Anthony Sedlak, Vancouver
Chef and host of The Main on Food Network Canada

Anthony has always been a “foodie.” At just 13 he traded his snow-boarding pass for a shift in a café atop Grouse mountain ski resort in Vancouver. It was in the kitchen of that café that he discovered his love of food. It was also the restaurant experience that would rapidly shape his future. By the age of 19, Anthony had completed both a Culinary Arts Program and a four-year apprenticeship. He quickly emerged as one to watch in The Observatory, Grouse Mountain’s flagship dining room.

Knowing European kitchen experience would be critical to his development as a star Chef, the teenager spent almost two years at La Trompette, a southern French, and Michelin Star restaurant in London, England. As Sedlak worked up the line from his entry-level role to become executive Sous chef, he learned how a hardcore professional kitchen team worked, refined his French culinary techniques and adopted La Trompette’s hard-bitten uncompromising commitment to excellence as his own.

At 23, Sedlak represented Canada at the Hans Bueschken World Junior Chef Challenge in Auckland, New Zealand, returning home with silver. Later that year Anthony competed in – and won – Food Network’s Superstar Chef Challenge. He has since hosted four seasons of his own show, The Main, on Food Network Canada. The Main is a stylish half-hour during which Anthony prepares mouth-watering, visually appetizing dishes. In each episode, Anthony prepares a main course featuring one main ingredient. The food is rustic, the ingredients readily available and the recipes simple to follow – leaving the viewer inspired to recreate each main at home.

Anthony’s cookbook based on the series, named The Main: Recipes has made him a Canadian Best Selling author.

“I am devoted to simple classics and top-shelf ingredients,” says Sedlak. “I’m passionate about simple flavours and flawless technique and want to wow the connoisseurs looking for a whole story behind the dishes I present. Trends come and go, classics are forever.”

The Main is seen weekdays on Food Network Canada.