From September 1 to 11, 2009, third-year students from Italy\u2019s University of Gastronomic Sciences will travel to the Guelph, Niagara, and Toronto regions to study southern Ontario\u2019s food culture. With visits to farms and vineyards, inner-city social programs and markets, and even the Tim Horton\u2019s headquarters in Oakville, the schedule provides a perspective on the full spectrum of food production, processing, and consumption. The visit comprises a key element of the university\u2019s educational design\u2014that of studying food within it\u2019s cultural and social context.
\n\u201cOntario\u2019s food traditions, growing regions, and educational institutions have both differences and parallels to our reality in Italy,\u201d says UNISG director Carlo Catani. \u201cBringing students into this context helps us give them a more comprehensive and global gastronomic perspective.\u201d
\nOther university field seminars take students to regions as diverse as India, Ireland, Argentina, Kenya, and California.
\nThe visit kicks off in Guelph with lessons on Ontario\u2019s food history by gastronomes Anita Stewart and John Cranfield, a discussion of the role of Guelph University by Sue Bennett and Barbara Maly, and a lecture on the cultural implications of food with Drs. Art Hill and Massimo Marcone. Additional meetings will take place at the Guelph Food Technology Centre and the Cargill Corporation, as well as the Elmira Produce Auction Cooperative, the Mapleton Dairy, and the Clovermead Farm and Apiary.
\nStarting September 3, the UNISG students head south, stopping at Rootham Gourmet Preserves, the Vineland Research and Innovation Centre, and a series of Niagara wineries, including Cave Spring Cellars, Le Clos Jordanne, and Rosewood Winery. At Niagara College, they will learn about the use of Canadian oak in winemaking and later stop at Stratus and Lailey.
\nSouthbrook winery will serve as the site of a talk on ice wine and offer the students dinner.
\nTurning north, the visit will make a pit stop at the Tim Hortons headquarters in Oakville for a lesson on the iconic Canadian company, before continuing on to the Kawartha EcoGrowers organic producers cooperative. Local farmer Mark Trealout will host the students on September 6 for a picnic lunch and local-versus-store-bought food taste test, and a canoe trip in the Kawartha lakes rounds out the weekend.
\nAfter stopping in Prince Edward County (including a visit to Vickie\u2019s Veggies Farm, an artisanal cheese lesson at 5th Town, and a BBQ with the local Slow Food convivium), the students travel on to Toronto. There they will learn about Food Share\u2019s urban and social food projects, as well as sample the city\u2019s unique multiculturality in a variety of neighbourhoods. Keith M\u00fcller, of UNISG partner institution George Brown College, will host the group at the school\u2019s new Chef\u2019s House restaurant as well as tour them through the St. Lawrence market. There the students will buy the ingredients for a meal they will later prepare for the local host families billeting them during their stay.
\nA final free day in Toronto will provide the chance to explore Canada\u2019s most multicultural city independently, before the international students head back to Italy, filled up with a flavourful cross-section of southern Ontario\u2019s gastronomy.
\nCo-founded in 2003 by the international non-profit Slow Food and the Italian regions of Piedmont and Emilia-Romagna, the school\u2019s innovative approach is to create a new understanding of gastronomy, linking the act of eating with the act of producing, along with all the phases in between. Four programs at two campuses follow a multiexperiential learning model, merging science with humanities, sensory training with communications, classroom study with field seminars (including travel to five continents).<\/p>\n