Ray Marvin Syegco
Owner, Incoho Restaurant Corp. St. Catharines, Ont.
When Ray Marvin Syegco arrived in Canada, he had been studying nursing back home, with little aspiration for the foodservice industry. But something changed along the way. Without enough credits to continue his nursing pursuit in Canada, he applied to the Niagara College Culinary Management Course, where he took his first steps towards becoming a leader both in and out of the kitchen.
While in school, Syegco worked in Trius Winery under executive chef Frank Dodd, where he became sous chef at the young age of 25. But it was what he did during the off-season that really shaped him. He interned at several Michelin- starred restaurants across the U.S., including El Ideas in Chicago and Aldea in New York. During his time there he noticed that life as a chef/cook is draining and this inspired him to make a change.
In 2019, at the age of 27, he opened Incoho Restaurant with the goal of creating a more balanced, welcoming and sustainable environment for his back-of-house workers. His business has not only survived during the pandemic, it has done well and he’s been able to keep all of his employees.
As for the future, Syegco is hard at work preparing to open Alitura in 2021 in Niagara-on-the-Lake, Ont.
