Episodes
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On this weeks podcast we have Essex born Chef, Luke Boswell now running and partnered in Bar Corso on Commercial Drive, here in Vancouver. We chat about the importance of travel, great ingredients and humbling need for family. He will be up at COOKSCAMP next week, so make sure you go up and say hello. He will probably be in the kitchen. As always please DM at @cookscamp2024 suggestions of people who should be on the podcast.
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On todays podcast we have two of my oldest industry friends. Chef and Co Owner of Harvest Community Foods, Gabriella Meyer and Chef and Owner of Michelin starred Burdock and Co, Harvest Community Foods and Bar Gobo, Andrea Carlson. These two Chefs have been champions of local food and sustainability for a very long time. Their symbiotic approach to the farmer/ producer is what I consider the model for how those relationships should be cultivated. Because of these great relationships, they both produce incredibly delicious food that is good for you, the cook, the farmer and the planet. I hope you enjoy the listen. As always please DM your feedback on @cookscamp2024 on instagram.
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Episodes manquant?
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Incredibly happy to Have Chef Bruno Marti on today's podcast. At the young age of 15 Bruno set out on his own to learn the craft of cooking and has never looked back. Born in Switzerland, and from humble beginnings, Bruno carved out a career that has taken him around the world. Chef's pursuit of his love for languages, his incredible work ethic towards the craft of cooking and his never ending desire to prove to himself that his work in Culinary Competition will bring home the gold. His work with the Culinary Teams as a competitor, a coach and as a mentor, are legendary around the world and rightly so. He is one of the most respected culinary champions in the world and his reputation and work take him everywhere. All of his hard work was recognized earlier this year with the highest accolade a Canadian citizen can awarded, induction into the Order of Canada. Not bad for a cook from Switzerland.
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On this weeks podcast we do something a bit different. Chef Poyan Dinesh takes the helm and interviews our regular podcast host Robert Belcham. With 30 years in the hospitality industry, tells the stories of his career that help explain how he ended up here in Vancouver opening restaurants. From Fuel to Monarch burger, Robert has opened and ran a string of successful ventures and left an indelible mark on BC's hospitality scene.
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On this weeks podcast we have Kate Siegel, the Executive Pastry Chef of Fairmont's Pacific Rim Hotel. From humble beginnings in small town Ontario, to running the pastry program at the Fairmont's most premiere property in Canada.
Kate' unique perspective on the hospitality community and where it is and where it could go, shows her love and respect for the people within it. I truly believe we need more leaders like her changing the game. I hope you enjoy this chat as much as I did. As always, please send comments and suggestions for guests through direct message on @cookscamp2024 on instagram. -
So amazing to have my favourite Chef and Sandwich artist on the Podcast today. Lina Caschetto has an inspiring story about finding her own way through life and through our industry. Her background in design and many years of working and honing her craft in Paris, has made her unassuming little sandwich shop one of the best bites of food in the city. I hope you enjoy her stories of adventure and fun, but always with a very strong backbone of tenacity and grit. And I can't say this enough. For a proper sandwich, go see her at her shop, Say Hey Cafe, you will be thankful I sent you.
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On today's podcast we have long time hospitality veteran Michael Ziff. With his vast array of experience of opening some of the best restaurants in Vancouver to running one of the best restaurants in the Okanagan. The iconic Poplar Grove Winery, which opened its restaurant five years ago with Michael at the helm and it has grown into the go to restaurant in Penticton/ Naramata.
Hospitality in general is about telling the story of the restaurant, the food and the wine. It is integral to the experience of dining out. It is integral to the fabric of being a hospitality professional. Story telling is at the core of who we are and what we do. I hope you enjoy Michael's insights and I really look forward to having him at COOKSCAMP this September. -
Once in a while you can be really pleasantly surprised by a local business. That happened to me last December. I moved into a new apartment with my wife Tina and san Eli and we were discovering our new place and all that came with it. A new bakery/ pastry shop that I had not heard of before was in the new retail section of the complex and I wanted to try it out. They had coffee and a beautiful pastry case of really beautiful viennoiserie, and collection of cake slices and creme puffs. I ordered my usual cappuccino and simple croissant, I paid and walked out. As I slowly walked down the block sipping my coffee and pulling my breakfast treat from its bag, I took a bite stopped in my tracks. A thousand layers of butter soaked pastry shattered against my bite and was transported back in time to Paris, where I experienced a similar and familiar taste and texture. As I continued home, all I wanted to do was each another bite. I got to my front door and the sad realization that my bag was empty and the trail of croissant crumbs were the only evidence of my delicious breakfast.
