Last month, our General Manager Tony Lo Tauro was lucky enough to jet off to Chicago and Quebec City for the 2023 Countrywide Study Tour, which included attendance at the National Restaurant Association Show, the largest gathering of foodservice professionals in the Western Hemisphere. Tony travelled with a number of supplier partners, including Anchor, Bega Dairy & Drinks, Bulla Dairy Foods, Kraft Heinz, Mars Foods, Mauri, McCains, Mission Foods, Patties Food, Primo Foods, Tip Top Foodservice, and Unilever alongside the Countrywide support office team Jeff Dhu, Steve Perry, and Clint Austin and Countrywide member distributors.
Tony kicked off his trip in Chicago with the National Restaurant Association Show, featuring more than 2100 exhibitors and over 900 product categories. “The scale of the show was off the charts,” says Tony. “They call it ‘the show for foodservice’ and I can see why.” A feature at the show was the Wisconsin Dairy section. Wisconsin is considered the dairy capital of America, and this section was able to provide insight into the US dairy market. Tony was also impressed by the TECH Pavilion, a section of the show that featured leading products and tools to help make businesses more efficient and profitable.
While in Chicago, he was able to sample some of the delicious foods around the city, including a visit to Bonci Pizza, a one of a kind Roman-style Pizza al Taglio. Gabriele Bonci is even featured on ‘Chef’s Table – Pizza’, a documentary on Netflix! “Bonci is a reinvention of pizza that embraces quality above everything else,” says Tony. “That ‘quality without compromise’ approach is a philosophy Gabriele learned at a young age, and it’s an approach he’s using to change the pizza game.”
Tony also paid a visit to the Time Out Market Place Chicago, a dining and culture experience curated and vetted by the Time Out editors. Based on a concept the Time Out Portugal team created in 2014, the market in Chicago follows a simple rule when it comes to curation: if it’s good, it goes in the magazine; if it’s great, it goes in the market. The dishes at the market are cooked by some of the most decorated chefs in the Midwest, and you’ll find an amazing selection of food, drinks, and sights at this location, a true feast for the senses.
While Tony definitely enjoyed feasting his way across the city, he was also able to visit Panos Foods, a UniPro Foodservice distributor based in Chicago. “They have a similar story to most Countrywide members being family owned and priding themselves on service and quality,” Tony explains. “We got a glimpse into the vast area they cover, and the process required to drive an efficient and effective distributor.”
After Chicago, the Study Tour jetted off to Quebec City where Tony was able to visit the Fairmont Le Chateau Frontenac, the 2022 Global Hotel of the Year as awarded by the prestigious World Luxury Awards. Tony met their Director of Culinary, Fredric Cyr, who gave the group a tour of the back-of-house areas at the hotel. “It was an honour to meet Fredric, a highly passionate and dedicated professional responsible for a hotel that turns over $42m in food!” enthuses Tony.
Tony says that this trip provided an excellent opportunity to mingle with Supplier Partners and Countrywide Members, which was the most valuable aspect of the trip for him. “The face-to-face interactions allowed me to establish personal connections and foster greater trust, which leads to better communication and collaboration in the long term,” explains Tony. “I’m also extremely proud of the way the team stepped up to ensure the 5Ways business ran smoothly while I was away.”
Overall, Tony thoroughly enjoyed his culinary journey, in particular the deep-dish pizza at Labriola, the Roman style pizza at Bonci Pizza, and the meatballs at Formento’s Italian Restaurant. He was able to experience some unique Canadian flavours as well, such as a uniquely Quebecois Caribou Cocktail that combines red wine, white wine, raspberry wine, maple syrup and whiskey, followed by maple syrup at a traditional Sugar Shack, and of course the famous poutine and chips, and not to forget the Bison tartare. He says that he would happily visit both Chicago and Quebec again, and was extremely glad of the opportunity to attend such a fantastic trip with industry partners and colleagues.