Siobhan Detkavich Transcript
Kerry Diamond:
Hi, everyone. You are listening to Radio Cherry Bombe, and I'm your host, Kerry Diamond, coming to you from New York City.
Today's guest is Siobhan Detkavich, chef and intrepid traveler. You might know Siobhan as the youngest and very first Indigenous woman to compete on “Top Chef Canada.” She made a huge impression on the show with her creativity, skill, and honesty in the kitchen. Siobhan joins me to talk about her culinary journey, the importance of mentorship in her life, her work with the travel company, G Adventures, and her belief in being a traveler, not a tourist. Stay tuned for my chat with Siobhan Detkavich.
Today's episode of Radio Cherry Bombe is presented by Destination Canada. I first experienced Canada when I was 18, attending college in New York state, just an hour outside of Montréal. I was captivated by the culture, energy, and warmth of the people there, and I still am. Over the years, whether returning to Montréal or visiting Toronto or Vancouver, I've come to love Canada, not just for how it looks and feels, but for what it stands for: authentic people and extraordinary landscapes. Across Canada, travel can be a force for good. When you stay at a family-run lodge or book a tour with a locally owned company, you're preserving traditions and supporting real communities and small businesses. Places like Woodshed Provisions Gourmet Food Shop on Salt Spring Island, British Columbia, chef and owner Haidee Hart serves up seasonal meals inspired by all that her region has to offer, and I can't wait to visit one day. Canada also leads with purpose, from zero-waste restaurants and carbon-conscious hotels to Indigenous-led experiences that invite learning, listening, and meaningful exchange; it's the kind of travel that stays with you. Start planning your visit at canadanaturally.com.
A little housekeeping. Planning for our Jubilee 2026 conference in New York City is underway. It's taking place on Saturday, April 25th, at The Glasshouse. If you've been to Jubilee in New York before, you know what an incredible day it is. Amazing speakers, food and drink, and community. This year's featured Gloria Steinem. Yes, the icon herself. Caroline Chambers, Asma Khan, all the way from London, and 1,000 attendees. Jubilee is one of the biggest gatherings of women in the food and drink space in the U.S., if not the biggest, and we would love to see you there. Visit cherrybombe.com for early bird tickets and more info. If you're an official Bombesquad member or a Substack subscriber, check your inbox for a special discount. If you're new to Jubilee, check out our Instagram feed for a taste of what Jubilee is all about.
Now, let's check in with today's guest. Siobhan Detkavich, welcome to Radio Cherry Bombe.
Siobhan Detkavich:
Awesome. Hi, thanks so much for having me. I'm so stoked.
Kerry Diamond:
You travel all over the world. You are the youngest competitor on “Top Chef Canada.” We have so many things to talk about.
Siobhan Detkavich:
Amazing, I'm so ready.
Kerry Diamond:
If somebody looks at your Instagram, you're like Waldo. It's like where in the world is Siobhan, but where's home? Where's your crash pad?
Siobhan Detkavich:
Home base for me is going to be in the Vancouver area. I am no longer situated in Kelowna. I know a lot of my culinary career… I think a lot of people still think I'm in Kelowna. I definitely keep it on the DL except for my travels, but I'm here in Vancouver.
Kerry Diamond:
Well, we do have a few listeners, at least my mom listens to this.
Siobhan Detkavich:
Amazing.
Kerry Diamond:
So if you don't want anyone to know, tell me now, and we'll cut that part, we can make that-
Siobhan Detkavich:
It's okay. Vancouver is a very big place, you can't find me.
Kerry Diamond:
Why are you traveling so much? What is your job today?
Siobhan Detkavich:
I've been very blessed to do a lot of traveling this year, I'd say this year alone, I've probably spent the past seven months just going out and about exploring the world. Part of it is that my best friend passed away last year because of cancer, so I take him with me essentially everywhere that I go, so he can see the world through my eyes. But I do a lot of traveling with a company called G Adventures as well. I love traveling and being able to see the world through their perspective because their main focus is community and community ship. And I love being able to understand how tourism can impact marginalized communities in a positive way, and just knowing how money can be able to give back to communities in that sense.
Kerry Diamond:
That's tremendous. And I do want to say, I'm so sorry about your friend.
Siobhan Detkavich:
Oh, thank you.
Kerry Diamond:
It's really heartbreaking. I lost one of my best friends to cancer this summer, and her memorial was last weekend.
