Inaugural Taste of Toronto Welcomes Over 19,000 Attendees

The inaugural Taste of Toronto festival was held in Fort York from July 24 to 27. The festival hosted a crowd of more than 19,000 food lovers and served 50,000 dishes over the course of the three day event.

Taste of Toronto brought out 17 of the city's most notable chefs, representing Toronto's most buzzworthy restaurants and a great range of cuisines. Each chef personally served up tasting plates of their signature dishes with over 50 to choose from including: Mark McEwan's lobster poutine, David Neinstein of Barque Smokehouse served his signature ribs, Anthony Rose carved slabs of house-cured bacon for the very popular Rose & Son's BLT, and Stuart Cameron wowed crowds mixing up giant pans of Patria's seafood paella. The festival marketplace featured 70 local food producers also offering guests samples and selling their unique products.

Taste of Toronto raised a total of $10,000 throughout the event for the festival's charity partner, Second Harvest, and all leftover food from the event was rescued by Second Harvest and given to those in need.

"Taste of Toronto was an outstanding success, with more than 19,000 people meeting and greeting the city's hottest chefs, and sampling the best food this city has to offer, all while enjoying the fantastic skyline from Fort York," said Justin Clarke, Managing Director, Taste Festivals. "We couldn't have selected a better city for our North American launch, and can't wait to do it again next year."

Among the exclusive opportunities at the festival to interact with some of the hottest names in today's culinary world included an intimate chat with both David Chang and Roger Mooking in the Electrolux Taste Theatre; Christina Tosi of Momofuku Milk Bar hosted a Metro Master Class, sharing the recipe for her infamous birthday cake truffles; and Franco Stalteri of Charlie's Burgers offered wine tastings of Italian stallion reds in a historic Fort York building.

Some of the notable guests spotted at the festival included mayoral candidates John Tory and Karen Stintz, along with Mayor Rob Ford who presented Taste of Toronto with a congratulatory scroll from the city, E! Canada personality Chloe Wilde, Arts & Crafts co-founder and CEO Jeffrey Remedios, and fashion designer Kirk Pickersgill of Greta Constantine, and more.

Watch the Taste of Toronto 2014 highlight video here.

This year's event was supported by sponsors and partners, including All-Clad, American Express Canada, Electrolux Appliances, Metro, Nespresso, Pilsner Urquell, Shangri-La Hotel Toronto, Kenwood, San Pellegrino and True North Salmon.