Our Chefs

I grew up in a family where food was a sign of love and care. We never showed up empty handed and we always made sure people in our home were well fed. My family and I would use any occasion as an excuse to drop off a fresh meal to people in our neighbourhood. We even shipped food across the world to keep our family members connected. Now, MANNA gives me the ability to provide nourishing meals to so many members of my community and I couldn't be more excited to have you taste how much I care.

Deniz’s love of food started in the Mediterranean where he grew up in a food obsessed family. Way later in life he started his professional cooking career around 2003 in small establishments of East Vancouver after immigrating to Canada. After few years in the field, he attended VCC Culinary Arts and completed the program. During his school year worked at Ouisi Bistro that specializes in Cajun and Creole Cuisine as a Chef de Partie. After completion of school he got a job at the four diamond awarded Diva at the Metropolitan Hotel. Few high end restaurants later, he started at the Chambar Restaurant/Medina Cafe, one of the flagship restaurants of the food movement in Vancouver. Two years later he joined The Dirty Apron Cooking School and Deli as Chef and Culinary Instructor to share his love of cooking with amateur cooks. After two years he opened Cadeaux Bakery as a Pastry Chef with Eleanor Chow to hone his dough, cake and general pastry skills. Then came back to Cafe Medina as the Executive Chef and led the team in the one of the most successful years of the restaurant. He also did luxurious private caterings in large volumes. He did couple short stints around city’s fine restaurants, then head to Galiano Island to Bodega Ridge as the Executive Chef. Currently he works part time as a culinary instructor at The Dirty Apron Cooking School, Well Seasoned Gourmet and Gourmetwarehouse as well as a private chef and a restaurant consultant. He loves studying food, playing guitar and reading outside of work.

Vancouver-based Social Entrepreneur

University of British Columbia Alumni 

​Beginning as an academic, my experience at an independent clothing boutique pushed me towards entrepreneurship. Through inspirational figures, such as Kevin Royes and Craig + Mark Kielburger, I have since moved towards the realm of social entrepreneurship. With a keen interest in education, food and fashion, I am always looking to create novel, socially beneficial projects that I can truly be passionate about.

I'm a self-taught cook that is extremely passionate about food. My foray into cooking began with my interest in discovering delicious creations at the many incredible restaurants Vancouver is blessed with. One day, I picked up a cookbook and decided to try making a dish myself. I was hooked.

I began studying the culinary arts a few hours a day, every day. I analyzed each step in the cooking process, and determined the purpose of it; I could then figure out how to optimize each step to construct my vision. My education in psychology, economics and science has given me a unique approach to food. This multidisciplinary approach allows me to analytically design the experience I aim to create.

Chef Elmark Andres has a love for big flavours, enriched with his time at Bao Bei & the Dirty Apron and he’s excited to work with the ingredients from our kitchen garden, and the farms of Galiano and the Cowichan Valley.

Jada & Baran are a Canadian & Turkish couple who are very passionate about health, healing and growth. They run a beautiful countryside retreat space in the heart of Mallorca, the biggest of the Spanish Balearic Islands. They use local organic vegan & gluten free ingredients to create love-filled meals for their guests - many of their ingredients from their homegrown garden. They are making their small impact on the world, farm to table style, one spoon at a time.

Dawn Levelton is a trained vegan chef and plant-based culinary nutritionist who founded Vancouver's ultimate healthy and nutritious snack company "Back For More Bites", this concept was discovered after finessing her snack bite recipes to feed her palette and power her body naturally through the day. Dawn believes that healthy eating does not have to mean deprivation and created this on the go snack to fuel and inspire the lifestyles of the wildly ambitious to reconnect with nature and their body with every bite!  

Leading the kitchen in Notch8 Restaurant & Bar at Fairmont Hotel Vancouver is no small undertaking. The restaurant’s doors stay open 365 days a year, serving four different meal periods daily to guests from around the globe. Dennis Peckham rose to the challenge becoming Notch8’s Executive Chef in May 2019. 

Growing up in Williams Lake, Dennis’ first introduction to the culinary world was through the café his father owned. However, as a young man, his attention was focused on playing hockey rather than behind the counter learning the business. Having graduated high school, (though he notes that he failed home economics because he only attended on cooking days), and looking for a job, he happened to take a role as a dishwasher in a local restaurant. The connection to the comradery and culture of kitchen life was instantaneous, and in turn, Dennis made the decision to relocate to Vancouver, BC, to attend Dubrulle Culinary Institute, later graduating in 2001. In the years that followed, his talent and tireless dedication would pay off, seeing his dream play out in the kitchen of Vancouver’s Lumiere Restaurant (Mobil Five Star), at Thomas Keller’s California restaurant The French Laundry (Michelin Three Star) as the Chef de Partie in 2004, and even on television screens as a winning contestant on Food Network’s Chopped Canada in 2016, and as a competitor on the same network’s Top Chef Canada in 2019. Dennis was also previously with Fairmont Hotels & Resorts as Executive Restaurant Chef at Fairmont Waterfront in Vancouver, before finding his new home at Notch8.