There is something to be said for sitting down to eat together. It’s an opportunity to listen, to enjoy, to learn, to serve and be served. So many of life’s important lessons can be taught around the dinner table — from teaching good manners to learning how to nourish the body and soul.
It’s a lost ritual in today’s busy world. Fewer families are breaking bread together, let alone communities of people.
That trend was reversed Saturday night, when about 300 people came out to dine on Durham Street downtown during the second annual Savour the Street event, put on by Greater Sudbury’s newly minted Greater Sudbury Restaurant and Foodservice Association.
The pre-dinner menu consisted of smoked meats and antipasto from Sunbeam Meats and Regency Bakery, baby back ribs from Cranky Joe’s, Montreal smoked meat and homemade spicy mustard from Frank’s Deli, red pepper soup and bruschetta from Pat & Mario’s, as well as smoked rainbow trout from Jessinik Fish Market.
People sat down to eat at one long, multi-coloured table, set for an evening of fine dining. For dinner, Respect is Burning supplied umbria roast with porcini sugo, Coopérative du Collège Boréal limitée served tomozzakala salad, Curious Thymes made kangaroo and duck consommé, Fishbowl Restaurant prepared chilled black tiger shrimp cocktails, My Thai Palace created a mango salad, Ristorante Verdicchio grilled yellow fin tuna with Sicilian-style white beans, and Y.U.M. Culinary Academy served garlic and ginger beef stick scented with lemon grass.
About 300 people attended the recent Savour the Street event held Saturday, including (at left) Northern Life publisher Abbas Homayed and Laurentian Media publisher Patricia Mills. Guests were treated to numerous courses over a six-hour period. Photo by Westmount Photography.
Sweeet! Extraordinary Cakes and Pastry served fragoli cheesecake mousse tart for dessert, while Old Rock Roastery had fresh roasted fair trade coffee on hand.
At the end of the night there was pizza from New Orleans Pizza and sweet-savoury popcorn drizzled with a warm cherry-chocolate sauce, created by Nana’s Kettle Corn.
All courses were accompanied by performances from local musician Sarah Craig and the Jamie Stever Band.
This kind of community experience is what sets ablaze the event’s chief organizer, Michael Cullen, with passion for what he does as a chef and a cooking instructor.
“When I teach, it is amazing how many people don’t know where this or that is in Sudbury,” he said, referring to the food producers, butchers, bakeries and deli shops that span across the city.
“There’s so many little secrets around town. For example, (there’s) Sunbeam Meats in the Flour Mill. It’s a little butcher shop behind St. Jean de Brebeuf Church. The guy’s got the best smoked sausage and kielbasa and Hungarian salami that I’ve ever had. It’s all homemade and it’s all smoked in house.”
Cullen said, at “impact” events like the one held Saturday night, people can hear about these places. They can taste their food and they can meet the hard-working people who aim to serve this city with some of the best food they have to offer.
Through an event like this, “we can educate the public on what really good food is,” Cullen added. “And then, in turn, we as restauranteurs and chefs will want to work smarter and faster and create more.”
Cullen spoke about one of his favourite haunts, Regency Bakery.
“There are so many different offerings that they have. I just went today to grab a quick sandwich, some nice fresh deli meats and cheese on a fresh baked bun. For (only) $4. But it’s not just (the price) ... it’s the experience. You talk to the owner (while you are there.) It’s a cultural experience.”
One just can’t put a price on these things, he reiterated.
But Sudbury has a lot of catching up to do if it wants to grow into a community that easily supports its local farmers and food industry, he added. The establishment of the Greater Sudbury Restaurant and Foodservice Association is a step in the right direction.
Photo by Westmount Photography.
“We’re not going to get the attention (we need) unless we’re collectively stronger,” he said.
During his extensive culinary tourism abroad, Cullen has seen a lot of good ideas and wants to promote more of them here in Sudbury.
The community dining experience is one of those good ideas that is “so historical and so deeply rooted into culture,” that it begs to be repeated.
It’s amazing how we, as a community, sometimes forget how to break bread with one another, how to spend time getting to know one another, how to serve one another and how to be gracious in being served. It may seem out of place to mention this, but for me, Saturday’s Savour the Street event gathered some additional poignancy. The community meal was held just hours after one of Sudbury’s native sons lost his life in Afghanistan. Pte. Andrew Miller was a 21-year-old man who fully embraced the act of serving his community and his country.
For any one of us, life’s too short to not sit down and eat together.
Wendy Bird is managing editor of Northern Life.
