| | Nicolas Desinai | Rebekah Pearse | Greg van Poppel | Harold Wollin | Gail Hall | Wade Sirois | Sonny Sung | Hans Hacker | Patrick Turcot | Kristian Murray | Brady Weiler | Michael Batke | Michael Strydom | Liana Robberecht
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Past Articles Featuring Chefs:
Chef Nicolas Desinai Bistro Provence, 52 North Railway Street, OKOTOKS - 403-938-2224
After years of doing double duty –as executive chef of Priddis Greens Golf Course while running his own Simple Gourmet in the far south end of Calgary-- chef Nicolas Desinai has found a new home in Okotoks. In 2006, he purchased the charming and lovingly restored La P’tite Table from Thierry and Cidalia Meret, renaming it Bistro Provence.
Many facets of Bistro Provence fit the classic mould of a bistro. The ambiance is right—a diner could imagine oneself in a small French countryside town instead of in small-town Alberta. The cozy space within the old post office building is welcoming and restorative, in true French restaurant tradition, and true to another fine Gallic tradition, the chef and his wife Catherine live upstairs.
Chef Desinai walks the fine line between modern and classic dishes with grace, artfully engaging Albertan ingredients in French style that honours the unpretentious nature of his genre. He serves a robust, down-to-earth lunch on the patio, invoking Alberta’s heritage and ingredients; midday diners may select sausage from Calgary’s own masters of the link, Spolumbo’s, or maybe opt for a burger—made from Alberta bison, lamb or beef. If dessert has drawn you to dine, then another Alberta classic, chocolate from Bernard Callebaut, might be the unctuous and delicious bite for you. At dinner, local produce has more opportunities to shine—from amuse-bouche to main course.
Chef - Rebekah Pearse, Nectar Desserts, Upstairs - 1216c 9 Avenue, SE, Calgary - 403-263-8486
Sweets deserve their due. Chef, sommelier and pastry chef Rebekah Pearse is intent on providing sweet pleasure to Calgarian diners. She may appear grown-up, but her culinary career reflects her engaging enthusiasm as much as her adult commitment to excellence. Rebekah, a pastry chef and chef, was acknowledged with scholarships when she concluded her culinary studies at SAIT, then completed her Red Seal, the new Blue Seal business designation, and wine studies through the International Sommelier Guild. She spent time working overseas, and as a pastry chef in some of Calgary’s white tablecloth kitchens, including Catch, River Café and Mercato. Her dessert company, was launched Nectar, in 2006, from Red Tree Kitchen in Marda Loop. Rebekah opened her Inglewood location in early 2007. It is a funky, casual but elegant dessert shop and licensed dessert bar, with daytime counter service that morphs into full service at night.
Dessert is not always about sweetness. Rebekah views dessert as an opportunity to temper sweet with savoury. She weaves herbal flavours, salt and spice, through the tempting textures and flavours of her alluring desserts. But mostly, she says, dessert is about pleasure. You don’t eat dessert because you are hungry.
Executive Chef - Greg van Poppel, The Rimrock Dining Room at Calgary Fairmont Palliser,
133 - 9 Avenue SW, Calgary - 403-260-1219
Chef Greg van Poppel is currently the Executive Chef of Calgary’s Fairmont Palliser. His family tradition is imbued with culinary excellence and tradition. Both his father and grandfather were highly regarded chefs with Canadian Pacific Hotels. Greg began his culinary career in 1993, and completed his apprenticeship at the Canadian Pacific Waterfront Center Hotel in Vancouver, winning the Karl Sheir Award for Canadian Apprentice of the Year in 1997.
Since then, he has gained experience and recognition in a series of moves in Vancouver, including the Four Seasons Hotel, returning to The Fairmont Waterfront Hotel in 1998 as Restaurant Chef. In June 2000, Greg competed in the Bocuse d’Or Concours Mondial de la Cuisine Canadian Qualification in Winnipeg, placing in the top three in the country. He went on to the stoves of La Toque Blanche in West Vancouver.
In 2001, Greg completed his Certified Chef de Cuisine designation through the Canadian Culinary Federation. He has extensive experience nationally and internationally, including The Fairmont Dubai in the United Arab Emirates.
In a wide range of interests, but one that appreciates excellence in many nuances, Greg admires the meticulous style and personality of Michelin 3-star chef Michael Bras and the freewheeling, acclaimed chef-author Anthony Bourdain, renowned for his exemplary bistro technique as much as for his raunchy, rollicking all-man attitude to life, kitchens and writing. Greg’s approach to cooking is to enhance nature’s gifts, focusing on simplicity and beauty, an experience and not just a meal.
