Every October, Devour! takes over tiny Wolfville, N.S., (population: just over 5,000) with workshops, events and films. Co-founded by chef Michael Howell and Rinaldo, a film industry lifer who grew up in the restaurant business, Devour! has gone from a low-key off-shoot of the slow food movement to an international event attracting the likes of the late Anthony Bourdain.

It’s a food lover’s dream, with a side dish of films. Or a film lover’s dream, with a good helping of food. 

I start my festival experience with Demystifying Olive Oil, an event led by punk rocker turned olive oil evangelist Fil Buccino. In a room overlooking the Bay of Fundy, Buccino outlines the perils that conspire to degrade oil — heat, oxygen, plastic, sunlight — then leads us in a tasting. The first olive oil is fruity and peppery, while the second leaves me feeling like I’ve coated my mouth with Vaseline. Buccino’s made his point: olive oils are not created equal.

Sticking with the Italian theme, I head to the movies for a drama about a star pastry chef in Rome whose life is in a rut and then catch a short film program called Immigrant Stories, whose highlight is director Anne Hu’s moving short, Lunchbox, about a second-generation Taiwanese American woman’s relationship with her mother and food.