Siobhan Detkavich:
Right, oh, I'm sorry.
Kerry Diamond:
And it really just makes you reflect on friendship and how rare it is to have really great friends in this world.
Siobhan Detkavich:
Absolutely.
Kerry Diamond:
And the ones we are lucky to have, everybody should go hug them and tell them what they mean to you, but I'm really sorry about that. But at the same time, I'm happy that you've been able to travel with them and take them to places and not forget them.
Siobhan Detkavich:
Absolutely. I feel like there's little pieces that they'll always remind you that, "Hey, I'm still here," and so it's comforting in a sense.
Kerry Diamond:
100%. What is your role with this travel company?
Siobhan Detkavich:
I work just as a travel agent, to be honest. I would say in this day and age in the economy, when I was looking at the move from Kelowna to Vancouver, I just needed a fresh new start. I needed just a new space to create myself. I grew up in the Vancouver Island area, so I'm very familiar with the West Coast. And so coming down, when we were taking a look at options, and I'm like, "Okay, not only is finding a rental tough," but I'm like, "Okay, we also have to look at finding a sustainable job where I don't feel like I need to work two jobs just to be able to get by." And it was very serendipitous in the fact, so,
I work for a company called Flight Centre. My stepdad actually works for Flight Centre as well in the cruise department. So when I was looking at jobs, I am outside of Vancouver, so I'm in a little subdivision. Probably, it takes me about 45 minutes an hour to get down into the main Vancouver area. And when I was looking at job availability, the only places that I could make a sustainable living if I was working one job was either going all the way down to Richmond or Granville or main downtown, and I'm like, "Ooh, okay. So that is definitely quite the journey," but if you have to do it to make a living, it is what it is.
But then out of the blue, one day my stepdad just reached out and he was like, "Hey kid, hey, hey, guess what? So Flight Centre has an opening at the Coquitlam Center." And I'm like, "Oh, okay, sure." And he's like, "Put in a resume." And I'm like, "Okay, sure, why not? But my whole resume is food." And he's like, "You've done enough backpacking, you've traveled. Just give it a shot."
On my days off in the kitchen, I used to work front of house as well, so I love talking to people. I'm a yapper, and so I did my interview and here I am two years later, I'm still working with the company, but they've given me a great opportunity since I've worked with them over the past two years. I've explored eight new countries. So it's a blessing because I get to do contractual work in food and I get to travel. So it's really the best of both worlds.
Kerry Diamond:
It's super nice that you're doing all this travel because we went back and listened to some old “Top Chef Canada” era interviews.
Siobhan Detkavich:
Young Siobhan.
Kerry Diamond:
Young Siobhan wanted to travel. It was one of her goals, so look at you.
Siobhan Detkavich:
Totally.
Kerry Diamond:
Much accomplished. Did you get burned out on chef life?
Siobhan Detkavich:
A little bit. I think every job definitely, to a certain extent, maybe not all. You hit a point where you maybe feel like you're burning out. I wanted to be able to respectfully take a step back without feeling like I wanted to hang up my apron forever, just because you don't ever want to really hit that point and lose your passion because I still love cooking food. I just didn't want to feel like I was stuck in a rut where maybe with what I have been able to do in my career so far and with the potential of what I could do in the future, I just didn't want to feel like I was, am I stuck in a room where all I'm doing is flipping patties all day, and do I feel like is this the best that it's going to get if I don't find any other opportunities?
But then at the same time, I also just didn't want to feel like in terms of having a partner or anything like that, am I going to feel more like your roommate or are we actually going to be partners in life? I just didn't want to continue that cycle because when I was working in Kelowna, I was working two full-time jobs, so some days I was working upwards of 20 hours a day and I'm like, "That's just not a life that I want to continue living just to be able to get by." I wanted to be able to help grow my career where I can hopefully be sustainable in the sense that I do have a work-life balance.
Kerry Diamond:
You're such a good reminder to folks out there listening that your path is never going to be linear.
Siobhan Detkavich:
Totally.
Kerry Diamond:
It's always going to look like a crazy map with a squiggly line all over it. And you were the youngest competitor, I don't know, probably still to this day, the youngest competitor on “Top Chef Canada.”
Siobhan Detkavich:
I think so.
Kerry Diamond:
You were 21 years old, and that's so young to be a chef. You are barely on your chef journey at that point, and did you get into this in high school?
