NAIT’s reputation and success at international culinary competitions has granted them a new opportunity: selecting and training the country’s national junior culinary team for the next four years.
This team of aspiring chefs, all 25 and under, will compete at events like the Culinary World Cup in 2026 and the IKA Culinary Olympics in 2028. Three NAIT instructors will be leading the team: Troy Lymburner, Nigel Webber and Enrico Caparas.
The team of coaches will have big shoes to fill. At the 2024 IKA Culinary Olympics, Canada’s junior team earned silver in both their challenges: the ‘Restaurant of Nations,’ where each team cooked a three-course menu for 50+ guests, and the ‘Junior Chef’s Table,’ in which teams cooked “half a dozen dishes, at a large table in front of the competition kitchens.” In 2020, the team took home two gold medals and earned fourth in the world.
But NAIT’s coaching team comes with decades of experience. Lymburner competed as a student and has been coaching NAIT teams for over 20 years. He was also one of the coaches—along with Caparas and Christopher Short—for the NAIT Culinary team’s latest trip to Stuttgart, Germany, to compete at the 2024 IKA Culinary Olympics. The all-female team took away a silver medal in the Community Catering category.
The recruitment process has already begun, and once the team is chosen, they’ll get right to work preparing for their trip to Luxembourg for the Culinary World Cup in 2026. While the junior team’s ultimate goal is to compete at international competitions and represent Canada, the opportunity will also help them prepare for their future careers. “Whether or not students end up on the podium, the experience prepares them for rewarding careers and contributes to a stronger culinary community locally and across Canada,” said Dennis Sheppard, Dean of the JR Shaw School of Business.
The National Culinary Federation selected NAIT because of its “success at international culinary competitions … and its reputation as a leader in the culinary arts,” said a press release from Nov. 26. NAIT has a long history of competing in culinary competitions; in addition to competing in Germany in 2024, 2020 and 2012, the NAIT Culinary Team has competed in Dubai (2018), Hong Kong (2017) and Singapore (2014).
Photos via NAIT Content Collective
