The Current - Keith Pears thrilled to cook for Canada at culinary Olympics

Episode Date: January 27, 2025

Chef Keith Pears is leading Team Canada at the Bocuse d'Or, one of the world’s most prestigious culinary competitions. He says he can’t wait to get in the kitchen and “just cook his heart out.�� 

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This is a CBC Podcast. Hello, I'm Matt Galloway and this is The Current Podcast. Sounds like the cheering spectators at a marathon or maybe fans at an Olympic event, but that actually is the sound of the crowd at the Bocuse d'Or. One of the most prestigious culinary competitions takes place every two years in Lyon, France. 24 teams from around the world compete. And this year, Team Canada is one of the contenders, led by Chef Keith Pears, who is based in Toronto. We spoke with the chef earlier before competition got underway this morning.

This is kind of like the Olympics in some ways. If you are an athlete at the Olympics, you spend months and months training for your competition. How are you training for this? So basically we've built a team around us, like a good support system. And you know, we do a lot of research and development. Once we have our menu we basically do practice runs so just as a swimmer would practice their relays or you know a runner would do their sprints or whatever we basically follow those same movements

and we would act out what we would you know do in that five and a half hours. We build that muscle memory and we keep building better technique you know more precision more attention to detail all those kind of things. So explain how rebuild that muscle memory and we keep building better technique, you know, more precision, more attention to detail, all those kinds of things. So explain how this competition works. You said five and a half hours. Just describe what it is that you're up against. What are you doing?

So we have an imposed theme, you know, some guidelines that we have to follow. And within those guidelines, you know, recreate a menu. This year it's roe deer. So it's like a baby deer. And then we have to make a fruit garnish that's based on a fruit that's grown in our country. We have to make a foie gras and venison pie. And then we have to make a consomme from the bones.

And then we have to make a bi-coloured stuffed ravioli. So that's one theme. And the other theme is we have to make two celery act show pieces, 16 celery pieces, a lobster sabayon, and then we have to take stone bass and lobster and put it together and create like one individual bite. So yeah, that was a lot. That's a lot.

And then you're judged on all this. I mean, how are the judges assessing what you do? They're looking at creativity, they're looking at audacity, they're looking at taste, obviously, but they're also looking at like how me and my commie work well together. My commie is my junior chef who works beside me. They have to be under 22 years old on the day of the competition. So Joseph, my commie is 19. And then we were also given a second commie on the day of a person that we do not know. We're judged on teamwork and cleanliness and professionalism.

But you know, a lot of it is taste and appearance and creativity. I mentioned, I mean, the atmosphere. We heard the air horn going off earlier. What is it like in- Oh, it's wild. Yeah, it's crazy. It's exactly that I've attended live a couple times. It's such a thrilling, you know feeling to be in that atmosphere in that setting the country's fans are have their faces painted some of them have

Three-piece bands sharing them on like there's thousands of people out in the stands. It's pretty crazy. It's really intense. I was going to say, why would you want to be part of it? But you just kind of answered because it sounds like it's over the top in terms of the support, but also the enthusiasm that people have for this. Oh yeah. It's like some of the, we've got some good support this year. We've got about a hundred people going down from all across Canada.

So it's really nice. But you know, some of the standout countries that are always there, Japan, Norway, Denmark, obviously France, these countries always have a big fan base that come out. And I think it's just something you want to be a part of, right? You want to cheer on your country, even when the Olympics are on TV, right?

It's the same kind of thing. You grew up in a house that was surrounded by food. Tell me about this restaurant that your grandparents owned. So I grew up as a house that was surrounded by food. Tell me about this restaurant that your grandparents owned. So, I grew up as a little kid, and with my grandparents, I had a Chinese Western cafe. And then both my parents are chefs. Now they run their own little restaurant themselves in Vancouver.

