Adam Rapsey NOBLE
Adam Rapsey, executive sous-chef of the Prince of Wales hotel, graduated from Niagara College 16 years ago. “It was an exciting time down here,” he remembers, “with wine-country cuisine just taking off and the Food Network making chefs into stars. I wanted to work in the hotel world with people who wanted a career, not just a job.” His first position was at the Pillar and Post, another property with the Vintage Hotels group; he joined the Prince of Wales in 2011.
Noble restaurant (formerly Escabèche) is the jewel in the crown but the kitchen also meets all the hotel’s needs from breakfast to weddings and its famous afternoon tea. Staff meals take place in a staff lounge with numbers nudging 150 in the height of the season, though these days, the restaurant is busy year-round. Back home in St. Catharines, meanwhile, Rapsey is teaching his two daughters to cook healthy, homemade food. “One of them is six, the other is almost two,” he explains. “So we’re really just beginning.”
“A working meal should be easy to whip up, but you’re cooking for your colleagues, so there’s a certain amount of pride involved!”