Chef Briana Kim once again wins Ottawa’s Great Kitchen Party and heads to national championship

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The three winning chefs from Ottawa’s edition of Canada’s Great Kitchen Party, held September 26-22 at Le Cordon Bleu Ottawa. Alice’s Briana Kim, center, won gold, while North & Navy’s Eric Chagnon-Zimmerly, left, won silver and Perch’s Justin Champagne, right, won bronze. Photo by Alex Pajot

Chef Briana Kim will once again represent the National Capital Region at the Canadian Culinary Championships to be held in Ottawa in early February.

Kim, the chef-owner of Alice on Adeline Street in Little Italy, trumped four other chefs Monday night at Le Cordon Bleu Culinary Arts Institute in Ottawa when she won the edition of Ottawa from Canada’s Great Kitchen Party. With her win, Kim, a self-taught chef who nonetheless has ties to many of the world’s top restaurants, qualifies for the national competition.

In the fall of 2017, Kim, then chef-owner of Cafée My home in Hintonburg, won Ottawa’s Gold Medal Plates competition, the precursor to the Kitchen Party event. She cooked at the subsequent national championship held in Kelowna, BC.

Renowned for her deeply creative and highly technical plant-based dishes at Alice, Kim served the judges and nearly 170 spectators a dish of onion tuile, smoked potatoes, rhubarb jerky, maitake mushrooms, Pickled onion, dill sour cream, lacto-fermented greens, tomato and koji broth.

It's the winning dish for Monday night's edition in Ottawa of Canada's Great Kitchen Party, a culinary competition that sends its winning chef to the Canadian Culinary Championship in early 2023. Briana Kim of Restaurant Alice in Little Italy prepared this vegetable dish of onion tuile, smoked potatoes, dried rhubarb, maitake mushroom, pickled onion, dill sour cream and lacto-fermented green tomato in koji broth.
It’s the winning dish for Monday night’s edition in Ottawa of Canada’s Great Kitchen Party, a culinary competition that sends its winning chef to the Canadian Culinary Championship in early 2023. Briana Kim of Restaurant Alice in Little Italy prepared this vegetable dish of onion tuile, smoked potatoes, dried rhubarb, maitake mushroom, pickled onion, dill sour cream and lacto-fermented green tomato in koji broth. Photo by ERROL MCGIHON /ERROL MCGIHON

The judges unanimously ranked Kim’s dish as the best of the lot. It also won the People’s Choice of the Night award based on online voting.

  1. Briana Kim, one of the leading proponents of plant-based gastronomy and fermentation as a culinary technique, could be considered the favorite in the field, as she won Ottawa's Gold Medal Plates competition in 2017 and participated in the 2018 Canadian Culinary Championships.

    Five chefs vying for gold at Ottawa’s next Canada’s Great Kitchen Party

  2. Briana Kim of Alice's Restaurant.

    Chef Briana Kim puts Ottawa on the map with a focus on fermentation

« It’s awesome, » Kim said in a statement after winning. “We were really excited to present our dish tonight. We hoped the guests would enjoy it as much as the judges, and we couldn’t be happier.

National Chief Judge James Chatto said the five competitors kicked off with “exciting and thoughtful dishes.

« The dishes were and looked delicious, » he said. « But in the end, Briana’s dish shone brighter than anyone else and it was a unanimous decision. It’s exciting that it’s also plant-based cuisine.

The silver was won by Éric Chagnon-Zimmerly, head chef at North & Navy downtown. True to the high-end Italian inspirations of his restaurant, Chagnon-Zimmerly has prepared a beautiful and elaborate charcuterie of duck mortadella and rare duck, thinly sliced ​​and then garnished with bright colors before serving.

