TORONTO – It was a feast for the senses, one that not only showcased the culinary mastery of an acclaimed chef but also highlighted the country from where he came from.

Dubbed ‘A Taste of Ecuador’, an intimate media lunch hosted by Ecuador’s Tourism Ministry recently took place at the Four Seasons Hotel Toronto. Chef Mauricio Acuña, who owns two restaurants in Ecuador and is also the founder of the country’s biggest food festival, presented a visually stunning five-course meal that put a modern spin on traditional Ecuadorian dishes. These included everything from Mussels Ceviche and Halibut Encocado to a decadent Black Chocolate Soup.

The meal provided the perfect opportunity to highlight the Ministry’s new marketing campaign, titled the ‘Feel Again Project’, which launched in September. Following the success of its ‘All You Need is Ecuador’ campaign last year, ‘Feel Again Project’ aims to stimulate tourism among non-traditional segments, specifically travellers between the ages of 30-45 from Canada, the U.S., the U.K., and Germany.

The campaign began with a major art project featuring 18 multi-discipline contemporary artists, photographers and travel bloggers from four countries. These artists flew to Quito on Sept. 21 for a seven-day expedition to experience one of Ecuador’s diverse climactic regions: the Andes, Amazon, Pacific Coast, and the Galapagos Islands.

Canada sent four artists, including Toronto-based Jesse Louttit who attended the lunch. A filmmaker who works in advertising, Louttit travelled from Quito along the coast over the course of four days to capture images for a short promotional video about Ecuador. After staying in a luxury hacienda and sampling some of the country’s best chocolate, Louttit said “the biggest thing I took away from the trip was the fact that I want to go back.”

The other three Canadian artists who participated in the campaign were Rick Leong, a landscape painter based in Victoria, B.C., Jeff Bartlett, an adventure photographer and writer based in Jasper National Park, and Gerald Benoit Paille, a 26-year-old Franco-Canadian photographer.

Their experiences will be featured in a documentary that will be released by the Tourism Ministry next year.

To view images from the ‘Feel Again Project’, go to travelweek.ca/news/ecuador-turns-to-canadian-artists-to-promote-the-destination/.

For more information, visit feelagainproject.com and ecuador.travel.