Wider Horizons

Adam Essex is one of the best chefs in the province. He’s been cited as such by the Alberta Apprenticeship andadam essex Industry Training Board, which gave him its highest award for chefs. He was also a member of Team Alberta, gold medal winner at the World Culinary Olympics in Germany last fall.

He’s taken his skills to a unique locale: the retail operations of the Chinook Regional Hospital, including the cafeteria, coffee shop and catering, which offers fare to hospital staff, patients and visitors.

Born in Saskatchewan but a southern Albertan for the last 15 years, Essex graduated from Lethbridge College’s Culinary Careers program through the apprenticeship route in May 2008. That allowed him to work as a cook five days a week and spend one day in classes. That’s quite a load for someone with a wife and two children.

“I was able to immediately apply the skills I was learning at the college to my work and that helped a lot,” says Essex, who worked at Ric’s Grill and The View. “I had no problem keeping my mind on school. My family was my motivation to succeed.”

Essex began cooking at Smitty’s while still in high school, drawn, he says, to the fast-paced environment of a commercial kitchen.

“The job satisfaction was also high,” he says. “I drew it from seeing customers pleased with my work. I truly love cooking and knowing people are enjoying what I’ve produced for them.”

From Smitty’s to the World Culinary Olympics is a bit of a jump, but Essex downplays his supporting role.

“I joked once that I had such duties as equipment packer and mover, meal cook for the team and even the glamorous job of team dishwasher,” he says. “But looking back, even though I wasn’t in the limelight, I had an important position none the less.”

Everyone on the team made sacrifices for Team Alberta, putting in long days of practice until the product was perfect.

“For a team to win and succeed every member must put aside their personal differences and work together,” says Essex.

As a chef, Essex likes to try new concepts and flavours, reinventing the traditional to create different experiences for his diners.

“You need basic skills and knowledge plus creativity,” he says. “You also need an absolute passion for food and a love of cooking and be willing to do it for the love, not the money.”

One day, Essex hopes to turn the management skills he’s learning at the hospital into a unique private business: personal chef to southern Alberta. That means creating personalized menus and producing the resulting meals, which customers can store and reheat at leisure. He’d also like to try teaching in-home classes with a focus on ethnic cuisine (his favourite: East Indian) and managing dinner parties.

The knowledge he gained at Lethbridge College has well served Essex since his graduation.

“Every day I rely on my education in some way,” he says. “I am constantly applying my learning to my career.”

Wider Horizons
Lethbridge College
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