The 2023 Ontario Culinary Tourism Awards of Excellence Winners
This year, the Culinary Tourism Alliance and the Tourism Industry Association of Ontario were pleased to celebrate four fantastic culinary businesses on their excellence at the Ontario Tourism Summit in Mississauga. Keep reading to learn all about them!
The Culinary Tourism Experience of the Year: Udderly Ridiculous Farm Life
Discover your inner child again with the Culinary Tourism Experience of the Year at Udderly Ridiculous Farm Life in Oxford County, Ontario!
You may recognize the folks from Udderly Ridiculous Farm Life as they’re no stranger to these awards! This year, they took home not one but two of the Culinary Tourism Excellence Awards including this one for the experience of the year.
Cheryl and Greg Haskett run a farm in Oxford County, Ontario where they invite folks out to get their hands dirty and understand what life in rural Ontario is like. From the sights and smells to even the sounds (have you ever heard hundreds of frogs fornicating?) you’ll discover that farm life really is…udderly ridiculous.
Udderly Ridiculous offers several experiences for visitors to participate in including everything from their Alpaca Picnics and Goat Yoga to their Signature Taste of Farm Life Experience (and the reason for winning this award). Visitors get the pleasure of feeding chickens, walking alpacas, tasting freshly-made apple cider and of course, sampling Udderly Ridiculous’s goat milk ice cream plus many more surprises along the way.
Think you’d like to check it out? Book your experience on their website or pop by during open hours to shop at the farm store.
The Culinary Tourism Event of the Year: Guelph.Beer Bus
Guelph.Beer Bus brings a whole new meaning to co-opetition. This event started when five breweries in the Guleph area partnered up and decided they’d rather lift each other up than compete. They started taking each other’s beers to markets and then one day decided…why not rent a city bus that will shuttle folks around to all five breweries in a day? Thus the Guelph.Beer Bus was born!
This free bus runs on select Saturdays and takes you from a micro-brewery like Brothers Brewing downtown, to mid-size craft breweries like Royal City and Fixed Gear Brewing to a large-scale brewery at Sleeman’s and finally, to one of Ontario’s craft beer OGs- Wellington Brewery.
Psst! Shout out to Wellington Brewery for being Feast On® certified!
The result is a day of epic brews, delicious eats and a whole lot of fun with friends. In fact, the next one is coming up soon on November 18th! No need to book, just show up.
The Culinary Tourism DEI Award: Indigo Lounge
This year, the Culinary Tourism Alliance created its first ever Diversity, Equity and Inclusion Award to celebrate those do amazing things to leave the culinary industry a better place. It is our hope that this award will inspire others to start or move further along their own DEI journey.
Our first winner was The Indigo Lounge in Tillsonburg, Ontario. Their commitment to diversity, equity and inclusion saw the use of the business as a platform to lift underrepresented communities. This included everything from hosting workshops with Indigenous makers, chef residencies that allowed people from all different cultures to share the beauty of their cuisine and standing up for the 2SLGBTQIA+ community fiercely in the face of injustice.
Congratulations to the entire team at Indigo Lounge and thank you for all your hard work.
Are you or somebody else you know doing amazing work in the DEI space? Be sure to nominate them for the award next year!
The Culinary Tourism Leadership Award: Udderly Ridiculous Farm Life
Let’s finish up this award series the way we started it, shall we? By celebrating all things Udderly Ridiculous Farm LIfe! It’s no secret what champions of culinary tourism the folks from Udderly Ridiculous are. From the local ingredients used in their products to their willingness to share their farm journey with others (no dumb questions), it truly is a pleasure to see.
Their committment to building a safe, sustainable and inclusive industry is evident in all that they do. From their Feast On® certification and Rainbow Registration to their committment to being stewards of the land, we can’t think of a better recipient of this award! Congratulations!
Shout Out to Our Finalists
In addition to these epic award winners there were also a number of finalists doing amazing work who we’d like to shout out:
Culinary Experience of the Year Finalists: Down Home by Sumac and Salt, Guleph.Beer Bus
Culianry Event of the Year: Kingstonlicious, Countylicious
Culinary Tourism Leadership Award: Kingston Cooks Up Comfort (Tourism Kingston)