The National Arts Centre is adding a fresh flavour for its artsy clientele with the appointment of “world-renowned” Michael Blackie as executive chef at Le Café, one of the city’s top restaurants.
Blackie, 43, came to the Ottawa area six years ago to be the executive chef at the Brookstreet Resort in Kanata. After establishing Brookstreet’s Perspectives Restaurant as one of the top in Canada – and earning it a four-diamond rating – Blackie says he decided it was time to move on.
The NAC position was the only way Blackie could stay in Ottawa, and he says he was thrilled to start his new job this month.
“The city, the calibre, the challenge – it’s the complete package at the NAC,” Blackie says.
Blackie has been traveling the world as a chef since he graduated from George Brown College in Toronto. But cooking was not always his first choice. Raised in a family of engineers, he says it was fate that brought him into the kitchen.
He realized that if cooking was going to be his career, he would have to take any job, anywhere.
After a 6,000-hour internship at the Windsor Hotel in Toronto, Blackie accepted a position at the Pierre Marques Hotel in Mexico. He and his wife moved there, had two children, and then set off for Hong Kong – where Blackie became executive sous chef at the Mandarin Oriental Hotel, voted the best hotel in Asia by Condé Nast.
Then it was off to the Oberoi in Bali, one of the leading hotels in the world according to the 2002 World Quality Awards in Los Angeles, one of the most coveted awards in the luxury hotel business.
“The position at the NAC would never have been presented to me without the profile that I have,” Blackie says. “I’m aware that there are young cooks in the industry looking at me and wanting to do what I did.”
Blackie’s travels in Asia have inspired his culinary repertoire, and he said he hopes to bring some of that spice to the menu at Le Café.
Being in the nation’s capital, however, necessitates a Canadian focus.
Le Café strives to serve primarily local and national products, such as British Columbia wine, salmon from New Brunswick, and any number of indigenous recipes.
“Michael Blackie is a creative force in the culinary world,” said NAC president and CEO Peter Herrndorf, in a statement announcing the centre’s new chef.
“We are so pleased he is bringing his enormous talents to help build on the foundation of culinary excellence of Le Café and the NAC’s Restaurants and Catering departments established by Kurt Waldele," Herrndorf said.
"I have no doubt that our patrons will be delighted with their dining experience. Michael will leave them dreaming about their next visit for another taste of his incredible creations.”
Blackie said: “I’m over the moon and absolutely thrilled to have this opportunity to be able to work with such an incredible artistic team on the world stage at the National Arts Centre. This is just massive for me.”
Robert Bourassa is serving as interim director of food services at the NAC and helped select Blackie to take control of the kitchen.
“Michael is one of the national capital region’s most dynamic and innovative chefs,” Bourassa says. “He’s a great marketing man, he has a lot of personality and it will certainly be a great asset in terms of putting Le Café on the scene. He brings a lot to the table.”
Blackie says he hopes to provide a new experience, not only to his colleagues, but also to the people dining at Le Café.
“It’s about experience with other gifted people,” Blackie says. “That’s why the Arts Centre is a great clique for me. They focus on a form of art which is food, and that’s come a long way in the last ten years.”