For the first time in a decade, the winner of Top Chef Canada is bringing the title home to Vancouver. Matthew Stowe was the last Vancouver chef to do so back in 2013.
For Chef Chanthy Yen, it's a proud - and shared moment.
"We did this! Yay!" the executive chef of Giovane Bacaro and newly-crowned Top Chef Canada season 11 winner tells V.I.A. by phone.
But Yen represented much more than his adopted hometown of Vancouver on the popular Food Network Canada show.
'Cambodian food has not always been represented well'
Yen, 35, is also the show's first Cambodian competitor and is also a member of the queer community.
The show offered an unprecedented platform for Yen to showcase the food of his homeland, which is often melded with cuisines like Vietnamese or Thai to seem more approachable to Canadian diners.
"Cambodian food has not always been represented well," shares Yen, who was able to create and serve his take on several Cambodian dishes throughout the season.
In particular, Yen took the final challenge as an opportunity to put himself on the plate more than ever before.
Yen's finale dishes brought judges to tears
One of his dishes, a Cambodian rice porridge called borbor, brought judge Mijune Pak to tears at the table.
Pak, a fellow Vancouverite, shared in the episode how meaningful it was to see the Cambodian equivalent of congee elevated to fine dining status and embraced by the judges, as she recalled feeling ashamed in childhood about bringing congee to school for lunch.
Yen says he didn't know about what Pak shared until later when he saw the episode. "It was my first time seeing the judges' reactions to my food," the chef explains. "I was taken aback, too. It was a moment of 'wow, she gets it.'"
Similarly, Yen says judge Mark McEwan shared with him some moments of vulnerability tied to food and the powerful memories it can evoke.
"I was happy to help make two judges cry," jokes Yen.
In all seriousness, though, Yen acknowledges that it was a powerful experience to be able to express himself so profoundly through his dishes.
'My approach is to always cook with intention'
Throughout the season and its many challenges, Yen managed to excel at tapping into the storytelling aspect of cooking at the Top Chef level that sometimes eludes other competitors.
"My approach is to always cook with intention," Yen explains. "Storytelling is really showcasing that thought process."
Yen adds that being on the show gave him more opportunities to share stories.
"Especially ones from the darker, more sensitive depths of my soul."
Keeping the win a secret had challenges
While Yen articulated some dark and sensitive experiences, including how his grandmother made him feel welcome and accepted after he came out to her, once filming wrapped, he had to keep his win a secret, including from his father, who was in failing health and was no longer living by the time the premiere aired.
"I couldn't share my journey," Yen describes. Though he is grateful that his father "left at a restful and peaceful time," Yen says it would have been fantastic to have had his dad see his son - "with a face like mine," he adds - on the show. "I wanted to do that for my communities while my dad was still alive."
The emotional challenges were compounded by the literal challenges that are the hallmarks of a veteran cooking competition show like Top Chef.
High stakes, big pressure
Yen says he wants to make sure other chefs in Canada know "this competition is the real deal, and the element of the unknown is true," despite some having the perception that the reality show is built on scripted moments and is a breeze for participants.
"The stakes are high, the pressure is insane," Yen attests.
One element of the unknown that brought Yen tremendous joy was being surprised by his partner, Cameron, during the finale episode.
Yen reiterates what he said in the episode, which is that seeing Cameron felt like "being in a simulation," akin to a time when they had been living apart; reuniting after months filled Yen with a sense of "electrifying love."
Though being on the show meant a lot of hard work and creative thinking, Yen was guided by positivity throughout the entire season.
Yen says week after week he was able to learn a lot about his fellow chef-testants, which opened his heart to his competition.
'We need to open up our hearts'
Even in the finale, when it came down to Yen and Halifax's Moira Murray, Yen says he was inspired by seeing her exude the joy of being in her element.
"We won by cheering each other on and by collaborating," Yen says of the entire season, pointing out that rather than sabotaging each other, the chefs looked out for each other.
"Collaboration is really important, especially for people from different walks of life," says Yen. "A lot of us came from immigrant families, sharing our space with people we don't know."
"An important message this season is that we need to open up our hearts, and if we can do that through food, then why not?"
As Yen looks to his future, fans can expect even more storytelling, as the chef is at work on a cookbook that will showcase Cambodian cuisine. He says he gets to "lean into the stories" for the book, and will soon spend a month in the Southeast Asian nation for further research.
Hoping to open a Cambodian restaurant in Vancouver
Ultimately, though, Yen yearns to have the opportunity to share Cambodian cuisine with Vancouver and is hopeful he can open a restaurant in the city.
"This is an expensive time to live," he says, acknowledging that it is tough to secure funding, though he will have the Top Chef Canada prize money to put towards making his dream a reality.
There's so much about Cambodian cuisine that Yen is keen to share with Vancouver - an ideal city for having a high-profile Cambodian restaurant.
"Vancouver is filled with international eaters and tastemakers who are interested in diverse flavours," Yen explains.
"There are a lot of Cambodian people out there, but they are masking with other cultural foods. I want to break that barrier and showcase that you can cook Cambodian food, and we can be a community."
Wants to help Cambodian cuisine shine
The chef, who will remain at the Michelin Guide-endorsed Bacaro for the time being, says there aren't any myths about Cambodian food that need to be shattered, because the cuisine "just hasn't been fully recognized."
"It already exists. I don't want to erase anything about Cambodian cuisine, I want to add to it and help it shine."
He had a glimpse of what that was like during Top Chef, even thanking McEwan during the finale's Judge's Table segment for allowing him to "be weird" and put his unique blend of cultural attributes and culinary experiences on the plate.
'I gave them my food, my way'
"It was a playful, whimsical moment," he shares, and the culmination of a lot of a lot of hard work and pushing his creative boundaries.
"I had no recipes," he says of the dishes that helped him win the title in the finale episode. "These dishes had never been done before. It was my moment to leave it all on the table and I feel like I did that. I gave them my food, my way."
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