Winnipeg-born chef creates gold-medal meal from mystery ingredients at competition in Hungary

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This article was published 14/10/2015 (3682 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Michael Christiansen is someone we’ll be hearing more about and, if we’re lucky, thanking for dinner someday.

In September, the 24-year-old Winnipeg-born chef won the gold medal in the 39th Concours International des Jeunes Chefs Rôtisseurs Competition in Budapest, Hungary. The annual international competition pits chefs under the age of 27 with less than five years professional experience against each other. As always, the competition was stiff, featuring fresh-faced talent from 22 countries.

It’s a black-box challenge, which should be familiar to anyone who watches culinary competition TV shows. Each chef is presented with a mystery box of ingredients, local to the region. They have a half-hour to determine a three-course menu that incorporates the contents of the box, and just over three hours to execute it. And his elegantly composed menu — sturgeon confit with parsley purée and crispy, dehydrated rice; roasted venison with pan-seared foie gras and pumpkin, and, to finish, a plum, white chocolate and almond dessert — won the day.

There are no rock-star, I-Am-A-Big-Deal affectations when we meet for coffee. Dressed in a hoodie and jeans, he’s amiable and humble. Although he’s seen early successes on the competition circuit, winning the $10,000 2014 Hawksworth Young Chef Scholarship as well as the 2014 Canadian Jeunes Chefs Competition that qualified him to compete in Budapest, he’s not really focused on battling other chefs.

“I took it as more of a personal challenge,” he says of Budapest. “I’m not very competitive by nature. That’s not what drives me. It’s thinking on your feet, but it’s also thinking very literally. You have to be creative — but you have to be practical.”

Since graduating from Red River College’s culinary arts program in 2012, Christiansen has been in B.C., honing his skills at The Pear Tree Restaurant, a much-loved Burnaby spot run by husband-and-wife team Scott and Stephanie Jaeger. Scott, who has represented Canada at the venerated Bocuse d’Or in Lyon, France, has been a mentor to Christiansen, who started competing at his behest.

“He was a massive help to me,” Christiansen says. “Every weekend, when the restaurant was closed, he’d have a box waiting for me and we’d do a full dry-run.”

While competition offers a different kind of feedback than working in a kitchen, Christiansen loves being part of a team. His personality skews more behind-the-scenes than aspiring Food Network personality. He has ambitions, sure — he could see himself opening his own restaurant one day — but right now he’s focused on learning as much as he can.

He’s tight-lipped about what his immediate future holds — “I couldn’t say, honestly,” he patiently repeats while being peppered (a-salt-ed?) by an annoying newspaper columnist — but he’s keeping his eyes, and mind, open. And he hasn’t ruled out a return home, either. “I do love Winnipeg,” he says. “You never know where I could end up. I’d never write it off for the future.” (He’s just a regular international man of mystery.)

He’s also willing to do the work; he knows success, especially in this business, doesn’t come overnight. Competitions are thrilling — and the attendant praise and accolades don’t hurt, either. But he’s a chef because he loves to cook.

His eyes light up when he talks about the high of executing a complex dish.

“Even before you’ve served it, you’re happy because you know it’s right,” he says.

“I’m inspired by those moments.”

jen.zoratti@freepress.mb.ca

Twitter: @JenZoratti