Slow Food Vancouver Island and Gulf Islands

The Slow Food Foundation for Biodiversity is very happy to
welcome Canada to the Chef's Alliance

The founding members of the Chefs' Alliance in Canada have been recognized for their dedication to a local food culture.
Their menus are a vibrant representation of the cultivated and wild bounty that makes Canadian cuisine truly unique. 

On the West Coast, these Slow Food chefs are:

Cory Pelan * Whole Beast	Clif Lear * Fol Epi Agrius	Brad Holmes * Olo
Oliver Kienast * Wild Mountain	David Gunawan * Farmer's Apprentice Grapes & Soda Royal Dinette	Jesse McCleery * Pilgrimme

The prestigious International Foundation for Biodiversity Slow Food Chefs’ Alliance announces the first Canadian chefs to commit themselves to defending food biodiversity in their restaurants and shops. They join a network of chefs in Italy, the U.S.A., the Netherlands, Mexico, Albania and 

Morocco defending biodiversity around the world. Montreal is the home base for chefs representing Eastern Canada, while founding Chefs on the West Coast are based in Vancouver, Vancouver Island and on the Gulf Islands.

“It’s important to recognize the chefs who are genuinely engaged in their local food communities, “ said Vancouver Island and Gulf Islands Slow Food convivium leader Brooke Fader. “It’s fascinating to see these chefs using similar local ingredients, but creating a cuisine that is unique to each of them,” she said.
“They support local food production all year, not just ‘when possible’. They work hard tocreate a reciprocity with their producers and their guests, elevating the identity of Canadian cuisine.”

Slow Food Alliance chefs travel and meet with one another, participating in events, sharing ingredients and cooking together. Our West Coast chefs have chosen to share an ingredient with each other that they have in abundance: Jesse - pickled bull kelp; Dave - quince jam; Cory - porcini salami; Brad - lemon drop hot sauce; Clif - Red Fife wheat; Oliver - grand fir honey.

Slow Food involves over a million people dedicated to and passionate about good, clean and fair food. This includes chefs, youth, activists, farmers, fishers, experts and academics in over 158 countries; a network of around 100,000 Slow Food members linked to 1,500 local chapters worldwide (known as convivia), contributing through their membership fee, as well as the events and campaigns they organize; and over 2,500 Terra Madre food communities who practice small-scale and sustainable production of quality food around the world.