This dish is an homage to my personal culinary journey. Being of Chinese Filipino decent, this dish is a culmination of the influence other countries have had on Filipino cuisine. I want to use this opportunity to showcase a beautiful bird sourced locally from Ontario,while flaunting a contemporary version of a classic dish replacing the pork. I’d like to think of myself like this Sinigang dish, a pinnacle of different influences and techniques I've learned from the different Chefs in my career.
Karly Ready
Canada
Through my dish I am showing my journey throughout my years in the culinary industry. The last few years I have learned many skill...
Through my dish I am showing my journey throughout my years in the culinary industry. The last few years I have learned many skills that I incorporated into my dish. Such as making pasta, broths and foams as I did on my first station. To butchering fish and making mousses which did after switching sections. With the message that perfection is a lot of little things done well, learning something each day big or small, one day you look back on where you started and what you are doing now.
Harun Younussi
Canada
The Shepherd offers his healthiest lambs, either for feasts or as a sacrificial meal every year by monotheists alike, in suit of A...
The Shepherd offers his healthiest lambs, either for feasts or as a sacrificial meal every year by monotheists alike, in suit of Abraham's sacrifice to god. It is tradition to use a healthy lamb that is at least a year old. I wanted to honour this abiding tradition by encompassing the subtle yet rich flavours of the animal, complimented with locally foraged seasonal vegetables. This is an exploration of a harmonious dance of textures, temperatures, and flavours.
Boutte Terry
Canada
In the kitchen, we throw away the unloved and unsaleable offal of lamb. Stunned by this vision of non-valuation, I wanted to honor...
Lamb triptych: a la royale, trippes in their nest, squid with his marine forest paired with a broth nectar
In the kitchen, we throw away the unloved and unsaleable offal of lamb. Stunned by this vision of non-valuation, I wanted to honor it. I drew inspiration from the wild northern Canadian landscape that became my home 9 years ago, and from the terroir of my native southwest France, which brings back warm memories. With my dish, I want to enhance the value of this country-style cuisine, with a modern twist that's both technically raw and delicate, to give offal back its nobility.
Anthony Vien
Canada
I want to pay tribute to our forests and also to our ancestors who lived there using ancestral cooking methods such as crust bakin...
Quail stuffed with black walnut and foie gras, some fresh mushroom from the season and stuffed morrels with some quail liver and heart, “…”
I want to pay tribute to our forests and also to our ancestors who lived there using ancestral cooking methods such as crust baking and banique bread. I also want to bring back memories and make you nostalgic with the smell of dead leaves when you go mushroom picking. The mushrooms will also be showcased, as will some of the trees that can be found there. I really want to transport the judges to a forest in the middle of autumn.
Anthony Huynh
Canada
Growing up in a multicultural household in Canada exposed me to diverse cuisines, fostering a deep appreciation for Canada's melti...
Growing up in a multicultural household in Canada exposed me to diverse cuisines, fostering a deep appreciation for Canada's melting pot of cultures. My dish draws inspiration from my favourite childhood dishes, Cantonese braised pork and abalone, and Vietnamese Banh Mi, combined with my time spent in some of Canada's top restaurants, I crafted a dish merging Chinese, European, and Vietnamese flavours. I believe that this fusion embodies Canada's cultural richness on a plate.
Sébastien Rémillard
Canada
This dish reflects my life and experiences—a blend of French culinary skill and comforting home flavors from Canada as a multicult...
This dish reflects my life and experiences—a blend of French culinary skill and comforting home flavors from Canada as a multicultural nation. Montreal's Chinatown was my sanctuary, sparking my fascination with diverse culinary traditions, inspiring me still today. Cooking, for me, is love and passion, rooted in respect—using every part of ingredients, minimizing waste, letting flavors shine. Join my journey as a French-Canadian chef celebrating diverse influences shaping my culinary identity.
Clement Cavoret
Canada
Receiving whole deer every fortnight, I noticed that the unused offal was being wasted. So I decided to put them to good use in a ...
Receiving whole deer every fortnight, I noticed that the unused offal was being wasted. So I decided to put them to good use in a dish to raise awareness of food waste. My aim is to promote responsible and sustainable cooking, reflecting my passion for gastronomy and my values of respect for natural resources.
Stefan Armand
Canada
With this dish, I want my diverse immigrant family background and the fact I do not identify with one food culture, to show what c...
