December 2017 Digital Issue

I remember, it took me a good month to get an audience with this guy.
I walked into the kitchen at The King Edward and it was just like that
first scene in Ratatouille, with all these pots clanging, people yelling
and flames.”
Higgins encouraged Bangerter to pursue his studies and offered him
the chance to work on weekends in the staff cafeteria. “From there,
it just blew up. I fell in love with being at the hotel and being in the
kitchen and I learned my job quickly.”
Soon he started taking on jobs in other departments. “It got to
the point where I’d finish a class and, if I had an hour break, I would
just run across the street in my whites, join the kitchen and jump in
anywhere. I’d work for an hour, then run back to my next class,” he
says. “For the first year, I probably worked for free four days out of the
week. And, for me, that was a huge bonus to my development. Kids
coming out of the colleges were at the beginner level and, by that time,
I was way further ahead — it was a great advantage for me.”
Higgins continued to play a role as Bangerter’s career progressed.
“He actually took me to help him, on several occasions, with the
national culinary team and he gave me the opportunity to go to
Europe for a short stint.”
While he’s had a number of mentors along the way, including Anton
Mossimann and Michael Bonacini, Bangerter says every person he’s
ever worked with has inspired him. “I never think I’m better than anyone
else so much that I can’t learn from them. And there are tons of
macgregors F&S ad chef of the year.pdf 1 11/6/2017 9:54:14 AM
other chefs that, indirectly, were an inspiration.”
During almost a decade as a chef at Auberge de Pommier in
Toronto, he constantly studied Daniel Boulud, Alain Ducasse, Olivier
Roellinger, Raymond Blanc, as well as Charlie Trotter, Thomas Keller
and Patrick O’Connell. “These chefs were a big inspiration,” he
explains. “A couple of years ago, I won the International Rising Chef
Award from Relais & Chateaux…All the chefs that I had looked up to
were the ones that were handing me this award.”
Bangerter says he still gets goosebumps just talking about it. “Now, I
kind of feel like, okay, you’ve made it — these are colleagues now.”
These experiences drove home the importance of mentorship in an
industry Bangerter says can be cutthroat. “You can be humbled and
learn something so important from a dishwasher,” he says. “Everyone
has the opportunity to influence and inspire anyone in the kitchen.
As you grow and develop in this career — and get to the point where
you’re in a position like I’m at — there needs to be a big focus on the
next generation and the people that work for you.”
His advice to young chefs is “put your head down. Nothing comes
quickly in this industry and you’ve got to prove yourself, work hard
and listen. Everyone wants to be at the top and, to be at the top, you
need drive.”
“[Being a chef] is very confrontational and stressful,” he says. “It’s
competitive, but the one thing that I’m teaching my staff, especially my
senior staff and my sous chefs, is that their job is not to prove they’re
better than everybody else — it’s to get everybody below you to the
point where they could, potentially, be better than you.”
CHEF
OF THE
YEAR
Chef Jason Banger ter
Congratulations Chef on receiving the
prestigious Pinnacle Award.
Macgregors Meat & Seafood Ltd., is
proud of our partnership and thank you
for your continued support.
www.macgregors.com