An Immersive Experience About Local Food 

Do you want to learn more about how you can help make better food choices? Do you want to become part of our story, all the while supporting this small, local charity?

Growing Chefs! Ontario is excited to invite you into our Headquarters: an iconic destination for food education and exploration! We have created a spectacular culinary adventure for you! This experience is based on our children’s programming where participants explore how our food system works through the largest school-based food education project in Ontario.

Through this unique experience you will cook your way through an extensive tour of London and Middlesex County!

Led by the award-winning Growing Chefs! Ontario Chef Team, you can improve your culinary skills using seasonal ingredients and products from unique local farms and producers. The Experience will also showcase wildcrafted foods, plants native to Ontario and invasive species, while keeping a strong focus on sustainable sourcing and zero-waste.

You will also receive a digital recipe package featuring a detailed local food map of our region, connecting you to one-of-a-kind local farms, artisans and retailers, as well as some of our favourite local hiking and nature trails — great for food foraging!

The Growing Chefs! Experience will include:

• Harvesting ingredients from our beautiful Learning Garden: we focus on incorporating seasonal vegetables into our recipes to ensure we’re using the most nutrient-dense, flavourful foods. Our learning garden allows us to pick fresh ingredients to incorporate into meals only minutes later and connects you directly to the source.
  
• Learning new recipes during a hands-on cooking class lead by our Chef team: there’s no better way to learn than by ​“doing”! Under the guidance of our award-winning Chef team, we want you to take charge and become comfortable navigating specially designed recipes, and practice crafting beautiful dishes you can replicate at home!
• Preparing an unforgettable meal, from start to finish, in our beautiful Outdoor Wood Fire Oven: we want to share the experience and excitement of a meal prepared in our wood-fire oven! We’re so grateful to have access to this tool and can’t wait to share!
• Exploring how food is the fuel for our local economy, ecology and our community’s health: The London area has a storied history as a hub of agricultural economy, but the area is also home to some of the most innovative and exciting up-and-coming food production companies as well! We want to introduce you to the way that food and food production has fuelled the economy and continues to shape our community.
• Learning how Growing Chefs! business model is helping to change the way we teach our community’s children to develop healthy relationships with food: Growing Chefs! Ontario is building the framework for food education we hope to see implemented all around the Province, and beyond! Come learn how we communicate our food education programming to the kids in our community, helping them connect and interact with food in ways that are otherwise inaccessible to so many.
• BONUS – Knowing that a portion of your experience goes directly toward supporting ongoing Food Education Programming for schools, families and the community! All the funds raised through Experiential Tourism support keeping food education accessible, just by attending these events you have contributed to the accessibility of education!

We promise you a high-energy, hands-on, educational, and incredibly FUN event! 

Join us for a tour of our region through a FOOD lens and taste what makes London, Ontario and Middlesex County so unique. You will leave with your stomachs, hearts and hands full knowing you are giving back to future generations.

For pricing, more details and booking, please contact Executive Administrator, Jen Wyant, at jen@​growingchefsontario.​ca.