Conestoga College culinary teachers head back to school — in France: Jasmine Mangalaseril

Last June, two teachers and chefs with Conestoga College's School of Hospitality & Culinary Arts found themselves as students rather than teachers.

Chefs Dan McCowan and Darryl Haus travelled as the school's delegates to the Alliance Network's two-week professional development residency. They worked and learned alongside faculty from around the world at Institut Lyfe (formerly Institut Paul Bocuse) in Lyon, France.

"The alliance partners with different culinary schools around the globe," said McCowan, executive chef at Bloom, Conestoga's full-service teaching restaurant.

"The whole idea of the alliance is to build a network of top schools around the world … there's a lot of different conversations about how they do things, how they approach challenges."

Conestoga College joined in 2017 and is the only Canadian school in the 26-member global network. In 2022, they hosted the alliance's faculty seminar, which welcomed participants from Asia, Europe and the Americas. 

For centuries, Lyon has been at the heart of French gastronomy. According to the Michelin site, the city is home to a combined 35 restaurants with either one or two stars or with the Bib Gourmand designation. Another 52 are marked as "selected" (or good).

Culinary bootcamp

McCowan and Haus alternated between educational settings, professional settings (the Institut has several food service operations, including the one-star Saisons Restaurant) and networking with peers.

"I spent some time in their labs. I spent time in their restaurants' food service. And got to work with their chefs, ask questions, pick their brains, and see what kind of challenges they have and how they go about their operations," recalled McCowan.

For Haus, who is Bloom's Maître d' and teaches restaurant operations and mixology, networking and talking about classroom management was a highlight.

"When you have an opportunity to talk to other chefs and other front of house instructors, the challenges and the successes that we have are fairly consistent across the globe," said Haus. "Students are students. They learn in different ways. Finding ways for them to learn and retain and value the knowledge, that's international. That's not regionally specific."

McCowan said the most memorable parts of his time were his conversations with accomplished chefs. He also noted the number of graduates working at Institut-affiliated restaurants as part of their training system.

"They prepare people to enter the world as they finish their three-year diploma at the institute and then they work another year in the Michelin-starred restaurant or in the hotel restaurant and then move on from there," said McCowan.

For Haus, while every meal was exceptional and food and service had incredible attention to detail, he noted their commitment to environmental sustainability, especially as that's also an area of focus at Conestoga.

"I think, as a department, what we've been working towards is environmentally sustainable practices … but it was very inspirational to see the level in which they're doing that, and other ways that we can improve," said Haus.

Lessons from Lyon

Whether eating in a bouchon or buying charcuterie and cheeses at the market, Lyonnaise pride of place shone through. That is something they both want to bring to local and Canadian food.

"Being ingredients-focused is where I would start," said McCowan. "I think as we make that our focus, it will inspire us to do a bit more research and to make sure that we're being true to what it means to be a Canadian or, even more specifically, an Ontario-based chef."

Haus mentioned how narratives woven around ingredients and seasonality, can be incorporated not just into their classes but also into contemporary Canadian food culture.

"Having the ability to really focus on some of the things that we do here which are really, really amazing. And things that maybe we take for granted," said Haus. "I'm looking forward to, in the next couple semesters, really focusing on some of those very specific regional cuisines and some of the things that maybe we take for granted, that we don't really think about."