Chef Bruno Marti
Les Dames d’Escoffier 2017 Gala Honouree
Each year Les Dames d’Escoffier, BC Chapter chooses a Culinary Icon to honour and celebrate at an annual gala fundraising dinner. This year we are thrilled to announce Chef Bruno Marti as the 2017 recipient of this honour at a black-tie event, September 22nd at the Four Seasons Hotel, Vancouver.
Chosen with great care, the Les Dames d’Escoffier icon recipient is chosen for what they have contributed to the culinary and hospitality industry; judged for not only their own success but the successes of those they have mentored. This person is chosen by their peers; the chefs and restaurateur members of the chapter, as well as their peers outside of the organization. They are chosen because they are tastemakers, trendsetters and have set standards that have given rise to the quality of cuisine and service in the industry, changing the culinary world around them by their contributions.
Past recipients have included Dame Julia Child (celebrating what would have been her 100th birthday), New York’s (by way of Italy) Lidia Bastianich and Canada’s own, former Four Seasons Executive Chef and the Food Network’s, Lynn Crawford. Recipients closer to home have included Chef John Bishop and Umberto Menghi, both legends in the Vancouver culinary scene.
Please scroll down for an in-depth look at the background and history of Chef Bruno Marti and his illustrious career.
THE GALA
The Les Dames d’Escoffier Gala is an annual celebration honouring a true culinary icon. Recipients are both local and international. The gala itself is almost certainly the most elegant table in the city, a stunningly designed single, 100-seat long table in the upper foyer of the Four Seasons Hotel in Vancouver. This year’s date is Friday, September 22nd with a champagne reception off the main lobby followed by dinner in the upper foyer.
The multiple course format is prepared by up to 10 different, unique chefs, who are chosen for their relationship to the cuisine or to the chef being honoured. Ingredients are carefully chosen to complement the evening’s’ theme and honour the terroir it comes from, as do the superb selection of wine, curated by some of Vancouver’s top female sommeliers, as accompaniments to each course. Tickets for seats will be available May 30th through the Les Dames d’Escoffier website. The 100-seat dinner always sells out quickly so please consider joining our mailing list for advance access to tickets. mailing list
THE CHEFS
This years’ gala will be prepared by chefs from across North America starting with the reception with Chef Bernard Casavant and his Okanagan team. Host chef, Executive Chef Weimar Gomez, Four Seasons Hotel, will start the lineup of illustrious chefs preparing a course, which include La Belle Auberge alumni Chef’s Michael Noble and Matthew Batey, The Nash restaurant & Cut Off Bar/Notable, Calgary; Scott Jaeger, the Pear Tree restaurant; Tobias MacDonald (former Executive Chef, La Belle Auberge), Chef Instructor VCC; Jennifer Peters, Nextjen Gluten Free; Alex Chen, Boulevard Kitchen & Oyster Bar and Greg Hook, Chocolate Arts. Overseeing chef is Dame Margaret Chisholm. Wines will be announced at a future date.
Joining the table, flying in from London, England, will be special guest speaker, Chef Anton Mosimann, whose recipes will be interpreted and prepared by Chef Scott Jaeger.
Tickets are available here
ABOUT THIS YEAR’S HONOUREE, CHEF BRUNO MARTI
Chef Bruno Marti, the 2017 recipient of the honour, has had a long and illustrious career as a chef, restaurateur, teacher and competitor. Though now “retired” as an active restaurateur, he continues to mentor chefs and play an active and key role in some of the world’s most prestigious culinary competitions. He has taken hundreds of young skilled culinarians to competitions around the world, representing Canada and British Columbia as culinary ambassadors of a cuisine that is uniquely Canadian and reflective of the cultural diversity and agricultural abundance of BC.
Bruno began his career in Switzerland leaving home when he was 16 for a year in a French monastery, learning French by “peeling potatoes and washing dishes” and eventually cooking. He returned home, completing his cooking apprenticeship at various restaurants throughout Switzerland.
After serving one mandatory year in the army as a cook, he went to work at the Swiss owned Hotel Pierre in Puerto Rico. His next stop was Montreal’s Queen Elizabeth Hotel, where he stayed for 3 ½ years before moving to the LaSalle Hotel as Executive Chef.
Chef Marti later joined Cara Food Operations as Executive Chef and was appointed to the position of Manager, Catering for CP Air (now Air Canada) based in Vancouver, creating North America’s first gourmet dining experience for airline passengers.
He and his wife fell in love with the beauty of Vancouver and the incredible local ingredients available to chefs, eventually leaving Cara to open his own restaurant, La Belle Auberge, in Ladner, BC, which remained open for an astounding 32 years, winning many awards including the ‘Zagat’ award for best local fine dining in 2010.
Some of Canada’s finest young chefs passed through the kitchens of La Belle Auberge, many of them going on to open their own restaurants around the world, thanks in part to the training and expertise learned under Chef Marti. Chef’s include Scott Jaeger, Dame Jennifer Peters, Michael Noble, Alex Chen, Lars Jorgensen and Tobias McDonald, just to name a few.
Bruno retired the restaurant in 2012, but not content to retire himself, continued to take an active role in international culinary competitions, an area he is as synonymous for as his restaurant.
Although he competed in various competitions while in Puerto Rico and Montreal, Chef Marti’s first international competition experience came as Team Captain of the Western Canadian Culinary Team in Frankfurt in 1976, creating the first regional team {provincial team} that could compete at the Culinary Olympics in Germany.
He founded Culinary Team Canada in 1980 and was Team Manager for Team Vancouver that same year in Germany; Team Member for Team Canada at the competition in Osaka in 1983 and Team Member of the World Champion Team Canada at the Culinary Olympics in Frankfurt in 1984 – taking home the top win over 32 other teams from around the world.
He was Team Manager for Team Vancouver at both the 1988 and 1992 Culinary Olympics; Manager for Team British Columbia from 1997 – 2003 and Manager of Team Canada at the 1996 Culinary Olympics, winning 3 gold and 1 bronze medals. He remains coach of the current Culinary Team Canada, Bocuse d’Or Canada and Team British Columbia, hardly a quiet retirement…
Chef Marti is a member and past chair of the Honour Society for the Canadian Culinary Federation, CCFCC. He served as President and Chairman for the local Chapter of the Chefs Association and started the first junior chefs chapter in the country. He is also past President and Chairman of the Canadian Culinary Federation and founder and Chairman of the BC Culinary Arts Foundation.
He also holds the position of Lead Examiner for the Canadian Certified MASTER CHEF, a program he helped create where senior Canadian chefs can elevate their knowledge by returning to school, re-examining and updating all their skills, followed by a rigorous examination – there is not a tougher chef exam in North America and those few who receive it proudly wear the garneted insignia, CMC, on their chef jacket. Most recently Bruno resided as the Canadian judge at the Bocuse d’Or international competition.
Chef Marti is the recipient of countless awards, including the Order of British Columbia and the Queen’s Jubilee Award. He has been inducted into the BC Restaurant Hall of Fame and is the only Canadian chef to be inducted in the American Culinary Federation’s Hall of Fame. Already an Honorary Member of the American Academy, Bruno received this induction because of his active contribution to the American Culinary Federation and the American Academy of Chefs; demonstrating over many years, leadership and culinary expertise; his reputation as a successful restaurateur; his active involvement with national culinary teams and many international competitions, and his tenure as past Canadian Culinary Federation president.