What a wonderful way to while away an evening: Tasting cheese and cheese dishes, listening to the brightest and best in Canadian food bloggers gathered in a roundtable by Dairy Farmers of Canada.

I love cheese and I blog about it for fun, but these people are really good at what they do. In fact, I’ve just whiled away the entire morning poking around the 11 blogs and sites represented at the gathering at St. Lawrence Market Kitchen in Toronto. Here they are:

• Andrew Coppolino —  Waterloo Region Eats
• Sarah B. Hood — Toronto Tasting Notes
• Valerie Howe — Reader’s Digest Open Kitchen
• Kevin Lynch — Closet Cooking
• Chuck Ortiz — Acquired Taste
• Madalina Paul — Duhlicious
• Francy Pillo-Blocka — Through Thick and Thin
• Glen Powell — Le Gourmet TV
• Catherine Robertson — Cat Can Cook
• Colleen Tully — The Food Blog (Canadian Living)
• Victoria Weiss — Mom Who Runs.

Also at the roundtable was Lois Abraham, food editor at Canadian Press, and a bevvy of communications and marketing types from the Montreal office of Dairy Farmers of Canada. DFC used the occasion to obtain input and feedback from the bloggers on how better to inform Canadians about “100% Canadian Milk” in all its many uses.

Chef Emily Richards, a recipe developer at DFC, created four dishes, all employing cheese made with that 100% Canadian milk:

• Roasted Pepper and Parsnip Soup
• Ricotta Meatball on Polenta
• Roasted Fennel with Prosciutto Breadcrumbs
• Chocolate Cheese and Strawberry Mousse Duet.

Anne-Marie Shubin, a culinary instructor at Centre for Hospitality & Culinary Arts, George Brown College, and an instructor at Cheese Education Guild, selected the B.C. wines for the meal and three outstanding Canadian cheeses:

• Figaro — Glengarry Fine Cheese, Ontario
• Raclette — Fromagerie Fritz Kaiser, Quebec
• Tiger Blue — Poplar Grove Cheese, British Columbia.

As I said, a most pleasant way to spend a January evening—with the bonus being a gift bag containing more Figaro, more Raclette and more Tiger Blue to take home.

—Georgs Kolesnikovs

Georgs Kolesnikovs is Cheesehead-In-Chief at CheeseLover.ca and organizer of The Great Canadian Cheese Festival. Dairy Farmers of Canada is Diamond Sponsor of the Festival which is how he garnered an invite to the blogger roundtable.