supporting. As well, customers are ever increasingly concerned about where their food comes from— energized to buy locally made products, as well as those made with healthier, more natural ingredients.
Gourmet Inspirations follows suit, using no preservatives or artificial colours; the sauces’ bright hues are owed simply to ingredients like golden yellow turmeric powder, or beets. Fehr makes a point of sourcing local ingredients.
His approach is certainly grassroots. Generation Green at the Forks helped launch the Gourmet Inspirations brand, which is now carried in 11 specialty food retailers in Winnipeg, Steinbach, and Boissevain. He has also been devoutly making the Farmers’ Market circuit, and praises the foodsources
personal connections these markets enable vendors to make with customers.
Bouncing ideas around with other new culinary upstarts has also led to collaboration on Love Local MB, an event co-organized this spring by Fehr and Bessie Hatizitrifonos of Bessie’ s Best, a local line of Mediterranean dips and sauces. A market-style set up of more than 20 vendors at the Winnipeg Winter Club offered a chance for potential customers to browse and sample plenty of Manitoba made products, to the tune of live music and a free glass of wine.
“ We always wanted it to be a celebration of local food,” Fehr says. The super-sized farmers market, poised to recur annually, is about bringing together the wealth of Manitoba food producers and enjoying the
bounty.
There’ s plenty still on the horizon for Fehr. In the fall, he will be hosting a 10 day luxury food tour through Sicily. The trip will take gourmands through the Italian island’ s estate wineries and farms, as well as collaborative cooking classes with a local Sicilian chef.
Other items in the works include developing a dessert sauce for sale next Christmas, launching an online store, and working to develop a sauce of the month club, a service he hopes to eventually curate while featuring multiple brands.
But with every venture, the aim is clear. The ethos of Gourmet Inspirations is providing a creative way to make dinner fun, a reason to sit down together, and a great way for’ Peggers to love their community.
HEAT
THINGS UP
AT THE PARK CAFÉ
Warm up from the inside out! Enjoy a hearty bowl of soup, a steamy cup of loose leaf tea, or a cozy mug of delicious hot chocolate.
SERVING BREAKFAST & LUNCH OPEN DAILY 8AM – 4PM
located next to the Riley Family Duck Pond
assiniboinepark. ca
12 ciao! / feb / mar / two thousand fifteen