At the age of 14 years old, Liam Carey took his first steps in the kitchen of a golf club. "My career as a chef began at the age of 14 at a golf club, but I hated it. At 18, I loved my job in a pub and decided to train as a chef." I had already worked here for a summer and that's where it all really began", he explains.

He then went on to study at the culinary school, spent a few years in Montreal, and then returned to his native region with the invitation of his mentor. He recounts: "Mike, the chef I had just replaced, called me back to offer me the position of Deputy Chef… it will be [nine] years in May… and now [I have] taken over [the restaurant], which represents a big change".

He first got in the restaurant business due to his passion for pastry. "I don't think I ever imagined becoming a chef… I loved making cakes and pastries. So, I enrolled in culinary school with the hope of becoming a Pastry Chef. I then found myself in one kitchen after another. So, I settled for cooking. Things are going pretty well, but I never thought I'd become a restaurant chef", he says.

Today, he is proud to work in his hometown of Wakefield. "Why did I choose to work here? Well, I was born here… my father lives just down the street and my mother lives across the street. So, I'm just back home, in a way. It's great to be able to do this thanks to my hometown", he explains.

Liam cherishes above all the human side of the profession, especially the passing on of knowledge. He says: "One of the main tasks of a chef is to teach his cooks how he wants things done… Fortunately, all our young cooks are very eager to learn what we have to teach them… For someone who really wants to learn the whys and wherefores, it's as if they can they recreate it later."

He also emphasizes the working atmosphere. "For me, as a chef, the most important things is to create a healthy working environment that is open to everyone… An environment where there is no shouting… Our kitchen is a great place to work… It's also an enriching experience for many young chefs, and I think that's really cool.", he says. He feels great pride in seeing the growth of the young people who pass through his brigade.

For Liam, cooking is first and foremost about respecting the seasons. Thoughtfully, he admits that his inspiration now comes from his desire to follow the local seasons. He emphasizes, "The best of a product only lasts for a brief period." He works closely with Juniper Farm and Ferme Pleine Lune, two producers located just minutes from the restaurant. "They're featured throughout the menu. I simply use what they have on hand, and that inspires me," he adds. This local connection fuels his creative process and defines the culinary signature of The Village House.

For L'Outaouais en cuisine, Liam focused on the elegance of produce. "I served a smoked mushroom and squash croquette. It was accompanied by a confit garlic and sage aioli sauce. I also prepared a small salad of squash, rutabagas, and marinated Cinnamon Cap mushrooms," he describes. He wanted to showcase mushrooms from the company Le Coprin while introducing students to a host of techniques. Liam explains, "I wanted to show them many techniques: roasting, smoking, breading, shaping croquettes... It's a quenelle, so I had two quenelle spoons, which many of them had never used before. I wanted something simple to make, balanced in terms of flavors, and that would allow them to learn a lot of techniques, so that they could really get something out of it."

When his name was announced, he wasn't expecting it at all. "I won the Jury's Choice Award and I was very surprised. It was truly unexpected. It was very cool... I don't know, I saw the judges, they are chefs I respect and admire a lot... And then I won... You can probably see it on my face, in all the photos. It was just great," he admits with a laugh.

"If I could go back and participate again, I would do it without hesitation... I would just say: have fun, go for it, and consider it a learning experience," he now recommends to all chefs who are wondering whether they should try it.

Originally from Mont-Laurier, Marie-Ève Gingras began her culinary journey at the École hôtelière des Laurentides, before specializing in market cuisine. At the time, she was still searching for her path, but one thing was clear: she was passionate about cooking. "That's really where I got hooked, where I told myself [that] cooking was for me," she recalls.

Driven by love, she moved to the Outaouais region, where she got her start at Les Vilains Garçons. After four years of rich learning experiences, she joined the team at the restaurants of the Moulin Wakefield Mill Hotel & Spa, namely La Muse and Heron Wine Bar, where she continues to evolve with passion. The Outaouais region seems to her to be a fertile playground, rich in products and collaborations.

For Marie-Ève, cooking is a tradition deeply rooted in her childhood memories. "Food really brought us together at home," she says, recalling family dinners, mussels and fries cooked by her father, and plates placed in the center of the table. "My mother always cooked me oven-roasted chicken hearts with couscous. It sounds really simple, but it was my mother's dish that I always looked forward to eating," she says, before adding with a laugh that her partner lets her eat the entire dish on her own when recreating this recipe today.

What drives her in the kitchen is conviviality. "What I love most about cooking is food that we eat with friends, something warm and unifying," she admits. She is particularly passionate about seafood: lobster, crab, northern shrimp, and oysters. She points out that she loves cooking them as much as she loves eating them. She says, "My challenge is really to build my dishes around beautiful Quebec proteins and complement them with what the region has to offer."

What does she love most of all? Creating dishes that speak to people, that evoke memories, that comfort and bring people together.

A committed chef, Marie-Ève gives pride of place to local Quebec products. In winter, she features root vegetables and frozen berries such as gooseberries, sea buckthorn, and blackcurrants, which she sources from Verger Victoria, among others. In the summer, she works closely with the Labelle & St-Amour farm in Ripon to create menus based on the harvest. The Moulin Wakefield Mill Hotel & Spa even has its own beehives to produce homemade honey.

For L'Outaouais en cuisine, she proposed a fresh appetizer: Gaspé Arctic char tartare served on homemade focaccia bread, accompanied by smoked tartar sauce, tempura salicornia, and trout roe. It was a delicate creation designed to appeal to a wide audience. "I wanted to start with a strong Quebec product like char and create something simple, accessible, but tasty," she explains. The goal? To appeal to the main audience while showcasing local products. And the result completely won over the audience.

Receiving the People's Choice Award was a highlight for both her and her student team. "It was so rewarding. Seeing my students' eyes lit up with pride was wonderful," she admits.

For Marie-Ève, the challenge was not only to win, but to pass on her knowledge, inspire and reassure the students who accompanied her. She adds: "I wanted them to experience something stimulating, to feel proud. It's an experience I would have loved to have had at their age."

This competition also allowed her to challenge herself, to refine her way of guiding, explaining, and collaborating. She had a rich and emotional human adventure that will remain etched in her memory.