With the home opener just days away, here's the lowdown on the new food on offer at BMO Field this season. Over the winter we've been working with supporters come up with improvements to the gameday menu. Some season seat holders were invited to give their feedback.
"We wanted to involve the supporters and we have got lots of great feedback over the last year," said Michael Doyle, Director Food and Beverage. "There were some comments good and bad, so we got a group of supporters in a room and went through last year's menu and presented some new ideas that we came up with for the upcoming season. The supporters gave us their feedback and we went through the process of eliminating some items. Now we have eleven items that are either new or have been tweaked from last year based on feedback from supporters."
Involving the supporters in decisions has been integral to Toronto FC's success since day one. The food and beverage department of Maple Leaf Sports and Entertainment came up with some ideas for new items and some season seat holders were invited to a food tasting where they sampled the fare and gave comments.
"It gives the supporters involvement in the stadium and it certainly makes our job easier when we know what the fans want," said Doyle. "We can't give them everything because we're limited when we're serving 20,000 fans and all at once at half time. There's a limit to what you can do, but we're certainly pushing the envelope here with some great items that they would like to see."
"We really like to involve the supporters but we are also challenging ourselves on executing some other great food. Hot dogs and pizza is really the limit to what you can get at most stadiums but we like to create something different. The feedback from supporters has been incredibly positive, not just on the diversity of the food but also the quality," said Doyle.
Changes to the menu include an improved chip butty, beer battered bangers, and a Cuban Wrap. "We have a strong mix of new food and classic stadium fare, but with a soccer twist," said Tim Dunnill, Executive Sous Chef MLSE. "There are curry fries, the scotch egg that we had last year with Branston pickle and we bringing in classics like a Jamaican Patty."
"We're bringing back the chip butty," Dunnill added. "Last year the bread was toasted but we got feedback from supporters who said they don't want it toasted. They wanted softer bread so we have moved to Wonderbread slathered in butter with crispy fries. We're trying some beer battered bangers. It's a sausage that we have done in Carlsberg batter, this is traditional in Ireland and England and we're going to serve it with mustard. It's juicy, it's salty, it's crispy."
"We have a foot long hot dog which is classic stadium fare, but people love hot dogs and this one is huge. You have to give people a mix of what they like as well as well as some of the other things. One of the new additions that has gone down really well is the Cuban wrap. Everyone seems to like it and it is my favourite as well. We take pork shoulder and slow roast it for 18 hours. We are putting that in a tortilla wrap with ham, pickles and cheese. We want to make sure the fans are happy with the food are providing," said Dunnill.
The new menu will be on offer for the first time at TFC's home opener on Saturday, April 19th. Kick off is 12.30. It you don't have a ticket for the game, it is live on CBC.
