Speech by Jamie Maw at the Grand Opening of The Commons by CTS

October 9, 2025

Welcome everyone to our wonderful new CTS Culinary Commons.

It seems almost otherworldly to realize that almost a quarter century has rushed past since the founding of the Chefs’ Table Society of British Columbia.

Here we are today, after recessions, Covid and other setbacks, stronger than ever and with a board that is also more diverse than ever before.

Now, thanks to Robert Belcham and Shawna Gardham and our many amazing board members from over the years, after 15 years of striving to find the right physical location, we have found a place—many thanks due to our partnership with Bargreen Ellingson and especially GM Jason Ocenas—yes, we have a place to call home.

Origin backstory? CTS was born over some fine claret at Sid’s and Joan’s house. Why? Because in our travels across North America, we’d noticed two emerging, continent-wide trends:

  1. How ruthlessly competitive our industry had become—especially when it came to poaching staff instead of eggs; and
  2. The advent of competitive cooking shows on Food Network and their ilk had introduced a false sense of what modern, professional kitchens should be—many shows were rife with hissy fits, screaming and scripted humiliation in front of peers. My tenure as a judge on some of these shows, especially Hell’s Kitchen—well, I can only say that I was appalled—it was gut wrenching. We saw many young chefs give up on their passion, defeated by bellicose nitwits and the egos of twats. It was the exact opposite, we thought, of what contemporary, professional cookery and service should be—and certainly defeated the notion of true hospitality.

Soon, at a meeting at Lumiere, we empanelled a fine founding board of leading chefs and culinarians who will be acknowledged later today. Two cookbooks provided over $125,000 of seed capital. Back when that was some serious dosh! I’d like to thank Joan Cross, one of the undersung heroes of our early days, for shopping for and adapting more than 230 recipes for those books. That was the heavy lifting—we can’t thank you enough Joan. By the way, the draft recipes from hotel chefs defied easy field work—“Take 16 litres of Demi…”

The Spot Prawn Festival, many thanks to Chef Robert Clark (please have a look upstairs at his Order of Canada; it’s right next to my Order of Burnaby) and other early board members, especially Neil Wyles and Andrew Morrison, shortly followed, and allowed CTS to promote our message of sustainability, locality and organics. But most especially—comradeship, collegiality, compassion, cooperation and diversity in lieu of yelling and derision.

CTS would raise a great deal of money over the next decades in support of locums, scholarships, mentorship programs—and tackling mental health issues—recently exemplified by the enormous, ongoing success of CooksCamp in Pemberton. Many younger chefs, some supported by the John Bishop and Bruno Marti scholarships, have called CooksCamp ‘totally life changing’.

Sometimes, it’s seemed that the CTS ‘brand’ has been a little overwhelmed by the success of our events. Today, that notion slows, because this location—our purposefully titled Culinary Commons—is an egalitarian place for all to convene, a place of good humour, and laughter instead of tears.

So finally, after many years of searching, we have both the bricks of location and the mortar of collegiality that provides an all-encompassing resource centre, and importantly:

A sense of place; a sense of belonging; and a place to call home.

As my folks used to say over breakfast: ‘Take joy from this day, spread it widely—and spend it wisely.’

We are forever gratified, ladies and gentlemen, and we thank you for your ongoing support.