For years, tourism in the Niagara Escarpment has made a significant contribution to many
local and regional economies. With the new cooking series, Flavours of the
Biosphere, the UNESCO World Biosphere Reserve has found
another way to promote the food and culture found within the widespread escarpment
region.
The online series, which is
presented by the Niagara Escarpment Biosphere
Fund in partnership
with the Friends of the Greenbelt
Foundation and the
Ontario Heritage
Trust, features
locally inspired dishes using fresh produce from the land and waters of the Niagara Escarpment Biosphere
Reserve and the Ontario Greenbelt. The series also highlights stories from the Escarpment, told by the people
who live and work in the region.
The series is hosted by
international food Olympics award-winner and former executive chef of Canada’s Hilton Hotels, John Cirillo, alongside media personality and
Daytime Toronto
host of 11 years,
Anthony Regan. Regan, who has interviewed many of the world’s most renowned chefs and culinary experts in his
time hosting Daytime
Toronto including
Anthony Bourdain and Julia Child, first met Cirillo on the Toronto-based series.
“One of my contacts introduced
me to Anthony, and Anthony, of course, hosted Daytime Toronto for 11 years, so he’d interviewed every chef imaginable, including chef Cirillo,”
says Teri Trent, communications director for the Niagara Escarpment Biosphere Fund. “He and chef Cirillo,
they have a great on-camera dynamic. It’s very relaxed, and fun.”
Trent says that buying goods
from local farmers and businesses is not only beneficial in terms of having a fresher product, but also in
how it affects the economy.
“If every household in Ontario put $10 into a local purchase each week we’d have an extra
$2.4 billion in our economy,” she says. “It’s not just the growers that get the money, the money goes into
services and goods and it's healthy for our economy.”
The first four episodes of the
series aired on Thurs. July 21, with the following ones to be aired on a bi-weekly basis at flavoursofthebiosphere.ca
Lifestyler
checked out the
show’s first four webisodes to give you a “taste” of what’s to come.
Potatoes a la
Boulangere
The first episode of the Flavours of the Biosphere series focuses on turning potatoes from Birk Bank
Farms in Hillsburgh, Ont. into the flavourful and hearty meal that is Potatoes a la Boulangere. The potatoes
are thinly sliced and coated with salt and pepper before cooked with a mix of garlic, onions, sherry vinegar
and fresh parsley for approximately 25-30 minutes. While waiting for the potatoes to cook, the crew visits
Owen Sound, Ont., to speak with Birgit Wright, president of Owen Sound Farmers’ Market, about the benefits of
buying local.
“One of the things that this helps is that people get back to cooking and stop buying
processed food,” says Wright.
After the visit, the episode returns to Cirillo’s kitchen, where he and Regan reveal the
finished product that need only a touch more of parsley and olive oil to be ready to
eat.
Braised Lamb
Shanks
In episode two, Cirillo and Regan prepare the tasty treat of Braised Lamb Shanks using
lamb shanks from Ontario and vegetables from Holland Marsh, in a simple, one-pot-dish style. After allowing
the shanks to brown in the pan, Cirillo adds chopped vegetables as well as apple cider, beef stalk, bay
leaves, red wine and herbs before covering the pot and allowing it to cook. The episode then turns its
attention to Henry of Pelham Family Estate Winery in St. Catharines, Ont., where viewers hear from the
winery’s president, Daniel Speck.
“This wine can only be made in this little piece of the escarpment,” says Speck. “The
flavours that are in that soil are in this wine and that’s what makes it so
special.”
Back in the kitchen, Cirillo and Regan lift the lid on the pot, revealing sumptuous,
ready-to-serve lamb shanks.
Stuffed Roast
Pork
The third episode of Flavours of the Biosphere shows Cirillo and Regan preparing a meal of Stuffed Roast Pork, using both pork
loin and apples from the Niagara Escarpment. After carving a pocket into the pork loin, Cirillo lets the
ingredients required for the stuffing, such as bacon, apples, sage and garlic, soften in a pan. After the
stuffing is ready, Cirillo pipes it into the pork loin using a pastry bag, before securing the roast with
butcher twine and foil and covering it in a rub of herbs, salt and pepper and olive oil. After pan searing
the outside, Cirillo places the roast in the oven to finish cooking while viewers get transported to one of
Niagara Escarpment’s many waterfalls.
Bruce Trail Conservancy executive director and geologist, Beth Kummling, explains the
history behind the creation of the waterfalls, before viewers are taken back to the kitchen, just in time to
see Cirillo and Regan slice open the tender and juicy roast.
Coq au
Vin
In the fourth installment of the series, Cirillo and Regan tackle the popular dish, Coq
au Vin. After they begin by rendering bacon fat in a cast iron pot, Cirillo asks Regan to coarsely chop
vegetables and coat the chicken in flour before placing it into the pan. As the chicken browns, Cirillo adds
the vegetables to the mix and Regan slices up mushrooms as a garnish, before adding the key ingredient of red
wine from Flat Rock Cellars in Jordan, Ont., into the pot for flavour. Before he puts the lid on and slides
the dish into the oven, Cirillo adds chicken stalk, dry thyme and bay leaves.
In Flavours of the Biosphere style, the episode then takes views to the hills of the escarpment, where Canadian
Olympian Todd Brooker talks about his experience growing up and skiing on the escarpment’s terrain. When
viewers return to Cirillo’s kitchen, he and Regan begin sautéing a mushroom and onion garnish, before adding
it to the delicious-looking Coq au Vin. •
Photo Courtesy: CNW Group/Niagara Escarpment Biosphere
Inc.