But a lot of my early childhood memories are spent, you know, with my grandparents at the restaurant where I would play, are spent with my grandparents at the restaurant where I would play, spend time with my grandma, turn the open and close sign around, that kind of thing. When did you start cooking? Just at home, probably when I was like 12. But actually working in a professional kitchen,

I was started at 14 years old, washing dishes, doing prep work, portioning muscles, pasta, that's just thing with making you know, making pizza dough. What did you love about it? What did you love about cooking? Well, I didn't love it at first. It was a job?

Yeah, basically it was, because, you know, working for your parents at a young age, just trying to make some money to buy some shoes and clothes and things, you know, that's what you want to do when you're a teenager. So, but it was probably in my early 20s when I fell in love with cooking because I realized that cooking is an art form. And when I was able to combine flavors with the art and technique, that's when I was really fascinated by it. When you're able to turn, you know, a simple carrot

or a potato into so many different ways, that's what kind of really blew my mind and still does. So that's really what keeps me connected to it. One of the things with cooking is that you bring yourself into the food that you make. So how do you bring your identity in terms of who you are into the food that you cook? I think that's a great question. I'm half Chinese, half British, French, and you grew up in Canada, which is so diverse. I worked in hotels now for 14, 15 years prior to opening up my own restaurants. I work with many different people from all different backgrounds and cultures and ethnicities. I think that's what Canada also gives us a little bit of an edge is if you even,

if you look at my team, my team is quite diverse and you build a style of cooking. Definitely I enjoy Asian flavors, but I love combining and creating like reinventing classic dishes, just putting little twists on it. This competition is interesting because there are kind of feeder competitions that go into this and you were competing in the America's version of this and got a silver medal, is that right?

Yeah, yeah. The top five countries from Bocas de America advanced to the finals and replaced second. That's amazing. Yeah. Tell me about this. What did you make, alligator and grits? The imposed theme was to use alligator sausage because it was in New Orleans and they tried

to bring in that type of cuisine into the theme. So it was alligator sausage and we had to make with white heirloom corn grits and we had to take that and make like a casserole dish kind of thing. But obviously like we elevate it so we made out we actually made like alligator ragu and Holy Trinity is a very common. It's like celery based and Peppers based kind of like a mere paw. Yeah to New Orleans to Louisiana So and then we made alligator corn dogs as well.

Had you cooked with alligator before? To be honest, no, I haven't. It was the first time. But that's kind of the thing. You have to be able to adapt really quickly in these sorts of competitions, right? Definitely. I mean, that's what our training is for,

you know, a lot of that research and development and trying to figure out, you know, how we can really elevate this product and showcase it at its best quality. You got silver in that competition. What is your, I mean when you think in the wildest of dreams, what would a great finish be for you in this? I mean Canada's never hit top three in the finals, so the goal is definitely to hit the

podium. But, you know, I think we just want to show well at the end of the day we have to live with the results. But, you know, we're going to give it our all and I think flavor wise we can probably we can't compete with the best What does that mean to you to represent Canada? I mean again, this is back to the Olympic thing You'll talk to athletes and they'll say that it means so much to be able to wear that jersey regardless of their result They're just proud because they are representing this country and showing the best of this country. For you, what does it mean?

I try not to think too much about that because I try not to put too much pressure on myself. At the end of the day, I just want to go in that kitchen, go in that box and just cook my heart out. Um, but yeah, sometimes when I do think about it and I'm in that moment, uh, it means it's crazy, you know, to think that I'm actually representing the country. There's a lot of support.

I've gotten a lot of messages from people and it means the world to me. Your parents must be really proud of where you've landed. I think so. I think so. They don't tell me. I think they tell others to tell me. Sometimes parents do that, right? You feel ready? Definitely, yeah. We put in a lot of work. I'm sure just as much as the other countries.

So I think it's just going to come down to, at the end of the day, who can cook the best on that day. Good luck. Crush it. Thanks for talking to us. Thanks very much. I really appreciate it. Chef Keith Pears is leading Team Canada at the Bocuse d'Or culinary competition, started this morning in Lyon, France.