Siobhan Detkavich:
As I feel like all young teenagers do, my journey actually, I never intended to be in culinary by any means. I loved “Grey's Anatomy.” I watched it. I'm like, "My destiny is to be Callie Torres. I will be an orthopedic or maybe even a cardiothoracic surgeon." I had planned everything in my high school career. I'm like, "I will go to medical school. I will become a surgeon. That is who I'm destined to be."
Kerry Diamond:
Wait, because of “Grey's Anatomy?”
Siobhan Detkavich:
Totally. Yeah, absolutely.
Kerry Diamond:
That's so funny. I thought you were going to say you loved it because of, I don't know, Patrick Dempsey or something.
Siobhan Detkavich:
Oh no, I mean you had the drama and everything like that. You had McDreamy, you had McSteamy, but with the whole show and everything, I thought it was just so fascinating. The human body is just so fascinating with all of our moving parts. The science and everything behind it as well is what really intrigued me.
I grew up on Vancouver Island and Nanaimo. It's not like a huge town, but it's also, it's not like it's small. We moved to the South Okanagan. That was during the time when B.C. was going through their school strike, so when I was under the impression that I was going to go back to high school with my friends that I had known for many years in Nanaimo, we had visited all of her actually. And when we got home from the summer, my mom pretty much gave me 24 hours, and she's like, "We're moving."
And I'm like, "Excuse me, what?" We moved to the Okanagan, and I'm like, "Cool, cool." Everyone here has known each other since the womb. I am an outsider. I'm like 14. I'm like, "This is terrible."
Fast-forward, I'm in grade 10 and one of the career counselors is very strange actually because when I was starting at that school, they had told me for my classes, they're like, "Well, there's actually no more grade 10 classes we can put you in," so they put me in a grade 12 food class. I'm like, "Okay, sure."
Their career counselor had come in because the program that I ended up taking is, technically it's for grade 12 students to be able to earn additional credits and get a kickstart on post-secondary credits. And so when I was sitting in that grade 12 food class, the counselor had come in, he was like, "Who wants to leave high school for a year?"
And at that time, I still hadn't really found my niche. I didn't really have a set friend group yet or anything. I was still the new kid and my hand shot up. I'm like, "Yes, please," anything to get me out of here. It was just take a look at the trades. What trades do you want to do? The school district will pay for your tuition. You just have to pay for your supplies.
I'm like, "Okay, well, I am not the type of person to want to do carpentry. I'm just not good that way." Welding, not really my jam. Plumbing, not so much what my interest lies in. But then I took a look at culinary and I'm like, well, food is something that is part of your everyday life to be able to know how to cook maybe just more than hot dogs or KD and hot dogs, that would be an essential life skill.
I decided to take that program. I was living in Oliver at the time and the program was in Kelowna, so when I started that I was in my second semester of grade 11, and that was a 40-week program, so second semester grade 11, first semester of grade 12, that was where I did everything and I drove to and from Kelowna every day. There was another student in my program. We would drive together sometimes because both him and I were in the same class, same grade, but we did it every day so it's an hour and a half to Kelowna there, an hour and a half on the way back.
When I started that program, I still didn't have the ammunition to believe that this is the career path that I want to do. I was doing it because it was convenient. It was convenient to get out of my high school space. It was convenient to try and meet new people that I felt like maybe might recognize me as someone they'd want to hang out with. But I was the youngest of course. So at the same time, my first job was Subway. I started as a sandwich artist, did Subway University, got that 25 cent raise, and then I was also working at a Chinese food restaurant, and then I was working as a dishwasher at a fine dining restaurant, and the fine dining restaurant that I started my journey and actually I have it tattooed on my arm, it's Terrafina at Hester Creek, and Hester Creek is a winery in South Okanagan and Oliver.
When I started my journey there, everything in my career is always to pay back to the chef who took me under her wing when I first started as a dishwasher. She really gave me the platform to be able to do what I could today, and I started off as her dishwasher, and when she found out that I was going to culinary school, she's like, "Hey, are you in this? If you want to learn more, I'll get you on prep. Maybe we can get you start working the line."
I'm like, "You know what? Sure, I'm in culinary school. I might as well indulge myself a little bit more to see what this career has to offer."
I really enjoyed working for her as a person, and I loved her just as a personality outside of work. So I'm like, "Awesome. If this is what the career is, if it's full of people like yourself, then this actually might be something that interests me."
