By Collin Haba
Even losing his fingers to a meat grinder didn’t get in the way of Jimmy Bunnag’s dream of becoming a chef.
“Nothing would stop me,” Bunnag says during a short break from his duties in Wilfrid’s, the premier restaurant in Ottawa’s landmark Château Laurier hotel. He shows his left palm with three fingers missing.
“It was a bad accident,” he says, displaying the evidence.
It is 11:30 a.m. on a Friday morning.
Bunnag lights up the stove with ease, places a pan on the red-hot burner and starts to cook the pasta of the day.
“Today we have linguini, asparagus and smoked chicken in rose sauce,” Bunnag says as he combines the ingredients in a sizzling pan. In less than 10 minutes Bunnag serves the freshly cooked pasta of the day on a wide white plate and takes a break from work to sit down for a quick chat about his life.
In 1976, Bunnag had just completed tenth grade in his native Thailand when he moved to Canada with the help of his sister.
“She was working with the Canadian embassy in Thailand where she met my brother-in-law,” he says.
As a young boy, Bunnag dreamed of serving in Thailand’s army. The dream faded once he got his first restaurant job.
“From then on I knew I wanted to be a chef,” he says as a wide smile spreads across his face.
But the horrific accident that took his fingers almost took his career as well. Bunnag says that at the moment of the accident he thought his dream would never be realized.
Bunnag turned to his boss for support and to find out if his career was over before it began.
“He said to me, ‘If you want to be a chef, you can be,’ ” Bunnag recalls.
From that moment on, Bunnag knew it was meant to be.
Bunnag attended the culinary school at Algonquin College and has been working at the Fairmont Château Laurier hotel for the last six years, an accomplishment he is very proud of.
“It’s not easy for someone like me to work at Fairmont,” he says, referring to himself as an immigrant.
Bunnag works as second chef at the hotel, a position he applied for when the opening came up, even though he holds the qualification of a “sous chef” which is only a step below the topmost rank in the kitchen world: “executive chef.”
Even though Bunnag loves cooking and dreams of one day reaching the top of the kitchen food chain, the slender and polite cook has a life outside the kitchen.
“I love scuba diving. I have been doing it since 1992,” he says, digging into his pocket to pull out his scuba diving license.
Bunnag, who also enjoys reading when he is not at work, is a fan of British novelist Ian Fleming, famous for creating the James Bond character.
Despite being a well-trained and experienced cook, Bunnag says he doesn’t have a favourite food.
“I try to explore every dish and I like them all,” he says adding that his preference at any given moment is controlled by his mood.
At 52 years old, Bunnag still hopes to one day have a family, two children and a restaurant of his own in Thailand.
“It’s not easy,” he acknowledges. “A lot of planning is involved, more than even money.”