Top Chef Canada's fourth season starts March 10, 2014, on the Food Network, and the contestants are already drawing their knives.
With the names of the 14 chefs who will be competing released, the selection reveals a cross-Canada mix that shows skills ranging from hunting to illustrating to natural nutrition. For the first time, the show also has a chef from the Northwest Territories, as well as a perfectly equal number of female and male chefs. Which show producers are apparently using as a theme:
As Top Chef Canada head judge Mark McEwan (who returns alongside resident judge Shereen Arazm and host Lisa Ray) tweeted:
While the female contestants each note their gender and how hard they've fought to succeed in this industry in their audition videos, most viewers familiar with food reality TV will probably shrug their shoulders at this distinction. After all, the last winner of Top Chef in the U.S. was Kristen Kish, and it's a 50/50 possibility that this season (set to end this week) will also have a female winner.
But regardless of gender, the Canadian competitors seem to know the game well this time around, and are coming out swinging. Check out the contestants for season four of Top Chef Canada here:
NAME: Dawn Doucette, 41
GIG: Product Development Chef at Earls Restaurants
HOMETOWN and OFFICE: Vancouver, BC
This was Doucette's third time auditioning for the show.
NAME: Lauren Marshall, 27
GIG: Natural nutrition student and chef de cuisine at EnVie
HOMETOWN: Mount Uniacke, NS
OFFICE: Halifax
NAME: Karine Moulin, 36
GIG: Pastry chef at Hotel Arts
HOMETOWN: All over
OFFICE: Calgary
NAME: Gabriela Neda, 25
GIG: Junior sous chef and wine steward chef at the Calgary Petroleum Club
HOMETOWN: Caracas, Venezuela
OFFICE: Calgary
NAME: Shelley Robinson, 49
GIG: Former executive chef for Delta Sun Peaks
HOMETOWN and OFFICE: Kamloops, BC
NAME: Evelynn Takoff, 28
GIG: Chef de cuisine at Micro; formerly a chef at RauDZ Regional Table
HOMETOWN and OFFICE: Kelowna, BC
NAME: Ruth Wigman, 31
GIG: Sous chef at Bistro Sofia
HOMETOWN: Burnaby, BC
OFFICE: St. John's, NL
NAME: Vittorio Colacitti
GIG: Chef at Loblaw Companies
HOMETOWN and OFFICE: Toronto
NAME: Rich Francis
HOMETOWN: Fort McPherson, NT
OFFICE: Six Nations, ON
NAME: Pierre Lamielle
GIG: Chef instructor at The Cookbook Co.
HOMETOWN: North Vancouver, BC
OFFICE: Calgary
NAME: Mike Robbins, 28
GIG: Chef at The Oakwood Canadian Bistro
HOMETOWN and OFFICE: Vancouver
NAME: René Rodriguez, 41
GIG: Chef and owner at Navarra
HOMETOWN and OFFICE: Ottawa
NAME: Terry Salmond, 30
GIG: Executive chef at Walper Hotel
HOMETOWN: Scarborough, ON
OFFICE: Kitchener-Waterloo, ON
NAME: Jesse Vergen, 35
GIG: Executive chef at Saint John Ale House, chef/owner of Smoking Pig Real BBQ and partner with Harmony Growers Vegetables
HOMETOWN: Saint John, NB
OFFICE: Quispamsis, NB