Welcome to Taste! Taste! Taste! Magazine where Christine Couvelier will share her passion for food and the food industry. “I love nothing more than talking about food, tasting food, cooking food and of course sharing food,” says Christine. “If I could, I would have you all over for a meal but I don’t think my kitchen table is big enough.” Instead, consider this our virtual kitchen table where we will gather every month to share stories and talk about food. 

My name is Jo-Anne Lauzer and I am a freelance writer who also loves food, community and storytelling. When Christine invited me to her table and asked if I could help share her stories and passion for all things food, I was beyond excited. Christine is one of those people whose enthusiasm and respect for the food world, and the people who call it home, is infectious and inspiring. She is incredibly knowledgeable, connected and has a voracious appetite for learning and experiencing everything first hand. She also likes to have fun and is eager to talk about what she has learned, enjoyed and experienced. Pull up a seat and join us for the feast as we serve up our first post for Taste! Taste! Taste! Magazine.

However, before we get started we have some exciting news—Christine has just been appointed as the National Board Chair for Taste Canada. “They reached out the week before last and asked me if I was interested, and of course I was interested because I care so much about the food community and sharing our stories, and sharing tastes, and sharing recipes.” 

Christine has been a huge fan and supporter for Taste Canada for many years. She has loved her role as a judge for the annual Cookbook Awards as well as participating in Cooks the Books, an educational resource hub for Canadian culinary students and food professionals. As a national not-for-profit that champions Canadian cookbooks, Taste Canada’s mission is “To promote, honor, and celebrate Canadian culinary writing, by recognizing the best published titles as important means of defining Canada’s food culture, trends, innovation, influences and history, while elevating them to a prominent place in Canadian culture.” 

Christine, who has had to keep the news to herself for the last few weeks is so excited to finally let people know and is ready to dive in and get started on her three-year term. “As this is the 25th anniversary of Taste Canada I am so pleased to be able to celebrate the awards this year and to take it forward into the next quarter century.”

But wait! There is more news to share. Christine is now also the “Chief Culinary Innovation Officer” at Trendi. As a relatively new company, Trendi is tackling food waste head on by rescuing avoidable food loss at the source, and upcycling it into nutritious shelf-stable products. “I am excited to be part of Trendi,” says Christine, “because the future of food will be determined by the choices we make today.” She also loves the fact that she is part of a team that is, “Planning for the future of food by working to end food waste and to stop hunger by innovating and offering solutions to farmers, manufactures, chefs, consumers, and to the world.” As part of her role, Christine is also thrilled to be involved in setting up a food waste challenge with culinary colleges all across North America.

This is a perfect role for Christine who is a strong believer in the importance of being innovative in the food world. “If the definition of innovation is the introduction of something new and different, then innovation can be in food, in packaging, cookbooks, how we speak about food, as well as in housewares and how we set the table. And wow, how I love doing that.” What she appreciates most about being the world of innovation is that it never ends; there is always a new opportunity to create something new. “Innovation makes my heart sing all the time,” says Christine.

Innovation is also what draws her to food industry shows and conferences. She has been busy these past few months travelling and participating in some of the world’s favourite and most prestigious food shows and competitions. Below is a brief overview of those shows and what stood out for her, but for a quick peak into Christine’s latest picks for food trends to watch, check out her Trend Watch 2022 Report Highlight.

Last September Christine flew to France where she was able to attend Sirha/Bocuse d’Or. Occurring simultaneously in Lyon, Sirha is the food show and Bocuse d’Or is the culmination of a global culinary competition that involves sixty national and four continental events over a two-year period. “Paul Bocuse is the father of gastronomy,” says Christine, “and he founded these awards as a celebration of culinary greatness.” Bocuse d'Or is usually every other January, but because of COVID it was in September last year and the next one will be in January of 2023, then back on schedule to every other January. 

What stood out most for Christine at the Sirha food show was the packaging. “There were bright white clean packaging on food products with colourful images and/or wording that really stood out.” She also noticed a trend for freshness and at the same time a real connection to history. “In the centre of the entrance was a huge display that paid tribute to the history of Paul Bocuse, Alice Waters as well as a number of other great chefs that were at the beginning of innovation.”

As much as Christine enjoys attending Sirha/Bocuse d’Or, she also loves being able to explore and experience the city of Lyon, and its food, first hand. According to Christine, “In 2021 they had 21 Michelin Star restaurants in that tiny city.” But what excites her most is Lyon’s famous market, Les Halles de Lyon Paul Bocuse. “The fact that I could be at this market that this amazing chef helped to create and where market vendors are able to share their passion for food and everything was on display like an exquisite jewellery store,” says Christine. “I had goose bumps.”

In February, Christine attended the Winter Fancy Food Show in Las Vegas. She appreciates how the West Coast show is really an opportunity for, “Foodpreneurs with great ideas and innovations to come in front of the industry. Flavours of maple and honey were predominant. Avocado oil was huge. Honey has always been a big part of the show but hot honey, like spicy honey, stood out this time and it was extraordinary. And a great example of this was from the Savannah Bee Company. She also noticed several booths serving up chili crisp, also known as chili crunch or hot chili oil.

Packaging also stood out for Christine at the Fancy Food Show, but in a different way than at the Sirha. According to Christine, “There were two or three companies that had all black packaging with a tiny little font that was would be hard to read when walking down a grocery store aisle.”

Next in her travels was the Natural Products Expo West in Anaheim California in March where she noticed that fermentation was still big and was thrilled to see Rick's Picks had a booth again. “They are a great company that started selling pickles at Union Square Greenmarket in NYC decades ago.” In particular, Christine loved the pickled horseradish as well as the pickled cauliflower florets.

In terms of the food products, Christine noticed that avocado oil is still quite popular and was impressed by companies like Caulipower that are revolutionizing the use of vegetables in our food and "As well as having an impressive booth, they continue to have the most fabulous innovations." Christine was also grateful to see that, “The world of plant-based cheeses and butters is growing in numbers but also in quality of flavour and texture. There is a Canadian company called Culcherd, they are now coast-to-coast in Canada and soon will be in the USA. Their plant-based cheeses and plant-based butters are fantastic and some of my favourite cheeses and butters anywhere!”

Christine enjoyed many of the products she tasted at the show, but two stood out for her. One was a plant-based chicken that she had from Daring Foods, “It was tender and juicy, and smelled like chicken even before I got to the booth. I went back every day.” The other was a guava lemonade from Natalie’s Orchard Island Juice. “Innovation like that,” says Christine, “just makes me sit back and say like why not! Of course that is the way that it should be done.”

Christine’s busy itinerary for April and May will take her to SIAL Canada (an international food and beverage trade show) in Montreal April 20-22 and then the Restaurant Canada (RC) Show (Canada’s largest foodservice and hospitality event) May 9 to 11 in Toronto.