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Celebrity chef joins culinary team at Kelowna college campus restaurant

Chef Ruth Wigman with a culinary arts student at Okanagan College in Kelowna.
Chef Ruth Wigman with a culinary arts student at Okanagan College in Kelowna.
Image Credit: SUBMITTED/ Okanagan College

The new executive chef at a restaurant at Okanagan College is a Top Chef from the popular Canadian cooking show.

Ruth Wigman is bringing a fresh and exciting perspective to Infusions restaurant at the college, which is staffed by culinary arts students, according to media release by Okanagan College.

Wigman was a contestant on Canada’s Top Chef in 2014, and also appeared on season 27 of the Food Network’s Beat Bobby Flay that was released last year.

She is currently creating a menu for a local food festival called Dine Around.

“I’m excited to be joining the team at Infusions and Okanagan College,” said Wigman in the release. “I’m looking forward to sharing my passion for the culinary world with student chefs. Their energy and ideas are contagious. It will be my role to help them experience what it is like to work in a restaurant and show them how we can be inspired by local foods and the region in the dishes we prepare.”

The restaurant is located on the Okanagan College campus in Kelowna and features a regionally-focused menu. It is open to students and the general public and is used to give culinary arts students a hands-on learning opportunity.

“We’re thrilled to have a chef of Ruth’s caliber joining our team and bringing a new excitement to Infusions,” said culinary manager at Okanagan College Cari Jahns in the release.“The Okanagan Chef School is well-known and becoming more and more in-demand, because of the reputation of our Red Seal Chef instructors, and thanks to the incredible support we have from local partners in the food, beverage and restaurant sectors across the region.”

READ MORE: Okanagan College crippled by cyberattack

Wigman most recently worked as the executive sous-chef at the Fairmont Vancouver Airport, and before that worked at the Fairmont Jasper Park Lodge and Fairmont Southampton in Bermuda. When she appeared on Top Chef she was working at Bistro Sofia in St. John’s, Newfoundland. 

Chef Ruth Wigman at Infusion restaurant at Okanagan College in Kelowna.
Chef Ruth Wigman at Infusion restaurant at Okanagan College in Kelowna.
Image Credit: SUBMITTED/ Ruth Wigman

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