Cactus Club chef Matthew Stowe nabs spot in Top Chef Canada season 3 finale

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      A B.C. chef has qualified to compete in the final episode of Food Network Canada’s Top Chef Canada third season.

      Matthew Stowe of Cloverdale, who is a product development chef for Cactus Club Café, will compete next Monday (June 10) against two other chefs for the title of “Top Chef Canada”.

      Stowe was raised in Surrey and received his culinary training at New York’s Culinary Institute of America. After graduating in 2002, Stowe worked at Lutèce, a popular French restaurant in Manhattan that closed in 2004.

      After returning to B.C., he was appointed executive chef at Sonora Resort, a luxury wilderness resort in the Discovery Islands, where he worked for six years until 2010. During his time at the resort, Stowe published a cookbook about his signature dishes, The Tastes of Sonora Resort.

      The 30-year-old father currently works on menu development at Canadian chain Cactus Club with Chef Rob Feenie.

      In the season finale, which was filmed in Calgary, Stowe will compete against Toronto’s Jonathan Goodyear and Montreal’s Danny Smiles for a chance at winning a $100,000 prize and a kitchen valued at $30,000.

      Stowe may be considered the underdog after just beating Ontario chef Dennis Tay in last night’s elimination challenge to take the third spot in the finale.

      The final episode of Top Chef Canada season 3 will air at 6 p.m. and again at 10 p.m.

      Comments

      4 Comments

      cathy

      Jun 5, 2013 at 9:10am

      "Top Chef Canada" and all the other chef "competition" shows are for the sponsors and ratings. They are entertainment.

      The food produced and how it is judged rarely results in anything folks would actually want to eat and pay for.

      Winning is good promo for the restaurant and gives the chef a profile for a while.
      Will Canada's culinary scene be changed as a result of this "competition"?
      Probably not-that requires real work.

      Jeff

      Jun 8, 2013 at 10:48pm

      I don't think you have ANY idea of what you are talking about Cathy. You are likely one of those people who has strong opinions on every subject - most of which you have little to zero knowledge on.

      I would agree that shows like this are a good opportunity to promote a chef and - potentially - their restaurant. But isn't that just smart business? Apparently you aren't a business woman either.

      And, for the record, I actually have know one contestant from this year - and two others from previous years - and I can assure you they are some of the best chefs I have ever had the pleasure of sampling.

      There certainly is an entertainment component to the show. However, before you form your next opinion Cathy, you should problem do your homework so you don't seem so ill-informed and foolish.

      Martin Dunphy

      Jun 8, 2013 at 11:56pm

      Jeff:

      Did I miss something, or did Cathy make some kind of an error to deserve such strong language?
      You even <em>agreed</em> with two of her points.
      And people can be forgiven for being somewhat cynical about "reality" cooking shows. Read the fine print in the credit scroll: most are stage-managed and might as well be scripted. The poorly made U.S. version of Iron Chef, the inspiration for them all, revealed the "secret" ingredient to the contestants weeks ahead of time so the chefs could make up menus well in advance and test all their "new" and "inventive" dishes so there would be no "mistakes" when the cameras rolled.
      It was all pretty obvious, anyhow, to anyone with a bit of kitchen savvy.
      And when your "judges" are C-list celebs with little or no real food experience, what does it matter who is chosen the "winner"?
      None of this, by the way, is intended to cast any aspersions on Matthew Stowe, who, I am sure, is a top-notch chef.

      Jeff

      Jun 9, 2013 at 3:53pm

      Martin:

      I appreciate what you are saying about reality tv and i'm certainly not suggesting that I disagreed with Cathy entirely. In fact, the fact that I did agree with portions of what she said should indicate that it wasn't personal.

      With that being said, I reserved such 'strong' language for her because she is clearly mis-informed and, more importantly, in one fell swoop she tries to discredit the show and any chef who has ultimately been on by suggesting their creations are often inedible and not the the result of 'real' work.

      Frankly, I think that is very poor form and I think all of the contestants - past and present - deserve better than that - particularly when it is coming from an individual that apparently doesn't realize that some of the chefs from shows like these do open award-winning restaurants and change the aforementioned culinary landscape