From a young age, Tofino had always intrigued Jesse. Many years after he had first heard about the Wick and The Pointe Restaurant through a friend from culinary school, our Junior Sous Chef found himself here on the West Coast. Jesse originally hails from Winnipeg, having left his hometown in 2010 to spend four years studying at the Culinary Institute of Canada in PEI. The draw of the local culinary scene on Vancouver Island was strong, and the bounty of fresh ingredients at hand was inspiring.

Jesse hadn’t always grown up wanting to be a chef; it was his mother, a passionate cook herself, who encouraged him to dive into the culinary space. As a creative person who initially wanted to become a music teacher, Jesse quickly began to draw similarities between music and food as art forms. He looks at how ingredients are paired together as similar to instruments, with different cuisines almost resembling genres of music. One can look at balancing flavours in the kitchen as similar to finding harmony between your bass, middle, and treble notes. These creative parallels, as well as the fast pace of the kitchen, were very appealing to him.

When asked what his favourite part about working at the Inn is, Jesse shared that it’s the incredible array of produce and foraged goods he has access to and the collaboration between the cooks that inspires him the most. The diverse backgrounds of the kitchen team and being able to pull ideas and come together to workshop them pushes Jesse to keep growing and exploring his culinary development.

This summer, in addition to his role as Junior Sous Chef, Jesse is also catering our weddings and special events as our wonderful Summer Banquet Chef. We love coming into the kitchen to see Jesse’s friendly smile, and we are grateful to have his outgoing presence on our team!

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