When Brillat-Savarin wrote, way back in 1825, “The discovery of a new dish does more for the happiness of mankind than the discovery of a star”, he was celebrating the new found cuisine of France. Like him, we here in Canada have much to celebrate. Over the past few weeks, Canadian culinary artisans have come out of their kitchens in anticipation of Canada’s first Artisan Incubator. With hundreds expressing interest in participating in the culinary showcase, narrowing down the field was a challenge; but today, ACE Bakery, along with a panel of distinguished Tastemakers, revealed the 20 participating artisans. They are showing the rest of the country some of the most delicious regional foods in Canada.
Our hope is that by participating in the Artisan Incubator, each artisan will gain national exposure and some business insights that will help them grow as a company and achieve the success they desire. Brillat-Savarin’s most famous aphorism sums it up perfectly. “The fate of nations depends on the way they eat.” Canada is such an enormous nation and this sort of networking is invaluable.
The Artisan Incubator will be held in Toronto in June, where all 20 artisans will be recognized at a showcase, given national exposure and have the opportunity to share in the industry insights ACE Bakery has gained over the last 20 years. ACE hopes to help them achieve success while also drawing attention to the thousands of hard-working artisans who put their heart and soul into everything they make.
“When my husband and I started the journey of creating ACE Bakery 20 years ago, we were very lucky to have a mentor who owned his own artisan bakery in New York,” explained Linda Haynes, co-founder of ACE Bakery 
and author of The ACE Bakery Cookbooks. “He believed in what we were trying to do, especially around our community investment, so he went as far as to train some of our bakers, help us find used equipment and he even shared some of his recipes with us. Now it’s ACE’s turn to pay it forward and help other talented Canadian artisans in a similar way.”
