The Gourmet Food And Wine Expo, An Annual Favourite

At the Gourmet Food and Wine Expo in Toronto. Each attendee gets a wine glass to sample drinks and to keep as a souvenir

I had the chance to attend the 22nd annual Gourmet Food and Wine Expo on opening night. The Metro Toronto Convention Centre hosted this annual event and had over 1,500 food and drinks at this trade show.

Since I’ve been to a few food and wine expos in the past, I wasn’t planning on attending, but Devon from Foods of Toronto convinced me to go. And so, at the last minute, I decided to attend and met some other fellow foodie members where we ate our way through the event.

Pssst…. I attended this event as media

Early in the evening at the Gourmet Food and Wine Expo on opening night

The opening night is usually held on the third Thursday of November and runs from 6pm-10pm. In the past, I would arrive early to avoid line-ups. Surprisingly, this year wasn’t as busy as the previous events. I didn’t arrive until 7 pm, and by 7:40, the event still wasn’t busy, which was great. Past events were always so busy that the lineup for food and drinks were pretty long. I remember one year, I waited for nearly twenty minutes just to get sample tickets. Not so this year (score!).

Sample tickets at the Gourmet food and wine expo

Hurray, no lineups for sample ticket purchases!

Sample tickets are the official show currency, although some booths accept cash. Each food sample ranges between $1 to $6 while drinks averaged $2 for a generous sample.

While the recommended number of sample tickets to buy is $40 a person, I bought $20 worth of tickets. At the end of the event, I still had $6 left, to which I spent the remaining tickets on macarons to take away! My foodie friends also had many sample tickets to spare by the end of the event… this could be because we were mostly there for the food and not so much for the alcohol.

Food at the gourmet food and wine expo

Judging by the selection of food, it seems that alcoholic drinks are the principal focus of this year’s trade show. Therefore, you’ll be disappointed if food was the main reason you attended this event. As well, many vendors priced their food more on the expensive side for the amount of food that you get.

Salmon from JaBistro

Shrimp from JaBistro

Gourmet grilled cheese trio from Cashew and Clive

Dessert at the gourmet food and wine expo

Hong Kong style bubble waffle

My favorite dessert at the expo was the Hong Kong style bubble waffle from Golden Bubbles, where I bought the green tea waffle. My favorite part of this dish was their taro ice cream and their chocolate covered chips.

Delicious macarons from Ruelo Patisserie

Of course, I was drooling over the macarons at the event and bought a few to go.

ChocoMe has one of the most beautiful chocolate bars. Some products have edible flowers!

Cannoli from Cannoli Queens

Red velvet fudge ice cream cookie from Marble Slab Creamery

Samples at the annual food and wine expo

Not all vendors sold food to consume at the event. Some sellers offered samples to either promote or sell their product.

Blue cheese from Alexis de Portneuf

Samples from Delissio Pizzeria

Alcoholic drinks at the annual food and wine expo

If you like alcohol, this event is so worth it because the samples were as cheap as $1 for a decent amount of alcohol.

Laura Secord now has alcoholic drinks? Laura Secord chocolate cream liquor

Wines from Point Pelee, the most southern tip in Canada

Drinks from Amsterdam Brewery

Entertainment at the annual food and wine expo

The entertainment for the evening made for a lively ambiance. There were lots of great singers but of course, my favorite performance of the night was Simone Denny!

Simone Denny is performing “You’re a superstar”

90s babies, do you remember this song “You’re a Superstar” by Love Inc.? Well the lead singer, Simone Denny did an incredible live performance at the event where I was transcended back in time to the 90s. Does anyone here remember the days when Much Music would release an annual cassette/CD compilation of the year’s best music?

Behind the scenes – Life of foodies at the gourmet food and wine expo

I’m not going to go into too much detail what it’s like to be a foodie but here are some photos that will give you an idea of what it’s like to eat with foodies.

Three cameras on one food photo from me, Devon and Tiff (Thehangrybeh)… seriously, phones and cameras eat first

The best part of this event was the chance to meet other fellow foodies where we all understood and respected the photo food-taking process. Pictures of the food must be taken first before the food is eaten. Sometimes, a bunch of different angles is shot to ensure that a few good photos are captured.

Jon from Jon_mrdimsum is waiting for Rosetta (mrs_dimsum) and me to finish taking our photos

Tips for gourmet food and wine expo

Get sample tickets first when you arrive. Usually, there’s a lineup and… you can’t buy anything without sample tickets
Lighting is a bit dim, bring a good camera if you’re hoping to take some food photos
Opening night tends to be the night where it is least crowded, try to go on the first day if you can
Have fun, eat lots!