Meet Chef Cat McInroy - Owner Globe & Mail 2020 Rising Star Chef
The Globe & Mail has chosen Chef Cat for their 2020 rising star Chef to watch edition. Read more about that article here:https://www.theglobeandmail.com/life/food-and-wine/article-canadas-kitchen-2020-introducing-the-countrys-next-star-chefs/#recipe-yt
Chef Catherine (Cat) McInroy was born and raised in Whitehorse, Yukon to generational immigrant parents from Eastern Europe. Her earliest food memories are with her mother in the family kitchen making bread, pasta, cutting up wild meat and making sausage. Youngest of 7 children, she and her siblings grew up camping and fishing with their parents and farming and hunting on her Dad's trap line in the Ibex Valley.
Cat started her cooking career while working full-time shift work as a first responder in the RCMP. On her days-off, she gained experience with many local chefs, catered her own and friend's weddings and helped formulate the Air North flight kitchen in it’s earliest days. Cat has had the privilege of cooking for delegates and celebrities that come through the Yukon.
In 2005, Cat completed a distance delivery course with Highest Honours in Cooking and Catering, (Stratford Institute/Le Cordon Bleu), and in 2016 graduated Highest Honours in Baking & Pastry Arts, from SAIT in Calgary, Alberta. In 2017, she attended The Welbeck Artisan Food School in England. Chef Cat is one in a very small handful of female Canadian chef's who hold a Red Seal in both Cooking and Baking.
In less than a year, Cat took her idea for a food adventure and turned it into a thriving business with waitlists for her classes. Well Bread Culinary Centre is the only privately owned culinary education centre in all of northern Canada. Cat invites guest Chefs and talented home cooks of every culture to join her in the Well Bread kitchen. Together they build kitchen confidence in the young and old. Chef Cat is dedicated to preserving heritage cooking techniques in the modern kitchen.
Cat is a 2023 IACP (International Association of Culinary Professionals) judge, a member of the Bread Baker’s Guild of America, Baking Association of Canada, International Society of Female Professionals, International Association of Culinary Professionals and Women and Chef Restaurateurs. Chef Cat is a member of the panel of culinary experts that choose Air Canada enRoute's best new Canadian restaurants and rising chefs. You can often hear her on CBC radio sharing culinary advice or demonstration cooking at the local farmers market using locally produced foods.
Join Chef Cat and the many other culinary experts she collaborates with at Well Bread. There is a class for everyone here; young and old, professional and beginner home cooks alike.
Meet Jennifer "Free Pour Jenny" - Mixologist
Jennifer Tyldesley grew up in North Vancouver. At 17, she earned her private pilot’s license as an air cadet. Jennifer joined the Royal Canadian Air Force in 1991, attending Royal Roads Military College in Victoria. After obtaining her degree in 1995, and completing her pilot training in 1997, Jennifer was posted to 442 Search & Rescue Squadron in Comox, BC. She spent 6 years there, participating in many searches over land and sea, and becoming an air show pilot. She retired from the air force in 2003 and spent several years overseas, working in Bosnia-Herzegovina with her husband, Jeff. After moving to Whitehorse in 2006, Jennifer worked at Air North as a safety officer and as a pilot on the both the Hawker-Siddeley 748 and the Boeing 737.
Jennifer retired from flying in 2015 and launched Free Pour Jenny’s in 2016, making handcrafted cocktail bitters that showcase the unique ingredients found in the boreal forest. Free Pour Jenny’s bitters are sold in various retail outlets in the Yukon, BC, Alberta, and in her online shop. Jennifer is the author, with Boreal Gourmet Michele Genest, of both Cold Spell, Cocktails and Savouries for a Northern Winter (Borealchemy Press, 2017) and Add Light and Stir, Cocktails and Savouries for a Northern Summer (Borealchemy Press, 2018).
Jennifer enjoys a good cocktail and prefers a refreshing gin.
Meet Chef Pat McKenna
Pat came to Whitehorse as a new Home Economics teacher in 1979 and continued for 35 years at F.H. Collins Secondary School. She developed the Award-winning FEAST (Foods Education And Service Training) nutrition program and set many young cooks, dieticians, and pastry chefs on their career paths.
Her education of Bachelor of Science (Food Science/Home Economics), Bachelor of Education, and Red Seal Interprovincial Chef as well as over 20 years training students for Skills Canada national competitions has given her a broad background in the food industry.
Now retired, Pat continues to teach FOODSAFE through the Ministry of Education B.C.-Yukon as well as courses at Well Bread Culinary School.
An active person, Pat enjoys the Yukon outdoors: hiking, paddling, cycling, skiing, and foraging in obscure locations. She is as comfortable cooking over an open campfire as she is with a high-tech induction cooktop.
Pat likes to share her knowledge of and passion for food and have fun with those interested in continuing to learn.
Pat is a fabulous addition to Well Bread Cooking School and we are excited to have her on board!
Meet Dr. Jill Johnstone
Dr. Jill Johnstone is a research biologist with a specialty focus on the impacts of changing climate and wildfire on northern ecosystems. She was born in Vermont (USA) and has lived in Whitehorse, Yukon off and on since 1996.
