Oct/Nov 2015 Aug/Sept 2015 | Page 10

inthekitchen

inthekitchen

a moveable feast

restaurant of the year :
Diversity Food Services
GOODFOODMANITOBA
2 0 1 5
Ciao ! magazine ’ s annual awards for producer , retailer , and restaurant of the year celebrate the creative use of and dedication to regional ingredients
by Joelle Kidd
Have food ; will travel . This could easily be the calling card of Diversity Food Services . This band of mobile mavericks has served fresh fare in school cafeterias , banquet halls , fields of dairy farms , even on top of frozen rivers and on the Esplanade Riel bridge , all with exceptional quality and creativity . Above all , it is the commitment to spreading the word about regional sustainability that earns Diversity the 2015 Good Food Manitoba award .
It all began in 2009 , with the University of Winnipeg . The administration had dared to imagine a campus replete with fresh , made-from-scratch local food , and chef Ben Kramer was brought on to make this vision a reality .
The strategy was simple : win people over with taste . Using the best local ingredients and preparing them well proved to be the deceptively simple key to University food service . Sourcing locally and organically , fighting for the environment , delivering massive amounts of food , and doing it all on a budget was , as Kramer jokes , “ taking on everything difficult about the restaurant industry , and doing it all at once .” Going against the grain of institutionalized cooking has proved to have its perks ; with control over every item leaving the kitchen , chefs are able to cater to any demographic or
8 ciao ! / aug / sep / two thousand fifteen