Passed down by family: Saskatoon chef prepares for national cooking competition

Saskatoon chef Makenna Rai can’t imagine working anywhere other than in a kitchen — the 21-year-old will be bringing the skills she’s learned in Saskatchewan to a national culinary competition this June.

Rai said her love for cooking was passed down from her Baba at the age of nine, when she would spend much of her time helping create traditional Ukrainian dishes like perogies and cabbage rolls.

“I remember her sitting me down and showing me how to fold and how to make the potato filling, and it was just something that I hold so dear to my heart,” she said.

Rai said what she loves most about cooking is the feeling of adrenaline she gets in the kitchen.

“It’s putting everything, like your heart, your soul, your blood, sweat and tears into that dish.”

Last month, the chef won the Saskatchewan Young Chef Culinary Challenge — the first and only competition she has been in so far.

“I honestly didn’t even think that they called my number,” she said, surprised about winning the competition.

One of the dishes she prepared was a pan seared salmon with a home made pickle, microgreen salad, beet, quinoa, herb oil and citrus beurre blanc sauce.

Her win secured her a spot in the 2023 Canadian Culinary Federation’s Young Chef Culinary Challenge in Niagara Falls on June 5. She said she will prepare the same dishes, but enhanced versions.

“I’m not nervous now, but I think in a couple weeks I’ll be a little more nervous,” she said.

Rai is training for the competition under the mentorship of executive chef Anthony McCarthy and executive sous chef Justin O’Reilly, both with Stoked Kitchen and Bar, where she currently works while she studies culinary arts at Saskatchewan Polytechnic.

The chef said she hopes to one day own her own restaurant in Toronto, and her advice to any aspiring female chefs is to “step your foot in the door and do it.”