CHARLOTTETOWN, P.E.I. - The Dunes Cafe is the 2018 winner of the Taste Our Island award, presented recently at the Roving Feast at the Charlottetown Hotel.
This prestigious culinary award was created by the P.E.I. Adapt Council and is presented in recognition of a restaurant’s outstanding cuisine and its use and promotion of local Island agricultural products.
This year marked the 12th anniversary of the Taste Our Island award.
P.E.I. Adapt Council chair Elmer MacDonald and CEO Phil Ferraro presented the prize to chef Norman Day, as well as awards to the seven runners-up.
The remaining finalists included Eden’s Gate and chef Bobbi Jo MacLean; Blue Mussel Café and chef Jamie Power; PoleHouse Café at the Cardigan Farmer’s Market and chef Leif Hammarlund; Terre Rouge Craft Kitchen and chef Lucy Marrow; My Plum, My Duck and chef Sarah Forrester-Wendt; Papa Joes and chef Irwin MacKinnon; and P.E.I. Preserve Company chef Christopher Skiffington.
Taste Our Island sees the winner receive a full-page article in the 2019 P.E.I. Visitors Guide, valued at more than $9,000. The runners up are also all featured across the bottom of the guide page.
The winner and each of the runners up also receive an individual work of art created by Victoria’s Glass Studio commemorating their win.
“Norman Day has done a fantastic job of supporting local agriculture and promoting Prince Edward Island,” said Ferraro. “Now, with his wife and two sons, he is back on Prince Edward Island bringing the delight of Island products to people from around the world.”
Receiving the People’s Choice award for favorite dish at the Roving Feist was Power of the Blue Mussel Café for his smoked Belle River rock crab cakes.
This year’s eight finalists were chosen from a field of more than 30 nominees. Past winners include chef Dianne Linder of The Maplethorpe Café; The Merchantman Pub and chef Shirleen Peardon; Victoria Village Inn and Restaurant’s chef Stephen Hunter; The Pearl Café owner Maxine Delaney; the Jabour family of Papa Joe’s Restaurant; the Inn at Bay Fortune’s owner David Wilmer; Terre Rouge Bistro Marché chef/GM John Pritchard; chef Peter Angus of Shaw’s Hotel; the Mill at New Glasgow and chef/owner Emily Wells; and The Table Culinary Studio and chef Michael Bradley and owner Derrick Hoare.
