A chef’s recipe for success
Pyne calls his menu selections ‘elevated rural dining, rooted in sea and soil’
The chef at a fine dining restaurant in Annapolis Royal has found the right balance between work and family life after a long journey that allowed him to cook in some of the top restaurants in Canada and the U.K.
Chris Pyne became the first chef at Founders House Dining and Drinks when the business opened last July. Before that, Pyne cooked at Michelin star restaurants in the U.K.
Pyne received his Red Seal international certification and journeyman qualification in his early 20s and graduated from the culinary school of the Southern Alberta Institute of Technology.
However, his career began as a 14-year-old when he cooked pub food in his father Michael's establishment in Airdrie, Alberta, called Killarney's Irish Pub. Throughout his teens and early 20s, Pyne's focus was to combine practical experience with formal study.
Hard work and persistence led to positions at high-end restaurants such as Notable in Calgary.
“I worked my way up until I realized I actually thoroughly enjoyed cooking and could see me doing it as a profession. I knew it was what I wanted to do, and I wanted to do it at the highest level I possibly could,” Pyne said during an interview.
Later, when Pyne and his fiancé returned to Canada, they decided to take the position in Annapolis Royal because she was from Nova Scotia.
Pyne said the chef's hat is not the only hat he wears at Founders House. He is truly a hands-on chef.
“I do everything from creating the menus to working online. I'm at the dinner and lunch service most every day. I'm the guy prepping and the guy helping out washing dishes. And now I'm taking on more of a corporate role as we expand the business,” Pyne said.
Although Pyne has experience with classical cooking techniques as well as modernist cuisine, he doesn't limit himself to either style.
“I like to find the best of both worlds.” Pyne feels he balances the best of both styles at Founders House.
“We like to call the menu elevated rural dining, rooted in sea and soil. We take those local ingredients and cook them with proper cooking techniques in a way that people may not have experienced before, Pyne said.
“We will have some dishes on the menu that are staples to some people, but with a modern twist, so it's like nothing they have ever had before at the same time.”
Pyne also values the close relationship he enjoys with local producers.
“They come to my back door personally. It's not like living in the city where your food arrives on a truck,” he said.
Pyne's skill set, experience and easygoing demeanour, are just what Founders House owner Laura Robinson was looking for in a head chef. Pyne certainly has contributed to the success of that business plan in the early days.
He won the 2019 Chowder Competition
at Saltscapes. Founders House won Best Restaurant in Nova Scotia from Taste of NS as well as the Diners Choice award from Open Table and the Best Restaurant from Restaurant Guru.
Pyne was also selected as the culinary representative of Atlantic Canada and attended the Seafood Expo in
Quindoa, China.
“Founders House would not be what it is without Chris,” Robinson said. “His innovation in food, his dedication to food, and how it's presented and how people perceive it and people's relationship with it is so important to our core value of supporting our local producers.”
I do everything from creating the menus to working online. I’m at the dinner and lunch service most every day. I’m the guy prepping and the guy helping out washing dishes. And now I’m taking on more of a corporate role as we expand the business. Chris Pyne