Calgary chef one of 24 international culinary stars featured in new Netflix series

Calgary chef Darren MacLean has earned a reputation as a top Calgaryrestaurateur at Shokunin, which former CBCrestaurant critic John Gilchrist named one of the best new restaurants in the city in 2016.

MacLean is the only Canadian competing on The Final Table, a new culinary show that debuts Tuesday on Netflix. MacLean spoke to the Calgary Eyeopener's David Grayon Monday aboutlife in the kitchen.

This interview has been edited for length and clarity

Q: What's the premise behind The Final Table?

A:Basically, you're given ninecountries you have to cook for if you go that far.

Each week, you're judged by the best chefs in the world. Chefs with Michelin stars, chefs from San Pellegrino Top 50 Best lists. It's the highest calibre cooking competition ever released.

Q: There's an awful lot of culinary shows on television right now. How is The Final Table different from the rest?

A: It's all about food. [On] alot ofculinary shows, it's personality driven.I remember watching oneshow where they had to climb a fire ladder to get the advantage of an ingredient.

That's what's interesting about this program:it isn't about the optics. Youhave a dish and you cook itand you go. You're never safe unless you'recooking.

Q: Out of the nine countries, which cuisine was the toughest to cook?

A:A lot ofSouth American cuisine is challenging for mebecauseI just have really very little knowledge [of the cuisine from that region].

Anything in the scope of Japanese, obviously, Chinese, EastAsian, French and North American is easy for me. But anything south of the American border is a challenge.

Q: How did you get into cooking in the first place?

A:I never wanted to be a cook but basically when I was 13, I lied about my age, more or less. North American cliche, right? Single mom, no dad, just helping out [financially] at home.

Cooking was one of the few avenues I had at that age to weasel my way into a dishwashing position and it just kind of took off from there.

Q: There must have been a few more twists along the way to go from dishwasher to owning your own restaurant

A:There was a few pretty amazing things that happened.

Q: Like what?

A:I cooked from when I was 13 on until I was about 18, and as soon as I could, I became a server. I saw the lifestyle[and] the tips [that servers earned].I was going into MountRoyal College for economics and finance and it (cooking) wasn't really agreeing with me.

But for whatever reason, I kept one foot in the kitchen, whether it was [workingat the] Chicago Chop House or going through Murrietta's,so finally I got really serious about it when I met a chef called Ned Bell.

I remember him saying,"this is my faceon the plate, so you guys have to really understand what you're serving." It was the first time as a server I was made to taste the food I was serving.

That was a big thing.

He asked why Iwasn't cooking becauseI clearly had a passion for the kitchen, and I didn't really have an answer.

Fast forward a little bit. I was in a bit of an accident that really propelled me [to take action].Iwent to the Stratford Chef School. That was the next step. I did some formative culinary training with [someone] who I think is oneof the most talented chefs in the country, Aaron Linley, who hada restaurant called Bijou.

At the time, [I had]the opportunity to open my own restaurant, Downtown Food, here in Calgary.

Q: Let's stop there. Downtown Food was a fine concept that was well executed, but all it seemed to be missing were people. Is that fair to say?

A:Downtown Food was an interesting restaurant. Very intense farm to table. We made all of our own charcuterie, all of our own bread everything. But maybe what didn't resonate was it was a restaurant driven for me.

It was things I was interested in and those are things that don't necessarily translate (into popular success).

Q: Could it have been a good lesson?

A:One hundred per cent. We weren't as busy as we wanted to be, but it was actually our lease was up. I took over a failing restaurant, and for three years, ran it, paid the bills, everything was fine. And then the landlord doubled the price per square foot.

Financially, it wasn't necessarily viable, but I do think having Downtown Food close was the best thing that actually happened to me in my career. But I also think running it for threeyears was the best thing, and that's what I've realized.

When you're young, you're not patient.

I'm still not patient, which is my Achilles heel:I want everything now.

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With files from theCalgary Eyeopener.