Supporting local and using homegrown foods have always been key pillars in Anne-Marie Million’s business, A Million Mouthfuls Catering.
A lifelong Newmarket-area resident, Million has always wanted to support the community by using local products and giving back through charity. Now, she’s feeling the support of the community as she competes for the opportunity of a lifetime in Carla Hall’s Favourite Chef competition.
“At the end of it all, even if I don’t win, it’s been a great learning experience and journey to connect with the community,” she said. “It’s important to have that connection because collaborating with the community helps your business and for me, I’m very involved working in the community with non-profits. In May, I donated all the food for an event and raised $13,000 for three local charities. Giving back to support the community is at the forefront for me and I’ve had amazing support back through this competition.”
Even throughout the competition, Million hasn’t changed the way she cooks, primarily utilizing local ingredients each week, and it’s taken her far.
“Our cooking is very seasonal, so we focus on using ingredients from our garden and local farmers,” she said. “I want to use local and collaborate with local people who produce food because those are the really good quality ingredients.”
The Favourite Chef competition is presented by celebrity chef Carla Hall with the people’s choice winner, awarded to the chef with the most votes, taking home $25,000 and earning a two-page feature in Taste of Home Magazine.
“It’s all about helping chefs build and expand their business,” said Million. “The money would allow me to grow my business and invest in building a commercial kitchen and a small cooking school. I dream of hosting cooking classes for kids and families and those in my community that experience food insecurity.”
Beyond voting, there’s also an opportunity to be recognized by Hall with her making her own pick based on the best plated presentation of the remaining chefs.
“I load pictures into my profile and they look at the plate presentation and food style,” said Million, who writes a regular column for NewmarketToday. “It’s really up to you what you want to do. There’s some criteria with colour and presentation, but it could be a dessert, barbecue, southern cooking, it’s whatever you want. Yesterday, I made a fish dish with a Thai sauce, and fresh vegetables and homemade gnocchi.”
There’s also the option to pay for extra votes with the funds raised being donated to the James Beard Foundation. The foundation has been around since 1986, working to create a more equitable and sustainable future in the restaurant industry through annual awards, industry and community-focused initiatives and programs, advocacy, partnerships, and national events.
“It really supports food insecurity and tries to develop food programs and help with food wastage,” said Million. “It also helps to educate and provide scholarships for those who want to become chefs. It’s a great culinary not-for-profit. I’ve been lucky enough to have some community members support me through this.”
After seeing a post about the competition on social media, Million decided to pursue it and was one of few Canadians accepted into it.
“You apply with photos of your food and your story,” she said. “I got accepted about four weeks ago and was put in a group where I had to make it into the top-20, which I did, then you continue to compete by votes each week until last week I had to be No. 1 in my group.”
When she began the competition, Million’s group consisted of 85 other chefs, and she believes there were four to six other groups made up of 70 to 85 chefs. That means she’s just one of 10 chefs still alive in the competition out of a group that started will well-above 300.
“It’s been a fun ride,” she said. “The exposure on social media has been really important and I’ve been really blessed with my customers supporting me. People have been sharing it to get people who don’t even know me to vote. It’s been really awesome.”
Now, into the quarter-finals, and with just 10 chefs remaining, the votes reset. Million is currently in fifth place with voting to get into the semi-finals running until Thursday, Aug. 3.
Learn more about the competition here and show your support for Million by voting here.