Chef Harold Wollin, Blue Chair Café, 9624-76 Avenue, Edmonton - Reservations: 780-989-2861
Photograph courtesy of The Edmonton Sun
Edmonton's Blue Chair Café is the culmination of a career spent traveling and cooking around the world for chef/owner Harold Wollin.
Harold moved to the west coast in the mid-eighties, to experience the heady excitement of Vancouver's Expo 86. He continued his culinary career, once landing a job cooking on a dive charter boat in the Pacific Islands of Micronesia. This set off nearly a decade of marine work, cooking on ice breakers in the Arctic, and eco-cruise ships in Antarctica.
Harold has touched the ground of 32 countries, bringing home the flavours of each, from the exotic seafood of Micronesia to the curries of Southeast Asia.
Music has always played a role for this mandolin-strumming cook, including a steady gig in the house band of the Full Moon Folk Club, and volunteer work at every music festival in the city.
When the opportunity to open the Blue Chair Café presented itself, it fulfilled Harold's dream of owning a restaurant featuring world cuisine and music. The three year old Blue Chair has not only set a new standard for live music, it also offers an eclectic menu filled with international flavours, a unique wine list, and impressive musical talent in an intimate listening environment.
Chef Gail Hall, Seasoned Solutions Loft Cooking School
#402, 10249 - 104 Street, Edmonton, 780-437-0761
Gail Hall, the owner of Seasoned Solutions Loft Cooking School, is passionate about sourcing local and regional ingredients and supporting our agricultural community.
From May through October, while the downtown City Market is open, her students meet market vendors and purchase ingredients. They then return to the Loft Cooking School and prepare a full menu.
Gail hosts culinary tours to destinations such as New Mexico, New York, Italy and New Zealand, with proposed tours to France and a return to New York. She is also the weekly food columnist for CBC Radio and previously operated a catering company called Gourmet Goodies.
Chef/Co-owner Wade Sirois, Forage...Farm to Fork Foods to Go
3508 - 19 Street, SW, Calgary 403-269-6551
Infuse Catering, 3510 - 19 Street, SW, Calgary 403-269-3902
Cooking is as natural as breathing to Wade Sirois, with rhythms that ebb and flow with the seasons. It only seems natural to him to use Alberta-grown ingredients. In his role as chef of infuse group, he has worked hard to cultivate deep-rooted relationships with over 30 Alberta producers, farmers, and ranchers to supply his business.
Wade’s culinary odyssey began in 1992 in the kitchens of Savoir Fare Catering under the guidance of chef Grayson Sherman, ultimately in charge of the catering and restaurant kitchens. In 2001, event planner Jaclyn Labchuk joined Wade in forming infuse catering. The business provides contemporary cuisine combined with exceptional service and attention to detail. In July of 2007 the duo opened Forage – Farm to Fork Foods to Go, in Marda Loop, serving ready-to-eat locally-focused food for their clientele.
Infuse catering and Forage feature many local ingredients in their seasonally evolving menus. The business hosts regular Slow Food Calgary “kitchen parties” that showcase local producers and provide a venue for diners to meet and chat with the people who produce their food. In 2006, Wade’s commitment to local cuisine took him to Terra Madre 2006, a biennial Slow Food gathering in Turin, Italy. Wade was part of a contingent of Alberta chefs who joined the global discussion of 1000 cooks who addressed sustainable food production and regional cuisine as an expression of culture.
Corporate Chef Sonny Sung, Sorrentino's Downtown,
10162 - 100 Street, Edmonton 780-424-7500
Sonny Sung spent ten years as executive chef for Edmonton restaurateur, Claude Buzon. Shortly after, he became the new and exciting corporate chef for the Sorrentinos Group, owned by Carmelo and Stella Rago.
Sorrentinos' customers enjoy the depth of his culinary skills and vast knowledge of French, Italian, and European cooking. Sonny thrives in the classic Italian ambience of the flagship Sorrentinos in downtown Edmonton, where patrons feel as if they are dining in a beautiful Mediterranean setting.
Chef Sonny Sung's passion in life is cooking. His belief in the traditional European approach of using the freshest local ingredients, knowing their origins, and appreciating seasonality - the wonderful simplicity of regional Italian cuisine - is emphasized at Sorrentinos.
