Speakers
Ned Bell is a well-known Canadian culinary talent who has forged a path as a chef advocate, keynote speaker and educator. Currently Buy BC’s Chef Ambassador, and an operating partner, GM and Executive Chef at the Okanagan’s Naramata Inn, Ned uses his voice, outgoing personality and indomitable spirit to stand up for the world’s lakes, oceans, rivers, and sustainable farming practices. In 2014, he founded Chefs for Oceans to raise awareness and advocate for responsible seafood choices and launched his commitment with an 8,700-kilometre bike ride across Canada. He continues to earn recognition for his ability to influence consumers, industry, media and government on this crucial environmental issue and is a sought-after speaker and change-maker. There’s nothing he loves more than uniting and collaborating with other chefs, fishers, farmers and influencers across the globe.
@nedbell @naramatainn
Early in his 28-year culinary career, Robert received the opportunity of a lifetime when Chef Thomas Keller offered him a Chef de Partie position at the renowned French Laundry. In 2002, Robert returned to B.C. to C Restaurant, where he ran one of Canada’s finest seafood restaurants. Over the years, Robert has opened a string of his own highly regarded restaurants, including Fuel Restaurant, Campagnolo Restaurant, Campagnolo ROMA, Fat Dragon, and his current ventures, Popina Canteen and Popina Cantina. Along the way, he has earned high praise from his peers, the industry and his guests, and been recognized as one of Vancouver’s leading chefs, winning a Chef of the Year award at the Vancouver Magazine Restaurant Awards. Robert is also a long-time member of the Chef’s Table Society of British Columbia and is dedicated to sharing his nearly three decades worth of experience with other chefs and restaurateurs.
@robertbelcham1 @popinacanteen
Fatima Da Silva is the Executive Director and Executive Chef of Nourish Cowichan Society. Born and raised in Mozambique, Fatima moved to Canada in 1987 and to Vancouver Island in 1990. The Cowichan Valley has been her home since 2000. As Nourish Co-Founder, her focus is primarily in improving food equity for all children and the nutrition of children living under poverty. She believes that the welfare of children is everyone’s responsibility. Fatima has been working with local farmers who have been donating directly to Nourish. Currently she is working on creating a vegetable garden space that will supply the Nourish school food program. Before co-founding Nourish Cowichan Society, Fatima had two restaurants; Bistro 161 and Vinoteca on the Vineyard.
@nourishcowichan @cheffatima
Shawn Dirksen is the owner of Northstar Organics, a 10-acre certified organic farm in Central Saanich, growing field and greenhouse vegetables and berries. Shawn grew up on a family farm in Southern Ontario. Growing a mixture of greenhouse crops, tender fruit and field vegetables, the farm his grandfather started in Ontario is a model Shawn has continued with his farm in Central Saanich. Using intensive farming technology in both the fields and greenhouses, Northstar Organics is able to supply year-around produce for the CRD and employ a year-round staff of local people living in the Victoria area. @northstar.organics
Over the past 40 years, Paul has worked as Spinnakers’ architect/publican, overseeing its evolution from a 65-seat brewpub producing beers, ciders, distilled spirits, craft sodas and sparkling mineral waters, to an establishment with a food-primary licensed restaurant, a liquor-primary licensed taproom, a bakery/deli, three guesthouses with 10 rooms/suites, two private liquor stores specializing in artisan wines, beers, ciders and spirits and a satellite operation, Spinnakers On The Fly, at Victoria International Airport. Entrepreneurial by nature, an ardent supporter of artisan foods and beverages, and passionate about his home on southern Vancouver Island, Paul has been involved with many industry and community organizations. Paul works to further the local cause, believing that we are what we eat and drink and we are privileged to live in such a bountiful environment where producers and consumers interact through the passions of a creative, collaborative food and beverage industry.
@spinnakersbrewpub
Chris Hammer is a diverse culinarian who has worked in the field for over 30 years. He started his trek across B.C. in 1994 through the mountains and resorts of the east Kootenays to arrive in Victoria just before the millennium. Using local ingredients to deliver fine dining at various establishments was and still is one of his passions. Private yachts and arctic journeys led him to instructing at Camosun College. Currently, Chris is the President of the Island Chefs’ Collaborative and works at the Mustard Seed food security distribution centre as the Food Services Manager. There, he plays a key role in getting rescued food out to those who need it most in the Greater Victoria Region. @mustardseedvic @islandchefscollaborative @chrishammer658
Denes Lukacs is the Production Manager and Head Grower at Northstar Organics. He plans, organizes and carries out the vegetable production for each season. Denes is originally from Hungary, where he studied and worked in agriculture. He moved to Canada in 2012 and worked on grain farms until 2018, when he was hired at Northstar. Denes has been working in various agricultural sectors his whole life, but growing vegetables organically has become his passion. @northstar.organics
Chef Nakano has led the culinary teams of globally recognized companies like Shangri-La Hotel Vancouver, Rosewood Hotel Georgia and Fairmont Hotels. During that time Chef Nakano has prioritized sustainability and a farm-to table approach throughout his 20-year culinary tenure and supports local farmers, producers and fishers wherever possible. Chef Nakano now calls the Inn at Laurel Point home.
@aurayyj @innatlaurelpoint
Alana Ramsay is the Wholesale and Harvest Manager at Northstar Organics in Central Saanich. She interacts with the farm’s wholesale customers through e-mails and spreadsheets and organizes the crew with the crops to be harvested. She has been at Northstar Organics for four years and enjoys the diverse crops to harvest on the 10-acre farm. She started farming by picking fruit on a family farm in the Okanagan around 10 years ago.
@northstar.organics
Ian Tostenson is the president and CEO of the BC Restaurant & Food Services Association (BCRFA). He is an appointed director to the Premier’s Permanent Small Business Roundtable and took on the challenge as an appointed member of BC’s Climate Team to chart out BC’s carbon future. Ian was the province’s second chairman for the BC Wine Institute, a finalist in the Ernest & Young Entrepreneur of the Year Award and a recipient of the Business in Vancouver Under 40 Entrepreneur of the Year Award. Above all else, Ian is a coach and mentor to not only those in the business and his community service, but to those in his life.
Jared Qwustenuxun Williams (Indigenous Foods Chef, Award Winning Writer, and Storyteller)
Jared “Qwustenuxun” Williams is a passionate traditional foods chef who spent most of his youth with his late grandmother, immersed in Salish culture. After Qwustenuxun graduated from culinary arts, he spent a decade working in restaurants across Vancouver Island before deciding to move back home to Cowichan to take the role of Elder’s Kitchen Manager at Cowichan Tribes. After more than a decade of cooking for his elders, Qwustenuxun now works as an Indigenous foods educator and writer. Most recently, Qwustenuxun won a Canadian Online Publishing Award for best multicultural story, was nominated for the 2022 BC Multiculturalism and Anti-Racism Award, and helped First Nations Health Authority complete their first smoked salmon project, proving that Salish smoked salmon is a safe and effective technique for food preservation. When he is not working on furthering Salish food sovereignty, Qwustenuxun spends his time sailing and camping with his young sons. @qwustenuxun
