Description

Managed by the Culinary Tourism Alliance, Feast On® is North America’s largest and longest running local food certification program, recognizing businesses across the food tourism value chain that are committed to sourcing Ontario-grown food & drink.

 Join Kshitji Ratan and Zain Alkhouri from the Culinary Tourism Alliance for this hour long webinar to learn more about the program, the current network, and the benefits of getting certified.

REGISTER click on link: https://www.eventbrite.ca/e/feast-on-certified-local-tickets-749161541337?inf_contact_key=d20e7017fcba36d2af811be0dbb36058680f8914173f9191b1c0223e68310bb1

About the Spaker - Kshitij Ratan

Meet Kshitij, a professionally trained Chef with an insatiable appetite for culinary adventures. In the kitchen, Kshitij is not your ordinary Chef. He's a culinary wizard who loves to sprinkle creativity and innovation into his dishes, turning ordinary ingredients into gastronomic delights. Hailing from the Northern part of India and having lived in various cities across India and Sri Lanka, his taste buds have been tantalized by a rich tapestry of flavors and cooking styles since his early days.

Kshitij's journey began with a Bachelor's degree in Culinary Arts from Manipal University, during which he interned at leading hotel brands like ITC and Marriott to further augment his practical exposure. He then embarked on a remarkable professional journey after being one of the few to secure the prestigious Management Training program at the Taj Mahal Palace and Towers in Mumbai, India. Through his various job roles through the course of this program, he played a pivotal role as part of the pre-opening team in strategizing the launch of an all-day dining outlet and contributed to the execution of a high-profile events like the Nick Priyanka wedding, Ambani pre-wedding function and the Modi-Ivanka Global Entrepreneurship Summit, just to name a few. After being placed at the flagship luxury hotel in the capital of New Delhi, India, Kshitij was in charge of the fine dine French restaurant – Orient Express and responsible for overseeing operations at the all day dining outlet – Capital Kitchen. Kshitij brings over 5 years of experience in the hospitality industry, known for his keen eye for detail and ability to mentor large and diverse teams, he is recognized as a pragmatic, equanimous, and decisive leader.

Kshitij finds solace when he is one with nature, be it snorkeling through the coral reefs of Maldives, hiking through the rainforests of Sri Lanka or kicking back on the sands of Goa. Conscientious of our impact on the flora and fauna of our surroundings, Kshitij was instrumental in ideation and implementation of a waste management and sustainability project in the protected Kanha National Park in Central India. By creating an in-house water bottling program and streamlining sustainability best practices, he was able to eliminate the use of single use plastic water bottles and reduce the carbon footprint of the property.

After completing his Post Graduate studies with George Brown college, Kshitij seeks to capitalize on his past experience to further contribute to the emerging sector of Food Tourism. With a mischievous twinkle in his eye, infectious humor, and passion for exploration, Kshitij is set to leave a lasting impression with peers alike.

About the Speaker - Zain Alkhouri

Growing up in a Middle Eastern family, Zain loved how food was a catalyst for creating lasting memories and bringing his loved ones together. From a young age, he loved the joy food brought to the table and how it connected different cultures and people. Zain immigrated with his family from Jordan at nine years old and has been on a mission to visit all the restaurants and festivals in the GTA to reconnect with his culture. As well as explore the incredible mosaic of cultures and food in Ontario.

Zain is a graduate of Toronto Metropolitan University with a degree in Media Production. While in his undergrad, Zain volunteered and Interned to shape his marketing, social media, blogging, website content curation, and event coordination background. Upon graduating, Zain worked for Toronto Met University in events & communication and then had the opportunity to travel all over Canada as a social media correspondent in Canadian Content Development to cover and highlight Canadian artists at International Music festivals for SiriusXM Canada.

Connecting with people has always been part of Zain’s ethos as a media production professional and as a marketing specialist. Zain hails from a creative entrepreneurial family and has found his love and hobby of being a singer/songwriter, musician, and actor. Zain also helps his mother and sister market their ceramic art studio in Windsor, ON. Zain is a proud supporter of the arts, and you can probably find him always humming along to a tune. He has experience in various industries and will always implement storytelling, content creation and use his creative eye for social media and Brand marketing in all of his work.

As a Marketing Specialist, Zain works to develop marketing strategies, capture content, write and engage with CTA followers with exciting blogs and content, and will travel alongside the incredible marketing team to explore and promote culinary tourism in Ontario.