The founder and current president of the Canadian Chefs’ Congress, Michael Stadtlander, was born in Germany and immigrated to Canada in 1980. He and a colleague Jamie Kennedy made their mark on the Toronto restaurant scene at the infamous restaurant Scaramouche. In 1990 Michael co-founded “knives and Forks,”an organic growers market that encourages other chefs and the general public to utilize organically grown produce in their kitchens. In 1993 he moved his family to Eigensinn farm near Collingwood and has made it a internationally celebrated destination for gourmets and it was the site of the inaugural Canadian Chefs’ Congress in 2008.