Centre Wellington District High School’s teacher/chef Chris Jess is in St. John’s Newfoundland “representing Canada on a plate” at the Canadian Culinary Marketplace in celebration of Food Day Canada.
“The reason that I’m really going is because of Roary MacPherson,” Jess said.
“He’s this like sort of godfather of food in Newfoundland and I teach at the high school here and I’ve had him come as a celebrity chef to work with my students to put on a meal.”
It was MacPherson who asked Jess to come to St. John’s and the Food Day Canada dinner on July 30, which will be the third meal they have prepared together.
“We’ll all be representing aspects of how we experience the country through food,” Jess said.
As of July 26 Jess was still working on his menu, but he said he’d likely be focusing on merging the best vegetables available in Ontario and lake fish into a single dish.
In addition to preparing a dish for the Canadian Culinary Marketplace on Food Day Canada, Jess will be participating in a culinary tour of Newfoundland.
“I’ll be going to the farmer’s market and all the happening restaurants and basically getting a glimpse of the food scene in Newfoundland while I’m there,” Jess said.
He will also spend some time networking.
“I concentrate all of my efforts obviously on my job here with kids, which is lovely and it’s so great to be able to connect with people outside of our community here and into Toronto and into Ontario and into Canada as a whole,” Jess said.
“I’m always looking for that magical chef who’s going to want to come to our community because we’ve had eight chefs that I’ve brought now from all across the country to come to Fergus to work with our kids.
“So I’m always looking for those golden opportunities to bring chefs to inspire our kids here in our community.”
Jess also said it’s an “artistic moment” to be able to display his own culinary development.
“It’s my trade … my form of expression is through food,” he said.
