Chef Karen Barnaby

Karen Barnaby hails from Ottawa, where she started her cooking career in 1979 on a pink, four burner electric stove in the basement of the Bohemian Restaurant. Moving out of the basement and eventually out of Ottawa, she landed in Toronto in 1981 and became Chef at the Rivoli. After three years of listening to new wave bands at the back of the Rivoli and gratefully absorbing all the knowledge Chef Vanipha Southalack had to impart on Thai and Laotian cooking, she moved to the David Wood Food Shop in Rosedale. During five years there, she opened two more David Wood Food Shops, and co-wrote the David Wood Food Book and the David Wood Dessert Book. During that time, she discovered she had an aptitude for teaching and put it into practice at Dufflet’s Great Cooks Cooking School.

In 1990 she took a break and travelled to Cuernevaca, Mexico, as a private chef. The following spring, she went to work at the West Vancouver Capers location. After a year, she was hired as Executive Chef of the Raintree Restaurant. She completed Pacific Passions, her first solo cookbook, in 1995. She was offered the position of Executive Chef at The Fish House in Stanley Park that same year, and has been happy here ever since.

In 1997 her second book, Screamingly Good Food was released and won the silver medal at the Cuisine Canada Cookbook competition. She is also author of Halibut: The Cookbook and Shellfish: The Cookbook.

Alyson Carter, Principle Cookie Artist

Alyson Carter grew up right here in Coquitlam. Throughout her childhood she was surrounded by a family of bakers. After high school she earned a BSc in Biochemistry from the University of Victoria and a spot on the University Championship varsity rowing team. In stressful times, she found that baking calmed her. After University, she was a research technician in a development lab at the University of Calgary. After three years she was ready for a new challenge, so took time off and travelled to South East Asia for a few months. During her time abroad she had an epiphany and realized that what she wanted to do in life was bake!

She moved back home and did just that, starting DesignerCookies in August 2010 after the gift of a “little black dress” cookie cutter and some encouraging words from her family and friends. Since its inception, DesignerCookies has been embraced by loyal clients and the local food movement. They are a staple at the Port Moody Winter Market, Coquitlam Farmer’s Market and Spirit Square Market. DesignerCookies has participated in many craft/artisan fairs such as Delbrook Community, Portobello West, school fairs and others.

Though Alyson has no formal training in baking or decorating but she feels that what she lacks in certificates, she more that makes up for in the school of “hands-on” experience. Since DesignerCookies was established in 2010, she’s baked and iced over 12,000 designer sugar cookies by hand!

Her job is a dream come true and the diversity of cookies, and now cake pops, allows for endless tailored creations. She loves it all and can’t wait to see what the next year has in store for DesignerCookies!

Chef Cathy Crockett

Kitchen Heroes ‘Cooking up something great’!
Cathy is a chef who understands the demands of today’s time-starved families. After twenty-five years in the corporate world and raising two teenagers, she’s convinced that eating well is not only possible but essential to living a balanced life. Inspired by her Italian mother who loved to cook and entertain, Cathy trained at Dubrulle Culinary Institute and established her own cooking school business Kitchen Heroes where she is always “Cooking up something great!” She specializes in corporate team building and private gatherings, either hands-on or demonstration. Her newest work is teaching kids the basic skills for healthy eating. Cathy’s passion for food is so infectious; you’ll want to come back for seconds.

Instructor Karen Curtis

Karen Curtis was raised in her Mum’s kitchen. She received her first Easy Bake oven at age 3 and hasn’t looked back since! Although a teacher by education, and a municipal employee by choice, Karen’s passion has always been food. She has successfully designed menus for restaurants, cooked in others, and taught Grade 8 Foods at Hope Lutheran Christian School. Her newest culinary adventure is developing recipes for her blog. You can find Karen at the Coquitlam Farmer’s Market most Sundays where she sells her Kics lemonade syrup. She’s looking forward to sharing her delicious recipes and inspiring you to eat locally grown, seasonal food!

