Judge Mijune Pak chews the fat with TV Week about a forthcoming 12th season of Top Chef Canada she believes to be the most competitive yet
Top Chef Canada judge Mijune Pak is about to pop. No, not from overdoing it on delicacies created by contestants on season 12 of this hit reality show. Pak is going to give birth to her first child at any moment, possibly even during our call. While the vast variety of culinary offerings keeps the gig fresh for the celebrity foodie year after year, this season was truly unique. “I was only six weeks pregnant [when we started pre-production], and I was like, ‘I’m going to have to tell them,’ ” says Pak. “Luckily, I had no nausea. I was a little bit nervous because I want to try everything — otherwise it’s not going to be fair — but I continued eating everything, and it was fine.”
With Baby Pak’s gastronomical preferences thankfully matching mom’s, the focus was then firmly on the kitchen battle itself. “We’ve had really strong competitors throughout the years, but this year is next-level,” she says. “Casting did a phenomenal job. I’m really, really impressed with the calibre of chefs that we have.”
On that note, we spoke to Pak about what to expect from this levelled-up season.
I can’t help but ask, how did pregnancy affect your sense of taste?
I had no real cravings or food aversions. The first trimester, I honestly don’t know how I would’ve done it. There’s no chance. I would’ve just barfed everything up because I was so nauseous. The second trimester, I was totally fine. And I was so happy about that, because I would feel so guilty if I couldn’t do the job well. There’s so much on the line: people’s lives, $100,000, plus future opportunities for all these chefs. I can’t be so selfish as to do this and not do it justice. So, I was really happy that everything was fine.
Other than your personal circumstances, what feels fresh about this season?
We’re super-excited for this year. There were contestants I would think would probably rather be a judge. I was kind of thinking, “I am not sure what the chances are we’d be able to get these kinds of people.” But the cast, oh my gosh, wait until you see it. It’s so impressive. I was so happy. I’m lucky that I get to dine not just in Vancouver, so I was familiar with quite a few of those faces, but it’s like, “Oh my God, you got this person, you got that person!”
So, it’s almost like a celebrity edition of Top Chef Canada?
For me, I think so. They might be more famous locally, but I think this is going to be an amazing platform to really skyrocket their careers to the next level.
For contestants who are already established in the culinary world, what do you think is the appeal of going on this show?
I think it’s for the Canadian food scene to be really recognized. “Canadian food scene” sounds very vague, but I find that everybody has their unique interpretation of it. There is Indigenous food, local cuisine, but also so much personality, so much heritage, so much culture, and everybody has a different story. I feel like people are ready to present their version of what Canadian cuisine is and represent the country — beyond just your restaurant — on a national platform and stage.
Have you seen the talent of the contestants rise every year?
Yes, but I definitely think that there’s something special about this year. This year, there was no clear winner [from the outset]. Sometimes you have some front runners and then you start seeing them winning every episode. But this year was just so fierce. It’s crazy.
Your fellow judge, Mark McEwan, says he picks a winner in the first episode of every year. Do you think he did?
He does say that. I can’t say if he was right or wrong this year, but I can say that you’re as good as your last dish. So really, if you have a bad day, you can be voted out for that and then it’ll be anyone’s game. It doesn’t really matter if you have a favourite, they have to be good every single episode.
How have the challenges ramped up?
I feel like our creative team that designs the challenges, they really try to stay relevant to what’s going on in the culinary scene and what the current trends are. They try to really feed into that to keep this show fresh, relevant and hot.
What are the trends right now in Canadian gastronomy?
There’s a lot of diversity there, celebrating the heritage you come from rather than trying to all cook French food, more or less. A lot of the chefs are trained from that background, but trying to showcase other ingredients and other techniques from other cultures is continuously on the rise now that people are looking for something they haven’t seen or tasted before. Bringing in the diverse cultures of Canada, I think, has become something that’s here to stay.
How have you evolved during the eight years you’ve been on this show?
Oh my gosh, I almost feel like I grew up on that show. It’s like my family now, the producers and my co-judges. In terms of the structure of the show, I’ve always been comfortable, but I do think I feel a sense of responsibility and a duty to expand my knowledge, education and palate, even more, seeing how diverse the chefs are getting. There are certain dishes or ethnic backgrounds that I’m less familiar with, and there’s always more to learn. So, I feel like I better start reading the books, going to more of those restaurants, so that I can better interpret their food and their story and find those connections rather than just eating it and being like, “Does it taste good?”
How do you go about equally judging such a vast range of cooking?
I think that’s really tricky. We’ve had previous years, too, where someone’s cooking “homestyle” kind of food. We had one season where we had a chef, Monika, and her style was so different because it was her mother’s recipes, her grandmother’s recipes, these Egyptian street food dishes — next to people that were from this fine dining background, used to tasting menus. That was really hard for us to put into context. And in the end, we have to approach it from, “Does it taste good?” while being considerate to the cultural background it’s coming from. And then we’ll have to dive into presentation. We’ll have to dive into creativity, personality, the chef. We’ll have to dive into technique, because sometimes you can’t cheat technique. And this year, the calibre is so high, we were literally splitting hairs.
Do you think the series has expanded the palate of the average audience member?
I certainly hope so. I think that’s definitely one of our goals. I wish the show could be three hours long, because then we could really get into the context of the dishes and how to prepare it. Top Chef in France, I think, is three hours long. And I think that ever since we’ve included different types of cuisines, people have become more curious to try these restaurants. So, I definitely hope it continues to spark the interest for food — and having the general public champion these people who work so hard in their kitchens every day.
The season premiere of Top Chef Canada airs Tuesday, October 14, on Flavour Network