At the Great Saskatchewan Mustard Festival in Regina, mustard is much more than a yellow condiment for hot dogs — it’s the main event.
“From mustard ice cream to something as simple as a hot dog, to mustard rubbed brisket; there’s a lot of different things in there,” said Mustard Fest co-founder and CEO Darren Carter.
Now in its 11th year, the event brings together some of the top chefs in the Queen City who hope to stimulate the crowd with their culinary creations.
This year, 18 vendors are competing to impress a crowd of around 1,000 people, who will determine the people’s choice award.
“We’ve created the competition for the coveted yellow chefs coat,” Carter said. “So everybody gets an opportunity to vote for the best dish they think on the day and it’s the people’s choice award, and whoever wins gets to take home the coat and hang in on the wall for the year.”
But it’s not just those in attendance who are enjoying Saskatchewan mustard. In fact, Saskatchewan’s 1,200 mustard farmers grow nearly 75 per cent of Canada’s mustard crop and Canadian mustard makes up over half of all the mustard traded world wide and not everyone realizes how versatile it is.
“You can use it in its raw form, it’s processed form, yellow seed, brown seed- there’s a lot of different things you can do,” Carter said.
“We don’t recognize how important [mustard] is for our province considering how much we do grow and what we produce.”
With endless possibilities, it’s sure to prove that mustard doesn’t just belong on hot dogs.