Aged Vancouver Island rockfish 4 ways with local corn and beans
With this dish, I want my diverse immigrant family background and the fact I do not identify with one food culture, to show what can be done with modern ideas and less. I want to improve myself and develop tight portion control, recipe control, “waste” utilisation, and an insane passion for food. I want to demonstrate my vision of fine dining cooking, which is to cook as local, zero waste, and as ethically as I can while still keeping deliciousness. I want to put food into bellies, not bins.
Kali Fawcett
Canada
This dish is an homage to my mother and the time we spent in Italy together. I wanted to showcase a variety of ingredients and tec...
This dish is an homage to my mother and the time we spent in Italy together. I wanted to showcase a variety of ingredients and techniques that reminded me of Italy as well as things that she would enjoy. She is such an important part of my life and when she took me to italy, I feel like it transformed myself as person as well as the things I was passionate about. My dish is completely vegetarian because I believe in a more veg-forward lifestyle which is more sustainable for the environment.
Dahyun Choi
Canada
The message I am trying to deliver with my signature dish is the harmony. The orchestra that makes great music consists of many di...
The message I am trying to deliver with my signature dish is the harmony. The orchestra that makes great music consists of many different instruments. None of them are unimportant. The same goes for our society. The world has been suffering from infectious diseases and wars, I believe we can build stronger and better society by weaving differences together. That is the reason why I picked ingredients from diffent places, which are the tree, the land, and the ocean to create greater synergy.
Carmen Holtby
Canada
This dish only uses sustainable ingredients that are locally available in the winter months. When most restaurants are relying on ...
This dish only uses sustainable ingredients that are locally available in the winter months. When most restaurants are relying on imported produce, local farms are still providing us with root vegetables and apples. On the rocky beaches, the oysters become plump and sweet. I hope to communicate a sense of place and a sense of time, and to show that local eating goes beyond the bounty of the summer months. In the pared-back simplicity of winter there is still beauty and flavour to be found.
Harpreet Kahllon
Canada
This dish is my brainchild of what my soul would look like on a plate, the mousse of the Meat Beliram is a connection to my roots ...
This dish is my brainchild of what my soul would look like on a plate, the mousse of the Meat Beliram is a connection to my roots in Punjab and also how I made the move to Canada by packing just my knives and my clothes. The eel is one of the first ingredients I fell in love with. The morels are the abundant wilderness of Canada and the sauce and kachori lend the child in me with flavor's which I grew up as a child, never wanting to be a chef but later loving every bit of it.
Ben Thompson
Canada
This dish, in a nutshell, represents who I am. Not only are all the main ingredients sourced from directly here in Canada, but als...
Alberta Duck with Textures of Corn and Garden Bouquet
This dish, in a nutshell, represents who I am. Not only are all the main ingredients sourced from directly here in Canada, but also the techniques used I learned (and tweaked) from all the most important restaurants I have worked. It takes humble ingredients like duck and corn and elevates them to a new level of luxury. Lastly it attempts to blur the lines between savoury and sweet dishes with the use of popcorn and shortbread. Its an artful and fun representation of who I am as a chef.
Danny Houfeng Deng
Canada
I am originally from China, my cooking philosophy is using French, Italian, and Japanese technique to showcase Chinese favor, mode...
I am originally from China, my cooking philosophy is using French, Italian, and Japanese technique to showcase Chinese favor, modern Chinese food. In Chinese Sichuan cuisine, we will use rabbit as one of the main proteins. One of the most popular dishes in Sichuan cuisine is stir fry rabbit with Sichuan pepper and peanuts. I am using French technique to wrap rabbit meat, Chinese sausage, foie gras to make rabbit ballotine.
Pierre Olivier Pelletier
Canada
I invent this plate in honor of the hard work of my father and my mother. My father always work in the cereal world and this is a ...
Young Aged and Smocked Duck with Sweet Grass, Yellow Birch Syrup Lacquer with Crispy Cereal, Carothene Dressing, Rosted Cereal Gravy, ‘’Verge d’Or’’
I invent this plate in honor of the hard work of my father and my mother. My father always work in the cereal world and this is a very hard work. He gives is life to this work to make shure we miss nothing. I also put carrot because when i was young my mother have a big garden with a lot of carrots and i dont really like them at this time. Now this is one of my favorite vegetable. Also the duckling is my favorite animal proteine so that’s why i wan’t to serve them. I hope you let me show you!
