by Andrew Morrison | The Canadian Culinary Championships take place this weekend up in Kelowna. 10 of Canada’s top chefs will go head to head in three gruelling competitions. Each chef has already had to beat out a dozen of their local peers in Gold Medal Plates competitions from Vancouver to St. Johns.

Representing BC this year is chef Mark Filatow from Kelowna’s Waterfront Wine Bar. Filatow won the opportunity after besting many of BC’s top chefs, such as David Gunawan (Wildebeest), Angus An (Maenam), Quang Dang (West). He faces stiff competition from distant toques like Toronto’s Marc St. Jacques (Auberge du Pommier) and Montreal’s Daren Bergeron (Fou D’Ici), but he’ll have something they don’t have: a very enthusiastic hometown crowd.

I’ve long had the honour of being one of the two Senior Judges from BC (the other being my good friend Sid Cross). It’s also my responsibility to referee the competitions, which is always a different sort of thrill. Needless to say, I’m really excited. I’m actually typing this from the airport, en route a few days early in order to get re-acquainted with my fellow judges. If you want to follow along from the inside, you can keep track of things via @scoutmagazine on Twitter and Instagram. The hashtag for the weekend is #CCC2013.