Our Food Panel

Mary Bailey is the publisher of Edmonton’s The Tomato food & drink, a Gold Medal Plates judge, wine instructor and bubbles lover.

Trained pastry chef, culinary instructor and food critic Lesley Chesterman has been reviewing restaurants for the Montreal Gazette for almost two decades, and is a contributor to Radio-Canada’s Médium large.

Based in Carters Point, New Brunswick, Cornel Ceapa is the owner of Acadian Sturgeon and Caviar, the only company in the world producing wild and sustainable caviar, as well as land-based farmed caviar and sturgeon from local sturgeon species.

Dan Clapson covers Alberta restaurants for The Globe & Mail and EatNorth.com, and regularly appears on Cityline, CTV Morning Live Vancouver and Global Calgary.

John Gilchrist is a restaurant reviewer for the Calgary Herald and for CBC Radio, and is the author of 11 guides to dining in Calgary and the Bow Valley.

Vancouver-based journalist Alexandra Gill has been the British Columbia restaurant critic for The Globe & Mail since 2005, and contributes to Vancouver Magazine, Western Living and Maclean’s. Her foodie guidebook to Vancouver appears in late 2017.

Associate editor at Ricardo, the nationally distributed cooking magazine, Ian Harrison is also the founding editor of Eater Montreal.

As Air Canada’s Culinary Partner, David Hawksworth, chef/owner of Vancouver’s Hawksworth and Nightingale restaurants, has created signature dishes exclusively for Air Canada flights in International Business Class and Maple Leaf Lounges.

A former sommelier and chef, Gary Hynes is the founder and editor of Victoria-based Eat Magazine, which covers the food and wine scene on Vancouver Island, and the editor of Island Wineries of British Columbia.

Former EatHalifax blogger Kathy Jollimore is a co-founder of Wild Card Creative, specializing in recipe development, prop styling, food styling, food photography and food writing.

Based in the Ottawa area, Pierre Jury covers trends in food and politics for the daily newspaper Le Droit.

CJ Katz is a food marketing and communications consultant, host of cooking show The Wheatland Café on CTV and the author of TASTE: Seasonal Dishes from a Prairie Table.

Bartley Kives has covered politics, music, food, the environment and outdoor recreation for CBC Manitoba and the Winnipeg Free Press, has contributed to The Guardian and is the author of three books, most recently Stuck in the Middle 2: Defining Views of Manitoba. 

The chef behind Calgary’s Model Milk and Pigeonhole, Justin Leboe has finished three times among the top three Canada’s Best New Restaurants.

With Joe Beef, Liverpool House and Le Vin Papillon, Montreal restaurateurs Fred Morin and David McMillan have made the Top 10 of Canada’s Best New Restaurants three times. Their new cookbook will be published in 2018.

Andrew Morrison is the editor and publisher of Vancouver’s Scout Magazine and co-author of Vancouver Cooks 2, The Sobo Cookbook and Araxi, Roots to Shoots: Farm Fresh Recipes.

Edmonton journalist and author Omar Mouallem’s writing on food, culture, business and politics has appeared on NewYorker.com and in Rolling Stone, The Guardian and Wired.

A restaurant critic for The Globe & Mail and Toronto Life for over a decade, Toronto-based journalist Chris Nuttall-Smith is a host of Top Chef Canada.

The founder of Edible Canada, British Columbia-based chef and entrepreneur Eric Pateman showcases the country’s culinary artisans on an international stage.

As Air Canada’s Sommelier, Véronique Rivest, owner of Soif wine bar in Gatineau, Quebec, has selected wines from across the world exclusively for Air Canada’s International Business Class.

Katerine-Lune Rollet is a Sutton- and Montreal-based journalist who contributes to Ricardo magazine and Radio-Canada radio, and blogs for Châtelaine. She has also maintained her own blog about Montreal’s restaurant scene since 2010.

Amy Rosen is a James Beard-nominated, award-winning freelance journalist. Her latest cookbook, Toronto Eats, is a bestseller, and she’s also the owner of Rosen’s Cinnamon Buns in Toronto.

Based in the Okanagan, Shelora Sheldan writes about food, travel and design for several B.C. publications, including Eat Magazine.

A food writer, cookbook author and original Top Chef judge, Toronto native Gail Simmons’ newest cookbook is Bringing It Home: Favorite Recipes from a Life of Adventurous Eating.

Prince Edward Island’s culinary ambassador, chef Michael Smith is a Food Network host, cookbook author and nutritional activist, and the restaurateur behind FireWorks at the Inn at Bay Fortune.

Now based in Berlin, Arlene Stein is the founder of the Terroir Symposium, an annual conference of the Canadian hospitality industry.

Vikram Vij, co-owner of Vij’s, Rangoli and My Shanti by Vikram Vij, is a certified sommelier, the author of Vij: A Chef’s One–Way Ticket to Canada with Indian Spices in His Suitcase and the co-author of three Vij’s cookbooks. He developed on-board meals for Air Canada flights to India.

Karl Wells is the longstanding restaurant critic with The Telegram newspaper in St. John’s, and a former CBC journalist, television host and personal chef.