Father’s Day Brobque debuts at Alton Mill’s Cuisine-Art Festival

June 11, 2015 · 0 Comments

The Cuisine-Art Festival at the Alton Mill Arts Centre will welcome summer next weekend (June 20 and 21).
For one delicious weekend, the artists of the Alton Mill team up with chefs, beer masters, cider producers and wine purveyors to provide a culinary tour of beautiful food and delicious art. Throughout the Mill’s studios and galleries, there will be tasting stations full of cool drinks and mouthwatering fare.
“This is the seventh year for the Cuisine-Art Festival,” observed Harry Posner, events coordinator at the Alton Mill Arts Centre. “The musical talent, all inclusive food pass and our chefs’ cook-offs are just some of the things that make this year’s festival one of Caledon’s most inviting summer events. We must be doing something right. We were a finalist for the Ontario Culinary Tourism Event of the Year and we have be named a Top 100 Festival in Ontario.”
Under the tent at the Brookfield Main Stage, the drama of the kitchen will be on display at the daily cook-off. There will be two chefs; a basket of local ingredients; and the stopwatch ticking. Which chef can take the heat? Each must race against the clock and the other to prepare and plate an entrée as they vie for the This Chef is Hot award. Celebrity hosts Korby Banner (beauty expert and photographer to the stars) and Jody Boynton (bodybuilding champion and nutritionist) will monitor the action and help to choose the winning plate.
Culinary will meet canvas as the paint flies during the Cuisine-Art paint-off. This is a fast-paced event, featuring Alton Mill studio artists each painting a still-life study of the same basket of local ingredients that the chefs have to work with.
There will be an entire weekend of fun things to see and do, including food demos and workshops that range from Secrets of Sensational Samosas, to A Year in the Life of a Honey Bee. There will also be sessions on the art of plating, the mysteries of Kombucha (fermented tea beverage), olive oil cocktails and other surprises. Watch potter Ann Randeraad turn goat cheese into pottery (accompanied by a live goat).
And Sunday, the Humber River Shakespeare Company will offer a musical preview of their summer production The Merry Wives of Windsor.
The Good Things Marketplace will feature unique gifts and plenty of tantalizing tastes. Meanwhile, inside the main mill building, guests can watch art take shape in 15 open studios, or give it a whirl themselves in the Hive (studio 201) where encaustic artist Andrea Bird introduces the art of painting with beeswax, or in the Paul Morin Gallery, where Paul will conduct spin-art sessions.
New this year, in honour of Father’s Day, Cuisine-Art introduces the Brobque, presented by Speers Farms Amaranth. Casual and delicious, the Brobque sets the scene for the Live Jazz Show, with music by Brent Rowan and Jason Raso, the Guelph Youth Jazz Orchestra, Will Devonshire, Murky, and Bronwen Olson. It promises to be a perfect venue to soak up the sun, refresh with a cold one and celebrate the longest day of the year. Extra fees will apply.
The Alton Mill sits beside Shaw’s Creek, a tributary of the Credit River, home to trout and salmon, and a mecca for anglers. Wayne Martin of the Forks Fly Shop will cast his line with style and grace, and offer tips and pointers to those who wish to give it try. A valid fishing licence is required.
The Festival’s proceeds will go toward the Alton Millpond Rehabilitation Project, a community-based endeavour to improve the water quality and fish habitat of Shaw’s Creek and the historic three-acre millpond in the village of Alton. That’s why everyone — staff, chefs, vintners and volunteers — continue to pour their hearts and souls into making Cuisine-Art the best culinary event around.
For ticket and program information, go to http://altonmill.ca/visit/events/CuisineArt_2015_event/