I was 15 when I started in the industry and I was 16 I believe when I started going to culinary school. She brought me on the line, I became her apprentice, and it just so happened to be coincidentally that the culinary director at the time at Okanagan College, he was my chef's chef that she apprenticed under.
So he's like, "Oh, you are my apprentice's apprentice." It's a full-
Kerry Diamond:
And you had no idea?
Siobhan Detkavich:
Nope, not at all until he started.
Kerry Diamond:
Worked out.
Siobhan Detkavich:
Yeah, when he struck up conversation, of course, it's such a big but small industry, so he was like, "Oh, Siobhan works here," and he was like, "you work for Jenna?" And I'm like, "Yeah, I work for Jenna." And he was like, "You're her apprentice?"
So it became full circle. Phenomenal chef, brilliant. She is a very high competitive chef as well, so she did many, many competitions and her skill set brought her to the podium, and one of the only times that I know of that she did not place first, she placed second by half a point, so suddenly he's like, "I'm going to turn you into the next Jenna," so I had very big shoes to fill. I had a very short amount of time.
I think I did upwards of 13 competitions, give or take, in my first year of cooking. I think because of that, they were like, "Oh, a 16-year-old doing so much at such a young age and wanting to immerse herself in this culture, in this career," really skyrocketed where a lot of people knew me before I knew of them, and I really became known as Jenna's girl, and I wore that with pride, being able to know that, "Oh, you recognize me and you know what I've done so far." And fast-forward pretty much five, six years later, I found myself on “Top Chef.”
Kerry Diamond:
We'll be right back with today's guest. Have you checked out Cherry Bombe on Substack yet? If not, click the link in our show notes or head to cherrybombe.substack.com and discover what Substack is all about. It's a media platform where you can find all your favorite writers on whatever topics you love, food, fashion, news, et cetera. On Cherry Bombe Substack, we've got articles from the recent issue of Cherry Bombe magazine like our Missy Robbins and Nancy Silverton cover stories, great recipes, events, news, our Friday newsletter, and more. You can sign up for free or become a monthly or annual paid subscriber, which gets you special perks like discounts to events, including Jubilee. If you love Cherry Bombe, you'll love our Substack. I subscribe to a lot of Substacks and love the platform. Check it out and send me an email or a DM. I would love to know what you think.
What was it about culinary that drew you in? Did you feel like you had found your calling or found something you were good at and wanted to continue with?
Siobhan Detkavich:
I think that was a really big drive for me and especially the community that I found when you are, because front of house and back of house, very different I find, especially with people who come, or typically work in front of house versus the people who typically work in back of house. I found that it's almost like your band of misfits when you're working in the kitchen. It really just became, oh, there are so many people who come from a similar background as myself, and it's really good to know that in times of hardship, cooking was something maybe that you used as a release to be able to escape the world in a sense, or it brought you peace.
There was so many different aspects to it that it was really what came down a lot of the times was the people that I was with because they saw me for who I was, they understood to a degree if we're that open with each other to get to know each other's backgrounds. It's like, okay, we all come from something so similar and we found ourselves here and working in a kitchen, it's such a team community environment where your team cannot thrive unless you're all thriving together, and I think it's just something that's so beautiful.
I've also had the opportunity to work in, well, not only fine dining restaurants, but corporate restaurants, and working in corporate restaurants was incredible to teach me about not only how to manage your people, had the opportunity to go through those leadership trainings, but also how to stay connected together as a team. And that to me is something where you take all your trials together, you take all your wins together, and that is something that I think is just beautiful.
Kerry Diamond:
You talked about front of house and back of house. I would be remiss to do an entire Canada miniseries and not mention Allez Céline. Do you follow Allez Céline on Instagram?
Siobhan Detkavich:
I will say I do not, unfortunately.
Kerry Diamond:
Oh my gosh. When we finish this interview, you have to go to Instagram, A-L-L-E-Z, Céline like Céline Dion.
Siobhan Detkavich:
Okay.
Kerry Diamond:
It is one of my favorite accounts on Instagram.
Siobhan Detkavich:
Awesome, okay.
Kerry Diamond:
And it's a meme account and it is hilarious. It's by Ivy Knight. Ivy, hello, we miss you. It is so funny. And it's all about front of house, back of house and just how crazy chef life can be.
Siobhan Detkavich:
Oh, awesome.
Kerry Diamond:
You will love it.
