They are grouped under the umbrella qualifications through which they qualified for participation. As chefs, restaurateurs—or both. Anyone involved in associated businesses, from butcher shops to cookbook stores, are grouped under the heading of culinary industry. Then there are journalists, some of them food writers. Finally, there are professionals in unrelated work, who have the passion, experience and good taste to deserve their say, too.

Rob Feenie

Chef

Rob Feenie is the corporate chef for the Cactus Club Café group, Canada’s A casual fine dining chain with 25 thriving restaurants and an $18-million Toronto flagship scheduled to open in 2015. He was Canada’s first Iron Chef America champion. His fine dining restaurant Lumière (since closed) was the first restaurant in Canada to be awarded membership in the enormously prestigious Traditions & Qualité, les Grand Tables du Monde.

David Hawksworth

Chef, Restaurateur

Chef David Hawksworth learned his trade in the UK under some of the best chefs of the 1990s. When he returned to Vancouver to open Ouest (later re-christened West), he helped to create an entirely new West Coast culinary vocabulary that made it the best restaurant in town. Now he continues that work at his own eponymous restaurant in the Rosewood Hotel Georgia—to be followed later this year by a more casual offspring.

Yannick Bigourdan  

Restaurateur, Businessman

In 2001, after years at the Four Seasons Hotel in Beverly Hills and later Yorkville, Yannick Bigourdan brought his unique panache and professionalism to his own projects—Splendido and then Nota Bene. Having sold both of those he now concentrates on his new restaurant, The Carbon Bar, and his clothing stores—the North American outlets of the chic Parisian men’s retailer, Loding.

Lynn Crawford   

Chef, Restaurateur, TV Star

In 2010, after many years spent helming the kitchens of the Four Seasons Hotel in Yorkville, and then in NYC, Lynn Crawford headed in a surprising new direction and opened Ruby Watchco, a modest, casual restaurant in tune with the culinary zeitgeist. She also finds time to be a Food Network star, hosting Pitchin’ In, and appearing regularly on Restaurant Makeover and Chopped Canada.

Mark McEwan   

Chef, Restaurateur, Businessman

Mark McEwan is the executive chef and owner of four top Toronto restaurants: Fabbrica, One at the Hazelton, Bymark and North 44—now entering its 25th year. He also owns two catering companies and a 23,000-square-foot fine food emporium called McEwan Fine Foods. He was head judge on Top Chef Canada for its four-year run on Food Network.

David Lee   

Chef, Restaurateur

David Lee’s talents as a chef are as varied as they are remarkable. Over his eight years as chef and co-owner of the Toronto institution Splendido, he demonstrated a great gift  for refined and imaginative haute cuisine. Then at Nota Bene he displayed the same fresh and sophisticated approach to more casual and approachable cuisine.

Anthony Walsh  

Executive Chef

As the executive chef in charge of the culinary program for the sprawling Oliver & Bonacini chain, Anthony Walsh essentially does the impossible. He oversees the food program and menu development for nine entirely different restaurant concepts spread over 12 southern Ontario locations—and by 2015, he will have opened two more in Calgary and Montreal. He does it all with passion, and with his culinary reputation and love of cooking uncompromised.

Steve Alexander
Culinary Industry

Paul Alsop
Culinary Industry

John Aylen
Gourmet

Rosemary Bacovsky
Gourmet

Riccardo Bertolino
Chef

Yannick Bigourdan
Restaurateur

Kelly Black & Jayme MacFayden
Restaurateurs

Dany Bolduc
Chef

Jeremy Bonia
Restaurateur

Suzanne Boyd
Journalist

Melissa Buote
Journalist

James Chatto
Journalist

Jonathan Cheung
Culinary Industry

Lynn Crawford
Chef/Restaurateur

Patrice Demers
Chef

Anne DesBrisay
Journalist

Donna Dooher
Chef/Restaurateur

Amy Jo Ehman
Journalist

Jack Evrensel
Restaurateur

Rob Feenie
Chef

Domenico Forte
Chef

Robert Fowler
Gourmet

Alexandra Gill
Journalist

Arvel Gray
Journalist

David Hawksworth
Chef/Restaurateur

Don House
Culinary Industry

John Jackson & Connie deSousa
Chefs/Restaurateurs

Dr. Josh Josephson
Gourmet

Moez Kassam
Gourmet

Robert Lantos
Gourmet

Normand Laprise
Chef/Restaurateur

Steven Latner
Gourmet

Justin Leboe
Chef

David Lee
Chef/Restaurateur

Geddy Lee
Gourmet

Susur Lee
Chef/Restaurateur

Eric Lee
Chef

Marie-Claude Lortie
Journalist

Dale Mackay
Chef

Mark McEwan
Chef/Restaurateur

François Morin
Culinary Industry

Andrew Morrison
Journalist

Adrian Myers
Gourmet

François Nadon
Chef

Greg Pearce
Culinary Industry

Franco Prevedello
Restaurateur

Lucy Price
Gourmet

Afrim Pristine
Culinary Industry

Dino Raenarts
Chef

Gwendolyn Richards
Journalist

Ed Riche
Gourmet

Katherine-Lune Rollet
Journalist

Gary Ross
Journalist

Clayton Ruby
Gourmet

Dick Snyder
Journalist

Bill Spurr
Journalist

Chad Steeves
Chef/Restaurateur

Bonnie Stern
Chef

Spike Stockdale
Gourmet

Marc Thuet
Chef/Restaurateur

Andrew Torriani
Hotelier

Peter Tsebelis
Restaurateur

Jesse Vergen
Chef

Daniel Vézina
Chef/Restaurateur

Vikram Vij
Chef/Restaurateur

John Vogle
Gourmet

Liv Vors
Journalist

Anthony Walsh
Chef