Chef Dez

Chef Dez is a Government Certified “Red Seal” Chef. His extensive training includes many different accomplishments in a number of restaurants, a 4 1/2 Star hotel, and Food Safe certification. Throughout the years he has “fine-tuned” the passion that he has had for food since he was a child, and has developed quite a passion for working with people. Therefore, the decision to write, teach, and perform in the culinary industry is a perfect fit. He is the author of two popular cookbooks, “Chef Dez on Cooking”, Volume One and Volume Two.

Chefs Dominique and Cindy Duby

Dominique and Cindy Duby trained under master pastry chefs in Europe and have won many gold and silver medals in international culinary competitions. Dubbed Canada’s most notable pastry chefs, they represented and led Pastry Team Canada several times in the world’s most prestigious team pastry events: the World Pastry Cup in France and the World Pastry Championship in Las Vegas. Their exploits have been captured in documentaries featured on the Food TV Network. The Duby’s artistic flair and creative ideas bring them regular invitations to prestigious international events such as the World Gourmet Summit in Singapore, Masters of Food and Wine in Carmel and the South Beach Wine and Food Festival in Miami. Dominique and Cindy Duby are the chefs / owners of Wild Sweets By Dominique & Cindy DUBY®, a critically acclaimed chocolate Atelier and Virtual Boutique, which has emerged as one of North America finest artisan chocolatiers. The Duby’s truly novel products and relentless creativity reflect their distinct culinary approach and is based on the following principles:

Inspired by Nature | Guided by Science | Crafted by Art | Designed by Technology

The Duby’s are the authors and photographers of 5 cookbooks to date including Wild Sweets Exotic Desserts & Wine Pairings, foreword by Charlie Trotter. The book won the 2003 Best Book in the World for Food & Wine Matching from Gourmand World Cookbook Awards, Spain. Their second book – Wild Sweets Chocolate, foreword by Charlie Trotter, won second Best Chocolate Book in the World from Gourmand World Cookbook Awards, England. In 2008, the Duby’s started to write a new series of single topic cookbooks titled – Definitive Kitchen Classics. The first title was Crème Brûlée, which was released in the fall of 2008. The second title – Chocolate – was released in the fall of 2009. Panini was the Dubys third title of the series released in the fall of 2010. The Duby’s are currently working on book # 3 of the Wild Sweets series for a fall 2012 release.

Chef Nathan Hyam

Nathan Hyam was born in New York City and educated in Montreal. He served a traditional three-year apprenticeship in classical French cuisine under Swiss chef Kurt Kuhn at the William Tell restaurant. He holds a Red Seal Inter-provincial certificate in cooking. Nathan has been a restaurant owner and has worked in many fine food establishments throughout the world and brings with him experience of regional cuisines from such places as California, Mexico, Portugal, Spain, Morocco, Indonesia, Malaysia, Singapore, Hong Kong and Thailand.

Nathan trained at the Oriental Hotel Baan Phrya School, Wandee Culinary School and the Suan Dusit College in Bangkok. He is considered an expert in Thai cuisine and has been teaching the regional cuisines of Thailand for more than a decade. He has written a bestselling Thai cookbook for Whitecap Publishers called “New Thai Cuisine”.

Nathan is now the Head Chef-instructor for the new Métis Skills and Employment Center where he teaches a pre-apprenticeship training program.

Chef Danilo Ibarra

Danilo Ibarra discovered his passion for cooking at a young age, profoundly spurred on by his roots as a native of Managua, Nicaragua. A lineage of Latin influences was as much a product of Danilo’s career inspiration as it was his upbringing in a predominately Spanish-speaking household. He went on to pursue his vocation after high school in the Culinary Arts program at Vancouver Community College, one of the most highly respected culinary training programs in the country.

His training has landed him in such acclaimed French restaurants as Café de Paris, La Regálade French Bistro, and Hermitage where he also apprenticed and achieved his Red Seal certification.

A promotion to Sous Chef at Hermitage later opened the door to Sous Chef under the direction of Karen Barnaby at The Fish House in Stanley Park, and afterwards to Executive Sous Chef at Horizons on Burnaby Mountain, alongside Executive Chef John Garrett.