Siobhan Detkavich:
Oh, amazing.
Kerry Diamond:
You will love it.
Siobhan Detkavich:
Cool, I'll take a look.
Kerry Diamond:
After you start following it, you need to email me and say, "You're right, you changed my life. I wish I knew about this years ago."
Siobhan Detkavich:
Perfect. Can do.
Kerry Diamond:
Okay, back to you. You wind up on “Top Chef Canada,” and I know you guys don't call it “Top Chef Canada,” you just call it “Top Chef.” For our listeners, we can call it “Top Chef America” and “Top Chef Canada.”
Siobhan Detkavich:
Totally, yeah.
Kerry Diamond:
You wind up on “Top Chef Canada.” Did you apply or did someone call you? How did that happen?
Siobhan Detkavich:
I'll be honest, I remember it clear as day. I had someone actually come into my Instagram messages, and they're like, "Hey, we're so-and-so, we would love it if you would represent yourself and compete on 'Top Chef Canada.'"
I'm like, "Uh-huh. Okay. Sure," when you're just-
Kerry Diamond:
Did you not believe they were legit?
Siobhan Detkavich:
God, no. Uh-uh. No, not any chance. I'm like, "Okay," because it's just some random person that I've never met before. To this day actually, I still know how they came across me or anything of the sorts. I had done a couple competitions leading up until that point, so I don't know. I genuinely still to this day do not actually know.
But yeah, they had Instagram message me and I'm like, "Oh, cool. Can you send me an email with more details? And I'd love to take a further look. This definitely sounds like something I'd love to have the opportunity to take part in."
And so I got the email, I got everything, and I'm like, "Oh, oh, dang, this is the real thing. Oh, okay."
And so I definitely sat on it for a little bit, but because of course it was a quick deadline for applications, it was a process I had to decide very quickly. The restaurant that I was working at at the time, there was a lot of people who were like, "Go for it. Go for it. What is the worst that could go wrong? You had the opportunity, you've been blessed to be invited to go on the show. That in itself is an accomplishment. If you have any fails, just take it."
And so I'm like, "You know what? Okay, it is going to be the most nerve-wracking, stressful experience in my life, but sure, sure, let's do it."
So I put an application, and my application was actually fast tracked to be honest. I was suddenly at the final interview, I gave my spiel. I honestly, I feel like my brain has blocked part of that out because I don't even remember what I talked about in the interview, but I think it was just more so describing your culinary journey, your personality, who you were, because of course TV, a lot of it is you want to be able to have that boisterous or interesting personality. They don't really want someone who's just like, "Yeah, that's neat." Looking for characters ad.
And I'm like, "Okay, if this is my shot to be able to do big television," because it was Food Network Canada before it changed over to the Flavor Network. And I'm like, "This is huge. This is the biggest opportunity that I've had so far, beyond just if I'm doing small documentary series or anything like that." I put in my shot, and then I got the call. It was Eden Grinshpan, she gave me a-
Kerry Diamond:
Oh, Eden.
Siobhan Detkavich:
Yeah, she gave me a call.
Kerry Diamond:
That's so funny. We had Eden on the show two weeks ago.
Siobhan Detkavich:
Oh, amazing. I think I saw that actually, yeah. She had given me a call and I'm like, "Oh, hello?"
And she's like, "I just wanted to give you a call just to let you know the update." And she's like, "You're going on ‘Top Chef Canada.’"
I'm like, "Excuse me?" I think I was at work that day and I was like, "Oh my God. Oh my God. Oh my God. Oh my God."
And I think I had a month or something to prepare to get ready for all of this, and I'm like, "Okay, I am not ready."
Kerry Diamond:
That's incredible. Do they sequester you? What happens once you arrive on set?
Siobhan Detkavich:
Ours was a little bit different because I was the COVID season. When we actually flew out and everything, I think that was before the first dose of vaccinations were coming out for COVID because this would've been, I think it was. Yeah, September 2020, so this was actually just before Toronto went into the 18-month lockdown. And so before the vaccinations were being pushed or anything, I think, if I recall, but you still needed to get your brain poked with the long Q-tip that goes right to the back of your brain.
Kerry Diamond:
Wait, that wasn't technically hitting our brain.
Siobhan Detkavich:
I know. Yeah, it just felt like it was.
Kerry Diamond:
Was it? Okay.
Siobhan Detkavich:
I don't think so.
