BC Top Chef spotlight: Chris Whittaker, The Listel Hotel and O’Doul’s Restaurant & Bar
Leave a Comment
Karen Hamilton
May 4, 2011
It’s Mental Health Week – perfect timing to kick-start the Top Chefs for Mental Health dinner drive by Tiny Bites and Friends. This week and throughout the month of May, we’ll be featuring chefs that are taking part in Top Chefs for Mental Health, as well as stories, resources, and other info relating to mental illness.
If you like this post, please consider taking part in our dinner drive. You might just win yourself a seat to our dinner or one of our fabulous sponsored prizes.
Chef Chris Whittaker first caught my attention when he made my favourite clam chowder at Ocean Wise’s 2009 Seafood Chowder Chowdown.
Since then, I’ve had the pleasure of working with him over the past few months as the Chefs’ Table Society readies for the 5th annual Spot Prawn Festival this Saturday, May 7, 2011.
Chef Whittaker is Executive Chef of the Listel Hotel and O’Doul’s Restaurant & Bar, which are situated along the Robson corridor. He is also this year’s Chair of the Spot Prawn Festival committee. Despite his busy schedule, he happily answered a few of my questions about the festival and Top Chefs for Mental Health.
What’s new and exciting this year at the spot prawn festival?
This year we have tried to make the festival more of a ‘fishing feel’ by having a celtic style band and using spot prawn and cork lines for our line-ups and decor.
The most exciting thing is that we will have a chef’s cooking stage right here on Fishermen’s Wharf, where the city’s top chefs will show you how to prepare great spot prawn dishes. Participants include Chefs Tojo, Ned Bell, Andrea Carlson, Scott Jaeger, Wayne Martin and Alessandra Quaglia.
[Editor's note: in previous years, cooking demos were only at the Granville Island Public Market. This time around, demos will happen in both locations. So make sure to come out and buy your tickets in advance to skip the line.]
What’s your favourite spot prawn recipe or preparation?
For me, simple is best. Just cook in boiling water, peel, and eat. They are so sweet and the texture is so great that this is all the preparation they honestly need.
If you could throw a dinner party for 8 of your own friends this summer – anywhere in the world and all expenses paid – where would you hold it and what would you serve?
I moved to BC 11 years ago because I honestly believe this is one of the best places on earth to be a chef. We have ingredients the whole world wishes to have, like spot prawns, salmon, and pine mushrooms.
To have my family and friends out here for a nice outdoor dinner, next to one of our pristine lakes, using the best ingredients BC has to offer, would be such a great experience. I am so proud of what we have here and proud to be a chef in such a food-focused city. I would like to show that off in a dinner like this.
What does it mean to you to support Top Chefs for Mental Health and the BC Mental Health Foundation?
It means a great deal to me. I think the more awareness we can generate will only make this a better city for everyone to live in.
We all have to step up to help those who are struggling with mental illness as well as homelessness, addiction and violence in their lives.
For more info on Top Chefs for Mental Health and to take part in our dinner drive:
Categories: Blogging for Social Change, Downtown, Food, Restaurants
Help us buy you dinner with Top Chefs for Mental Health
3 Comments Karen HamiltonMay 1, 2011
It’s true – me and my friends want to buy you dinner – a swanky dinner for 8 via the Top Chefs for Mental Health fundraiser.
Tickets are $4,000 for the exclusive experience of having one of BC’s top chefs come to your home and cook an unforgettable meal for and 7 of your friends.
Since I don’t have that kind of money laying around, I’ve asked the BC Mental Health Foundation and the Chefs’ Table Society of BC, the cohosts of this fundraiser, to let me raise the money on Tiny Bites throughout the month of May, all the while profiling the participating chefs and raising awareness on the topic of mental health.
The goal? To give away all 8 dinner spots to those that helped us afford the ticket.
Happily, they gave me the green light last week – and sponsors have already stepped up to offer other cool prizes – so now it’s time to ask you to donate. But first…some background.
Mental health matters to me
Why am I raising funds for mental health awareness? It’s quite personal.
Last fall, I was diagnosed with 3 separate mood disorders. I had known about the major depression for about a decade – it runs in the family and I had briefly sought counselling for it in 2003. However, I was blindsided with the pronouncement that my levels of anxiety, panic, and OCD were also on a clinical scale. It got to the point where my mental health impacted every aspect of my life, isolating me from my loved ones and even manifesting as physical health issues.
The diagnosis came at a very rough point in my life. I was experiencing an identity crisis as my new role as a mother clashed with my lifelong assertion that I was a careerwoman. Being told that I had these disorders made me feel ashamed. I felt like a weakling: my mind and body wasn’t as strong as my spirit wanted them to be. Talking about it, even to my husband, was the last thing I wanted to do.
But talk is what I did. To my family, my closest friends, my therapists, my doctors…and I began to realize that I wasn’t alone. Many of the people I care about have either suffered, are suffering, or have lost their lives due to mental illness, and it is a private hell unlike any other.
There’s unfortunately a huge stigma attached to mental health issues. It makes it hard for people afflicted with mental illness to admit there’s a problem, seek professional help, and find solace and support from their friends and family.
This fundraiser is part of my personal journey to air my challenges so that I can fully come to terms with my illness. I hope it inspires others to find the courage to seek help or support if they need it.
Please let mental health matter to you
Between now and May 31, 2011, we ask you to join us in raising the necessary funds to afford a BC Top Chefs dinner for us to give back to you.
As part of this dinner drive, me and my friends will profile some of the chefs and restaurants that are participating in Top Chefs for Mental Health. I’ll also be opening up a thread on my Facebook Page for people to share their stories about mental health – questions, personal journeys, resources, tips, and anything else you can contribute.
It would mean the world to me and those that are quietly suffering from mental illness if you take part in any way that you can.
Option 1: Donate
Every $50 you donate earns you 1 entry to win one of the 4 dinner spots we are giving away by random draw. The top 4 donors overall will be guaranteed the other 4 dinner spots for being so awesomely generous.
Don’t worry if you give less than $50 – everyone will be entered to win one of the many fabulous prizes that our sponsors have kindly donated. We’ll let you know what they are as the month unfolds.
Our dinner drive counts as a lottery and is therefore not eligible for tax receipts. If you prefer to donate to get a tax receipt, I encourage you to donate directly to the BC Mental Health Foundation. It won’t count towards our $4,000 dinner drive target, and I won’t be able to tell that you contributed (unless you contact me), but your support will be much appreciated.
Option 2: Buy your own BC Top Chefs dinner
If you’ve got the time, interest, and funds, please consider buying your own BC Top Chefs table direct from the BC Mental Health Foundation’s website.
Option 3: Be a good Friend and spread the word
Please tell everyone you know about Top Chefs for Mental Health and this dinner drive on Tiny Bites. If you want to participate on an official basis, review this PDF and tell us how you want to take part.
Thank you for your support
I hope that you stick with us throughout the month of May while we run this dinner drive. I already have a very good reason to get better:
Hearing your stories and getting your support will make the road to recovery all the more sweet.
More info and the fine print
Visit the Tiny Bites dinner drive page for frequently asked questions and more info on the logistics of the fundraiser and giveaways.
Categories: Blogging for Social Change, Events, Featured, Food, Food Purveyors, Restaurants
About Tiny Bites
Tiny Bites is a food blog that explores all things edible and imbibable in Vancouver, British Columbia. More >
Articles by Karen Hamilton
Read the food and non-food articles that I've contributed to sites other than Tiny Bites.