After 12 years of extensive experience and knowledge of Latin, West Coast, and French cuisine, while working his way through some of the finest kitchens in Vancouver, Danilo continues to set epicurean standards as an Executive Sous Chef at Glowbal Grill and Executive Chef of his own company Sabroso- Personal Chef and Catering Services.

Danilo’s future is continually shaped by working with influential chefs of the culinary industry who in turn have helped propel his depth of knowledge, while forging the development of his own distinctive style and culinary philosophy: no matter what you are cooking – always take great pride of your dish; make it personal and with love.

Chef Kevin Lu

Kevin was born in Malaysia in 1972 and migrated to Vancouver in May of 1994. He attended the Vancouver Community College apprentice program while working at Terminal City Club and Gotham Bar and Grill. He trained under prestigious Vancouver chefs David Long, Jason Lloyd and Brian Fodor.

He is presently the Executive Sous Chef at the Terminal City Club in downtown Vancouver. His goals as the Executive Sous Chef, with the help of the Terminal City Club’s award winning kitchen brigade, are to be strong presence within the community through culinary competitions and charitable fund raising events. He hopes to help raise awareness of what our beautiful part of the country has to offer, local and seasonal organic produce, sustainable seafood and our highly talented local chefs and cooks.

He is the winner three years in a row in the IRON CHEF COMPETITION at B.C. FOOD EXPO.

Val MacDonald, RHN

Registered Holistic Nutritionist, Val MacDonald, is enhancing the relationship her clients have with food. People have full fridges and pantries without an understanding of how the food they choose impacts their well-being and their lives. Would you like a better grasp of what the food in your home, the grocery store and restaurants means to your body and your mind?

Val’s complete approach has been developed for the ever-changing needs of clients living amidst a broad spectrum of choices. Whether it’s a one-on-one discussion, a nutrition workshop, an in-home family consultation or a whole-food cooking instruction, Val creates positive food experiences that take you beyond explanations of nutritional benefits. Her practical, fun and tasty ways of exploring whole foods and lifestyle will change your views to see that healthy can be simple and affordable.

Her own health challenges led Val on a lengthy healing journey. It was through learning and accepting the connection between the food she ate and how she felt that she embraced her fascination with food. Val attended and graduated from the Canadian School of Nutrition and realized that others needed to know how to break free from their own food misconceptions.

Recognizing the universal love people have for food, Val is an advisor to others who are struggling with the abundance of options available and lack of knowledge about what their bodies need. Val will empower you to make better food choices for the rest of your life. This isn’t about “going on a diet” but a process of education around which foods are beneficial or harmful to your health. You will also learn to listen to the cues your body sends and experience how different choices affect you. Finally free yourself from the ideas of “good foods”, “bad foods,” diets and deprivation.

Val will help you change the way you shop, cook and eat so that you never have to diet or deny your taste buds. It is possible to embrace your most-loved foods alongside new favourites. Through education and discovery, Val will take you to a new, better relationship with food, and perhaps even a better understanding of yourself.

Chef Anthony Sedlak

At just 13 he traded a shift in a café a top Grouse Mountain ski resort in Vancouver, Canada for a snow boarding pass, and discovered a love of food and the restaurant experience that would rapidly shape his future. By 19 he completed both a Culinary Arts Program and his four-year apprenticeship and quickly emerged a leader in The Observatory, Grouse Mountain’s flagship dining room.

Knowing European kitchen experience would be critical to his development as a star Chef; the teenager spent almost two years at La Trompette, a southern French, and Michelin Star restaurant in London, England. As Sedlak worked up the line from his entry level role to, eventually executive Sous chef, he learned how a hardcore professional kitchen team works, refined his French culinary techniques and adopted La Trompette’s hard-bitten, uncompromising commitment to excellence.

At 23, Sedlak represented Canada at the Hans Bueschken World Junior Chef Challenge in Auckland, New Zealand, returning home with silver. Later that year Anthony competed in, and won Food Network’s Superstar Chef Challenge. He has since hosted four seasons of his own show on Food Network Canada called The Main. The Main is a stylish half-hour of mouth-watering, visually appetizing dishes. In each episode Anthony prepares a main course featuring one main ingredient. The food is rustic, the ingredients readily available and the recipes simple to follow – leaving the viewer inspired to recreate each main at home. Anthony went onto write a cookbook based on the series and within nine months the book has become a National Best Seller.

