LETHBRIDGE, AB – A very special honour for a Lethbridge College chef.
Doug Overes has received the Canadian Culinary Federation (CCF) Lifetime Achievement Award. He says this honour means a lot to him and he’s very humbled.
Overes, who chairs the College’s School of Culinary Arts, has been instructing there for the past 25 years. He even graduated from the Lethbridge College Professional Cooking program back in 1987.
“There are many more chefs out there who are much more deserving of this than I am. I’m speechless actually,” said Overes.
Overes was nominated for this award by an executive chef at Summerhill Winery in B.C, who says he’s being recognized for his years of mentoring young chefs and his accomplishments on both the national and international stage.
Overes says even after all these year he still keeps challenging himself, looking to see what, if anything, he can learn. “Obviously, my students, their youth keeps me thinking of what’s in store for them. I try to teach them so they can get, hopefully, at least some of the experiences I’ve had. I’m highly competitive, so I like to push them, and I try and instill in them some pride, some professionalism and discipline – and that keeps me going.”
As Lethbridge College pointed out in a news release, this award is the latest in a long line of honours for Overes, who was inducted into the CCF’s Honour Society and was named Chef of the Year, both in 2014. He was inducted into the Chaine de Rotisseurs in 2017.
(With files from Lethbridge College)