U.S. Ambassador Bruce Heyman to visit Algonquin College’s Culinary School

OTTAWA — Algonquin College is honoured to welcome U.S. Ambassador to Canada Bruce A. Heyman to its Ottawa campus on Monday, Sept. 26, 2016.

Ambassador Heyman will be visiting Algonquin College’s School of Hospitality and Tourism, where he will meet students in our culinary programs and collaborate with Algonquin Chef Robert Gelinas to prepare a special meal featuring American produce.

“We are honoured to welcome Ambassador Heyman to our campus and our kitchens,” said Algonquin College President Cheryl Jensen. “Our culinary program has produced many celebrated alumni who can be found managing kitchens in several embassies right here in Ottawa and in some of the best restaurants around the world.”

Ambassador Heyman is a strong advocate of food diplomacy as a means to create people-to-people connections and to demonstrate the importance of U.S.-Canada agricultural trade.

“Food is a fantastic way to bring people together, and it’s a particularly good way to celebrate the strong relationship between the United States and Canada. Our two countries are each other’s largest export markets for agricultural products. We exchange more than $42 billion in agricultural goods every year. I look forward to working with Algonquin’s student chefs to highlight the safety, quality, and value that our U.S. producers offer. I know from personal experience how talented Algonquin grads are because Chef Dino Ovcaric, the chef at my official residence, went to Algonquin,” said Ambassador Heyman.

Ambassador Heyman will be greeted by Chef Cory Haskins, himself a former Executive Chef to the United States ambassador, now the coordinator of all culinary programs at the College.

“We encourage our students to experiment with ingredients from around the world,” said Chef Haskins, “so we are thrilled to be able to host Ambassador Heyman and have him tell us about fresh U.S. ingredients that we can incorporate into our work.”

Algonquin College is home to more than 2,000 international students from 90 different countries, including the United States. The College also has a series of pathway agreements with American post-secondary institutions to facilitate cross-border studies for students from the United States and Canada.

For U.S. Embassy Ottawa:
Nicole Wootten, Media Assistant
U.S. Embassy, Ottawa
Office: 613-688-5316
woottennb@state.gov

About Algonquin College:
www.algonquincollege.com

The mission of Algonquin College of Applied Arts and Technology is to transform hopes and dreams into lifelong success. Algonquin College, an Ontario public sector community college, does this by offering hands-on, digitally connected, experiential learning in more than 185 programs. Based in the Ottawa Valley, Algonquin College is the largest polytechnic institute in Eastern Ontario.