A popular West Coast chef who thrives on the edge is bringing her vibrantly positive energy to Top Chef Canada.
“I think they were looking for something unique and different,” Chef Lisa Ahier said. “I have a very colourful past. I’ve never seemed to like to walk the straight line. I’m always teetering to the edge.”
Top Chef Canada is set to air its 11th season and Vancouver Island's Ahier is officially the oldest chef to ever compete on the show at 63.
“I haven’t ever seen somebody go on Top Chef Canada that’s my age, so it was a way to represent and show up for the senior demographic, have an adventure and who knows? I had just as good a chance to win as anybody,” she said.
She said she was initially reluctant to apply for a spot on the show, but was encouraged by friends and family to give it a shot.
“I’m kind of a stranger to competition. I’m more of a gal who likes to share with my neighbour rather than compete with my neighbour. So, it’s not something I really ever set my sights on personally, but a lot of folks egged me on, gave me encouragement and said, ‘Why wouldn’t you?,” she said. “Then my kids said, ‘Why wouldn’t you mom?’ And I couldn’t come up with a good reason, so I thought why not? We’ve got one life to live.”
After putting her name forward, she was shocked when she was told she had been selected as one of the new season’s 10 contestants.
“Honestly, you could have knocked me over with a feather. I couldn’t believe it. I knew that I had the stamina, but would this network or production company feel like I could hang on, get through and compete like a 30 year old?,” she said.
“I was really in shock. It was a big shock, but then I thought, ‘Oh my God. I’m so excited.’ Fear never came into it…I was just really excited for a new challenge.”
Ahier has lived on Vancouver Island's West Coast for about 25 years, first in Ucluelet and then Tofino, and experienced love at first sight when she arrived.
“This is home and I knew it the first time I was driving on Sutton Pass. I knew I’d come home for the first time in my life. I’ve lived so many times during my life and done so many different things in my career and this is the only place I’ve ever felt home. They’re going to have to take me out of here kicking and screaming. I love it. I don’t even travel very much because why would I leave paradise?” she said.
“There is just so much to love about the West Coast: the communities, the natural environment, obviously the abundance of beautiful food. This community gets it. We’re not a fast food community. We’re a community full of gardeners, fishermen, foragers; what’s not to love? It’s captured my heart and my soul. I really, really love this West Coast community and everything that the members of the community have done for the last 24 years to embrace me. I feel like I have been here for my entire life.”
Top Chef Canada’s 11th season will kick off on Oct. 14 at 10 p.m. on Food Network Canada.
“Now it is time to usher in a new era, with 10 new skilled, creative, and boundary-pushing chefs ready to compete for the title of Canada’s Top Chef,” read a media release announcing the new season.
“The chefs will be put to the test, facing off in grueling challenges where they must put their best plate forward or be sent packing. Viewers we be delighted to see that this season pays homage to Canada’s diverse heritage and culinary scene. In the end, only one chef will emerge victorious, earning the grand prize and the coveted title of Canada’s Top Chef.”
The season has already been filmed and Ahier declined to disclose any spoilers, but said her main goal throughout the competition was to be genuine and remain steadfast to her character.
“One thing that was really important to me, and is in my every-single-day-life, is to stay completely 100 per cent true to who you are, what you do and at no time waver from that,” she said. “I wanted to make sure that I stayed humble because I think I am kind of a humble human, that I stayed positive, I love positive energy, that I didn’t try to self-sabotage and that I was really looking out for myself and my well-being.”
She added that going through the experience was life-changing.
“I don’t think I was ever ugly with anybody, I try not to be in life, and I think I came away from the experience really proud of myself for having the courage. Regardless of how I started and how I finished, I had the courage to get into the arena, not be in the cheap seats saying, ‘I could’ve. I would have. If I did.’ I got in and I tried,” she said.
“There’s always going to be a winner and there’s always going to be a loser. That’s life and, experiencing life, you’ve got to show up to be either one or the other and sometimes you fall in between, but they’re all experiences. I really wanted to have this experience and I did and it actually meant 1,000 times more to me than I expected it to.”
She hopes her participation on the show encourages viewers to pursue their dreams.
“I wouldn’t trade the experience for anything in the world. If I can just be the encouragement or set a little bit of an example for those people that are at home wishing they could change their careers, wishing they had the courage to go out there and take that fencing class, or show up to the yoga that they don’t think they’re flexible enough for, or whatever it is or how small or how big it is,” she said. “Show up for your life, do the best you can and be 100 per cent true to yourself and your life will become fuller and fuller.”
Ahier had previously participated on CBC’s Dragon’s Den in 2020 where she scored a deal with Arlene McGinnis for a stake in her to-go frozen chowder business and she said she has never shied away from cameras.
“I never see a camera. I never have. I’m so engaged in what I’m doing. The host talking to me, the person asking the questions, whatever it is, I truly, truly forget the camera is there. I have the absolute opposite of stage fright,” she said. “The cameras are non-existent to me. I’m just trying to have the best time that I can in the situation that I’ve been put in and fear isn’t part of that process for me. I embrace it.”
She added though that watching herself on screen afterwards is a different story.
“When I look at myself on film, I’m a bit mortified. But, while I’m doing it, I’m happy as a lark and I couldn’t care less,” she said. “Film me all day long, but don’t make me watch.”
She plans to overcome that reluctance over Thanksgiving as she’ll be watching the season opener with her son in the Okanagan with her mother and daughter joining them online.
“I’m going to be with my family, my kids and my mother, watching the show,” she said .
