Dale MacKay is a Canadian chef and the winner of the first season of ''

Top Chef Canada ''Top Chef Canada'' is a Canadian reality competition television series and is considered one of the most prestigious culinary competitions in Canada. The show premiered on April 11, 2011, on Food Network Canada. The first season consisted of 13 ...

'' in 2011. MacKay first entered the food industry as a

fry cook A chef is a trained professional cook and tradesman who is proficient in all aspects of food preparation, often focusing on a particular cuisine. The word "chef" is derived from the term ''chef de cuisine'' (), the director or head of a kitche ...

Vancouver Vancouver ( ) is a major city in western Canada, located in the Lower Mainland region of British Columbia. As the List of cities in British Columbia, most populous city in the province, the 2021 Canadian census recorded 662,248 people in the ...

British Columbia British Columbia (commonly abbreviated as BC) is the westernmost province of Canada, situated between the Pacific Ocean and the Rocky Mountains. It has a diverse geography, with rugged landscapes that include rocky coastlines, sandy beaches, ...

. In the early 2000s, he moved to

London London is the capital and largest city of England and the United Kingdom, with a population of just under 9 million. It stands on the River Thames in south-east England at the head of a estuary down to the North Sea, and has been a majo ...

England England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Wales to its west and Scotland to its north. The Irish Sea lies northwest and the Celtic Sea to the southwest. It is separated from continental Europe b ...

, where he got a job at

Gordon Ramsay Gordon James Ramsay (; born ) is a British chef, restaurateur, television personality and writer. His restaurant group, Gordon Ramsay Restaurants, was founded in 1997 and has been awarded 17 Michelin stars overall; it currently holds a tot ...

Claridge's Claridge's is a 5-star hotel at the corner of Brook Street and Davies Street in Mayfair, London. It has long-standing connections with royalty that have led to it sometimes being referred to as an "annexe to Buckingham Palace". Claridge's Hote ...

, later moving to other Ramsay restaurants in London,

Tokyo Tokyo (; ja, 東京, , ), officially the Tokyo Metropolis ( ja, 東京都, label=none, ), is the capital and largest city of Japan. Formerly known as Edo, its metropolitan area () is the most populous in the world, with an estimated 37.468 ...

and

New York City New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the List of United States cities by population, most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the L ...

. He later became executive chef at

Daniel Boulud Daniel Boulud (born 25 March 1955 in Saint-Pierre-de-Chandieu) is a French chef and restaurateur with restaurants in New York City, Palm Beach, Miami, Toronto, Montréal, Singapore, the Bahamas, the Berkshires and Dubai. He is best known for h ...

's Lumière restaurant in Vancouver, following the departure of

Rob Feenie Robert Feenie is a Canadian chef based in Vancouver, British Columbia. Culinary career His interest in cooking began during a high school exchange program in Europe. He attended Dubrulle Culinary Institute (now part of The Art Institute of Vanco ...

from the establishment in 2007, until its closure in 2011. He opened his own pair of restaurants, ensemble and ensembleTap, in 2011. He won the ''Top Chef Canada'' title soon afterward, investing his prize money in the venues, but closed them in 2012 after determining that

rental Renting, also known as hiring or letting, is an agreement where a payment is made for the temporary use of a good, service or property owned by another. A gross lease is when the tenant pays a flat rental amount and the landlord pays for al ...

costs in downtown Vancouver were too expensive for them to become profitable. He made a return appearance on ''Top Chef Canada'' in 2013, acting as

sous chef A sous-chef is a chef who is second in command in a kitchen; the person ranking next after the head chef, usually the more hands on manager with regards to training staff and organising the kitchen. Duties and functions The sous-chef has many re ...

to third season finalist Danny Francis. In early 2013, MacKay announced that he was returning to his hometown of

Saskatoon Saskatoon () is the largest city in the Provinces and territories of Canada, Canadian province of Saskatchewan. It straddles a bend in the South Saskatchewan River in the central region of the province. It is located along the Trans-Canada Hig ...

Saskatchewan Saskatchewan ( ; ) is a Provinces and territories of Canada, province in Western Canada, western Canada, bordered on the west by Alberta, on the north by the Northwest Territories, on the east by Manitoba, to the northeast by Nunavut, and on t ...

to open a new restaurant. The restaurant, named Ayden Kitchen & Bar, opened on November 15, 2013. He is also owner of three other restaurants: Little Grouse on the Prairie (Italian), Sticks and Stones (Korean) and Avenue Restaurant in Regina. He also owned a short-lived pizzeria, Home Slice Pizza Shoppe. MacKay competed on the second season of ''

Iron Chef Gauntlet ''Iron Chef Gauntlet'' is a television series on Food Network that began airing on April 16, 2017. The series is a reboot of the ''Iron Chef'' and ''Iron Chef America'' series that gained popularity on Food Network and is hosted by Alton Brown, w ...

'', where he was eliminated in the second round. In 2019 he began appearing as a rotating judge on the BBQ competition series ''

Fire Masters ''Fire Masters'' is a Canadian cooking competition television series that began airing simultaneously on Food Network Canada in Canada and Cooking Channel in the United States on July 6, 2019. The show is presented by chef Dylan Benoit, and it fe ...

'', which airs in Canada on

Food Network Food Network is an American basic cable channel owned by Television Food Network, G.P., a joint venture and general partnership between Warner Bros. Discovery Networks (which holds a 69% ownership stake of the network) and Nexstar Media Group ...

and in the US on

Cooking Channel Cooking Channel is an American basic cable channel owned by Food Network, a joint venture and general partnership between Warner Bros. Discovery Networks (69%) and Nexstar Media Group (31%). The channel is a spin-off of Food Network, broadcasting p ...

. In 2020 he appeared as a judge on the Food Network competition series ''

Wall of Chefs ''Wall of Chefs'' is a Canadian reality television series, which premiered February 3, 2020 on Food Network.Rita De Montis"Home cooks set to face the Wall of Chefs for $10Gs prize" ''Toronto Sun'', January 8, 2020. Hosted by Noah Cappe, the serie ...

''. In early 2023 it was announced that MacKay will compete against 15 other chefs from around the world in a ''Top Chef'' series titled “The Best In the Globe,” with episodes set in London and a finale in Paris.

Filmography

References

External links

Grass Roots Restaurant Group
* Canadian male chefs Living people People from Vancouver People from Saskatoon Participants in Canadian reality television series Top Chef winners Year of birth missing (living people) {{chef-stub