Judges

Nina Curtis is the Director and Executive Chef for the Adventist Health, Roseville Campus Vitaliz Café and Culinary Arts department. At the helm of this dynamic culinary division, Chef Curtis continues to be recognized as a leader and trailblazer in the plant-based culinary movement.

As the former Executive Chef at The Ranch at Live Oak, Malibu, the acclaimed seven-day fitness and wellness bootcamp and the Chief Nutrition Officer for the Ranch Daily a meal subscription service in Southern California, Nina keeps her finger on the pulse of the wellness and plant-based lifestyle trends.

Nina has been an avid proponent of a plant based lifestyle for the past twenty years. Nina’s food and beverage background over the years includes working with the Marriot Group, Hilton Hotels, Baxters, Manhattan Beach, the El Caballo, Oakland, Pure Food and Wine in New York and the Springs Restaurant and Wine Bar, Los Angeles.

Chef Curtis presents lectures and demonstrations on health, nutrition and whole foods all around the world. She has developed wellness training programs, set up kitchen operations and has worked closely in conjunction with culinary master gardeners to develop seasonal and gorgeous garden-to-table recipes that are essential to having a delicious plant strong culinary experience.

An MBA graduate of Pepperdine University, Curtis was also trained at Living Light Culinary Institute, Trinity School of Natural Health, the Natural Gourmet Culinary Institute and she holds a Plant Based Nutrition certificate from the T. Colin Campbell Center for Nutritional Studies, Cornell.

Born and raised in Edmonton to Danish parents who immigrated in the 60's, it was in high school that a glimmer of talent was noticed and his food sciences teacher encouraged Jan to explore it as a career.

Jan trained as a chef at the Northern Alberta Institute of Technology (NAIT). After finishing his training and traveling back and forth to Denmark, Jan went to work at a Swiss-themed restaurant in Edmonton.

Eventually he was attracted by an opportunity to develop the main kitchen at Heritage Park making it one of the most impressive in Calgary. Designed in part by him to be functional and multi-purpose, Jan spent 10 years at Heritage Park serving up everything from hot dogs to foie gras.

Jan joined the Hotel Arts Group in September 2015 as the Executive Chef overseeing all things culinary for the group and after two great years with them, Jan was presented with the chance to try something totally different. Becoming a Culinary Instructor was something he had not considered previously, but he felt that it was something that he could not pass up.

Now in his third year at SAIT, Jan is thrilled to be a mentor, teacher and leader for young culinarians. Jan also represents Calgary on the International stage as the Conseiller Culinaire of Canada for La Chaîne des Rôtisseurs.

Julie Van Rosendaal is the author of 11 best-selling cookbooks, she’s the CBC Calgary food columnist and contributing food editor of the Globe and Mail. She also writes about food for WestJet Magazine and other publications across the country, teaches cooking classes, hosts a podcast about Canadian food, and is well known for her website, Dinner with Julie.com — you can tap into all she’s doing at @dinnerwithjulie on all social platforms.

Kristin Hough McCarthy is Chef for Kappa Delta Sorority, Beta Chi Chapter at the University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill. In this role, Kristin manages a small kitchen that provides meals for 200 members of this sorority.

Kristin works very closely with local farmers both dairy and produce to provide local and sustainable products to the women. With the growing number of gluten free, and other allergy related issues, Kristin has really tried to keep herself educated on the growing trends. She spends her days trying new recipes, leaning towards healthy life style choices and dietary restrictions.

Kristin has become a leader in the local sorority chef area. She works hard to raise money for local philanthropies including Prevent Child Abuse of America and The Center for Child and Family of Durham. Kristin volunteers her time in the kitchen for all of Kappa Delta's philanthropy events including the annual Shamrock & Run 5k, Go Green Dinner, Backyard BBQ, and her ever popular To Go Meals.

Kristin currently resides in Chapel Hill, North Carolina with her husband and daughter. She enjoys spending her days training for Strongman/Strongwoman, Powerlifting and CrossFit.

She ran her marketing company in England for 22 years until she was invited to Canada to work on a contract for Trade UK to facilitate exports between the countries. As a hobby Linda created ‘Vine & Dine‘, a very delicious, a lot of fun, sociable, and a little educational, food and wine pairing program of dinners held in restaurants all over the city. The first event was held in December 2005.

The concept was an instant hit, selling out every time. Linda now regularly runs 10-15 public and private educational and fun events each month for individuals, businesses, and organizations, as well as a her own wine course (which has sold out 60 times) and a wine and culinary tour each year.

In May 2012 Linda launched “Culinaire Magazine”, of which she is Editor-in-Chief and Publisher. Initially for Calgary, Culinaire expanded to the mountains and to Edmonton in 2016, and is now the major food and beverage magazine in Alberta, publishing ten times a year, and read by around 85,000 people each issue.

In 2013, Linda started the Alberta Beverage Awards, the largest award program for wines, beers and spirits in the province, now in its seventh year. She also runs Alberta’s Finest Drinks Lists Awards to find the best wine lists, beer lists, and spirits lists in the province.

Linda has earned a reputation as one of Calgary’s prime food, wine, and restaurant experts, writers, and educators, speaking at functions all over the city – and she’s living her passion!

Chef Michael Allemeier has traveled the world and Canada learning his craft. Prior to joining SAIT (Southern Alberta Institute of Technology) as a Culinary Instructor, Chef Allemeier has run some of Western Canada’s most exciting kitchens such as Executive Chef at Bishops Restaurant (Vancouver, BC), and Teatro Restaurant (Calgary, BC). Allemeier’s passion for food and wine pairing was realised with the call to man the stoves at Mission Hill Family Estate Winery in the Okanagan Valley, BC.

One of his highest profile meals was cooking for Presidents Clinton and Yeltsin during their Vancouver Summit Meeting. He has received many awards and accolades the most notable occurring while he was Executive Winery Chef at Mission Hill Family Estate, where he was awarded the honour of leading one of the “Top Five Winery Restaurants in the World” by Travel and Leisure Magazine.

With his dynamic personality he’s been a natural for television with his most notable work being one of the principle hosts of Food Network’s – Cook Like a Chef, hosting twenty of these very popular syndicated shows. Other guest appearances include: The Thirsty Traveler, Anna and Kristina’s Grocery Bag, Chef at Large, Great Canadian Food Show and Canadian Living TV.

A published author, Michael co-authored the book Bishop’s - The Cookbook. In addition to this he has contributed to several cookbooks such as: Anita Stewart’s Canada, Pacific Northwest - Wining and Dining, Cooking with BC Wines, Barbecue Secret Deluxe, Planking Secrets, On Cooking, Vancouver Cooks, High Plains – The Joy of Alberta Cuisine, Cook Like a Chef, Food and Wine – annual cookbook 2005 and Fresh Canadian Bistro.

Chef Allemeier completed his CMC (Certified Master Chef) June 2017, becoming Canada’s third Chef to achieve this designation. The CMC (Certified Master Chef) is the most demanding and highest culinary designation in Canada and is internationally recognised in the industry as a Master of the Craft.