Below we highlight a small selection of the industry giants who participated in our national judging panel—but the full list follows.
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.
The 100 Best Restaurants Full Judges List
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/RestaurateurGeddy 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