The Healthy People, Healthy Planet Award

The Canadian pulse industry and Food Day Canada are pleased to announce the winners of the Healthy People, Healthy Planet Award 2011. The prizes are being awarded to three chefs from across Canada who have created innovative pulse-based dishes that fit the criteria of being “appealing and tasty, and that make good use of Canadian pulses including beans, lentils, peas and chickpeas .”

The First Prize Award goes to Chef Bruce Wood of Bruce’s Kitchen on Salt Spring Island, B.C. Chef Wood went all out and included pulses in every course of his Food Day Canada menu. He tossed roasted beets with lentils and dressed the salad with cold- pressed canola oil and Venturi-Schultz’s spectacular balsamic vinegar from across the water on Vancouver Island. Salt Spring Island Cheese Company’s soft chevre, wrapped in the leaves of the beets, topped the salad. For the main course, wild sockeye was encased in island-grown fig leaves and served on a ragout of prawns, fava beans, patty pan squash and fennel. The finishing touch was a doughnut created with Moonstruck Cheese Company’s fromage blanc, red lentil flour and salmonberry jelly with a side of double-double coffee ice cream. Long known as an advocate of regional cooking, Bruce taught the first course in Canadian cuisine ever to be offered in Canada while he was at Algonquin College in Ottawa. He can be heard on CBC Radio’s North by Northwest across British Columbia.

The two runners-up are Chef Nancy Hinton of Les Jardins Sauvage in for her fava bean soup with stinging nettle and smoked venison, lovage and bee balm and Chef Andy Bujak of Boxwood Restaurant in Calgary for his green lentil salad with Boxwood garden tomatoes, Hotchkiss Farm green beans, radishes & Boxwood garden nasturtium vinaigrette.

The Judging Panel for this award included Dr. Sinclair Philip, Slow Food International and Sooke Harbour House, Parks Canada’s Melanie Kwong, culinary instructor Alison Bell and Dr. Tanya MacLaurin of the University of Guelph. The entries were scored on imagination, creativity and, of course, Canadian content.
Food Day Canada judges are from a wide range of disciplines and are all experts in the food and food life of Canada. For full bios click here.

Food Day Canada would like to thank the sponsors of the Health People, Healthy Planet Award : Pulse Canada,the Saskatchewan Pulse Growers and the Alberta Pulse Growers representing pulse growers and processors in Canada.