 |
Photo: Couvrette Studio, Ottawa |
|
| |
|
Judson "Jud" Simpson has been executive chef of Food Services
at the House of Commons in Ottawa since July 1991.
Jud graduated from George Brown College in 1981 with honours, two scholarships
and the Dean's Award.
During his apprenticeship years, Jud worked at many Toronto landmarks
such as Fenton's, Hazelton Lanes, the Inn on the Park and Napoleon's.
Afterwards, in order to perfect his skills in garde-manger, Jud became
part of the brigade at the historical King Edward Hotel. In the spring
of 1985, Jud took on the position of executive sous-chef at the Sheraton
Toronto East Hotel where he was proudly responsible for Whitesides,
the hotel's fine dining room. In 1989, Jud became executive chef
at the Chimo Hotel Markham, ushering in a new dimension of cuisine and
supporting the hotel chain in its menu planning and food programs.
It was also in 1985 that Jud began competing in various Culinary Salons
in Ontario, receiving silver and gold medals and other distinguished
prizes and trophies for his entries, including the grand prize gold
in the Muskoka and Toronto Culinary Salons in 1987 for the best Canadian
theme. In the spring of that year, he earned the captaincy of a city
team named "Torcook", which would take him on his first
trip to the Culinary Olympics in Frankfurt, West Germany, in October
of 1988. The team was awarded 5 gold medals and one grand gold and Jud
returned home from his first Olympics with a personal gold medal as
Team Captain and a love of international culinary competitions that
would engage him for many years to come.
During his next few years at the Chimo, he continued to compete in
Canada and the U.S. and was awarded the prestigious Philanthropique
Society of New York City's medal of distinction for his restaurant work
in the Montreal Salon Culinaire in 1989. In the summer of 1991, Jud
and his family made the move to Ottawa when he accepted the position
he currently holds as executive chef of Food Services at the House of
Commons. He was awarded a silver medal at the Culinary Olympics in 1992
as captain of Team Toronto. However, after his second Olympics, Jud
felt the need to take a break from culinary competitions and became
actively involved in many associations such as Cuisine Canada, la Chaîne
de Rôtisseurs, the Canadian Federation of Chefs and Cooks and
Les Toques Blanches International, Ottawa Chapter, of which he was a
founding member. As a certified Chef de Cuisine, the highest designation
for a chef in Canada, he also served on the provincial advisory committee
for cooks.
In October 2000 he was the manager of Culinary Team Ontario, which
won gold and ranked second world-wide out of 44 regional teams at the
Culinary Olympics in Erfurt, Germany. He managed Culinary Team Canada
for the 2004 Culinary Olympics. He actively raised funds and traveled
across Canada to recruit members from all regions of the country and
took his team abroad to locations such as Luxembourg and Chicago to
prepare for the ultimate culinary competition in Erfurt, Germany. The
team was rewarded with Olympic gold and gold medals for the cold food
display and silver for the "Restaurant of the Nations" hot
food competition.
He is also a member of the American Culinary Federation, the International
Association of Culinary Professionals, the Canadian Association of Foodservice
Professionals and the Canadian Organic Growers to his list of memberships.
Read more stories from George Brown Graduates...
We encourage you to visit the Alumni Association.
To learn more, visit the George
Brown College Alumni page.
|
|
