Lorien Schramm – Pedersen’s Scholarship
Upon completing a degree in commerce, Lórien partnered with her husband to found Pemberton Distillery, one of BC’s first artisan distilleries. Lórien is responsible for developing the profiles, packaging and marketing for Pemberton’s line of organic spirits, including organic potato vodka, gin, absinthe, aged brandies and liqueurs. She is an avid traveler and enjoys discovering unique beers and spirits from around the world. Lórien will use her scholarship towards completing a Master of Spirits through the World Spirits Academy in Austria, a professional program specializing in the tasting and sensory analysis of distilled spirits.
Erin Vickars – PICA WSET Scholarship
Erin graduated from DuBrulle Advanced Culinary and Advanced Pastry Programs in 2005. During her first years in the industry she staged at Cafe de Paris, and held positions with Diva at the Met and The Vancouver Club. In 2009 she joined Joey Restaurant Group, opening their new pilot concept Local Public Eatery. During this time, she accompanied Chef Chris Mills to James Beard House in New York City for his second requested visit. Erin is currently working at The Lazy Gourmet, while focusing on completing her Red Seal Certification this fall. She is intent on completing her Level 2 WSET certification with her Scholarship.
Margaux Herder – PICA Culinary Program
Margaux was born in California, and grew up on vineyards her whole life. At the age of eight she moved to Keremeos, British Columbia, where her parents started a new winery and vineyard. She started cooking by herself at the age of eleven and soon realized cooking was her passion. She enjoys cooking authentic foods, such as Indian, Thai, Mexican, Japanese and French. At age seventeen she became a sous chef at a nearby golf course which made her realize that she wanted to become a chef.
Paula Diakiw – Barry Callebaut Scholarship
Paula has loved every minute of her 30-year hospitality career. Having started with Four Seasons Hotels and Resorts, and continuing with Canadian Pacific Hotels, she then opened a bed and breakfast in the Canadian Rockies when her children were young. She now owns and operates an Okanagan fruit drying business employing local teens and persons with disabilities. She is passionate about food and people, and loves to create and share the flavours of the Okanagan.
Crystal Cain – NWCA Scholarship
Crystal was born and raised on Vancouver Island. After completing an Environmental Studies Degree at UVic she moved to Vancouver to follow her passion for everything food related and enrolled at the Canadian School of Natural Nutrition. She is now excited to tie her years of service in the hospitality industry and her passion for local and sustainable nutritious food with a professional culinary program.
Ceri Barlow
Ceri has been involved in the hospitality industry since she was old enough to work. Starting as a dishwasher, then to garde manger, busser, and eventually server. In her early twenties she travelled to New Zealand where she caught the wine bug and has worked and studied in or around this part of our industry ever since. As manager of a private LRS in downtown Victoria, she has seen first hand the growth in the Craft beer sector of not only her city but the entire West Coast. The Cicerone Certification program is the next logical step for her to continue her education.
Nicole Mercredi
Nicole lives in Nanaimo on Vancouver Island, and works at Cobs Bread. She just finished the Level 2 Apprenticeship. In her spare time, she likes to make treats for friends and family. She is looking forward to getting her Red Seal and the baking possibilities that the future holds for her.
Lauren Vickers
Lauren Vickers is a first year culinary apprentice working at the Fairmont Empress hotel in Victoria. She has been cooking professionally about three years. Born and raised in North Vancouver, she moved to Victoria about a year and a half ago. She plans on working towards her Red Seal designation in the next two years at Camosun College while learning about local and sustainable food.
Nancy Brown
Nancy is a baking and pastry instructor at Vancouver Community College where she loves working with students who are excited about their new career. She also attends Simon Fraser University as a graduate student studying Educational Technology and Learning Design. It’s a mouthful, but it means she’s learning how to design courses for the internet in a way that maximizes student learning. She plans to use this knowledge to help her department continue to make curriculum changes that combine face-to-face learning with online courses. She’s excited to be blending two disciplines that she really loves.
Mackenzie Charles
Mackenzie started working in the industry at the young age of fourteen at Morgan Creek Golf Course. She quickly found that she loved cooking in a restaurant kitchen; the pressure, high energy, and creativity involved only made her crave more. The best part for her was there was so much to learn, so many different techniques and diverse ethnic styles of flavor and preparations. She is currently working at Bacchus at the Wedgewood Hotel. Mackenzie is excited to further her education and doing whatever she can to become the best chef she can be.
Barb McMahon
Barb is the founder behind Sprouting Chefs, a kitchen garden program for children where she teaches seed classes, cooking classes and facilitates after school garden clubs. She has also run summer cooking camps for children ages 7 to 15 featuring BC local seasonal ingredients with Chef Steve Golob of UBC. Barb championed a school garden project/program at Forest Grove Elementary to create the first edible school garden in the Burnaby School District. Her interest in pursuing her Organic Master Gardner’s Certificate is all about teaching others how to grow their own food, connect children to each other through nature and enjoy the fruits of their labour. Barb hopes to expand her business to help other schools build more edible gardens as well as building more community gardens in residential developments.
Lindsay Nielson
Lindsay’s interest in wine developed following a trip to Spain in 2010 and enrollment in the WSET levels 1, 2 and 3 courses. She decided to pursue the WSET Diploma in 2012 at the same time she began blogging about wine (www.winellama.com) and working at Vista D’oro Farms and Winery as their weekend Tasting Room Manager. Lindsay will use this award to take the WSET Diploma course in Spirits and then will only have two more credits to complete for the full Diploma. Lindsay’s goal is to concentrate full time on B.C.’s exciting wine industry. She dreams of earning the coveted Master of Wine designation.
Shiva Reddy
Shiva, born a Vancouverite, grew up in an Indian household to a mother who cooked phenomenal food. Shiva put herself through post-secondary by working multiple jobs at a time, one of them being a bartender. By being exposed to the food and beverage industry, Shiva became instantly enamored when learning about the mystic character of wine. Immediately Shiva enrolled into the Wine Education Spirit Trust program at Pacific Institute of Culinary Arts, where she has completed both Level One and Level Two of her WSET certification. Currently in her Third Level of PICA’s WSET program, she hopes to complete Level Four, as well as her degree in Communications in the near future.