Kitchen Education- This Chef Comes Full Circle
“There is no better way to get an idea of where you are than see what grows there.”
As many chefs’ journey’s do, Chef Tasha Sawyer’s first experience with learning about food was in the kitchen with her mom. What began as being intrigued by her mother’s movements and creating in the kitchen, turned to a slow introduction to hands-on and age-appropriate learning and helping around the age of seven including peeling carrots and measuring ingredients.
And when she went through her grilled cheese phase as a child, her mom taught her how to make them for herself!
But her love of food is tied directly to her time in the Bahamas where most of the food her family consumed was tied to their locale in Nassau and the surrounding islands. Her time in the Caribbean meant she would go fishing in the morning and then later in the day, her mom would cook what they caught. She knew from an early age about the supply chain in the food industry and the importance of knowing where your food comes from.
With so much of her family in the culinary industry on the Island, and family close by on smaller islands, some of her favourite memories include her cousins. One of those memories is when visiting family during the holiday season on a smaller island, the family went out to gather coconuts. But only her cousin Lincoln was able to climb the trees to reach the coconuts. After tossing the coconuts down, he got stuck in the tree. While she is sure he eventually got down the memory of family, food, and fun are connected and have remained so!
While there were five years in the Bahamas learning, foraging, and cooking Tasha was born and raised in Toronto. While there most of her jobs were not directly related to the culinary industry but she has always had a side hustle with catering from cakes to holiday platters full of hor d'oeuvres and Bahamian desserts she made with her mom!
Life happens and people make moves and Sawyer headed to Alberta where she worked as a cook in Canmore before starting the Red Seal Apprenticeship program at SAIT. This program was 8 weeks of in-class learning followed by a year working and applying the skills learned (and repeated three times to complete the program). When she started at SAIT, Tasha was working at The Quarry restaurant (which has since closed).
During her 8 weeks at SAIT during the program Tasha felt like she was on vacation. She was able to really be immersed in her love of food and she was surrounded by people who felt the same which was invigorating.
Most of her apprenticeship was done at Crazy Weed but once she completed her Red Seal and after having spent four years living and cooking in Canmore Tasha was ready to move on and grow her career.
The discussion with her partner came down to Toronto or Vancouver…and Vancouver won due to its access to green space.
The long weekend in August of 2013 would be the start of the change Tasha was seeking. She made a list of restaurants to reach out to while visiting the city. The list was focused on what she would want to cook, gaining experience with seafood, and restaurants focused on local products.
Main Street's Burdock & Co was on that list and had just opened! Sawyer knocked on the back door of the Burdock with her resume and met Chef Andrea Carlson. After they chatted, Chef Carlson invited her to come and do a one-day stage the next day.
It was the environment she had been looking for- a kitchen that cooked with local product but also was full of passion for food and sharing that love of food.
Next came a flurry of emails and a job offer.
A month later, Tasha moved to Vancouver during the September long weekend and started working at Burdock & Co where she remained for two and a half years.
She knew working there that the cooks who were alongside her wanted to cook and it wasn’t a default profession which was the feeling she had gotten while working in Canmore.
While Tasha considered moving onto other restaurants, an exciting opportunity came to her that she was unable to pass up. Graham MacLennan, Cheftimony Podcast, who she had worked with at Burdock also worked on a sailboat doing ecotours and gave Tasha’s number to the Captain.
And approximately three weeks later Sawyer was on a boat in Ucluelet for a tour of the Pacific Rim National Park. On the boat she would prepare the fish and other items that were brought to her, but she also participated in land foraging of sea asparagus, sea arugula, sea urchins, etc. One day she even had limpets! There was always a variety of seaweed, salal berries, salmon berries, and lichen from deer moss.
Her and the team would harvest from ocean and land and incorporate into the meals they made onboard! And it’s where it really stuck in her mind that there is no better way to get an idea of where you are than to see what grows there.
Tasha worked on the boat for two summers with her longest stint being 24 days in length (normally stints were 1-4 days) in Haida Gwaii.
While on the boat during the summer, Tasha would cater before heading to the mountains to work during the winter months working as a cook with Canadian Mountain Holidays (CMH). And while this was a flashback to her time cooking for tourists in Canmore, the cooks and bakers at CMH were dedicated to their professions and the industry.
After travelling for those few years, including getting off the boat at sea level and within 36 hours being at an elevation of 2100 feet above sea level, Sawyer was tired of the back and forth.
With timing working out again, an acquaintance sent her a job posting from Growing Chefs in the summer of 2019.
She was qualified for the role, but more importantly it was right up her alley and would bring her culinary career (thus far) full circle.
This is the role Chef Sawyer is in now with Growing Chefs and Fresh Roots. The SOIL program is a culinary program directed at youths in their schools. While the first semester Tasha was able to be in the schools and teaching the students hands-on, in the same way her passion for cooking began as a seven-year-old, COVID-19 meant the program needed to be adapted.
While it isn’t her ideal, Tasha has been able to continue the program via Zoom with only a little tripod, her phone, and her kitchen.
Tasha takes feedback and suggestions from the students on what they’d like to learn during the program, pizza, tacos, etc, and the program is catered to the student’s skill level in the class.
Despite the challenges of the pandemic, Chef Sawyer has made an impact and brought together 40-50 students for lunch over the past year. There are only about 80 students in the high school so half of them coming together for a meal is a huge deal. Tasha’s success is highlighting the importance of cooking and community.
This program is one Sawyer would love to be a part of for years, because she knows the impact that catching youth when their young can have on their future- career and personal. If she is able to help all genders learn key life skills, like cooking, before they leave home she knows they’ll be able to nourish themselves better and be a better life partner down the road.
If she can help anyone learn to cook—she will! Which is why when she wanted to write a cookbook, she started! All the recipes will feature foraged ingredients.
When asked about the advice she gives to her students is to do what makes you happy and make sure you are where you want to be! If you love to cook, follow that dream and know there are places you can express that passion that isn’t necessarily a restaurant- including hotels or catering!
Tasha loves cooking. And while so far, being a chef in restaurants hasn’t been the place she wants to be, there is an idea in her mind for the future that she comes back to again and again.
Along with her position at Growing Chefs, Tasha also works part-time at the Gathering Place where she is able to cook and go home.
She has found her happy place within the Industry!
When looking into the future, Tasha has an idea.
That idea is to revive a Black-owned restaurant in Hogan’s Alley—Vi’s Chicken and Steakhouse and rebuilding the community around the restaurant and food in the neighbourbood. While Tasha’s restaurant would not be the same, it would be an homage to the original and it’s one of those thoughts that comes to her often.
For Chef Sawyer, cooking is about family, happiness, and joy and she is sharing that with the students she reaches during the school year. With a family immersed in the culinary industry and a childhood in the kitchen and eating locally, it makes sense that Tasha has made it full circle and is now teaching youth.
She has truly come full circle.