Kerry Diamond:
I was like, "Wait, the ones in America, I don't think they were touching our brain."
Siobhan Detkavich:
Yeah.
Kerry Diamond:
Yes, those nasal swab things they made us do.
Siobhan Detkavich:
We were quarantined for eight days in our hotel rooms. They put us in Markham. So it was one of my first times in Toronto actually, so I'm like, "Cool, nothing to do around here."
And one of the chefs, actually, that I used to work for back in the day, Brock Bowes, he was on season eight. I picked his brain a little bit before I had left just to know, "Hey, is there anything," without obviously giving anything away, because everyone's under contract for a certain period of time. So I'm like, "What you can and cannot say, can you just give me just very, very, very brief oversight that won't touch any legalities of what I could expect?"
And I guess I don't know if they would put you in group houses or stuff like that, but they would typically have everyone all together. But ours was different so we were all in our own separate hotel rooms, and I remember just going stir-crazy by day five or six, I am alone. My window doesn't open. I'm in Markham, what am I going to do? Every time I heard a sound outside the door, I would rush to my people and be like, "Is it one of my competitors, who are they?" Because we're not allowed to know who they are.
When they were taking us to the set, we weren't allowed to really look at each other in the same car, and we weren't allowed to talk to each other. The only time we were allowed to get to know who each other were was in the opening scenes of “Top Chef Canada” when it's like you walk into the kitchen and they're like, "I'm so-and so, I am blah, blah, blah years old, and I work for this company or this restaurant," and that's really the first time that we all get to know who each other were, and so it was very nerve wracking. That was the whole experience. A lot of COVID protocols were still happening at the time. We didn't really get the chance to do the McEwan's Market, they brought it to us. That's when you had the face masks.
Kerry Diamond:
Wait, what's that market? I don't know.
Siobhan Detkavich:
Oh, so sorry. McEwan Market is, with “Top Chef Canada,” it's a very popular grocery shop stop for the competitors because one of the head judges, Mark McEwan, he has his own grocery store line.
Kerry Diamond:
Got it. Is it a cool grocery store?
Siobhan Detkavich:
It is. I mean, I haven't been, but they brought it to us. That was definitely an interesting challenge in its own. But yeah, I think it was a very unique experience, I think we could probably all agree on, because at the same time, everyone's learning how to manage this start of this pandemic, so there's so many new things that we have to learn in terms of safety and health. But then there's so many different things that were also us as competitors are so in the dark of because it's a very high-end, prestige competition where they really just throw everything at you and you have to expect the unexpected, so it was-
Kerry Diamond:
That's wild. I'm thinking of athletes breaking certain records, but the rules have changed in the game, so they have to put an asterisk next to their name. I feel like the pandemic period, you almost need that asterisk because-
Siobhan Detkavich:
Totally.
Kerry Diamond:
You couldn't go in there like a regular competitor with a “Top Chef” strategy. You were experiencing this world we just had never experienced before.
Siobhan Detkavich:
Totally.
Kerry Diamond:
How many episodes did you last through?
Siobhan Detkavich:
I made it through three. I remember the pressure was on. The restaurant that I worked at at the time. They were, "As long as you make it past the first episode, we'll still like you. You come home first episode, you're losing your credibility."
And I'm like, "Ah." It was said with harsh love, but it was like you could feel the notion behind it. I'm like, "Whoo, okay. No pressure. No pressure, no pressure," because at the time-
Kerry Diamond:
Nobody wants to be the first person sent home because regardless, you can always be like, "At least I wasn't the first person sent home."
Siobhan Detkavich:
Exactly. So I mean, I definitely made it by fluke probably with how many other episodes I made it on, because one of them was a group episode, so I made it to three, and then we had a comeback episode and they had chosen a few of us to do a comeback episode, and it was Chef Jae-Anthony and Chef Galasa.
We all had the opportunity to cook our way back into the competition. I was at that point, I was like, my stress limit, high, very, very high. And I'm like, "I have done, I don't need to come back. It's okay. I am happy where I got, I'm just happy to be here."
And they're like, "But Siobhan, what do you have to lose if you don't make it back on?"
I'm like, "I already lost. There's nothing for me to lose."
Everyone in there has the opportunity to lose everything, because in the hypothetical, if I had won my challenge and I had beat someone who was still an active competitor, I took their place and they would get booted off. So I'm like, "I have nothing to lose because I'm just trying to, I'm just bonus Jonas, I'm just here to try again," and they have everything to lose. I don't think I got a lot of airtime because I was just doing things slowly. I'm like, "I'm okay if I don't get to come back."
