Toronto chef to represent Canada at the gastronomy Olympics

In the kitchen of what once was the Kraft Heinz corporate offices in North York, Toronto chef Keith Pears prepared for his moment on the culinary world's greatest stage.

A large Canadian flag was up on the wall, along with posters outlining the chef's dress code and the 10-rule code of conduct that governs participants at the Bocuse d'Or — often described as the Olympics of gastronomy. The competition prizes respect, co-operation, flexibility and integrity, as well as good food.

At one end of the room, Pears took a call with members of the Canadian team who are already on location in Lyon, France, gathering ingredients and preparing the training kitchen. A few days later, he joined the team in advance of the competition — where he's set to take the stage on Jan. 27 at 9:15 a.m. local time.

The Bocuse d'Or is the most prestigious cooking competition in the world. Chefs from 24 countries square off over the course of two days, in a five-and-a-half-hour cook-off. The winner takes home the Bocuse d'Or trophy, a golden effigy of Paul Bocuse, a renowned chef known for his innovation.

"My goal for Team Canada is to just continue to build on our momentum and really put Canada on the map for food tourism," Pears said.

"We have a lot of good products and a lot of good chefs that the world doesn't know about." 

A family of chefs

Originally from Vancouver, Pears hails from a family of chefs. He studied at the Vancouver Community College culinary arts program and moved up the ranks in kitchens in British Columbia.

He moved to Toronto in 2017 to become the executive chef of the Delta Hotel, and he launched the culinary experience at Toronto's first W Hotel, which opened in 2021. 

He is currently executive chef at Accencis Group and has opened two restaurants: Glass Kitchen in Thornhill and Pears in Markham.

Pears said he was first inspired to try the Bocuse d'Or after he saw Alex Chen compete for Canada in 2013 — the pair once worked in the same kitchen. He remembers waking up in the middle of the night to stream the competition live. Chen placed ninth. 

"I just loved the attention to detail and the intensity of it," he said.

The 43-year-old chef says he's well aware that his younger self would not have had the confidence to go through the grueling process.

"You can't do this competition and not have that [confidence], you have to know who you are as a person, as a chef," Pears said. Without it, "you're just going to crumble."

Finding his culinary Team Canada

In 2023, with over two decades of kitchen experience, Pears felt ready.

He put his name in the ring for the Canadian trial, overseen by Chefs Canada, and that April he won. It was the first step in what's been an almost two-year process.

Chefs Canada helped Pears build his own team to compete.

First up: a coach. Pears picked Dan Craig, chef at the Westin Harbour Castle, who brought with him over 20 other chefs to help coach. Pears' team includes Sébastien Rémillard, who moved from Quebec City to Toronto to take part in research and development, and Chen — the past Bocus d'Or competitor — and also member of the 24-chef jury of the Bocuse d'Or final.

After that, Pears needed a commis — a chef to act as his right-hand man during the competition. Per the rules, a commis must be under 22 years of age during the final. Joseph Mongillo, a 19-year-old culinary student at George Brown College, fit the bill.

Pears said he was impressed by Mongillo's abilities with pastry, as well as his attention to detail. Mongillo is also no stranger to competition. He was a Christmas Cookie Challenge winner on Food Network.

The chemistry between the duo is evident in the training kitchen. Both exchange jokes while prepping trays for mise en place. There's also an enormous amount of respect.

"He works so hard," Pears said. "When I first met him, it's just this 18-year-old little boy. He's matured a lot in the last year and it's been really nice to see him grow as a person, as a cook."

Mongillo is well aware that the road to the Bocuse d'Or final is an intense one, noting that "a lot doesn't go your way when you're doing recipe development."

"Keith always reminds me that we might not win," Mongillo said, "but you have to remember the small wins."

Going for gold

Canada has regularly placed among the top 10 in the Bocuse d'Or since its start in 1987, but no Canadian team has ever reached the podium. Chef Robert Sulatycky came closest with a fourth place finish in Lyon in 1999.

"It would be great if Canada could reach the podium," said Pears, who intends to share his culinary identity, including his Chinese and British roots, in all the dishes he serves.

Now that he's arrived in France, he'll also be taking time to familiarize himself with the French products that are among the required ingredients list for the final, such as venison and meagre fish. 

His Canadian team is buoyed by a silver medal from the Bocuse d'Or Americas final last summer, where Pears impressed the judges with his alligator and grits with bell pepper leather topped with puffed sorghum, shrimp tartare and shrimp mousse, as well as a char siu wild boar tongue, ear and blood with crispy pig ear and fresh herbs.

"It boosts our confidence because we had the best tasting food scores," Pears said.

Now, he says, it's all about momentum, "just continuing on what we learned from New Orleans and just building on that as a team and continuing to move forward and push the envelope."