Over the course of a chilly winter weekend in Ottawa, ten of Canada’s top chefs competed for the title of the Canadian Culinary Champion. Chef Lizardo Becerra of Raphaël Peruvian Cuisine won the regional qualifier last fall and competed on behalf of Ottawa. Ahead of the event, Chef Lizardo said that “having the opportunity to represent Ottawa, as a Peruvian Canadian chef at the Canadian Culinary Championship is a great honour and I am looking forward to doing my best!”.
To kick things off, chefs were given a mystery bottle of wine, 24 hours to create a dish, and $700 to shop for enough ingredients to prepare plates for 300 attendees. In front of a sold out crowd on Friday night, the wine was revealed to be MW Cellars 2023 Semillon, a white wine from a brand new Niagara-on-the-Lake winery. MW winemaker Marty Werner donated over 150 bottles of the $25 wine to this fundraising event. Chef Lizardo Becerra’s dish of beet cured Hokkaido scallop crudo with citrus Grana Padano foam, spiced cucumber / charred basil nuts/ lemongrass plantain earned him the People’s Choice Award while the competition’s Culinary Judges tasted each plate and judged them blindly but didn’t reveal a winner.
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Saturday’s Black Box challenge started bright and early at Collège La Cité where chefs were tasked with preparing two dishes using seven mystery ingredients in only one hour. Attendees watched the live cooking competition on 360 degree screens, enjoying live commentary from Mat Beausoleil, Food Critic & Advisor and a member of the Ottawa Nightlife Council. The seven ingredients were sourced from across Canada and included mushrooms from Ottawa’s Heartee Foods. Once again, the Culinary Judges tested each dish blindly and scored each dish, focused on the creativity each chef brought to the competition.
To end the competition, chefs prepared their signature dishes and a winner was crowned. Chef Alex Kim of Vancouver’s Five Sails Restaurant, took home gold for his finale dish entitled “Taste of Pacific Northwest” along with his creativity and execution at the other two stages of competition. Chef Jordan Holden of Atelier Tony & Tony’s Bistro in Moncton, New Brunswick won silver and Chef François-Emmanuel Nicol of Tanière, Quebec City won bronze.
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While the competition featured chefs from across the country, there was a strong Ottawa focus with local ingredients, local venues such as Collège La Cité and the Rogers Centre, a charitable element benefiting local organizations, and support from Algonquin College culinary arts students. The Glebe’s own Knifewear was a national prize partner and provided knives. Over the last 19 years the event has raised $19 million for Canadian charities. Beneficiaries this year were Spirit North, MusiCounts, Ottawa Network for Education (ONFE), and BGC Ottawa.
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The 2025 Canadian Culinary Championship took place January 31-February 1. The event will return to Ottawa January 29-31, 2026. Regional qualifiers will take place in fall 2025.
