Description
The W Galen Weston Centre for Food (CFF), in Whitby, Ontario, is one of Canada’s first food education facility to bring the ‘Field to Fork’ concept to life. Arising from a cultivated agricultural landscape, the 36,000 sf building unites Durham College’s culinary, hospitality, agriculture, and horticulture programs to narrate a story about the process of making a meal from crop to table. With its own farm fields, greenhouses, food labs, retail store, restaurant, and two-storey green herb wall, the CFF offers a unique research and applied learning environment on the full cycle of food production: farming, preparing, serving, and celebrating.
The new facility anchors Durham College’s developing Whitby campus. The primary programmatic objective of the Centre is to draw a closer connection between food production and consumption. The CFF makes the journey from ‘Field to Fork’ visible, taking users through all the processes, from crop growing to the final plated meal in the 70-seat, full-service teaching restaurant.
Outside, students can be seen planting in the orchards, the fields and the two-acre arboretum. Inside, upon entrance, a soaring atrium framed by floor-to-ceiling interior windows provide immediate glimpses into the Centre’s inner workings, its open kitchens and laboratories encouraging exploration and interactivity. The sequence of spaces culminates on the second floor with Bistro ’67, an elegant and lofty dining space that is open to the public and features expansive views of the fields.
The restaurant’s strategic elevated position establishes a direct visual connection for diners between their food and its source. This special culinary experience is only matched by Harvest Dinners that are hosted for the local community in the outdoor landscaped spaces adjacent to the fields.
