Canadian Food & Wine Institute Innovations Centre

Niagara College has sought the help of a celebrity chef and member of TV’s Dragons’ Den, as they take an innovative step forward. They’ve created a new lab that will help students work alongside the best in the business.

As a famous chef and one of the newest dragons on CBC’s Dragons’ Den, Vikram Vij is used to hearing offers. So where does he go when he wants to make a deal? To the brand new Canadian Food and Wine Institute Innovations Centre at Niagara College.

Vikram Vij: “I needed some food innovation help.”

His restaurant, Vij’s in Vancouver, is renowned for fine Indian cuisine.

Vij: “I always wanted to teach people a lot about Indian food, Indian spices, Indian culture.”

And he is looking to expand beyond the restaurant business. That’s where the innovation centre can help.

This space looks pretty far from a kitchen and it is. It’s a lab. But what this space does is it allows people like Vikram Vij to take the dishes at their restaurants and collaborate with the students here at Niagara and put them in grocery stores across the country.

The space, which opened Tuesday, consists of four labs at a cost of 1.7 million dollars, put up by various donors including both the federal and provincial governments. It helps food and wine businesses test and innovate products so that they will pass Canadian Food Inspection Agency tests, and a lower cost than professional labs. It also gives students like Chris Heagle valuable experience.

Chris Heagle, Cullinary Innovations and Food Technology student: “Getting that experience to work with the real world before actually being into it is definitely a head up on the competition.”

Chris has already worked with a company called Neob to create a new flavored water. The school has also worked with Mothers Against Drunk Driving in creating a better tasting, non-alcoholic beer. All real world experience, that makes for a great deal.

Vij: “They need some help and they want students to be placed in the right places, and learn. And I can provide that platform to them.”

One more elements that will help the students is Wednesday night, they’ll be holding an event to open this new space and Vikram Vij will be cooking all the food along with the students from the college. So, that’s experience you can’t get anywhere else.