This dish won silver at the Ottawa edition of Canada's Great Kitchen Party. Chef Éric Chagnon-Zimmerly of North & Navy did what he called the duck
This dish won silver at the Ottawa edition of Canada’s Great Kitchen Party. Chef Éric Chagnon-Zimmerly of North & Navy made what he called the « kaleidoscope » duck, a charcuterie consisting of duck mortadella, rare duck, duck fat aioli, red wheat berries Fife, wild apple jelly, pickled sea buckthorn, green sorrel and gold. Photo by ERROL MCGIHON /ERROL MCGIHON

The bronze was won by Justin Champagne, chef-owner of Perch on Preston Street, a sophisticated little restaurant based on tasting menus which opened in autumn 2021, following in the footsteps of Atelier and Alice in Little Italy. Champagne, who like Kim is passionate about culinary trends such as fermentation, makes lightly salted lake trout then poached in koji dashi with a sunflower tuile, sake-aged mushrooms, tomato dulse and jelly, black pudding, fermented koji sauce and cucumber.

At Monday night's Ottawa edition of Canada's Great Kitchen Party, this dish won bronze. Chef Justin Champagne from Perch on Preston Street made lightly dried lake trout then poached in koji dashi with sunflower tuile, sake-aged mushrooms, tomato dulse and gel, fermented koji sauce and cucumber.
At Monday night’s Ottawa edition of Canada’s Great Kitchen Party, this dish won bronze. Chef Justin Champagne from Perch on Preston Street made lightly dried lake trout then poached in koji dashi with sunflower tuile, sake-aged mushrooms, tomato dulse and gel, fermented koji sauce and cucumber. Photo by ERROL MCGIHON /ERROL MCGIHON
The three winning chefs from Ottawa's edition of Canada's Great Kitchen Party, which took place Monday night at Le Cordon Bleu Ottawa. Alice's Briana Kim, center, won gold, while North & Navy's Eric Chagnon-Zimmerly, left, won silver and Perch's Justin Champagne, right, won bronze.
The three winning chefs from Ottawa’s edition of Canada’s Great Kitchen Party, which took place Monday night at Le Cordon Bleu Ottawa. Alice’s Briana Kim, center, won gold, while North & Navy’s Eric Chagnon-Zimmerly, left, won silver and Perch’s Justin Champagne, right, won bronze. Photo by Alex Pajot

Also competing were Dominique Dufour from Gray Jay Hospitality on Echo Drive and Wapokunie Riel-Lachapelle from Nikosi Bistro-Pub in Wakefield. All the chefs except Kim were attending the Ottawa Kitchen Party for the first time.

At Ottawa's edition of Canada's Great Kitchen Party, chef Dominique Dufour of Gray Jay served lamb with prickly ash sauce, sumac jus, Niagara plums and hill carrots of the Gatineau.
At Ottawa’s edition of Canada’s Great Kitchen Party, chef Dominique Dufour of Gray Jay served lamb with prickly ash sauce, sumac jus, Niagara plums and hill carrots of the Gatineau. Photo by ERROL MCGIHON /ERROL MCGIHON
On Monday evening, at Ottawa's edition of Canada's Great Kitchen Party, chef-owner Wapokunie Riel-Lachapelle of Nikosi Bistro prepared red deer tartare with boreal spices and cheddar bannock crostinis.
On Monday evening, at Ottawa’s edition of Canada’s Great Kitchen Party, chef-owner Wapokunie Riel-Lachapelle of Nikosi Bistro prepared red deer tartare with boreal spices and cheddar bannock crostinis. Photo by ERROL MCGIHON /ERROL MCGIHON

The Ottawa event was the first to be held among nine competing cities from St. John’s, NL. in Vancouver, BC The respective winners will face off in Ottawa on February 3 and 4 next year.

Among the seven judges evaluating the entries in Ottawa last night were Ian Carswell, chef-owner of Black Tartan Kitchen at Carleton Place, winner of the Ottawa Kitchen Party in 2019, and Marc Lepine, chef-owner d’Atelier, the only two-time winner. of the Canadian Culinary Championship.

Due to the pandemic, the Kitchen Parties and Culinary Championships did not take place in 2020 and 2021.

Monday’s event was also a fundraiser for Spirit North and MusiCounts, two national organizations that support Canadian youth, and the Ottawa Boys and Girls Club.

phum@postmedia.com

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