Jay Park, chef de cuisine of Boulevard Kitchen and Oyster Bar, won gold Saturday night at the
2026 Canadian Culinary Championship
in Ottawa, marking the third consecutive win for B.C.’s representative at the national competition.
His dish, served to both a panel of judges and just over 500 guests at the Rogers Centre in Ottawa, was a feat of technique and a celebration of chicken. It followed in the playbook of recent winners from B.C. chefs in that it presented a multitude of small, highly technical, canapé-like components.
Winning silver was Toronto chef Jonathan Williams of the Park Hyatt Toronto, who served a dish of beef short rib pastrami with what his description called a “very good carrot.”
Winning bronze was Ottawa’s Jason Sawision of
Stofa Restaurant on Wellington Street West.
His eclectic, complex dish starred everything from perfectly cooked scallop to a chorizo shrimp toast nugget to poblano pepper sauce to mango salsa.
Last fall, Sawision beat four other Ottawa chefs
to win the right to represent the city at the national event.
In past years at the championship, Ottawa’s culinary scene has been well-represented on the podium. In 2023,
chef Briana Kim
, who recently opened her much-anticipated restaurant
Antheia,
won gold
. In 2019, chef Yannick La Salle, now the Supreme Court of Canada’s chef,
prevailed
. Atelier chef Marc Lepine is the only two-time winner of the Canadian Culinary Championship, having won in 2012 and 2016.
The event is in its 19th year, and was held in Kelowna, B.C. before it relocated to Ottawa in 2020.
Below, I’ve ranked the night’s entries from my favourite dish down to my least favourite dish. I thought that most were pretty good to very good and a few were excellent. And yet, the judges’ panel and I arrived at different rankings. You’ll see from my remarks that a fair amount of subjectivity, rather than analysis and precise scoring, was involved.
1. Niguel De Leon, Atelier Tony, Moncton
Dry-aged duck, dumpling, preserved berries, condiments, jus
This dish from a Philippines-born chef who has cooked at the French Laundry in California struck me as quite cohesive, tasty, personal and even whimsical. After all, I’ve never before had an edible feather made of duck skin.
It’s true that this dish’s main component, a slice of duck and chicken terrine, was a touch chunky and the dumpling could have registered a bit more. But I was a fan of its mix of forthright flavours, including refreshing berries, a jus with oomph and a forceful shiitake-based XO sauce. That said, I did hear from two prominent Ottawa-area chefs that the XO sauce was too potent for them.
2. Emily Butcher, Nola, Winnipeg
Smoked duck and squash dumplings, massaman curry sauce, black-pepper glazed octopus, fermented kohlrabi slaw, toasted peanut, puffed wild rice
This dish was also fun and uninhibited, with a thoroughly creative exploration of big, Thai-inspired flavours. I thought that everything worked together and the dish was nicely balanced. Again, though, I did hear from a guest or two who found some of the flavours, such as the curry sauce, “too much” for their liking.
3. Jaeyoung (Jay) Park, Boulevard Kitchen & Oyster Bar, Vancouver
Wingtat Canada chicken ‘poulet pressé’, Gochujang gastrique-glazed chicken heart, Crispy chicken skin ‘tartlet’ with chicken liver mousse, Butternut squash globe, Chicken jus with chicken fat infused with garlic & thyme
This dish absolutely had the makings of a winner, resembling the triumphal dishes served by other Vancouver-based chefs at recent Canadian Culinary Championships insofar as it presented multiple small components that were impeccably crafted. If this dish were a figure skating routine, it would be a series of triple Lutzes, impossible not to admire and respect. But as I did last year, I have to muse about whether what could be seen as an assortment of snacks is somehow less laudable than a dish that is more like a small plate, attempting to meld its components into a cohesive dish.
4. Jason Sawision, Stofa Restaurant, Ottawa
Seared scallop with adobo, taro Aji Amarillo fritter, almond pudding, mango salsa, ‘chorizo’ shrimp toast, poblano pepper sauce, tortilla tuile, cilantro
The hometown entry threw off plenty of creative and even cross-cultural sparks. It had a lot going for it, including a very enjoyable and properly cooked warm scallop and a beguiling miniature spin on shrimp toast. It’s also a good representation of
chef Jason Sawision’s
unrestrained cooking at his Wellington Street West restaurant.
5. Kevin Monych, Hearth Restaurant, Saskatoon
Bacon-wrapped rabbit saddle, filled with a shallot, garlic, and thyme-infused pork sausage and smoked rabbit leg. Served with parsnip & potato pave, tuile, powdered leek, fondant celeriac, plum, chervil, reindeer moss, rabbit jus
It’s as if the night’s three rabbit terrine-based plates were a mini-competition within a competition. I think the best realized of these dishes was the entry from Saskatoon chef Kevin Monych, whose assortment of components made the most sense to me.
6. Tyson Wright, The Old Red Barn, Edmonton
Sych Homestead Bison Cheek, Black Garlic Glaze, Saskatoons, Parsnip, Smoked Birch
This was the night’s most straightforward meat-plus-starch dish. The bison cheek had been properly braised and had good flavour. The Saskatoon berries registered as too sour for my palate, and the dish was arguably the safest and simplest entry in the field.
7. Jonathan Williams, Park Hyatt Toronto, Toronto
Beef short rib pastrami, a very good carrot, rye crumble, horseradish cream
With this meat-and-veg dish, the carrot on my plate was preferable to the insufficiently tender short rib pastrami. While I love short ribs and I love pastrami, somehow this dish did not bring the best of these two iconic meats to the plate.
8. Lacey Coffin, Vu Resto Bar, St. John’s
Rabbit and pistachio terrine on top of Mt. Scio Crumb, and Newfoundland wildberry chutney, served with onion and savoury leaf tuile, and tree bark. Accompanied by a pickled Ontario peach, Newfoundland turnip greens, and Newfoundland beets gel
Obviously, a great deal of thought and work went into this rabbit terrine. But the final dish did not have the impact of the other dishes in the competition.
9. Isaël Gadoua, Restaurant Chez Jean-Paul, Montreal
French fries panna cotta and poireaux vinaigrette
Full marks for cleverness to this low-brow-meets-high-concept dish, which mashed up French fries and an Italian dessert. But I did find it out of whack with respect to its richness, and I wondered if it was a component rather than a full dish all on its own.
10. Dean Fast, Rouge Restaurant, Calgary
Mangalitsa Belly wrapped rabbit loin, stuffed with wild mushrooms and spinach, gouda gougere with rabbit pate, parsnip and squash Bavarois, crabapple butter, rabbit and mustard jus
This was my least favourite rabbit terrine dish, and also my least favourite dish, due to the “gougère,” which alluded to a light French savoury pastry, but was too dense and too cold and its core nugget of rabbit offal did not register as a tasty treat.
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