P.E.I.'s culinary institute hopes underwater ingredient creates recipe for success

Tim McRoberts admits the focus group wasa little skeptical, "courageous" even, when they were invited to the Culinary Institute of Canada to taste test foods such as chocolate, crackers and pastamade with a special ingredient kelp.

But by the time they left, they were licking their lips andasking how to make the dishes at home.

"You would hear things like, 'That wasn't as scary as I thought it would be, was going to be.' Or, you know, 'That stuff tasted great.'"

McRoberts is the director at Canada's Smartest Kitchen, often referred to as the research and development arm of the Culinary Institute of Canada at Holland College in P.E.I.

Canada's Smartest Kitchen has been collaborating with the Nova Scotia Community College and the College of the North Atlantic in Newfoundland to see if kelp, a type ofseaweed, can replace or supplement other vegetables in mainstream foods.

The research, which received about $2 million in funding through the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada, suggests it can. And with that comes anopportunity for entrepreneurs to farm a new vegetable and develop new products.

"The project would have been very different if we were in a constant struggle to take fresh kelp, process it and turn it into a food that's tasty and generally people liked," McRoberts said.

"That wasn't the case, the project would have been quite different, but it just wasn't the case. People were really happy with it."

McRoberts describes kelp as having a vegetal, "ocean-type" flavour. It is rich in nutrientsand not a novel ingredient. There's dulse, for example, and anyone who has eaten sushi has probably tasted nori.

We wanted to use our R&D capabilities here to really see what could be possible.Tim McRoberts

But McRoberts said they didn't want to simply replicate what was already in the marketplace.

"We wanted to use our R&D capabilities here to really see what could be possible."

So off to work they went. They processed the kelp in different ways. They smoked it, freeze-dried it and ground it up. Then they put it in energy bars, rigatoni, caramel ginger cake, crackers and dip, kombucha, a Clamato juice they called kelpmato, and even chocolate truffles.

"In the chocolates, what we found is it really gives a unique flavour that complements ... the sweetness and richness of chocolate," McRoberts said.

When the project concludes in October, Holland College will be ready to launch three new ones funded by the council. Two will focuson upcycling seafood byproduct, witha thirdproject focused on youth food insecurity.

McRoberts said the research creates a pathway to commercialization for farmers and processors because they wouldn't be starting at the ground floor some of the initial work has already been done.

"As we look at farming, is there an opportunity to farm in the water ... with products that are naturally occurring there? Could it potentially take pressure off other areas that are feeling stress or could it be in addition to the other types of vegetables that we eat?"