Kerry Diamond:
So Siobhan, what did you get cut from on that third episode?
Siobhan Detkavich:
Yeah, that one was a little bit of an interesting episode for a lot of people because I know there was a little bit of controversy, especially coming home and when people watched the episode, the elimination challenge was cook us a meal from a holiday at your family table. I didn't really grow up with family. I didn't really do family holidays. For the longest time when I was a young teenager, even into a young adult because I didn't have any family to go home to on the holidays, it was always just me, but Jenna, to go back on her because she knew all of this, and she knew what my home life looked like when I was in my teens. She made it a point to be that safe person for me.
She came to my high school graduation. She was so happy when I graduated college with my Red Seal. She was there for so many key moments in my life. She also made it a point where, "If you need a safe place to come, here's the passcode to my house. I've turned our second bedroom. There's a bed now in it, so then if you need a safe place to stay, this is where you can come to. I have some of your favorite food stocked up in case you stay for a little bit longer than what you're expecting."
She always made it a point that on special holidays, her and I worked together. We always did Mother's Day brunch. We always did Valentine's Day Easter, we did Christmas, we did Thanksgiving, but we were always just working in the restaurant together, and she took that time out of her life to work those days to work with me because I didn't have anyone to work with, even though we didn't do anything necessarily crazy because you have to cook for a certain demographic.
But the key component throughout my entire career, growing up with her on those holidays, especially Mother's Day, we always did French toast. It was a version of French toast that I still love, and I use her recipe to this day and some of the little accompaniments that we'd put with it. That was always something that was remarkable for me. To me, I'm like, "This is a dish at my family holiday table, because this is how I spent my holidays and who I spent it with." I know it's nothing fancy by any means. I just thought this is the sentiment behind it.
And I understood by taking that risk, by doing something like French toast, I'm like, "I could very well go home," but to me, this is one of those dedication episodes because a lot of people were also dedicating it to their families and what they have at their family table.
Because I know a lot of us got the critique where it's like, "Well, this isn't something you normally find at a holiday table," and it's like, well, but you said at ours.
And so that's where a little bit of the controversy came in, especially for viewers that I know when we were doing the watch parties and everything. But for me, I did my French toast. I did a trial run of it the day before. I was doing candied bacon with it, but the combi oven, and for those who don't know, a combi oven is a combination oven. You can dry roast things, you can have a little bit of humidity, a lot of humidity. You can steam things entirely. I had the bacon in there with low humidity to try and get that nice and crunchy, but then someone else had thrown something into the oven and change the humidity so then it just became tacky. So I just had brown sugar, tacky bacon, and that was something that spiraled on itself.
So that one of the big key components, and because the McEwan Market was brought to us instead of us going to the McEwan Market, I didn't really have a lot of bread opportunities to work with. So despite, I think on the episode, it says I used whole wheat baguette, I did not. I just used a normal baguette, I think for how long it sits before it was presented to the judges. It does harden quite a bit, of course, because baguette has that hard exterior, but there was a lot of things. Of course, it wasn't necessarily a “Top Chef” dish, but would I change it? Probably not because to me, the dedication behind it was special enough.
Kerry Diamond:
And you were able to walk away having been truly authentic to yourself.
Siobhan Detkavich:
Exactly.
Kerry Diamond:
In your experience.
Siobhan Detkavich:
Exactly, yeah.
Kerry Diamond:
I just got to say, the world needs more Chef Jennas.
Siobhan Detkavich:
Totally, totally.
Kerry Diamond:
How incredible that she was there for you in those ways. People make a big deal of you having been the youngest competitor on “Top Chef Canada,” but you were also, I believe, the first Indigenous competitor. Is that correct?
Siobhan Detkavich:
First Indigenous woman, I would say, because Chef Rich.
Kerry Diamond:
First Indigenous woman.
Siobhan Detkavich:
Yeah.
Kerry Diamond:
Did they make a big deal of that? Going back and looking at some of the headlines, it seems like people were calling that out.
