resource in advance of July 30, also known as #FoodDayCanada, a day dedicated to support local Canadian products, farmers, merchants and kitchens.

Still, if creating a shopping list that is 100 per cent Canadian is too much work for you, Food Day Canada has also created a list of several hundred Canadian restaurants with special Food Day Canada menus. For inspiration, here are a few fine Canadian hotels participating in the celebration:

Hotels Celebrating Food Day Canada

The Torngat Mountains Base Camp

For citizen science at its finest, the remote Torngat Mountains Base Camp calls to adventurers and scientist around the world with its vast landscapes and glorious nighttime skies. For Food Day Canada, Chef Eric Hynes is serving up an all-Canada menu that might include local favourites such as Arctic char, jams with lingonberries and seal burgers. An added bonus, the meals are all served in the facility’s cafeteria, where visitors, elders, researchers and staff all sit and eat together.

Says Chef Hynes of the local bounty: “Our ingredients are so close locally that our Arctic char is still flicking its tail when it comes into the kitchen, the edible flora is picked just a few hundred meters from our entrance, the shellfish is picked on the beach where our boats dock and the seal are harvested just a short boat ride away.”

Fogo Island Inn

Fogo Island Inn, among Canada’s best case studies on the benefits of eating and manufacturing locally, is of course participating in this celebration of Canadian eats. The inn’s Executive Chef Murray McDonald and a to-be-named guest chef from Toronto will escort guests to the nearby Little Fogo Islands, a Canadian heritage site.

Here, the group will tour the abandoned cottages, fishing stages and a charming restored church that was consecrated back in 1867. After the tour, a Canadian feast will include pot-caught cod, island-grown vegetables and wild plants and berries.

Sheraton St. Johns

While Newfoundland is certainly home to its share of Canadian bounty, the Sheraton St. Johns is shining a spotlight on food offerings from across the nation. In partnership with the Restaurant Association of Newfoundland (RANL), the hotel is hosting seven visiting chefs from across Canada over two nights. Guests can enjoy an entire evening of Canadian food tastings paired with Canadian wines.

The visiting chefs include Ned Bell, Vancouver; John Higgins, Toronto; Ann Yarymowich, Toronto; Chris Jess, Guelph; Ross Monroe, PEI; Judd Simpson, Ottawa and Zane Caplansky, Toronto. To round out the celebration, enjoy entertainment from local musicians Fergus O'Byrne and Jim Payne.

Fairmont Manoir Richelieu

Located on Quebec’s Flavour Trail (Route des Saveurs), one of Canada’s first routes dedicated to regional tastes, Fairmont Manoir Richelieu, under the guidance of Executive Chef Patrick Turcot is also rolling out a special Food Day Canada menu.

On any given day, nearly 80 per cent of the hotel’s menu are made from Canadian products. While this year’s final Food Day Canada menu is under consideration, previous menus have included such items as smoked duck aiguillettes paired with maple beets and yellow fruit chutney and onion soup flavoured with Dominus Vobiscum beer from La Microbrasserie Charlevoix and topped with Quebec-made cheese.

Mercer Hall & Inn

Boutique property, Mercer Hall & Inn in downtown Stratford, Ontario takes its commitment to local food seriously. And so it should, since it is located in the city which held the first-ever conference on Canadian cuisine.

Love local brews? Every two weeks, an inn representative drives to Toronto to visit microbreweries so small, they don’t ship their own beers. The restaurant serves a menu that tends to fuse casual Japanese cuisine with foods that pay homage to the German community that makes their home in the area. On Food Day Canada, consider the fresh kohlrabi salad with shiso; the grilled mushroom steam bun with spicy aioli and fresh cilantro, or the fried (Perth County) chicken with lemon togarashi mayo. 

Fairmont Winnipeg

Winnipeg's only luxury hotel, Fairmont Winnipeg is the ideal place to celebrate the offerings from Canada’s prairie region. Executive Chef Eraj Jayawickreme already sources as many local products as he can — including pork from Harbourside Farms, artisan cheese from Bothwell Cheese and golden honey from the Manitoba Honey Cooperative — is whipping up a stunning special menu for the Food Day Canada celebration. Menu items will include cold water seared scallops; clams with braised pigs, pea puree, grilled leeks, buttermilk foam and dill oil; pinot grigio-brined chicken and a strawberry rhubarb curd tart with sugared mint cucumber and basil cucumber fluid gel.

Watermark Beach Resort Hotel

Travellers looking for sustainable seafood need look no further than the Watermark Beach Resort Hotel in Osoyoos, British Columbia. The hotel restaurant, which specializes in a shared plate concept, has partnered with the Vancouver Aquarium and OceanWise to ensure that they only serve sustainable seafood. The rest of the menu, from its meats to the wine list to the cocktails served also feature Canadian items and ingredients.

For an added seal of approval and a truly unique Canadian foodie experience, the resort’s “Culinary Journey through Canada’s Desert” is an officially designated “Canadian Signature Experience.” Here, guests enjoy a guided farm tour in a vintage 1952 Mercury truck. Along the way, they’ll sample fresh-picked peaches, muskmelons and tomatoes. Upon returning to the Restaurant at Watermark and Patio, they’re served farm-fresh Okanagan Valley fare, prepared under the guidance of executive chef Adair Scott. 

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