W.D. Colledge is in the foodservice industry, and when you’re in the foodservice industry you need people who understand the impacts equipment can have on food. Meet our resident experts:
CHEF DAVE WILSON
I love being a chef, but if I were doing anything else it would be home renovations, general contracting, or some type of woodworking. I’ve built plenty of furniture in my basement workshop, and I helped renovate three kitchens in my youth.
Speak of kitchens and youth, I used to work at KEG restaurant for many years in my teens. I loved it then, and I still love it now. In fact, it’s my favorite restaurant.
For meals, I love a BBQ’d steak – cap-on, bone-in rib steak done over charcoal with roasted yams that are sliced and grilled for a little extra texture. Add some grilled asparagus and grilled sweet peppers to go with the yams I get from my garden in the summer.
Not flowers. Vegetables. When spring hits, many people don’t realize that’s when my veggie seedlings go in the ground. I use the extra herbs that grow at home for any culinary demos we have at the office test kitchen.
Get to know Chef Dave at the W.D College test kitchen:
VISIT THE TEST KITCHEN
CHEF DAN FRENETTE
I’m Chef Dan Frenette. I live in downtown Toronto, but I love long walks on the beach, candlelit dinners, and listening to 80s love ballads… just kidding!
I actually love being in the great outdoors. I love to climb mountains, to fish, and to enjoy the occasional hunt as long as, in true chef fashion, there’s nothing wasted from the animal. Trophy hunting is wrong on so many levels.
If you want to know my favourite restaurant and meal, it would have to be when I dined at Chef Grant Aschatz’s restaurant, Alinea, in Chicago. It was 24 courses of pure bliss! They have earned all three of their Michelin Stars if you ask me.
I love working with foodservice equipment, but my real pleasure is cooking on it. I am a chef by trade and will always love to throw down a tasty meal or two for people who like to eat.
Care to take him up on his offer? Visit Chef Dan in the W.D. Colledge test kitchen.
VISIT THE TEST KITCHEN
CHEF MIKAEL OTTONI
Nothing beats a home-cooked pomodoro sauce with fresh pasta like my nonna used to make. In fact, if I wasn’t in the foodservice equipment industry with W.D. Colledge, I’d probably be in my own Italian restaurant. That is if I hadn’t become a police officer.
In my opinion, classic homemade Italian meals were all made fresh. You can say I grew up eating them, and they developed a sentimental value to me. The way nonna didn’t overwork the dough made her pasta light and delicious.
I started working in kitchens while I was in high school. I learned culinary techniques mostly in the field working in the field, by learning how to be a line chef and mass production in the kitchen. I wanted to up my game and learn the classic techniques in French cuisine, so I decided to go to a culinary school to develop more skills and become a more knowledgeable chef.
One I graduation, I then worked in hotels to gain more experience. Afterwards, I was approached by Chris Jeens for a job at WDC. My expertise in the kitchen was working the grill and as a saucier. Pastry was my least favorite.
See what Chef Mikael has learned through the years. Visit him in our W.D. Colledge test kitchen.
VISIT THE TEST KITCHEN
CHEF GABRIEL SANTOS
I was born and raised in Sao Paulo, Brazil. Besides the fact that I’m Brazilian, I’m a terrible soccer player and a horrible dancer, but I do wear my sunga when I go to the beach (Google it).
My interest in food started when I was a toddler. I was chubby, loved to eat (still do), and always tried to cook a few things here and there.
I had my first “professional” cooking experience when I was in high school. As part of the curriculum, I had to work somewhere for a few hours. So I ended up in a hotel kitchen in the middle of nowhere boiling sausages, chopping onions, and frying stuff with old ladies in a kitchen that had a pet parrot (yes, in the kitchen). That experience was enough for me to understand how much I actually enjoy to work in a kitchen.
After that, I went to college, spent some time in Mexico and Australia working for restaurants and hotels, before moving to Canada in 2014.
As a chef I don’t have a favorite food or meal, I simply love food when is properly cooked, no matter how simple or humble it is. Some of the best meals I had in my life were not cooked by chefs, but by people who love and respect food. I can’t imagine myself doing anything else, I’ve been working in the foodservice industry since I’m a teenager and I’m simply thankful for doing what I love.
Get to know Chef Gabriel and see what he’s cooking up. Visit him in the W.D. Colledge test kitchen.
VISIT THE TEST KITCHEN