Executive Chef Hans Hacker, The Evergreen at Delta Banff Royal Canadian Lodge
459 Banff Avenue, Banff 403-762-3307
Executive Chef Hans Hacker C.C.C. (sitting) & Executive Sous Chef Maxime Charbonneau (behind)
Born and raised in Germany, Hans Hacker began training as a culinary apprentice in his home country in 1975. He worked at the De Vere Hotel in Conventry, England, before coming to Canada to join the Four Seasons in Toronto. He moved west in 1980, and gained experience at a variety of fine Western Canadian restaurants. He has been with The Evergreen at Delta Banff Royal Canadian Lodge since its inception. There, he works alongside Executive Sous-Chef Maxime Charbonneau and the rest of the culinary team to create the restaurant’s famous cuisine.
At The Evergreen, patrons can enjoy contemporary Canadian cuisine and fine wines while observing the chefs at work in the open kitchen. They utilize the finest regional ingredients, thoughtfully augmented with global accents and flavours. The contemporary menu is backed by an impressive collection of Canadian and international wines, proudly featuring an extensive listing of Canadian V.Q.A. labels.
The bill of fare begins each day with a hearty mountain breakfast, or lightly, with café latté and freshly baked pastry. Lunch patrons can select from fresh garden greens, creative soups and sandwiches, and of course Alberta beef-burgers and steak sandwiches. Dinner is elegant yet relaxed in the finest mountain style, offering an inspired menu highlighting the best of Canada.
Executive Chef Patrick Turcot, The Fairmont Jasper Park Lodge
#1 Old Lodge Road, Jasper 780-852-6081
Future chef Patrick Turcot was already showing his culinary inclination at the age of five, when he ordered escargots in a restaurant. By 15, he had recognized his passion for good food and his desire to produce it.
After completing his apprenticeship at the Ritz Carlton in Montreal, Patrick went to the Chateau Champlain for a year, moved on to Fairmont Le Chateau Frontenac, and then the Stoneham Ski Hill in Stoneham, Québec. The ski hill experience whetted his appetite for even bigger hills, namely the Rocky Mountains, and he transferred to the Fairmont Chateau Lake Louise.
Patrick brings over 17 years of hospitality experience to his current position as executive chef at The Fairmont Jasper Park Lodge.
He has a passion for fine wines and good food, with lucky guests in his home often being treated to his latest culinary creations. His favourite foods are simple, family-style foods - but he also loves foie gras and Asian cuisine. Patrick's wife, Kathy, also a chef, is from Laos and they enjoy cooking with and for each other.
Patrick has come to appreciate the vibrant professional culinary community that has helped develop Alberta's strong showing in international competitions. In 2005, he joined the ranks of Culinary Team Alberta as a support member.
Chef Kristian Murray, Sorrentino's - Sherwood Park
1020 Sherwood Drive, Sherwood Park 780-449-1384
Kristian took nutrition and business in school... and started working in restaurants at the age of 15. He worked at Earls for a couple of years and has been with Sorrentinos for the past 6 years. Kristian loves working with food... he apprenticed under 8 or 9 chefs and learned a lot from them and applied it to what he knows today... He is ambitious, which explains how he became a Sorrentino's chef at the age of 24, not to mention his food is nothing short of amazing! Kristian enjoys working with the freshest ingredients possible and won't settle for second rate food... He has an amazing palate which is very important to be successful in this industry. He uses a lot of local meat and poultry... obviously mushrooms as well, and is looking forward to incorporating that into this year’s Mushroom Harvest Menu at Sorrentinos, using lots of edibles grown right here in Alberta.
Chef Brady Weiler, Pipestone Food Co. Ltd.
4911 - 51 Street, Wetaskiwin 780-352-9596
Brady Weiler began his culinary career as an apprentice in 1987 at the (former) Four Seasons Edmonton, under the award-winning chef Ernst Dorfler. During this time, Brady gained an early exposure to the exceptional talents of Culinary Team Canada and Team Alberta.
"After apprenticing, I spent time traveling, and worked as an executive chef in the Cayman Islands, BWI."
While in that exotic port of call, he became a member of the Cayman Culinary Team, and grew accustomed to using ingredients he'd seldom seen before.
He returned to Canada in 1994, working in a number of different restaurant and hotel jobs while chasing his long time personal dream of owning his own restaurant. The dream came true in February of 2000, when Brady came to roost in Wetaskiwin, where he opened the Iron Boar Pub and Pipestone Food Company. The Iron Boar was the first pub in Alberta to go smoke-free by choice - Brady's choice.
