It's a big year for Canada. Our 150th birthday is being commemorated all year long, from free national park access to a massive mural project and a record-setting musical performance. At Toronto’s leading conference for food industry professionals, the Terroir Symposium, they’re celebrating our sesquicentennial by putting Canada’s culinary landscape in the focus.

Under the theme Our Home and Native Land – Celebrating Canadian Gastronomy, special guests and experienced presenters at the Terroir Symposium will reflect on our history, leadership and diversity through the lens of food. Participants can learn about First Nations food traditions and how they inform mainstream Canadian farming, foraging and fishing practises, how we’re shaping the next generation of young chefs and toast to Canadian wines and their influence on the international scene.

Parts & Labour executive chef and the face of Viceland’s Dead Set On Life Matty Matheson MCs the event with hosts Pay Chen of Newstalk 1010, celebrity chef Bob Blumer and TV personality Michelle Jobin. Through informative presentations and sessions, you’ll have the opportunity to hear from over 80 speakers like Susur Lee, Norman Hardie, Lynn Crawford, Dufflet Rosenberg and Foodism’s own Suresh Doss who will discuss how immigration has impacted our diversity of food.

Expect to mix and mingle with the country's food elite, from chefs to sommeliers, writers and restaurateurs. There will be plenty of opportunity to learn, network and share ideas with influential delegates from across Canada and beyond.

Interesting in attending? Foodism readers can save $100 off the ticket price with the code: FoodismT11. We’ll see you there!

The Terroir Symposium happens at the Art Gallery of Ontario on May 29, 2017. Click here to buy tickets.