Since that time I have had many delicious pastry's from this unassuming bakeshop. I have also had the pleasure to get to know the owner, Elmo Pin Pin, and his very talented but small team. I hope you enjoy getting to know him as much as I do, also go and do yourself a favour and find his shop. It will definitely improve your day. -
I am very excited to welcome Chef John Bates from Interstellar BBQ in Austin Texas. We had the opportunity to meet and cook together at last months Tofino Wine and Dine event up in Tofino BC. Cooking over fire and chatting great food always brings cooks together, and he had a late morning before flying back to Texas to join me in the Podcast Studio, to chat food, the industry and all things BBQ. I had an opportunity 7 years ago to go and eat BBQ in Houston, San Antonio and Austin and it truly changed my perspective on just how incredibly delicious BBQ can be. Simple food, cooked low and slow with the addition of post oak smoke, makes one of the most sublime, unctuous and incredibly deliscious foods available anywhere. So, the simpler the preparation, the much harder it it is to execute well. John shares his methods and tips and nuances of the craft. I hope you enjoy, I sure enjoyed chatting with him.
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On this weeks Podcast I am supper happy to have on the most humble and incredibly giving Chefs I have ever had the opportunity to call a friend. Chef Poyan Danesh, who has been working his whole professional career here in Vancouver, is a family man, a lover of great food, champion of the young apprentice and a successful entrepreneur. From his humble beginnings in this industry to some of the best kitchens, to the World Stage, Chef Poyan has accomplished many incredible things in his career. He is well known and respected amongst his peers, and all those adjacent to our community. His tireless work with the Chefs Table and especially brining back the Apprentice of the Year Competition has cemented him a true leader to look up to. I hope you all enjoy our conversation.
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Hello Everyone, welcome back to this weeks episode of the Podcast. We have a very special guest that I got an opportunity to chat with. Born in Brighton, England, he started his career as an architect and through his desire to travel and open his mind to new opportunity, he found himself as a bartender in Whistler and has yet to look back. Now he is one of the most respected hospitality people in western Canada and is working with the amazing teams at Boxset Collective as the Bar Director, which include Published on Main, Bar Susu, and Mama Said Pizza. We had a fantastic chat and it seems to always circle back to the importance of hospitality and how that hospitality is really what keep people coming back. I hope you enjoy and as usual if you have any comments, please DM me @cookscamp2024
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I am very happy to have had the opportunity to chat with two of the next great leaders of the hospitality industry. Co Chefs of the Restaurant at Poplar Grove in Penticton, Stacy Johnston and Minette Lotz, they share their work life and they share their lives as partners in marriage. Two extremely talented chefs that helped bring the Naramata Inn back to life, tell their story of the journey through this business, from humble beginnings to running one of the nicest properties in the Okanagan Valley. We are also excited to have Stacy as part of the Chefs Table board and Minette taking part in this Septembers COOKSCAMP as a Chef leader in the worlds largest family meal and leading the daily foraging classes. I am so glad we were able to make time to chat and hear their fantastic story.
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On this weeks podcast, I had the opportunity to sit down and chat with my old friend Michelin Star Chef Joël Watanabe, of Kissa Tanto, Bao Bei and his new bar Meo. Chef Joël has been cooking professionally for over 30 years across Canada. His reputation of incredibly hard work, exacting standards, and absolutely delicious foods, has made Chef Joël one of the best in Canada. I hope you enjoy his stories of finding his calling in the kitchen from a young age, and what Michelin means in Vancouver. As always I hope you enjoy and if you have any feedback let me know on @COOKSCAMP2024 on instagram.
