WASTE NOT! 4 clever ideas for reducing food costs and waste during your next big event. 1 Plan well in advance so that catering staff can design menus and negotiate quantities with suppliers to help contain costs and ensure leftovers are kept to a minimum, advises Shawn Whalen, executive chef, InterContinental Toronto Centre. 2 Use the registration process to survey attendees about meal options, such as replacing a big breakfast with a light grab ’n go snack followed by a plentiful mid-morning break, suggests Leslie Anderton, CMP, director, conference and catering services, Chelsea Hotel, Toronto. 3 Replace your 6 p.m. sit-down dinner with a 7 p.m. cocktail reception featuring canapes and a few food stations so that guests can dine out on their own afterwards, says Natalie Stanbra-Ho, national director, event sales, for Oliver & Bonacini Hospitality. 4 Get more mileage from your proteins by serving smaller cuts or combining beef, chicken or seafood with plenty of vegetables, rice grains or pasta. Chef David Wolfman, culinary consultant, cookbook author, TV host, classically trained chef and professor of culinary arts at Toronto’s George Brown College, enjoys sharing perspectives on the important role that food plays in community. A member of the Xaxli’p First Nation in British Columbia, Chef Wolfman works with event planners and their preferred caterers to design menus and dishes featuring his signature Indigenous Fusion style. WHAT ARE THE FIRST STEPS WHEN CONSULTING WITH PLANNERS? Once I know what the event is about— whether it’s local or global—we can then tie into what’s significant [about the food]. Is it organic? Are you looking for Indigenous foods from your area? What message are you trying to send? What are you trying to accomplish? Last year, I received an Indspire Award and the gala organizers asked if I would help with the menu. I called the chef at the Shaw Centre in Ottawa to help design the menu, which included Cedar and Cranberry Tea, Compressed Minted Cucumber with a Spiced Hominy Corn garnish, Shawnee Cake and Slow Roasted Labrador Tea Alberta Bison Medallions. We like to add short stories to the menus—a bit of information respecting our traditional foods and celebrating and understanding culture. For exam- ple, I worked with the Food Dudes on a fundraising dinner for Indspire and one of the desserts featured strawberries, which are said to possess the medicine of reconciliation. So, the food is sort of the medium to the storytelling and I think it’s so important to give the whole message. WHY IS IT IMPORTANT TO SHARE STORIES? That’s what we do as Indigenous people. Food isn't just about food; it’s about sharing and talking and stories. Our stories are not ours to put in a box and hide. Our stories are given to us by the Elders for us to pass along. We can pepper them with our own words, but we want to keep true to the original stories. CULINARY PHOTO: GEORGE BROWN COLLEGE GET TO KNOW CHEF DAVID WOLFMAN 70 | Ignitemag.ca | Summer 2023