"We have become a destination eatery," he says proudly. "We feature local fare with gourmet flare. ''Our mandate is to support local agriculture offering naturally raised products fresh from the farm," says Brady. If you ask him why, he has a simple answer: "Because it matters." |
Executive Chef Michael Batke, Essence at the Westin Calgary
320 4th Avenue SE, Calgary, 403-508-5165
The Calgary Westin’s executive chef, Michael Batke, has a strong connection to the city by the Bow. He began his career at Selkirk College in Nelson, BC, then moved across the Rockies to the Chateau Fairmont Lake Louise, where he completed his under Dominique Guyot. Michael spent three years exploring other cuisines in southeastern BC, but found his passion belonged in hotels. In 1998, he moved to Calgary, joining the team at the Delta Bow Valley’s top-rated Conservatory Restaurant.
Michael worked as sous-chef at the Coast Plaza Hotel until he had the opportunity to work at the 4-Diamond-rated Owl’s Nest in the Calgary Westin Hotel. For the next few years, Chef Michael roamed the west, from Fort McMurray to San Francisco, where he found a place as sous-chef at the St. Regis Hotel. California cuisine proved to be a seductive siren. Michael learned about Japanese ingredients and techniques from master sashimi chef Masaki Sasaki, and was fortunate to work a “stage” with Hiro Sone, former executive sous-chef to California uber-chef Wolfgang Puck, and current co-owner of Terra in the Napa valley. Michael is proud of the opportunity he had to work with chef Marcos Samuelson, and has had the rare chance to cook for American celebrities and politicians. Now back in Calgary, Michael says it is great to be home.
Chef Michael Strydom, Elk Horn Dining Room at the Num-Ti-Jah Lodge
Icefields Parkway on Highway #93, 403-522-2167
Historic Num-Ti-Jah Lodge, situated spectacularly on the shores of beautiful Bow Lake, Alberta, has become a year-round home to Chef Michael Strydom, his wife Caroline, and their young chocolate lab, Lulu. Chef Strydom’s position working as Head Chef in this intimate 25-room rustic Lodge is a contrast to serving the food critics and British celebrities who frequented the UK’s The Running Horses, twice voted the Best Restaurant in Europe by the European Catering Association, where he had worked as Senior Sous Chef under Head Chef Edward O’Connell.
Originally from South Africa, Chef Strydom combines a worldly knowledge of fine cuisine with a newfound appreciation for the splendour of the Canadian Rockies, and for Alberta’s exceptional culinary offerings. Bison, elk, and venison are expertly prepared by Chef Strydom and his small but experienced team, to be enjoyed in the warm log ambience of the Lodge’s Elkhorn Dining Room, next to a roaring fire or a window view complete with glaciers, a tumbling waterfall, and the intense turquoise wonder of Bow Lake itself.
Please visit www.num-ti-jah.com
Executive Chef Liana Robberecht, Calgary Petroleum Club
319 5 Avenue, SW, Calgary - 403-269-7981
This creative chef began her training with the Professional Cooking Program at Northern Alberta Institute of Technology (Edmonton) and passing the Red Seal qualifying examinations in 1995. A course in Two Dimensional, Three Dimensional Art & Design, Sculpting Design at Alberta College of Art (Calgary) followed in 1996, and in 1998 she completed the Dubrulle French Culinary School (Vancouver) Professional Pastry Arts and Desserts Program.
As Executive Chef at the Calgary Petroleum Club since 2002, Chef Liana is passionately committed to regional cuisine. A farm-to-table philosophy pervades the three kitchens and staff of 45 under her leadership. This commitment extends out from her kitchen to include fellow chefs, diners and food enthusiasts in the community at large as evidenced by her involvement in professional organizations and participation in special and educational events for the public.
Her professional memberships include the Alberta Apprenticeship and Industry Board (local and provincial apprenticeship committee member)and , and the SAIT Advisory Committee for the Professional Cooking Program for which she is chairperson which substantiate her commitment to education of up and coming chefs. Involvement in the Canadian Society of Club Managers, Chef’s Collaborative, Research Chef Association , Chaine Des Rotisseurs, and Cuisine Canada. Being an active member of Slow Food led her to be selected to attend Slow Food Terra Madre World Meeting of Food Communities , Torino, Italy 2006 & 2008. Dine Alberta Unplugged are expressions of her desire to put Alberta regional products in the spotlight. Finally, Women Chefs & Restaurateurs gives focus to her desire to create and support opportunity for women in the food arts.
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