By Amy Bostock
With more than 24 years experience in the kitchen and a Red Seal from the Southern Alberta Institute of Technology (SAIT), chef Kevin Pelissier is no stranger to commercial kitchens.
“I’ve cooked in restaurants, hotels and golf courses,” says the 46-year-old chef, whose first restaurant job was bus boy at a White Spot in Victoria. “Throughout my career, I’ve had the opportunity to cook in fine dining, catering, and large-scale events and career highlights include travelling to Whistler before the 2010 Olympics, where I served as the team chef for Team Canada’s bobsleigh and skeleton program. Our restaurant also catered for the Calgary Stampeders training camp for three seasons in Calgary.”
Pelissier, who now resides in Burlington, Ont. with his family, says his cooking philosophy revolves around the use of simple ingredients to create a bold dish as he leverages various cooking techniques to develop flavours. “Whether braising slow and low or cooking with an open flame to enhance dishes, simple is often better when done right,” he maintains. “It’s also important to know where your food comes from. Being in Ontario, we have a large growing region, and I like to shop locally as much as possible, especially when produce is in season.”
Cooking Outside the Box
In this industry, says Pelissier, the passion for your work has to be there. “You have to put time in, which often includes long, hard hours working on the line, in a banquet kitchen peeling vegetables, or late nights scrubbing the kitchen. But at the end of it, if you can push through, you can find the right fit to work doing something you love. That has been my experience.”
The Victoria, B.C. native found his ‘right fit’ with restaurant-equipment giant RATIONAL Canada, where he heads the company’s culinary team as the National Corporate Chef. In this role, he helps show Canadian chefs and foodservice professionals how the company’s iCombi and iVario product lines can help their business.
“Having used RATIONAL in my own kitchen in 2006, I was very aware of the impact that its combi technology had on my business,” says Pelissier. “When the chance to join RATIONAL came up, I saw it as an opportunity to continue my career as a chef and promote a brand I truly believe in.”
It also helped him find balance in his career. It’s no secret that the demanding nature of the culinary industry can lead to a lack of work-life balance and resulting burnout. But since moving from working in commercial kitchens to working for RATIONAL, the father of two says he can “truly appreciate a more standardized and predictable working schedule. This has improved my overall work balance.”
He says his favourite part of working at RATIONAL is showing operators how the right equipment can help kitchens run more efficiently and take some pressure of its team. “I’m helping to better the lives of people working in kitchens across Canada. Working in a kitchen can be a tough gig, so being able to impact this really give me purpose in my day-to-day role.”
But Pelissier says most young chefs aren’t aware of culinary opportunities outside of restaurants and says it’s important to spread the word about less traditional career options such as his role at RATIONAL. “I don’t think young cooks in schools or restaurants know what lateral positions exist in our industry. From R&D and development to food sciences and sales, there are a number of career paths for young chefs to explore and this should be promoted more often.”
Achieving this balance has also allowed Pelissier to focus more energy on mentoring the next generation, as many chefs did for him during his culinary journey.
“Mentoring is a crucial part of our industry,” he says. “We continue to learn throughout our careers so chefs and leaders taking the time to teach and coach me was so valuable. In my role now, I spend a lot of time training our team. I love hearing something I taught years ago being passed on by someone else. This means they not only listened, but they understood and can now teach it. I love seeing this transfer of information. This is why I became an apprentice years ago, and I am very thankful to all the people who invested in my success.”
