Taste of Steinbach samples the Southeast

When the Steinbach Chamber of Commerce called it the Taste of Steinbach, they meant it.

The sold out event was held at the Southeast Event Centre for the first time in its third year. There were 624 mouths to feed, and chef JP Charpentier had 15 local food producers from which to source his five-course meals.

As each piece of carrot cake from Old Church Bakery was getting its own daisy flower placed on top from some of the 15 kitchen staff, event centre and HyLife corporate chef Charpentier explained the months of preparation that goes into making such a masterful spread.

First, he needs to decide what goes on the menu. Charpentier’s experience growing up in France helped with the creativity needed to use what resources he had close by.

“That’s kind of the exciting part of my job is to be able to from just a good product, create a menu of it,” said Charpentier.

“You know in France we always go to the open market and you don’t have any menu for the day, and you just go to the market and you see product that‘s just there and ‘oh, do this with that.”

“That’s why I love to change my menu every season.”

He will soon be choosing those seasonal menus for the Forum and Bistro, now expected to open June 6.

Charpentier got to design the event centre kitchen so it can handle orders from the bistro, Grab and Go that is now open, and banquets at the same time.

The French market has been replaced by the offerings of the Southeast. The menu proves just how much culinary opportunity there is.

Along with carrot cake, dessert included sweet cream pineapple and raspberry lemonade sorbet courtesy of Cole’s Creamery.

Things started during cocktail hour with either a snack of honey barbecue caprese sticks sourced from Unger Meats, Greenland Gardens, Stoney Brook Creamery, and Prairie Oils and Vinegars, or some seared tuna tataki tostadas with La Cocina chips from Ste Anne.

Appetizers included roasted vegetable terrine, Manitoba pickerel, and grilled Manitoba wagyu beef with organic einkorn linguine. Sources included Unique Brazilian Dairy, Von Slick’s Finishing Butter from Middlebro, and Nature’s Farm.

Drinks came courtesy of The Public and Stone City Coffee Roasters.

The main course was of course HyLife pork loin – 440 pounds worth – combined with 155 pounds of potatoes and broccolini.

“HyLife has been a sponsor of Taste of Steinbach from day one,” explained Chamber executive director Tessa Masi.

The first event was on Elmdale Street with 380 tickets selling out, the second sold out at the Steinbach Aiport with 505 guests. This year sold out in 24 hours.

The idea came from Travel Manitoba, who told the chamber that Steinbach was a hidden foody haven.

“Our goal was really to find something that was going to bring the community together with the business community, but I think also to showcase our local food producers,” said Masi.

“We have so many things happening here, a lot of them are very niche.”

With this the first indoor Taste of Steinbach, Masi wanted to keep that outdoor feel with an evening garden theme. Even that was locally sourced, with Sunshine Greenhouse and Oakridge Greenhouse Garden Centre working together.

“You can throw a beautiful event here because it doesn’t feel like a hockey arena in there,” said Masi.

The hustle and bustle of all the people setting the tables, cooking the meals, hanging the flowers and lights gave an energy to the building that something big was about to happen. Masi agreed this type of evening showed the building was more than an arena, that the event centre earned its name.

“Come to the event centre and we make your dream come true,” added Charpentier.

And after all that, Charpentier said they did not even have to do the dishes. They were rented for the evening.