FROM CRUDE OIL TO OLIVE OIL
Oilsands worker cooks up a new career
It was December 2015 when Travis Petersen — along with thousands of others in Alberta — lost his job in the oil industry.
Now, as he revels in a new career in the culinary field, Petersen hopes his experience will show others that sometimes a bad thing becomes a good thing.
To mark his transition, and to celebrate Edmonton, Petersen is hosting a pop-up at Northern Chicken (10704 124 St.) March 8 at 7 p.m. The event costs $110, food only.
The Vancouver-born Petersen, 32, lived in Edmonton from 2010 to 2014 — before spending a brief time in Calgary — working for a British oil company as business development manager.
“Those years I spent in Edmonton had such an impact on my life; Edmonton will always be my second home,” says Petersen, who goes by the name The Nomad Cook. “I made lifelong connections, became a foodie who loved the diversity of food that YEG offered, and began cooking more and more at home.”
While living in Edmonton, Petersen applied to be a contestant on MasterChef Canada, and was one of 40 applicants invited on the show. He was eliminated in the second episode and came home more or less content to focus on his career in oil and gas.
But when he was laid off he thought, “Why not try something new?” Petersen set a goal of launching a career as a caterer-come-private-chef out of Kelowna, where he moved in January 2016.
While he has no formal training — he calls himself a typical millennial trained at the school of YouTube — Petersen has nonetheless cooked for more than four dozen events in the last year, including home dinner parties, group cooking classes and restaurant pop-ups.
Now, he’s embarked on a personal goal (he’s big on goals) of doing a dozen pop-ups nationwide in 2017 and has so far booked space in Toronto, Vancouver (where he now lives), Calgary, Halifax and Edmonton.
There are 40 spots available for the Northern Chicken pop-up. The theme is “my night out in YEG,” Petersen says.
The evening starts with Vietnamese pho, with noodles made from scallops.
“Everyone from Edmonton who is hungover meets their friends for pho to refresh,” he says. “And then, the last thing you do after a night on Whyte Avenue is get yourself a donair. I’m going to roll it into puff pastry and give it a quick deep fry with a mint yogurt.”
He’s making a sweet potato gnocchi with pea purée as an homage to Corso 32, and tacos inspired by Tres Carnales. For dessert? Something sweet that mimics Emergen-C (a fizzy vitamin drink) but made with sorbet and chocolate.
Petersen hopes his story will inspire others who have lost their jobs and aren’t sure what to do. Follow your heart, he says.
“The biggest thing is that human nature is to be afraid and think of the reasons why we would fail,” he says. “You need to fight through that. Anything is achievable if you put 100 per cent into it.”