High-calibre cooking
Top Chef Canada contestants help put P.E.I. on the map during International Shellfish Festival
Some familiar faces from TV could be found at the P.E.I. International Shellfish Festival in Charlottetown on the weekend.
Six chefs from season six of Top Chef Canada competed in this year’s Garland Canada International Chef Challenge with Darren Rogers of Montreal, Que. taking home the $10,000 grand prize. Rogers said it wasn’t the festival organizers who reached out to the chefs to come compete.
In fact, it was the chefs who reached out to the organizers.
“I thought it was a great opportunity to come and see what you guys have to offer and I really wasn’t let down,” said Rogers, who finished third on Top Chef Canada.
Rogers said the festival’s competition was the same level of intensity as when he was on TV.
“It’s the same calibre,” he said. “It doesn’t matter where you are in the world, if you have fresh produce there’s passion behind it. You can see it, taste it.”
The runner-up in the challenge was chef Jesse Zuber from Saskatoon, Sask.
The contestants weren’t the only familiar faces from TV. One of the challenge’s main judges was Chopped Canada host Brad Smith, who was also the first bachelor on the Bachelor Canada in 2012.
Since being on TV, many of the Top Chef alumni have grown a fanbase on social media.
Now the Shellfish Festival can be on those fans’ radars, said festival founder and chairman Liam Dolan.
“These people have a phenomenal following on Twitter and Facebook and all that so there are hundreds of thousands of people being Facebooked and Twittered on this festival all this weekend,” said Dolan. “That’s a lot of people being told where we are so it’s putting the Island on the map.”
Meanwhile, the festival also featured a number of other competitions such as the P.E.I. Potato Chowder Championship, the Tie One On Mussel Industry Competition and the Raspberry Point Oyster Shucking Championship. More than $26,000 in cash prizes was handed out during the festival.
Bands like the Love Junkies and the Big Bad Party Band provided entertainment throughout the festival, which began on Thursday and wrapped up Sunday.
Culinary demonstrations also took place including a Mott’s Clamato demo of how to make a proper Caesar.
Darel Walker of Sacramento, Calif. volunteered himself on stage to assist in making his firstever Caesar.
“We wanted to go to the Bay of Fundy and the people over there told us how beautiful this Island was so we decided to shoot on over here,” he said on stage. “I’m having a good time, it’s great.”
While final numbers for the weekend were not available by press time, last year’s festival brought in about 11,000 attendees.
Dolan said the festival has come a long way since its first year.
“It started in the banquet room of the yacht club 23 years ago,” he said.
The festival moved to bigger venues over the years before finding its home under a massive tent at the Charlottetown event grounds.
With the growing interest in the festival, Dolan said it may be time for an even bigger venue.
“We are outgrowing this tent,” he said.