The world of television chef competitions appears to be a small one with the announcement of Jimmy Stewart as one of the competitors in season two of Top Chef Canada.
Check out these connections: Jimmy Stewart, 23, worked with season one winner Dale McKay and McKay was a protégé to Gordon Ramsay. Taking the connections one step further, McKay was featured on season one with Clayton Beadle of Whistler.
For those just tuning in, Ramsay is about the best known of the celebrity chefs who have found a new career in television after conquering the kitchen.
Stewart worked for a time in Ramsay's New York outlet called Maze.
Ramsay's restaurants aren't as well known around the world as his network television shows. He is the host of Hell's Kitchen on Fox and Ramsay's Kitchen Nightmares, which can be found on Food Network Canada along with other networks. His newest show is called Masterchef US and it is a cooking competition that airs on Fox featuring wannabe cooks from across the U.S.A. hoping to be discovered as the next great American chef.
Ramsay has also found success in the book world with a number of titles including his autobiography called Roasting in Hell's Kitchen.
Yes, small world indeed.
Sometimes looking back helps to put some context to attempts to look ahead. Beadle, the Chef de Partie at the Four Seasons in Whistler, gives us a window from the past into the future as a competitor in Top Chef Canada's first season.
He was 26 at the time of his participation in the show on Food Network Canada. Beadle was the youngest competitor on the season one edition of the show and Stewart just happens to be the youngest competitor on the second season.
Fans of the show in the Sea to Sky corridor will recall that Beadle left the competition at the end of the second episode in a season that featured a total of 12 shows.
"It was intimidating a bit but I think I held my own really well," Beadle told Pique last year after his participation in the show was announced. He added that his participation in the show gave him increased confidence as a chef.
The sushi loving dual citizen of New Zealand and Canada returned to his job at the five star, five diamond resort in Whistler and continues to participate in chef competitions. He and a team of his colleagues took part in the Chef's Challenge held during Cornucopia back in November. Beadle is a veteran of challenges in Whistler having competed a number of times in Whistler cooking events.
Stewart says he wants to make Whistler proud and he's keen to talk, but he is bound by a confidentiality agreement that muzzles him from saying anything about the show.
So he chooses his words carefully when he shares, and reading the pauses between his words there seems to be a suggestion that we won't be watching Stewart exit the show after the debut episode on Monday, March 12.
While he isn't talking about the show he certainly is sharing about himself. His mother is the manager of the Whistler RV and Campgrounds. He lives with her and when he isn't in the kitchen at the Bearfoot he likes to snowboard and cheer for the Vancouver Canucks.
There's no shortage of confidence with our new TV star. When asked about Beadle's run on the show Stewart says he intends to better represent young kitchen talent than his predecessor.
After Stewart makes his first appearance on the current season of the show a portion of the Epicurious space will be dedicated to his analysis of that week's show. Look for behind the scenes context from Stewart on what fans of the show saw the Monday before.
