By Sarah Klein
Chef Ben Kramer (HANDOUT)
Taking in all the music and festivities at the 41st annual Winnipeg Folk Festival builds up an appetite. Luckily, volunteers and those who make the action happen won’t be starving with the array of food options planned for this week.
Chef Ben Kramer of the University of Winnipeg is leading the backstage culinary work at La Cuisine inside Birds Hill Park. With the help of Chefs Aron Epp and Kelly Cattani, Kramer is creating approximately 52,000 meals for Folk Fest volunteers and performers during the five-day festival.
To put the amount of food being prepared into perspective: 11,250 potatoes will get peeled, 10,000 onions will get chopped, 10,800 perogies will be consumed and 4,000 bison burgers will get flipped.
“A venture on this scale with 300 amazing volunteers coming together for the first time on the day of is all new to us,” Kramer said. “But we are pretty good at organization and logistics. The best part of this is being in a kitchen outside all day, and the team spirit. The people are great.”
Folk Festival visitors can also enjoy the experience of Diversity Foods in the Festival Village which has an outlet offering fresh food such as Dragon’s Bowl — rice, veggies, local kale and hemp seeds.
What’s on the menu?
- Chicken Thai basil with lemon grass
- Fish tacos with northern pike fresh from Lake Winnipeg (through Bearcat Fisheries)
- Moroccan night with chicken tagine, cous cous and hummus, and a full Sunday brunch
Local food suppliers include Manitoba’s Peak of the Market, Kroeker Farms (Winkler-Carmen) and Harborside Farms (Pilot Mound).
The Winnipeg Folk Festival runs July 9-13.
