When it comes to hot food trends, Vancouver looks to the world to find inspiration, Michael Robbins says.
That’s what the executive chef at the Oakwood Canadian Bistro thought would give him and the two other Vancouver competitors — Shelley Robinson and Dawn Doucette — an edge on the new season of Top Chef Canada.
But, to his surprise, his inspiration fell flat. Robbins was eliminated on the season four premiere on Monday.
Fourteen chefs from across the country are duking it out with creativity, skill and talent in hopes of landing the $100,000 prize and the title of Top Chef Canada.
When the pressure is on, Robbins is known to have a brash tongue and while to him he’s just letting off steam, “For the average person it’s like ‘ Okay, that guy is definitely an asshole,’” he says.
Robbins’ tendency to get a little hot under the chef’s toque was apparent in the first episode.
For the first time ever the show is a battle of the sexes: the men make up one team, the women the other. Rich Francis, the first aboriginal chef on the show, was team captain in the elimination challenge.
“Once I heard what his main dish was I didn’t want to be partners,” says Robbins. He then decided to aid Vittorio Colacitti, owner of food consulting company, Born and Raised Food Co.
The angst continued as the challenge played itself out. “I was pretty frustrated in the kitchen on the way the dish was coming together.”
After describing Francis’ dish as “immature cooking” and “old school”, he was shocked he was sent home, seeing as how he didn’t prepare a dish himself.
Getting eliminated early is something Vancouver isn’t used to. Last year’s winner was Matthew Stowe of the Cactus Club Café. In season two, Fable’s Trevor Bird made it right up until the final episode while in the show’s Canadian premier, Dale McKay catapulted his success into the opening of two Vancouver restaurants, the now defunct Ensemble and eTap. (He opened Ayden Kitchen and Bar in his home town of Saskatoon.)
The reason Robinson auditioned was to show that not all chefs are “handsome young men.”
“Where are the tenured people? Where are the older people? Where are the lesbians?” says Robinson. She sees them in the industry all the time, so why not on television?
For Doucette it was personal gain. “I’ve always worked behind the scenes [here],” says Doucette, who had her own café in Ontario before having kids and moving to Vancouver. The show allows her to become more well known as a chef.
As for Robbins, he will continue to watch the show at home, rooting for Colacitti, with whom he’s kept in touch, and, of course, Robinson and Doucette.
Watch the chefs go head-to-head on the Food Network Mondays at 10pm.
