FOOD HALL OF FAME

The CNE is celebrating some of its most iconic eats. Here's what made the list

- KARON LIU

Deep-fried butter came to the CNE in 2010 and has been a popular staple since.

What are the must-eats when visiting the CNE? A bag of Tiny Tom doughnuts fresh off the conveyor belt? A wallet-friendly plate of Primo spaghetti? The newest neon-coloured, deep-fried concoction vying for a spot on your Instagram feed?

Whatever it is, food has become the main attraction at the annual fair, whether it’s making patrons salivate or cringe. To mark this, the CNE unveiled the inaugural inductees to its Food Hall of Fame Thursday inside the Food Building, which is turning 70 this year. Starting Friday, five banners will hang from the ceiling, each highlighting a different foodstuff past and present that made a lasting impression on CNE attendees and considered innovative at the time by the CNE’s senior leadership members. They are deep-fried butter, pickle pizza, Primo spaghetti, the ice-cream waffle sandwich and Tiny Tom doughnuts.

“The way we program food is similar to the rides and attractions, a balance of tradition and nostalgia with creativity and innovation that was reflective of its time,” said Jane Matthews, CNE’s director of marketing. “You’ll see more traditional items coming through, along with items that were transformative and inspired other foods.”

For its inaugural year, the hall of fame went for the fair’s foundational foodstuffs; the old and new classics that might seem tame compared to this year’s new offerings, but undoubtedly became as intertwined with the annual event as the midway, and spoke to the food trends of the time.

Deep-fried butter

I vividly remember the deep-fried butter, introduced by Vickie Skinkle at her namesake Vicky Skinkle’s Sweet Treats booth in 2010. Back then, four balls of frozen butter deep-fried in funnel cake batter cost just $5 and tasted like a Timbit with the juiciness of a gulab jamum.

To mark the inclusion of deep