Toronto International Bakery Symposium 2010
On a quiet Tuesday afternoon in May, Puratos Canada hosted a 1st of a kind event; the Toronto International Bakery Symposium at the famed Old Mill Inn in Toronto.
The historic inn was host to bakers, patissiers and chocolatiers from Canada for a half day event followed by a unique bread and wine tasting and a scrumptious dinner.
The event consisted of public speakers from Belgium, the US and Canada who shared their views on a host of ideas to boost sales in the bakery industry. The topics and speakers were as follows -
Frederik Lievens, who is a food engineer and Director of the business unit Bread Improvers at the Puratos Group (Belgium), believed that over the last 150 years traditional baking has been lost in the industrialized world and gave a very interesting presentation on the 'Revival of Bread'.
Diane Chiasson, President of Chiasson Consultants Inc., is a certified merchandising expert who talked about measures that could be taken to be successful in the ever changing retail merchandising environment.
Dr.Phillip Lee Wing, who is a Food Scientist and President of the Food Development Group, discussed Health and Wellness trends in the food industry.
As the sessions concluded, guests were led to the Guildhall for a very interesting one of a kind concept - Bread and Wine pairing. This session was conducted by Peter Blakeman, Professor of Culinary Arts from Niagara College as well as David Deblauwe, from Puratos US. The pairing consisted of tasting sourdough breads from around the world that were paired with different wines. Who would've though one could pair bread and wine?
When asked what was the impetus for conducting such an event, Benoit Keppenne, General Manager for the Canadian operation had this to say - "
"We realized that it has been a challenging few years for the baking industry, and Puratos as a major player in the market, though of ways to assist the industry by providing a meeting ground for professionals to conduct meaningful exchanges in a forum where retail merchandising, health and wellness trends, the revival of bread and a bread and wine tasting sessions were exchanged".
Overall a very exciting event for us all and we look forward to the 2011 TIBS.