Stéphane Levac has been chosen as one of Canada’s Top Chef’s competitors for this season.
Levac will compete against ten other contenders for the title of Canada’s Top Chef, and will be the only East Coast representative.
Stéphane Levac was adopted at the age of six weeks from the M’Chigeeng First Nation and raised in a Francophone family in Sturgeon Falls. Levac moved around a lot in his life,and eventually settled with his wife Sarah in Nova Scotia.
Now 41, Levac claims he’s starting to figure out who he is and is attempting to learn more about his Ojibwe culture.
Levac has connected with his biological family who living on Manitoulin Island, and shared in an Instagram post, “30+ years of emotion just ran through my body! The sad part about all this is that I learned my mother has passed. The great thing is I’ve discovered a whole new family that has already accepted me.”
As travel restrictions allow him to visit Ontario, Levac is excited to meet his family for the first time.
Levac has always been interested in the culinary arts. In an interview with the Manitoulin Expositor, Levac reveals that he has worked in a variety of jobs, including trying his hand at dealing Blackjack at an Ottawa-area casino. “but I always had a knack for cooking,” he says.
“Frais Catering,” which Levac and his family began, is a catering company. The demand exceeded their capacity and after 5 years with the business, they moved on.
Levac worked in a variety of kitchens across the East Coast, developing the skills needed to work in a fast-paced restaurants. Levac and his family have made their home in the Annapolis Valley, where he works as the head chef of the “Maritime Express and Cidery,” a popular gastropub.
Levac shares a message for his Manitoulin M’Chigeeng family that “I look forward to coming home. I’m from Sturgeon, yes, but my roots are from Manitoulin Island. I’ll have to cook for them when I get to meet them, but they’ll have to cook for me too!”
Cheer Stéphane Levac on in the upcoming season of Top Chef Canada, premiering April 19, 2021.
