Of the 16 chefs who have come from across Canada to battle it out for the Season 3 title of Top Chef Canada, five are from the West Coast. While all may have a voracious appetite for competition and an unending passion for cooking, our very own chefs from Vancouver and Vancouver Island may have a bit of an advantage.
Matt Stowe, Kayla Dhaliwall, Caitlin Hall, Clement Chan and Daniel Hudson all agree that cooking here is a chefs dream. Where 30 years ago an ingredient-focused style of cooking was called California Cuisine, and practised mainly in that abundant state, todays chefs across our beautiful country have embraced the use of fresh-and-local as just the way we work.
We are so lucky that we have access to so many fresh, local products year round, says Matt Stowe, a development chef for Cactus Club restaurant, who trained at the Culinary Institute of America and cooked in NYCs finest kitchens. While he did miss his wife and son during the competition, he made an unexpected discovery. I really liked being on camera, he admits with a charming smile.
Kayla Dhaliwall, executive chef at Tapenade Bistro in Steveston, graduated from VCCs culinary arts program. She loves to use local game and seafood to re-create the traditionally vegetarian Punjabi dishes she cooked with her grandmother spicy potato roti are now stuffed with savoury duck confit, and she uses other Asian influences to put a new twist on classic comfort food. My favourite style of cooking is the one I dont know yet Im always pushing myself to learn more.
Todays chefs are definitely determined and focused on honing their skills, and Top Chef was the perfect place to do that. More accurately, the competition requires it the kitchens are new, the diner is unknown, there are almost too many ingredients and tools to choose from, and the clock is constantly ticking.
An hour in the real world feels like 10 minutes in the Top Chef kitchen. Its just so fast, says Caitlin Hall. As chef-de-cuisine at Pied-A-Terre French bistro on Cambie, she is definitely faster and more efficient because of her experience on the show. As a young chef she endured the testosterone-fest of classic French kitchens and was a competitive boxer, so Hall was up for the challenge. It was definitely one of the hardest things Ive ever done, but it was also one of the best.
Choosing to become a chef is often a decision made out of convenience but unfolds into a lifelong passion, like it did for Clement Chan, of Le Tigre food truck (found at the Winter Farmers Market at Nat Bailey Stadium.) While he resisted his familys restaurant business for as long he could, he finally found the stability and focus he needed in the kitchen.
Against his grandmothers wishes, though, he studied French cooking. How are you going to use that here? she demanded. Clement was just going with his gut and following his passion, an outlook that proved invaluable when working in Vancouvers finest kitchens, from Chambar to Lumiere, and competing in and winning provincial and national cooking competitions.
Competing on Top Chef was no exception. With so little time to plan a dish, you have to trust your instincts, Clement says. Its all about trusting yourself.
Anyone whos spent any time in a professional kitchen knows that chefs, as serious as they can be, know how to have a good time. As stressful as the days would be, we had a lot of fun, says Daniel Hudson, who just opened Hudsons on First with his wife in Duncan, BC. While they did have a great time together, they all had their eye on the prize: $100,000 cash, a GE Monogram kitchen worth $30,000, a custom installation of Caesarstone Quartz Surfaces worth $25,000 and above all, the title of Top Chef Canada. Everyone got along really well, but in the end you still want to win.
Find out who won: Top Chef Canada premieres March 18 on Food Network Canada at 10pm PT. TopChefCanada.ca
