Working as a chef at the Fairmont Banff Springs — a well-known luxurious hotel in Alberta’s Rockies — is the latest chapter in Sault native Nash Hall’s lifelong love of food.
“It definitely gets a little hectic but at the end of the day, as long as you put your love and your time into it and you’re working with a good team, everything turns out smoothly. I’m working with a great team and blessed to be working with the head chef here,” Hall said in a phone interview with SooToday.
“We do banquets and we’re all grumpy perfectionists,” he chuckled, while describing his work.
“I put my blood, sweat and tears into being a chef. I’ve graduated from culinary school, I’ve worked in the industry and some day I’ll be a head chef. I’m working on that,” Hall said.
Now 23, Hall enjoyed cooking at home as a child.
“I played football in high school but cooking was definitely my passion," he said. "I started cooking with my mom when I was a kid, cooking for my older siblings when they came back home to visit. For as long as I can remember, food has been something that has kept me and my world connected, whether that be making dinner with my mom for my siblings and cousins when they’d come to visit, or making a feast for my long-time friends when I’m home once a year. ”
“The first dish I learned how to cook was a Parmesan and mushroom risotto. It’s an Italian rice dish. It’s made by slowly cooking the rice and mixing it with cheese and wild mushrooms. It’s simple but it’s good,” Hall said.
Parmesan and mushroom risotto remains his favourite dish to this day.
“It takes patience, consistency and love to make a delicious risotto. That being my first dish has instilled those three pillars — patience, consistency and love — in my culinary career.”
His career as a professional chef began in the nation’s capital.
After graduating from high school in the Sault, Hall studied psychology at the University of Ottawa but withdrew from that area of study and enroled at Le Cordon Bleu Ottawa Culinary Arts Institute.
“I loved that program and it definitely helped me decide that being a chef is what I wanted to do,” Hall said.
He has worked as a chef at Fairmont Banff Springs — known as Canada’s ‘Castle in The Rockies’ — since February.
“I like turning food into art,” Hall said.
“Every time you look at a country and its history and its culture it always includes its art, music and its food. I think a lot of times people overlook it and see food as ‘just food’ but I think food is life. It’s one of the parts of life that makes life enjoyable.”
Though enjoying his work as a chef at Fairmont Banff Springs, the adventurous Hall wants to own and operate his own food truck and take it on the road, hosting communal barbecues and popping up at farmers markets in locations across the continent.
“It’s not my forever goal but it is something I want to do with my career,” Hall said.
“I think it would be really cool to buy a food truck and drive through Canada and the U.S.A. cooking and selling food. I would put a bit of a classy gourmet twist on it based on what I’ve learned here in Banff but it would be simple, good barbecued food. I would be able to do what I love and be true to myself and not have to worry about anybody else’s influence and connect with people in communities face to face.”
His long term goal?
“After running the food truck for a couple of years I’d like to get into catering and as a private chef,” Hall said.
“If you’re hosting a dinner party of about 12 people and you want someone to give you a good meal and give you some good memories in your home kitchen, that’s where I come in. You would call me, I’d do my prep on my own end, then I’d bring it in and do all the exciting parts and finish it off in your kitchen and serve you a three to six-course meal in your own house.”
Hall said he is open to establishing such a business in his hometown of Sault Ste. Marie or any other community where that opportunity presents itself.
“A good meal is how people bond. It’s how people make laughter, form friendships, celebrate getting married, celebrate an anniversary, a birthday, it’s always around a meal. The simple fact is that food is something that brings people together, builds camaraderie and brings about laughter and joy all around the world. A warm, home-cooked meal can mend even the worst of days."