Instructor Neelima Sriram

Neelima Sriram’s passion for cooking started simply from her home. In her attempts to surprise her loved ones and close friends, she used to create a variety of traditional and contemporary, tasty yet nutritious recipes. Over the years she has developed an in depth knowledge of spice selection and combination. Prior to coming to Canada, Neelima successfully ran her own catering business in Central Asia for over five years, serving diplomats, the UN and large corporations. She began her business “The Mindful Chef In You” thanks to the encouragement of her expatriate friends. She shares her knack for cooking food from around the world that comes together in vegan and vegetarian offerings. Come, learn and enjoy! Her practical and thoughtful approach to cooking produces an eclectic variety of vegan and vegetarian fusion dishes that will inspire many!

Chef Ron Suzuki

Ron Suzuki has taught the art of sushi making since 1975 throughout the lower-mainland. Ron has appeared on CBC, City TV, Global and the Multi-Cultural Networks. His art has been published in gourmet magazines like the Northwest Palate. Ron’s workshops are very popular because everything is hands on with the guarantee that everyone in his class will master the most popular and difficult variation of sushi – the “Maki Roll”. Plus …he is the nicest guy you will ever meet!!!!

Chef Tanya Walsh

Tanya Walsh was born and bred right here in Port Moody, B.C. She found her passion for food, like most chefs, through her mother’s cooking and her insistence on making everything from “scratch”, and cooking from her heart. She started her career as a lunchtime line cook at the prestigious Wedgewood Hotel in Vancouver. One day, she was asked by her Chef to fill in for a pastry chef, and they both found out she was actually pretty good at it! After that day she was the newest addition the pastry team, and has not looked back ever since. Gaining experience at some of Vancouver’s top hotels, she received an opportunity to work as Pastry Sous Chef at the AAA Rosette award winning Swinton Park in the North of England, where she was able to pick her own fruits for her desserts from the hotel’s own walled gardens. There she worked under the tutelage of French Pastry Chef Marc Mouzon, formerly of the Savoy in London. After her year in England, she returned to Canada, received her Red Seal Certification, and began a quest to learn the fine art of Artisan Bread making. This brought her to Terra Breads in 2009, where she remains, baking up fine breads using traditional artisan methods and pastry goods from the best sourced quality organic ingredients available.

Paul Watkin, Wine Educator

Paul Watkin is a wine educator and industry professional who has served as a fine dining room professional at renowned restaurants and hotels (such as O’Doul’s on Robson Street). He has acted as Beverage Program Manager and Wine List Consultant, as an Assistant Manager (for West Vancouver’s Dundarave Wine Cellar), and Dining Room Manager and Service Instructor at the prestigious Pacific Institute of Culinary Arts. He is an active member of the Society of Wine Educators, Cellar Master for the South World Wine Society and has written on the subject of wine all the while maintaining an active role as a wine consultant and educator for the hospitality/wine industry and the public at large.

Chef Chris Whittaker

Chris Whittaker began his culinary career at the tender age of sixteen in Thunder Bay, Ontario. After working in a number of the finer restaurants with chefs of diverse backgrounds and styles, he turned his attention west. After a stop in the Rockies at the prestigious Fairmont Chateau Lake Louise, Whittaker made his way to Vancouver a city perfectly suited to his creative and contemporary sensibility.

Since arriving in Vancouver in 2000, Whittaker has been an integral player in some of Vancouver’s most interesting kitchens. Working under David Griffiths at the Delta Vancouver Suites and later taking the helm as Executive Chef at the Pacific Palisades Hotel and Zin Restaurant, Whittaker has garnered praise for his eclectic cooking style and passion for local products and ethically sound ingredients. Chris is currently Executive Chef at O’Douls’s Restaurant & Bar on Robson where he continues to captivate guests with his creative genius!