She completed a Ph.D. in Biology (plant ecology) at the University of Alaska Fairbanks in 1999-2003 and worked as a Professor of Biology at the University of Saskatchewan from 2006 to 2017. She now works as a freelance researcher and runs the Northern Plant Ecology Lab based out of Whitehorse (http://npelusask.weebly.com/).
Her passion for artisan cheese led her into home cheese making as a hobby, which she has been exploring since 2017. She brings years of experience with university teaching, a scientific understanding, and a passion for all things cheesy to teaching about making cheese at home.
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Meet Amy Lank, Dietitian
Amy is a Registered Dietitian living and working in Whitehorse. She is a founding member of the Yukon Dietitian Alliance and works for Health and Social Services (Continuing Care).
Amy was born in Kimberley, BC, but grew up in Sundre and Ponoka, Alberta. She completed her Bachelor of Science in Human Nutrition and Dietetic Internship through St. Francis Xavier University in Antigonish, NS. Amy met her fiancé at school and followed him to his hometown, Whitehorse; where she, like so many others, fell in love with the city. Amy enjoys hiking, camping, canoeing, and trying new outdoor adventures with her 1-year-old pup, Lily.
Amy has always loved food. Her fondest childhood memories are of her Grandma’s homemade perogies, dill pickles, and salsa, and her Dad’s smoked moose jerky. Amy was always the one asking for snacks 5 minutes into a road trip or 5 minutes after dinner. She loved food and was apparently hungry ALL the time. If you didn’t find Amy in the kitchen, you would find her on the ball diamond. Amy played competitive sports, namely fastpitch, all throughout high school and university. She also played basketball, volleyball, badminton, and track and field. Amy is now busy training for her second Yukon River Quest! Understanding the effect of nutrition on sport performance, is what first triggered Amy to pursue a degree in nutrition.
Amy loves sharing her knowledge of nutrition with others. She is excited to work with and learn from the talented students and chefs at Well Bread Culinary Centre.
Meet Chef Amelia Slobogean
Amelia Rose Slobogean was born into a food loving Ukrainian family in Vancouver, and knew at a young age that she wanted to be a chef. As a young girl, she would stay up late at night scouring her mother’s Bon Appetit magazine collection. Amelia relished in preparing very elaborate desserts for family events. As a teen, she would cook extravagant meals for her friends as their Christmas gift every year.
At age 15, Amelia had her first restaurant job and directly after high school attended Dubrulle French Culinary School in Vancouver. Chef Amelia went on to work in several high end restaurants in Vancouver and in 1994 landed a pastry cook position at the Oak Bay Marina in Victoria. She was soon promoted to Assistant Pastry Chef, overseeing the pastry department of this highly revered 250 seat restaurant.
A born world traveler, Chef Amelia globe trotted many times in her twenties and thirties. In her travels, she rekindled her love for the violin which she had studied seriously as a child, but set aside as a young teen to pursue her culinary aspirations. Having re-immersed herself in the world of music, she switched her focus from working in fine dining establishments to taking jobs which would support her music career. In turn, she worked many years flipping eggs in diners, line cooking in restaurants, and working as a camp cook. All the while, her French training and early fine dining kitchen experience prevailed.
At 35, Chef Amelia ventured into a remote fishing lodge in the Chilcotin as she needed to see for herself if having her own restaurant was still a dream she needed to pursue; but, after two summers of 15 hour days, and no time for music, the violin serenaded Amelia out of the kitchen.
Chef Amelia is currently very busy as a Mom to her young son, Reuben. She teaches fiddle/violin to private students of all ages, as well as travels often to several Yukon communities to share her love of music. She is always cooking or baking something at home for her family and strongly believes that good food is imperative for health and happiness. This, combined with music, is truly a dream come true for her. Chef Amelia has recently delved back into professional cooking with recent appointments at The Chocolate Claim, private catering and on-call work.
Chef Amelia is very happy to have the opportunity to share her passion for cooking and baking with the students at Well Bread.
Meet Riley Coppicus, Cutler/Edge Smith
Riley is a professional edge smith (Cutler) with over a decade of experience sharpening all shapes and sizes of edged tools and knives. Riley received his first large blade at 16 from a friend, found a cheap sharpener at the local sporting goods store and his fate was sealed. As a hobby, he studied metallurgy, steel compositions, and knife-edge tests. That hobby developed into his craft business: North Edge Sharpening.
Riley is helping revive the ancient profession of Cutlers: craftspeople who travel (originally with the military to keep swords sharp) providing their sharpening services. Riley brings his skills to his clients through his mobile sharpening service.
Riley grew up in the breadbasket of Canada; Brandon Manitoba where he studied Horticulture and graduated from Assiniboine Community College in 2017. He moved to Whitehorse in 2018 to work at the Ibex Valley Greenhouse. When Riley is not traveling to his client’s homes and businesses to sharpen their kitchen blades and tools, he enjoys collecting knives, the outdoors, and raising his toddler son.
Riley is looking forward to sharing his knowledge of edge-smithing with culinary and outdoorsy clientele at Well Bread Cooking School.