Simple Ingredients, Done Well
Calgary’s Vision to become the food capital of the world
The art of cooking is simple: respect the ingredient and serve the guest.
Alberta is ready to build a food culture around that truth.
In my travels around the world, I’ve tasted the best pastries, sipped the best cappuccinos, and received pizzas so honest they felt like a lesson. The common thread wasn’t complexity. It was care. The very best food comes from simple ingredients done exceptionally well—grown by people who prize flavour and nourishment, prepared by craftspeople who practise discipline, and served by hosts who honour their guests.
We eat every day. Food shapes health, community, tourism, and identity—so food changes everything. Calgary can lead by making taste, quality, and hospitality our calling card. In 25 years, Calgary can be known worldwide as a city where the best ingredients meet the best attitude.
A clear standard:
By 2050, Calgary is recognised as the food capital of the world—not because we have the fanciest dining rooms, but because Alberta grows remarkable ingredients, treats water and soil as sacred, and serves guests with uncommon hospitality.
It’s a standard. It starts with a culture of care for what we eat and an attitude of respect for the people we serve.
What Calgary can learn from Italy
Italy’s everyday excellence isn’t a mystery; it’s a method:
Ingredients first. Menus bend to the farm, not the other way around.
Protected provenance. Regions stand behind their products with pride and clear standards.
Apprenticeship and repetition. Craft is taught, practised, and perfected—pastry by pastry, shot by shot, dough by dough.
Hospitality as ritual. Coffee bars, neighbourhood bakeries, market halls—spaces where good food is daily life, not a special occasion.
Calgary can adapt these lessons to our prairie reality: wheat and barley with character, grass-fed beef with depth, cold-hardy fruit with surprising sweetness, and water clean enough to taste.
The seven principles of our food future
Water you can taste. Stewardship of rivers, aquifers, and irrigation isn’t just environmental policy; it’s flavour policy. Great ingredients require great water.
Soil as strategy. Healthy soil produces nutrient-dense, better-tasting food. Regenerative practices give us a competitive advantage in quality.
Seed & breed for flavour. Support genetics that prize taste: heritage grains for bread and pizza, terroir‑driven vegetables, responsible animal husbandry for depth of flavour.
Simplicity with seasonality. Short ingredient lists, changing with the land. Let the tomato taste like the sun it absorbed.
Craft through apprenticeship. Raise the bar for pastry, coffee, bread, and pizza—disciplines where precision and repetition create delight.
Radical hospitality. Begin every plate with respect for the guest. Calgary, Alberta: where visitors feel expected, not just welcomed.
Smart transparency. Use technology to track provenance, reduce waste, and share stories from farm to table—without losing the human touch.
First moves (the next 36 months)
Alberta Ingredient Standard. A voluntary “Respect the Ingredient” label with measurable criteria: water stewardship, soil health, humane care, and verified flavour benchmarks.
Water & Soil Stewardship Fund. Incentives for farmers and ranchers who adopt practices that measurably improve flavour and nutrition.
Grain-to-Table Initiative. Micro‑milling, malting, and heritage grain co‑ops to power world‑class bread, pizza, and pastry.
Calgary Pastry & Coffee Institute. Apprenticeships with visiting master bakers and baristi. The goal: cappuccinos with proper texture and temperature, laminated pastry with clean layers, and standards everyone can learn and teach.
Pizza & Bread Centre of Excellence. Training kitchens for dough science, fermentation, and oven craft. Alberta wheat, world‑class technique.
Market Halls & Morning Culture. Year‑round market halls linked by transit and bike routes; a city that runs on fresh bread, morning cappuccinos, and mid‑day plates.
The Guest Pledge. A citywide hospitality standard—eye contact, clean kitchens, proper taste, and warm service. Simple, consistent, teachable.
Food Tourism Route. A mapped trail of farms, creameries, mills, breweries, bakeries, and restaurants with tastings and classes—an Alberta passport for flavour.
Public Procurement for Taste. Nudge schools, hospitals, and civic venues toward local, high‑quality staples. Good food for everyone, every day.
Open Provenance Platform. QR codes that connect diners to farmer stories, growing methods, and recipes—trust you can scan.
A day in Calgary, 2030 (a taste of what’s coming)
Rome, Italy
Morning: a cappuccino with a thick, glossy foam and a pastry layered perfectly with chocolate.
Calgary, Alberta, Canada
HCMC, Vietnam
Midday: soup built on a bone broth that tastes of clean water and care.
Evening: a meal that proves Alberta can grow elegant greens, pasta rolled thin from heritage durum, a steak that tastes of grass and time, and a seasonal fruit tart that needs no garnish.
Florence, Italy
None of it fussy. All of it deliberate.
Why this matters
Health. Better ingredients mean better nutrition—everyday prevention on a plate.
Economy. Food tourism, value‑added agriculture, skilled trades, and exportable expertise.
Identity. A city known for kindness and competence—in the kitchen and at the table.
Sustainability. Practices that protect our watersheds and soils for the next generation.
How we’ll measure progress
Taste & quality: Blind tastings and flavour scores for core products (bread, milk, beef, vegetables, espresso).
Training: Number of certified apprentices in pastry, coffee, bread, and pizza crafts.
Provenance: Share of menu items with fully traceable ingredients.
Local share: Percentage of public and private food budgets spent on Alberta‑grown staples.
Tourism: Visitor stays and spending tied to markets, festivals, and tasting routes.
Stewardship: Verified improvements in water use efficiency and soil health on participating farms.
A culture of care
Everything begins in the attitude of the cook, the farmer, and the host.
Respect the ingredient. Respect the guest. That’s the whole philosophy—simple enough to teach to a child, strong enough to guide a city.
Calgary has the technology and know‑how. Now we need the vision and the discipline to do the simple things well, every day. Let’s make room for excellence at the breakfast counter, the school cafeteria, the neighbourhood bakery, the downtown dining room, and the farm gate.
Calgary: the best‑tasting city in the world.
Because Alberta inspires and empowers farmers who care about quality and chefs who honour their guests—one ingredient, one plate, one warm welcome at a time.
“The art of cooking is simple: respect the ingredients and serve the guest.” - GUSTAFSON, Jaeger
Key takeaways:
Simple ingredients, done well—that’s the art of cooking and the soul of our city.
Water and soil are flavour policies. Steward them, and taste follows.
Respect the ingredient. Respect the guest. Build the culture.
In 25 years, Calgary can be the food capital of the world—because we choose care over complexity.
