How Top Chef: Destination Canada is Putting the Spotlight on Canadian Cuisine

Top Chef: Destination Canada is showing the world that Canada has become a food destination. For the upcoming 22nd season of Top Chef, the team is filming in Canada, using Canadian ingredients, and incorporating Canadian cooking styles. It is an enormous task to tackle an entire country, especially since Top Chef normally focuses on one large American city.

When you ask anyone what they think of when they think of Canadian food, you are likely to hear poutine and nothing else. While poutine might be one of the most significant contributions to modern Canadian cuisine, it is not a solo act.

As I traveled through Canada and broke bread with top chefs across the country, I ate very different meals. However, with each meal, I was always impressed with the regional similarities of Canadian food, the innovation of the cuisine, and the way Canadian cuisine created community.

Regional Similarities 

Despite Canada's enormous size, certain culinary patterns create a surprisingly cohesive food identity. From Vancouver to Prince Edward Island, there is an emphasis on local and seasonal ingredients. Not every province grows or harvests the same things, but they all prize and celebrate their own ingredients.

I was told again and again that winter is long in Canada, so you need to use everything you grow during the short summer and find a way to preserve it.

Preservation techniques represent another unifying element. From Atlantic salt cod to prairie smoked meats to West Coast salmon smoking, Canadians have developed similar approaches to extending the shelf life of local bounty. In the prairie provinces, the pickling and canning of fresh vegetables is still happening as young entrepreneurs find the love of farming and pickling produce.

My favorite find was the Quebecois Fruit Ketchup, which was made from leftover fruit from any season combined with vinegar and spices and is eaten as a condiment on pork or beef.

Farm to Table 

From Quebec's maple syrup to the barley dishes in Calgary and fresh oysters and mussels in the Maritimes, Canadian chefs are cooking farm-to-table in a way that truly honors their food. 

In fact, they are cooking farm-to-table in a way I have never quite seen before. Many chefs forgo the use of lemon and peppercorns because these ingredients aren't grown in Canada and instead, rely on herbs and foraged food to simulate those flavors.

Nowhere was this more apparent than in Charlevoix, Quebec. This summer playground is an agricultural hot spot. Small farms dot the landscape, and when I toured the farms, we were able to see how they supplied meat for the entire province despite the size of the operation. At Pecheries Charlevoix, the owner, Julie, uses the entirety of the fish she catches, harvesting the meat of the fish, making lamps from dried-out black sturgeon skins, and earrings from the remainder of the skin. 

The fish is sold locally, and I was able to eat her fresh-caught cod down the road at Le Saint-Pub. This is but one small example of organic and fresh food being used to build community.

When restaurants in Charlevoix say "farm-to-table," they mean it literally — the vegetables on your plate might have been harvested just hours earlier from fields visible through the restaurant window. Farmers and chefs work together closely, building personal relationships rather than business transactions.

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Canadian Food Innovation

It seems that in Canada, there are no rules about how to cook and what type of food to cook. In addition, there is a relatively open immigration policy, and the food is much more international than one would expect.

Culinary programs across the country often integrate foundational French techniques with the nuanced methods of Asian cuisines, encouraging students to cultivate their own distinct culinary flavors. Farmers' markets across the nation offer a delightful array of locally sourced ingredients that were recently grown on Canadian soil.

The beauty of this food innovation is that despite the spices and flavors that other cuisines bring to Canada, they're still working with local products and local ways to preserve food.  

For example, the First Nations’ smoking practices preserve meat for the winter, Eastern European pickling traditions make produce long-lasting and tasty, and Asian fermentation methods have joined the other two. These influences have shaped a uniquely Canadian approach to managing seasonal bounty.

What emerges from these practices is not a chaotic jumble of flavors but rather a carefully intentional new cuisine. These vibrant new food ideas have led to really delicious cuisine. At Ten Foot Henry in Calgary, I ate local sweet carrots that had been cooked traditionally, but that were topped with pickled slaw (an Alberta Classic), berbere (a North African Spice), and pecan dukkah (an Egyptian condiment), a delightful mix of global cuisine.

Building Community Through Food

Food has long served as the centerpiece of community building in Canada and the United States. While the types of food and celebrations are different throughout the country, the communities that result from them are very similar.

Maple syrup production exemplifies community-building food traditions. The labor-intensive process of tapping trees and boiling sap has historically required cooperation among family members and neighbors. Today's "sugar shack" gatherings during syrup season maintain this spirit, bringing people together to celebrate the year's harvest while eating maple-infused treats.

On Prince Edward Island, lobster suppers continue to bring the community together for a fundraiser. Hundreds of lobsters are boiled in pots, while some guests bring fresh mussels, and others make homemade soups, breads, and pies. They are a way to celebrate the bounty of the season and contribute back to the community.

Farmers' markets bring people together in towns and cities across Canada. They're more than just places to buy food — they're weekly community gatherings where city people meet and talk with farmers. The markets also help locals buy really fresh and local meats, produce, and handicrafts. 

Food festivals throughout Canada strengthen the community's identity while welcoming visitors. The Prince Edward Island Shellfish Festival, Quebec's Winter Carnival with its maple taffy, Calgary's Stampede pancake breakfasts, and Richmond's Night Markets all showcase distinct regional foods while creating shared experiences that help make Canada the mosaic that it is today.

Top Chef: Destination Canada is exciting because it will showcase the diversity of Canadian food, the farm-to-table culture,  and how provinces across Canada celebrate their food. You will all want to go back for seconds.