Students typically work part-time on Fridays throughout the school year to gain practical hands-on experience, but for eight Vancouver Community College (VCC) Culinary Arts students in particular, the kitchens at the Downtown campus on November 14, 2025 were brimming with activity and fervour.
Winner Zack Bernardo (middle) with runner ups Johnny Jang (left) and Daniel Kim (right).
A robust competition
A total of twelve student competitors from across the region were set on winning the Apprentice of the Year title after spending the last few weeks training with their chef mentors from acclaimed hotels and restaurants. This year's competitors were given advance knowledge of their ingredients, with bison from Academy Farms as the main protein. Occasionally, apprentices would be presented with a black box challenge of mystery ingredients and would have three and a half hours to prepare a three-course menu consisting of appetizer, entree, and dessert.
VCC alum and culinary director at Ocean Mama Seafoods chef Poyan Danesh emceed the event once again. The tasting judges including chefs Jasper Cruickshank, Bruno Marti, Leslie Stav and Gus Stieffenhofer-Brandson were highly impressed with this year's slate of competitors.
Raising the bar
Congratulations to VCC student Zack Bernardo, apprentice at the Fairmont Pacific Rim Hotel, who claimed the honorary 2025 Apprentice of the Year Award.
"I was not expecting to win," confesses Zack, who volunteered as a VCC student helper at this very competition two years ago. "When you see the roster of competitors and most of them are from VCC, it evens out the playing field. What you know is what they know and they are striving for the same things as you."
For this particular competition, Zack wanted to showcase different types of cooking techniques in all three dishes. That, along with marks for taste, presentation, timeliness, and cleanliness in the kitchen, captured the attention of the judges.
Pan-seared duck breast with duck confit appetizer, roasted bison eye of round and bison shank ragu main, and water buffalo milk semifreddo, ganache, pistachio filled cake and cardamon crumble.
"It's challenging to execute the right temperature of the protein," said Poyan of the process. "The students could play it safe and present a cold dish, but the protein doesn't always eat well when cold. The competitors were given beautiful proteins to work with and good cooks know how to treat them well."
Since the competitors had about a month to conceptualize, plan, and refine their dishes, the judges were ultimately less forgiving when it came to tardiness.
Not a lone journey
This annual competition, in partnership with Chef's Table Society of BC and SkilledTradesBC, is a good opportunity for apprentices across the province to participate in a friendly competition with each other to bring out their best techniques, gain feedback on how they can do better, network with seasoned chefs in the industry, and apply their learning and execute their skills under pressure. It is typically held in November for Apprentice Recognition Month.
Zack attributes much of his success to his team of mentors at the Fairmont, including chefs Damon, Aaron, Leah, James, Heejo and Dom to name a few. He has his sights set on his next challenge trying for the Culinary Team Canada and focusing on expanding his culinary team skills.
Craving the creative challenge of culinary arts? Learn more about the program through one of VCC's free information sessions.