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On this weeks episode we have one of the hardest working BC Chefs I have had the pleasure to work alongside. Chef Johnny Bridge, has been professionally cooking in BC since high school and has always championed his love of the craft and his love of British Columbia. I remember seeing an instagram post of Johnny jumping off some coastal rocks into the frigid pacific and coming up with some wild BC oysters, shucking them, slurping them down and on his way again. His outlook about the industry and how to make it better and sustainable for everyone was what led him to finally join the Chefs' Table Society of BC and after 4 years as a board member he has been voted in as our new President. I am very excited to see the direction that Johnny takes the CTS in and I am happy to have him on this weeks podcast. Thank you for listening.
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On this week's episode we have Executive Chef Clayton Fontaine of the world renown Wickaninnish Inn, one of the most lauded and celebrated hotels in Canada. We delve in Chef's early career, the love of food, ingredients and the amazing west coast. We also chat about the many wonders and challenges of working in a small tourist focused community like Tofino. I hope you enjoyed our conversation and that you have a better understanding in a young Chefs mind. Thank you for listening.
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On this weeks podcast I have a Chef Dennis Peckham. Executive Corporate Chef of the Glowbal Group he in Vancouver. From humble beginnings and go for it attitude, his first job in the industry was at Lumiere. For those who don't know about Lumeire, please look it up. As a first rung on the ladder it was a great place to start, The best part of Chef's story is gets sooo much better for only his second job in a restaurant. Listen in, hear the stories and if you like it, let me know in the instagram comments.
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In 2022, I asked Chef Bernard Casavant to be the Chef leader of the World's Largest Family Meal at COOKSCAMP 2022. I have known about Chef Casavant for a long time as one of the OG. A Chef who led a team that turned Canadian food upside down while he was opening and running the Chateau Whistler. His reputation as one the best Chef Mentors around came from so many of the other respected Chefs I talked with. When I talked with Chef Casavant about COOKSCAMP and about what we were trying to accomplish, he was all in, 100%. He has become one of our great ambassadors of the event and is now on the steering committee to help bring it to fruition again this year. Those two days at COOKSCAMP in 2022, I saw exactly why he is one of the most respected Chefs in North America. His dedication to the craft, the cooking, the mentoring, going out of his way to make everyone feel included and valued is exactly what COOKSCAMP is all about. I am was so happy to finally be able to sit down and chat with Chef and see where it all started and how his hard work got him to where he is today. I hope you enjoy our chat.
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On todays podcast I am very happy to chat with Brandon Grossutti of Pidgin Restaurant in Vancouver. A Vancouver native, Brandon's unique story of a real BC man, has taken him from fishing boats in the Haida Gwaii to owning an incredible popular upscale ding restaurant in Gastown. His lived perspective as small restaurant owner in the heart of the chaos of the DTES give Brandon a hard knox perspective of the restaurant business. His love of hospitality, his team and his family fuel his passion for making every guest who walks through Pidgin's feel like they are coming home themselves. I hope you enjoy the stories and insights.
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The 20 somethings who come to the hospitality industry want and need different things than we had, to be fulfilled in their careers. The pontificating from old Chefs and Managers about how hard they had it in their day, means absolutely nothing to this younger generation. They will not tolerate a toxic work environment, shitty pay and no future. They do want to work hard and learn, they want to find balance with their work and personal lives but are willing to sacrifice if there are tangible benefits. On todays podcast I speak with just such a young cook, Danae Dejong, loves this industry and wants to a leader and change maker with in it. She is too young to be jaded and understands the sacrifice to shoot for greatness. I hope you find this podcast as enlightening as I did.
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On this weeks Podcast we have Mary Mackay, VP of Innovation and Product, and also co owner of Terra breads here in Vancouver. I first met Mary about 15 years ago when I started volunteering for the Chefs' Table Society of BC. She was the one that held the CTS together and to account in those early days for me. Mary has been a part of the restaurant and hospitality scene here in Vancouver for over 30 years. Her Bakery, Terra breads, has continued to slowly and effectively grow over the years and always keeping consistency, great products and customer satisfaction at the forefront of their business.
I think you will enjoy our conversation, I found how her and her husband tackled parenthood with working in this business extremely enlightening.
Please let me know what you think of the podcast. - Montre plus
