<p>After a tense season of watching 10 Canadian chefs go head to head, we finally know the winner of <em>Top Chef Canada</em> Season 11.</p>
<p>Chanthy Yen, chef de cuisine at Vancouver&#8217;s Bacaro, emerged victorious after several weeks of intense competition, concluding in an epic showdown against fellow chefs Haan Palcu-Chang and Moira Murray in Montreal.</p>
<p>Speaking to Dished, Yen said the win felt &#8220;incredible.&#8221;</p>
<p>&#8220;I feel like my life is about to change. It&#8217;s a wonderful time to represent Canada and to be a BIPOC individual who&#8217;s queer and belongs to so many different communities. It feels like I&#8217;m on the right path,&#8221; he said.</p>
<h2>Life before the competition</h2>
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<p>&nbsp;</p>
<p style="color: #c9c8cd; font-family: Arial,sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 17px; margin-bottom: 0; margin-top: 8px; overflow: hidden; padding: 8px 0 7px; text-align: center; text-overflow: ellipsis; white-space: nowrap;"><a style="color: #c9c8cd; font-family: Arial,sans-serif; font-size: 14px; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; line-height: 17px; text-decoration: none;" href="https://www.instagram.com/p/Co8Wuihvs6x/?utm_source=ig_embed&amp;utm_campaign=loading" target="_blank" rel="noopener">A post shared by Chanthy Yen (@chanthyyen)</a></p>
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<p>Despite his outstanding performance throughout Season 11, winning multiple challenges, Yen admits he isn&#8217;t naturally competitive. In fact, <em>Top Chef Canada</em> was his first-ever culinary competition.</p>
<p>So what drove him to take part? Yen explained he made the decision to enter after being asked by a fellow cook if he&#8217;d ever competed in a culinary competition.</p>
<p>&#8220;I was like, &#8216;No, but maybe I should now.&#8217; Just to show that you can reach for the stars, you can compete and I&#8217;m a valid mentor for the team. I just went for it,&#8221; he said.</p>
<p>Throughout his <em>Top Chef Canada</em> journey, Yen took the opportunity to tap into his Cambodian roots, often showcasing ingredients and flavour profiles that aren&#8217;t widely represented in Canada.</p>
<p>&#8220;I want to add to the perspective of Cambodian cuisine and to that experience as much as possible,&#8221; he said.</p>
<p>Yen is no stranger to stressful situations, having served as Prime Minister Justin Trudeau&#8217;s personal chef and worked in Michelin-starred restaurants. However, he said the <em>Top Chef Canada</em> experience was &#8220;way more stressful.&#8221;</p>
<h2>Top Chef Canada</h2>
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<p>&nbsp;</p>
<p style="color: #c9c8cd; font-family: Arial,sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 17px; margin-bottom: 0; margin-top: 8px; overflow: hidden; padding: 8px 0 7px; text-align: center; text-overflow: ellipsis; white-space: nowrap;"><a style="color: #c9c8cd; font-family: Arial,sans-serif; font-size: 14px; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; line-height: 17px; text-decoration: none;" href="https://www.instagram.com/p/DCr6w7YRbwq/?utm_source=ig_embed&amp;utm_campaign=loading" target="_blank" rel="noopener">A post shared by Chanthy Yen (@chanthyyen)</a></p>
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<p>If you&#8217;ve ever watched <em>Top Chef</em> challenges and wondered if those timers are real, Yen was ready to set the record straight.</p>
<p>&#8220;The pressure is unfathomable, and you are cooking among some of the best in the country. You never have to deal with that on a day-to-day basis. You work a service, you know the clientele coming in, and you know the food in front of you. But in this competition, you really have to lean on your experiences and innovation,&#8221; he explained.</p>
<p>He may be an extremely accomplished chef, but Yen learned a lot from the<em> Top Chef Canada</em> experience, both through the judges&#8217; critiques and from his fellow competing chefs.</p>
<p>&#8220;Less is more was the lesson for me. I tend to put so many things on the plate just to showcase technique, but then I forget about the story of the food and the heart of it,&#8221; he said.</p>
<p>&#8220;I realized during the finale that I was doing so much because I could, but it didn&#8217;t mean that I needed to. Other chefs excelled in that, such as Haan and Moira.&#8221;</p>
<p>As for his fellow competitors, Yen said he wished viewers could have seen more of the &#8220;kumbaya moments&#8221; between the competing chefs throughout the season.</p>
<p>&#8220;We would have words of affirmation toward each other to push each other to move forward. Canada is a nice country. We have very good etiquette. Even though this was a competition, we were really sweet and kind to each other. Those moments were not captured, but they were just so us. So Canada.&#8221;</p>
<h2>What&#8217;s next for Yen?</h2>
<p>While Yen may be fresh off his <em>Top Chef Canada</em> win, the chef still has plenty of ideas for what comes next, including opening his own restaurant and developing a cookbook all about Cambodian cuisine.</p>
<p>&#8220;I really want a Cambodian restaurant where I am in the kitchen and cooking what I love to cook. I would love to be able to show my passion in that space. The winnings from <em>Top Chef Canada</em> are not going to get me there, but they&#8217;ll get me one step closer,&#8221; he said.</p>
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From serving the prime minister to winning "Top Chef Canada": Meet the queer BIPOC chef leaving his mark

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Chef Chanthy Yen emerged "Top Chef Canada" victorious after several weeks of intense competition, concluding in an epic showdown in Montreal.