Ottawa chef wins Canadian Culinary Championship
An Ottawa chef has won Canada's top culinary prize.
Briana Kim, of Ottawa's Alice Restaurant, won the 2023 Canadian Culinary Championship, held this weekend in Ottawa. She was the winner of the Great Kitchen Party Ottawa last September, which qualified her for the national competition.
Kim was the unanimous first-place choice among judges this weekend at the championship. Her winning dish was a plant-based offering of onion tuile, smoked potatoes, rhubarb jerky, maitake mushrooms, pickled onion, dill, lacto-fermented green tomato and koji broth, the same dish that won her the regional title.
Chef Briana Kim's gold medal-winning dish: onion tuile, smoked potatoes, rhubarb jerky, maitake, pickled onion, dill sour cream, facto green tomato and koji broth. (Great Kitchen Party Ottawa)
"I feel overwhelmed and so excited," Kim said in a media release. "My team and I dreamt about winning the Canadian Culinary Championship. We couldn’t have prepared more for this competition, ever since we were selected for the regional event. We worked hard and our hard work paid off."
Kim attended the University of Ottawa before starting Café My House, a plant-based restaurant in Hintonburg. She closed it and opened the vegetable and fermentation-focused Alice in 2019, which was one of Canada's top 100 restaurants in 2022. This was Kim's second time appearing in the Canadian Culinary Championship.
The silver medal was awarded to Bobby Milheron of Homer St. Café and Bar in Vancouver for his dish of wild Canadian geoduck, BC spot prawn terrine, sunchoke and bull kelp in shellfish jus. The bronze was awarded to Serge Belair of the Edmonton Convention Center for his selection of desserts: warm chocolate cake, white wine sabayon, sous vide pear, gorgonzola roasted pear ice cream and citrus pear macaron.
The competition was interrupted Saturday when, during the second event, a power outage at the venue, Algonquin College, prevented the chefs from preparing their dishes. That meant that the judging was based on Friday's "Mystery Wine Competition", during which Kim won the People's Choice award, and the Grand Finale, which was held Saturday evening at the Shaw Centre to a sold-out crowd of 550 attendees.
Proceeds from the event go to support three Canadian beneficiaries: Spirit North, MusiCounts and the Ottawa Boys and Girls Club.
CTVNews.ca Top Stories
Sophie Gregoire Trudeau on navigating post-political life, co-parenting and freedom
Sophie Gregoire Trudeau says there is 'still so much love' between her and Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, as they navigate their post-separation relationship co-parenting their three children.
What to know about avian influenza in dairy cows and the risk to humans
Why is H5N1, or bird flu, a concern, how does it spread, and is there a vaccine? Here are the answers to some frequently asked questions about avian influenza.
'I was scared': Ontario man's car repossessed after missing two repair loan payments
An Ontario man who took out a loan to pay for auto repairs said his car was repossessed after he missed two payments.
opinion The special relationship between King Charles and the Princess of Wales
Royal commentator Afua Hagan writes that when King Charles recently admitted Catherine to the Order of the Companions of Honour, it not only made history, but it reinforced the strong bond between the King and his beloved daughter-in-law.
Pro-plastic lobbyist presence at UN talks is 'troubling,' say advocates
Environmentalist groups are sounding the alarm about a steep increase in the number of pro-plastic lobbyists at the UN pollution talks taking place this week.
'Too young to have breast cancer': Rates among young Canadian women rising
Breast cancer rates are rising in Canada among women in their 20s, 30s and 40s, according to research by the University of Ottawa (uOttawa).
Charlie Woods, son of Tiger, shoots 81 in U.S. Open qualifier
Charlie Woods failed to advance in a U.S. Open local qualifying event Thursday, shooting a 9-over 81 at Legacy Golf & Tennis Club.
$70M Lotto Max winners kept prize a secret from family for 2 months
During a special winner celebration near their hometown, Doug and Enid shared the story of how they discovered they were holding a Lotto Max ticket worth $70 million and how they kept this huge secret for so long.
Trump's lawyers grill ex-tabloid publisher as 1st week of hush money trial testimony nears a close
After prosecutors' lead witness painted a tawdry portrait of “catch-and-kill” tabloid schemes, defence lawyers in Donald Trump's criminal trial on Friday sought to dig into an account of the former publisher of the National Enquirer and his efforts to protect Trump from negative stories during the 2016 election.