Valentine’s Day is just around the corner and love was in the air at a recent Canadian Tourism Commission (CTC) event. “Flirtation with Canada,” a virtual food and wine tasting, was held on Feb. 2 for a select group of food bloggers, writers and editors in New York City, NY, US.

Invitees got to chat with three top Canadian chefs as they prepared a romantic brunch menu based on Canadian food and beverages. Anita Stewart, Canadian culinary trailblazer extraordinaire, hosted “Flirtation with Canada,” which was broadcast from the Canadian Food & Wine Institute in Niagara, ON, and streamed on a special feed (no pun intended) from CTC’s Media Centre.

Manning the stoves were three chefs chosen by Stewart for their close connections with the sources of their food and for being bred-in-the-bone Canadian. Jesse Vergen is executive chef of Saint John Ale House, NB, and an organic farmer in one of Quispamsis’ last standing farms. Paul Stewart, chef at the Harbour House Hotel on Salt Spring Island, BC, uses veggies, herbs and fruit freshly plucked from the hotel’s own extensive garden. Joining them was Michael Olson, professor at the Institute and one of Canada’s bright young things in the kitchen.

Helping whet invitee appetites for more: culinary story ideas and a basket of Canadian goodies, including regional honey, icewine, partridgeberry tea and other food-market essentials.

“Nothing tells a country’s story like its food and drink,” says Gloria Loree, CTC executive director, Global Communications. “We hope this flirtation develops into a lingering passion for Canadian food and the people and places that produce it.”