Win Two Tickets To “Colour Your Palate”. Here’s how…

On April 3^rd “Colour Your Palate” Celebrates Five Years of Art, Food and Learning

Armed with their colour assignments, their culinary know-how and their imaginations, twelve Victoria restaurant chefs are now planning their submissions for the fifth annual Colour Your Palate canapé competition, a tasting event that combines colour expression with taste adventures.

To enter the draw to win two tickets to this exciting tasting event simply email us with your favourite colour and suggest a food that would be the same colour. For example if you choose yellow you could suggest corn. The winning entry will be randomly drawn from the submissions. Email editor@eatmagazine.ca by midnight, Friday, March 23, 2012. Winners will be contacted by email and announced on www.eatmagazine.ca

Read on to find out more about the evening and which chefs are competing.

Colour Your Palate guests are rewarded with unique flavours and colours and an opportunity to recognize those chefs who best marry colour and flavours while supporting the development of art and life skills for children in the Capital Region.

“Over the five years we have been hosting Colour Your Palate the chefs have really upped their game in terms of presentation, flavour profiles and unique interpretations of the colour and canapé theme,” says Marilyn Sing, founder and past president of the OCTA Collective Society. “I think when they see each other’s creations they come back the next year even more determined to outdo each other. And they are able to try something new with an appreciative audience. I’ve seen canapés which debuted at Colour Your Palate later appear on that restaurant’s menu.”

At the launch event chefs drew one of six colours: blue, green, yellow, purple, black or orange. Some colours pose a greater challenge than others, such as blue which doesn’t tend to occur naturally in food except as purple. Chefs come up with creative ways to represent the colours and the recipe and presentation are closely guarded until the event.
Canapés are eligible for two awards: Best Tasting Creation and Most Artistic Creation.

They are judged by industry experts including Eric Akis, chef and cookbook author who publishes a weekly column in the Times Colonist; Gary Hynes, sommelier, chef and cookbook author who is the founder and editor of EAT Magazine and Denise Marchessault, Le Cordon Bleu graduate, cooking instructor, food columnist and proprietor of French Mint Cooking School. Canapés are judged blind and restaurant winners are revealed after the canapés are selected.

Colour Your Palate paints the town on April 3 beginning at 5:30 at the Hotel Grand Pacific. Tickets are $60 in advance and $65 at the door and include a complimentary beer or wine, samples of every canapé entry, door prizes and opportunities to bid on a large selection of silent auction items. Each guest selects a favourite canapé and the audience top pick wins the Peoples Choice Award.

Competing Chefs:
Brock Bowes – Hotel Grand Pacific
Rob Cassels – Flavour
Colin Davidson – The O Bistro at the Oswego Hotel
Andrew Dickinson – Royal Victoria Yacht Club
Stephan Drolet – Camille’s Restaurant
Torin Egan – The Superior Café
Miguel Goncalves – Beacon Landing Restaurant and Lounge
Andrew Hrushowy – Sauce Restaurant & Lounge
Morgan Milward – Fireside Grill
Kamal Silva – The Fairmont Empress
Edward Tuson – The EdGe Restaurant

Colour Your Palate is held to raise awareness of the importance of participating in arts experiences to develop life skills such as self-confidence, self-esteem, teamwork and personal management, and to fund artsREACH workshops in schools with a high population of children from low income families. Programs are delivered at no charge to public elementary schools in the Capital Region and all materials and instruction are provided. The workshops teach arts skills such as printmaking, theatre and painting.

For more information on Colour Your Palate: www.octacollective.com/colouryourpalate
For more information on artsREACH: www.artsreach.ca

Event Sponsors:
Hotel Grand Pacific
DFH Real Estate
Event Service Production
Island Blue Print
Sysco Victoria

Media Sponsors:
CFAX 1070
CTV
EAT Magazine
KOOL 107.3
Times Colonist

Master of Ceremonies: Joe Perkins, CTV

2011/2012 Workshop Information

Since 2005, 800 artsREACH workshops have been delivered in public elementary schools throughout the Capital Region. Taught by professionally trained artists or actors, more than 13,600 children have participated in a drawing, printmaking, painting, or theatre workshop.

Visual Arts Program
Visual arts workshops explore the theme of “Art Inspired by Imagination”.

Painting Workshops
Drawings and paintings don’t have to be representational or solely based upon what we observe. In addition to drawing what they see, children draw/paint from their imagination to help make sense of their world. Encouraging children to use creative, playful techniques acts as a “spring board” to help them begin drawing/painting further develops their intellect and expands their already vivid imaginations.

Printmaking Workshops
Printmaking is an easy and fun way to help students learn about basic elements and principles of art: line, shape, colour, texture, pattern and repetition. Students are introduced to and use Islamic tile prints, paintings by Joan Miro, Matisse cutouts, Australian Aboriginal prints, illustrations by Man Ray and drawings and paintings by Paul Klee to inspire their own work.

After-School Theatre Arts Program
Over six weeks, students develop and hone theatre performance skills through cooperative theatre games and exercises, movement, characterization, improvisation and dramatic play. They are entrusted with group projects, learn decision-making, and build confidence. At the end of the program, the students present a showcase of their best/favourite work to an invited audience of peers, teachers and parents.

After-School Visual Arts Program
Over six weeks, students are introduced to traditional as well as unconventional materials, methods and techniques of 2-D and 3-D art forms. Each workshop uses art historical examples, feature artists and a particular style or genre. Students examine the many ways that artists use the human figure to communicate meaning and engage in studio projects/explorations based on the theme of body language and art.

Grants covering the 2011/2012 School Year: BC Gaming*, Queen Alexandra Foundation for Children, RBC Foundation, Van Tel/Safeway Credit Union Legacy Fund, and APM Fund for Children and the Arts through the Victoria Foundation.
* We acknowledge the financial assistance of the Province of British Columbia.

Donations from Hillcrest Elementary School Parent Advisory Council and the TELUS Victoria Ambassadors were also designated to cover a total of eight workshops.