Ben Miller
Canada
Vegan food, through methodology and expertise, belongs on the world stage. Vegetables can be a complete substitute for any animal ...
Vegan food, through methodology and expertise, belongs on the world stage. Vegetables can be a complete substitute for any animal product. Vegan forward diets reduce factory farming practices, and when we eat meat, we should source local and ethically raised products.
Fallon recognized the harsh realities of raising cattle. She realized cultivating mushrooms was the way of the future. These are generational farmers who shifted their focus for the environment, their courage deserves recognition.
Timothy James Bleau
Canada
I want to show that fine dining food can have zero waste when done correctly, getting creative on how to utilize trim in order to ...
I want to show that fine dining food can have zero waste when done correctly, getting creative on how to utilize trim in order to reduce food waste will make fine dining more sustainable. this dish when done correctly in a restaurant setting will have zero waste associated with it. it uses techniques that I have developed alongside some of my mentors. This dish is very important to me as it shows my mindest towards cooking on one plate. No waste, local, healthy, delicious.
Samy Benabed
Canada
This dish is an ode to a traditional Québécois meal: the rotisserie chicken. Traditionally, the chicken is served with gravy, a si...
This dish is an ode to a traditional Québécois meal: the rotisserie chicken. Traditionally, the chicken is served with gravy, a side of creamy or traditional vinegary coleslaw, french fries, and a pain brioche.
A fragment of Quebec’s culinary culture, the history of the rotisserie chicken is also that of French Canadians. But it is also the story of my father, Abdelaziz, who was exposed to ceaseless systemic racism in the labour market and driven, by the ensuing precarity, to deliver the infamous “chef’s special” through long nights. I chose this dish in honour of the Québécois culture, but by choosing the silky chicken, a breed of hen whose black skin and beauty seldom make it a choice for cooking, I want to raise questions around speciesism and racism through my cooking.
I prepare this dish through a mixture of traditions bringing the Québécois recipe together with my Moroccan background to create a unique expression of this rotisserie meal. By selecting as many regional products as possible, I also give thanks to this welcoming land that is Québec and the riches it has to offer. These include some foods that were long used by the Indigenous People of this unceded Atikamekw territory (Nitaskinan) but forgotten in our modern cuisine. These complex and distinctive flavors here find their expression in the traditional Québécois dish.
Rafael Covarrubias
Chef, Hexagon Restaurant, Oakville,Canada
S.Pellegrino Young Chef Academy Award 2019-21 Finalist for North America
Mole Spiced Muscovy Duck, Preserved Prunes and Winter Roots
The inspiration for my dish emerges from my strong belief that people around the world come together through the sharing of food. The dish is based on the fusion between my Mexican roots and my experience as a newcomer to Canada. As an immigrant, I see how cultures can work together to create food that allows people to find common ground.
Always staying open to new ideas and opportunities, living in Canada has opened my eyes to new cultures, and this dish combines the idea of multiculturalism with my personal story. Mexican, French, Canadian, Chinese techniques and ingredients are some of the highlights.
Marvin Palomo
Chef, 7 Enoteca, Oakville,Canada
Fine Dining Lovers Food For Thought Award 2019-21 Finalist for North America
As an aspiring chef who seeks to grow every day, I would like to contribute awareness and appreciation to Canadian and Filipino cuisine.
As a Filipino immigrant growing up in the urban melting pot of Toronto, Canada, this dish reflects who I am as a cook. It combines the early childhood food inspirations from my family with the technique and skills I've learned from some of my most important chef mentors.
I want this dish to represent my personal journey — from childhood, through my progression and journey as a young cook, to the chef I am today, while highlighting Canadian ingredients.
Kathryn Ferries
Chef de Partie, Stofa Restaurant, Ottawa,Canada
S.Pellegrino for Social Responsibility Award 2019-21 Finalist for North America
Reducing food waste is crucial to combating climate change, and we must fix our food system from the ground up.
My dish encapsulates my beliefs regarding whole animal butchery, fermenting and preserving ingredients to capture them at their peak while respecting natural flavours, sourcing local ingredients, and minimising waste.
I created a dish that reflects me, as well as the ingredients that thrive in Canada. I incorporate techniques of the past to create dishes that evoke nostalgia and respect for the effort put into the meal. This representation of Canada also incorporates my heritage and childhood memories of family preserves, updated with the knowledge I now have as a professional chef.