Dinner in Honour of Their Royal Highnesses The Prince
of Wales and The Duchess of Cornwall

Rideau Hall, Wednesday, November 11, 2009

A friend of mine is a chef. He was born in Europe but chose to live in Canada over 20 years ago.

Once a month, he invites a few friends and other guests to join him around his table. They come from vastly different backgrounds, their origins as diverse as the face of Canada itself; a group that only his warm hospitality could bring together.

The evening begins in the kitchen, with the choice of foods and the preparation of dishes. As soon as you enter his home, the aromas wafting through the air give you a clue as to who will be joining you around the table: a South American, a Frenchman, a Haitian…

My friend uses only locally grown organic food products. By this I mean the foodstuffs produced here in Canada, particularly in the area where he lives; his culinary tour de force is the ability to uncover as many different tastes in Canada’s products as there are cultural origins around his table.

He has found Egypt in the Laurentians and the Caribbean near Lake Ontario. In Canada’s seasons he has discovered the wide-ranging geography of flavours of world cuisine. Cooking, for him, is a vehicle for sharing cultures.

But his table is not simply a place to tantalize your taste buds. First and foremost, it is a place to meet and share conversation, a place where ideas meld as easily as the flavours.

At a time when, too often, each of us thinks more of ourselves than the other, when imagination and initiative take a back seat to the daily hustle and bustle, when fast food and ready-made meals serve as culinary rituals, it is reassuring to have someone to remind us of the central place that the table holds as a cultural forum for exchange, heedless of our differences.

The story of my friend the chef is not a tale, it is a true story, and it is a story shared by many people who are with us here tonight - farmers, cheesemakers, winemakers, chefs, tea creators, food and wine writers and promoters, sommeliers and producers.  These guests have come from right across the country – from Wolfville, Nova Scotia to Inukjuak, Quebec to Sooke, British Columbia. Tonight we recognize their tireless efforts to facilitate the journey from farm to table and for reminding us everyday of the importance of our nation’s table.

To pay tribute to cuisine is to pay tribute to the environment and to respect it. Your Royal Highnesses, I know, are passionately committed to doing this and I thank you for the leadership you have shown in this regard.  To all of you, I thank you…we thank you.