DINER: Follow Scout Behind The Scenes At The 2014 Canadian Culinary Championships

by Andrew Morrison | The Canadian Culinary Championships are going down this weekend up in Kelowna. 11 of Canada’s top chefs will be going head to head in three gruelling competitions: a wine pairing challenge, the dreaded Black Box event, and the Grand Finale (in which each chef tables a signature dish). Every one of the competitors has already had to beat out a dozen of their local peers in Gold Medal Plates competitions from Vancouver to St. Johns, so it’s a pretty big deal.

Representing BC this year is chef Brian Skinner of The Acorn, the critically-acclaimed vegetarian eatery on Main Street. He’s be going up against Calgary’s Duncan Ly (Yellow Door Bistro), Montreal’s Danny St Pierre (Auguste), Winnipeg’s Kelly Cattani (Elements), St. John’s Roger Andrews (Relish), Toronto’s Lorenzo Loseto (George), Saskatoon’s Trevor Robertson (Radisson Hotel), Regina’s Jonathan Thauberger (Crave), Ottawa’s Marysol Foucault (Edgar), Halifax’s Martin Ruiz Salvador (Fleur de Sel), and Edmonton’s Paul Shufelt (Century Hospitality Group). It’s a tough crowd, so if you want to give Skinner and his crew some love and support on Twitter, you really should! Hell, blow some kisses to him via his Instagram. I encourage you to do both because he has no home court advantage in Kelowna. It’s very much a level playing field, and the isolation factor weighs heavily. Every note of encouragement counts!

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. I’m en route as we speak, heading up as per usual 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 #CCC2014. If you’re up in attendance, say hi! If you’re curious about what it looks like, at least from my perspective, check out this gallery I snapped a few years ago (2011?)…

Reverence, Respect, and Realization: What The Acorn Taught Me

At 21 years old, I'm still just a kid and relatively new to working in restaurants, but I grew up umbilically tied to the hospitality industry. My father was a food writer, and my mother is a photographer. Their careers meant that most of my early years were spent in kitchens and dining rooms instead of on playgrounds and soccer fields; consequently, I learned my table manners before I could count past one hundred.