Aboriginal Team Canada takes its place on world stage

The days were long and intense–and worth every minute.
“It was an extremely emotional day,” said Chef Ben Genaille, who led Aboriginal Culinary Team Canada at the World Culinary Olympics at Erfurt, Germany in October.

The team, consisting of Faith Vickers, who prepared tapas; Paul Natrall, who completed a platter display for eight people; and, Samantha Nyce, who presented a five-course plated lunch meal, was exhausted by the time they had their cold plates ready for judging. Each dish consisted of Indigenous ingredients from British Columbia, ranging from seaweed from the Nass to traditionally prepared salmon. The ingredients were shipped in locked crates and kept secret up until the day they were needed. Team members spent 33 straight hours awake leading up to plating their food. The day before they worked for 18 hours.

The team earned a diploma “in recognition of outstanding achievements” in a competition with 46 other teams, but more important than that, team members earned their coach’s praise.
“These guys can hold their heads up so high,” Genaille said.
Genaille isn’t the only one proud of the work undertaken by the Aboriginal culinary team.

“They were phenomenal,” said Donald Gyurkovits, president of the Canadian Culinary Federation/ Fédération Culinaire Canadienne. The team is “still developing,” but Gyurkovits’ international friends who were at the competition commented on the professionalism of the members.

“They really showed they are stand-up members of the chefs’ community around the world.”

Genaille was particularly impressed by how team members pulled together to help each other in preparing the food. While other teams had entourages who helped in the preparation work and displaying the food, the Aboriginal culinary team members did it all themselves.

Genaille said the best advice he ever received when dealing with his team came from Chef Ben Pernosky, who was a coach with the national culinary team in 2008. Genaille asked Pernosky to help coach the Aboriginal team. Pernosky helped out for a year-and-a-half and then backed down.

“(Pernosky) said I need to let these guys do it by themselves,” said Genaille. “When coaches become involved, it becomes (the coaches’) food.”

After their plates were turned out, team members “walked around in haze for a while just very pleased with the whole effort,” before returning to their hotel to catch a few hours of sleep. But when they awoke and went out for dinner, the conversation turned to how to give back for the opportunity they had just received.

“The conversation for the last four years has been about them being role models in the Aboriginal world and now sharing that they have done this journey and the possibilities are there for everybody to go on that journey,” Genaille said.

Now back on Canadian soil in Vancouver, Genaille will turn his attention to promoting the program and raising money to allow the 2016 team to participate in both national and international events leading up to the next Culinary Olympics. It cost about $40,000 for the Aboriginal culinary team to participate in Erfurt. Genaille said he heard rumours that one Canadian team raised $700,000 for its participation.

Genaille is hopeful that based on the Aboriginal team’s success and experience in taking part in an international competition, he will be able to get sponsors more readily, which will allow him to increase his team to 12 members and prepare both cold and hot foods.

“It seems as if a few more doors are opening now and there’s interest,” he said.

Team members have already started making presentations, focusing on high schools with large numbers of Aboriginal students. Genaille expects to start promoting and fundraising in the west and work his way east. A fundraiser is already scheduled for Dec. 8, with the Culinary Arts program at Thompson Rivers University in Kamloops hosting an evening of dining with foods prepared by Aboriginal Culinary Team Canada.
Gyurkovits would like to see Genaille extend the invitation to join the team to Aboriginal chefs across the country. By doing so, Gyurkovits said, the Indigenous ingredients used for the food could include product outside of BC. He also offers the Canadian Culinary Federation help to further Genaille’s cause, noting the membership for the organization spreads across the country. Gyurkovits said he knows there is interest in the Aboriginal culinary team.

If the Aboriginal culinary team wants to present both hot and cold foods, Gyurkovits said, the team could compete in the catering category, which serves hot food, along with the regional category, for the cold food.

Photo caption: Donald Gyurkovits, president of the Canadian Culinary Federation/ Fédération Culinaire Canadienne (centre) stands with members of the Aboriginal culinary team (from left) Paul Roy Natrall, Samantha Nyce, Faith Vickers, and Chef Ben Genaille.