Food Sparks: Learning to cook in farm country

What better place to teach the production and preparation of food than in farm country! The Niagara College Canadian Food and Wine Institute is doing precisely that. In addition to learning how to cook, students also learn how to grow food and grapes for wine. The Institute is at Niagara-on-the-Lake, right in the middle of fruit and wine country. There is a full service restaurant Benchmark right on campus, providing practical experience as well as paid jobs for the students and high quality local food at very reasonable prices for the public.

We drove up to the quiet campus and enjoyed a quiet lunch in the spacious glass enclosed dining room. It was a bonus not to have to fight the crowds at Niagara-on-the-Lake on a long weekend! You can check out the menus and the amazing prices and maybe find another culinary institute closer to home that offers you similar value. I look forward to hearing about other experiences with culinary institute restaurants.

I had the prix fixe menu called "Trust Us" and had never been such a happy guinea pig. It started with the crunchy chopped green salad with smoked trout, followed by a pan-fried pickerel with rice and summer squash paired with an oaked chardonnay produced at the school. One might question why fish in both appetizer and entree but they tasted so different I didn't mind. My luncheon companion ordered a la carte starting with a delicious pepper bisque the recipe for which they promised to email us. The smoked pork ribs were smothered in a little too much sauce but scored a pass nevertheless. Dessert of creme brule provided a smooth finish. Too much food for lunch but we promised ourselves (alas not too convincingly) that we'll skip dinner...