Foodie Fortnight: the top five Toronto food events for October 15–29

In the inaugural edition of Foodie Fortnight: Martha Stewart live at the Ex, the year’s most-hyped craft beer fest and three more food events coming to Toronto in the next two weeks.

Delicious Food Show The annual trade show brings lick-your-screen TV to life with seminars and cooking demos from celeb chefs like Chuck Hughes, Mark McEwan and headliner Martha Stewart, who’ll be sharing tips and signing cookbooks on October 25. Attendees can also sample offerings from over 100 exhibitors, including west-end barbecue restaurant Barque, Susur Lee’s Bent and a fleet of the city’s most popular food trucks. Oct. 25–27. $20. Better Living Centre, 195 Princes’ Boulevard, Exhibition Place, deliciousfoodshow.com

Cask Days The cask-conditioned ale festival—the biggest in North America—is a chance for Canadian brewers to get creative. This year’s edition brings over 200 brews, many of them experimental, one-of-a-kind concoctions created just for the event. Expect some truly unconventional pours, like last year’s admiringly bold (yet undeniably repulsive) Brussels sprouts beer from F&M. Saturday’s event is sold out, but a handful of Sunday tickets are still up for grabs. Oct. 19–20. $30. Evergreen Brick Works, 550 Bayview Ave., caskdays.com

Eat to the Beat Toronto’s food scene can sometimes feel like a boys’ club. At this annual fund raiser, the city’s top female chefs take centre stage in support of Willow Breast Cancer Support Canada. Sixty chefs, including Sabai Sabai’s Nuit Regular and Samuel J. Moore’s Alexandra Feswick, will serve delectable culinary creations while cancer survivors strut their stuff in one-of-a-kind, food-inspired corsets festooned with things like popcorn and bubblegum. Oct. 22. $175. Roy Thompson Hall, 60 Simcoe St., eattothebeat.ca

Just Eat Campus Chompionship (FREE!)
You Gotta Eat Here’s John Catucci hosts a no-holds-barred competitive chow-down between five finalists from universities across Canada. Each will have three minutes to inhale as much pizza as possible in the hope of winning $5000 for themselves, $20,000 for their university campus and the official title of Campus Chompion. World eating champ Takeru Kobayashi will be on-hand to judge the students’ gorging skills. Oct. 28. Free. The Drake Hotel, 1150 Queen St. W., chompchompchomp.ca

Toronto Chocolate Festival Like Halloween for grownups, the 23-day sugar binge includes a chocolate-only trade show at Roy Thompson Hall, a chocolate high tea at the King Edward Hotel and, on October 17, a chocolate gala at the Eglinton Grand theatre featuring DJs, showgirl-style dancers and tables laden with cocoa-spiked snacks. Until Nov.3. Various locations, torontochocolatefestival.com