Siobhan Detkavich:
I think so, because I think at the same time, and why I really tried to focus on it in a sense because my background's actually from my mom's side, I use Indigenous as I feel like it's such a broad term because with how much travel I've done and whatnot, Indigenous is like you're just Indigenous to the land that your people come from. A lot of the times, if I'm talking to people, especially people internationally, I just use the term Native American and Hawaiian because those are my two backgrounds, but they're both Indigenous because they're both Indigenous to the lands. I really tried to focus on the Indigenous aspect as well, because at the same time, this was around the timeframe when they were finally starting to uncover a lot of the children from residential schools and unearthing a lot of the bodies.
And this is when a huge movement that came through, which I think was amazing for a call for truth and reconciliation, to be able to reconcile and make those amends for the children that had suffered through residential school. And I really wanted to use that platform, especially to speak on, as a young Indigenous person. I did spend some time growing up on the reservations and use my voice to be able to help others who maybe are either the same, maybe just me younger and maybe even a little bit older than me, be able to recognize, oh, she's also had maybe a similar upbringing as me, or she understands the hardships of what it's like to be someone who's from an Indigenous community that gives me the opportunity, maybe the hope or the fire that I too can achieve great things in life. Because so much was going on, focusing on the Indigenous peoples and reconciliation because of the residential schools and what was coming out and how many children were just, the body count was just getting so high and higher and higher.
I think it was an important recognition to be able to put that into the media. And so I think a lot of people, yes, had used that, especially in their headlines. I loved it because I actually, I had teachers who would email me and be like, "Thank you so much for being an inspiration for my students. Someone actually did a project on you."
And I'm like, "Oh my goodness. At 21 years old, someone did a project on me?" Just to have even types of impacts, knowing that my life is still on its journey. My career path is still trying to shape itself, but to at least still help people recognize what they might want to do, huge. It was huge.
Kerry Diamond:
Was it a lot of pressure on you as a 21-year-old to have to represent your whole community in such a public way?
Siobhan Detkavich:
I think so, absolutely. I mean, even still to this day, I'm a little bit more comfortable now, of course, being a little bit older and having done enough work and whatnot, but at the time, I was getting a lot of inquiries, especially just being like, "Hey, can you do something like this? Can you make an Indigenous dish?"
Or, "Hey, can you do this specific dish from this area of Canada?"
And it was just a lot of inquiry being like a broad Indigenous generalization being like, "You're Indigenous, you know all Indigenous food."
And I'm like, "Well, you see." For me, on my side of the family, on my mom's side, my grandmother went into residential school and only six of the siblings came out of, I believe it was 16 or 18 children, and only six had come out so so much of our culture just from my direct family was lost because of that, much like many other people who their families were in residential schools, and even my mom was in residential schools. So to have that be such a direct close hit, so close to your own generation, no one wants to talk about their history necessarily.
They're starting to do so now because I think a lot of people are learning the journey of healing. But my family now, for the most part, we're white. We don't teach each other about Indigenous practices because that's what was beat into the children. To have that, it was so nerve-racking because I didn't want to be a disappointment to the Indigenous community being someone who is half white. My dad and that side of the family, they're from Ireland. My name's Siobhan, it's a very Gaelic name. My last name's Ukrainian. So on paper, you would never expect what my complexion or what I would necessarily look like as an Irish Ukrainian person. And so for me, it was not only the constant fear of failure, because I've had so many chefs say such horrible things to me at such a young age, to go on “Top Chef” and be worried that if I don't do well, I'm just proving them right.
But then to also come out after that, some of those interviews were at times that not even all the “Top Chef” episodes had aired yet. So I was just panicking, not knowing how am I going to be perceived. It was the fear of disappointment where I didn't want to be seen as a fraud. I didn't want to be seen as, "Oh, you're only now just claiming your Indigenous status because you made it on TV, and this is the only way that you could be recognized as someone." That for me was, oh gosh. I think honestly, something like that I don't think ever goes away.
Me now at 26, I still feel, it's the imposter syndrome, right? Am I actually as good as what some people say or there's always going to be room for improvement. But I think a huge thing that comes from that and why I am always so careful about what I say is because of those things that chefs have said to me and how hurtful they were and how they still stuck with me to this day, it became a great teaching lesson where it's like, you know what? Thank you for teaching me to be the leader I don't want to be. This teaches me what I don't want to project onto anybody else. This teaches me what not to do or what not to say. So for me, it's always trying to have that positive outlook, but battling the imposter syndrome on any aspect.
Kerry Diamond:
Having experienced what you did growing up and having had to represent your culture the way you did so publicly, what is it like for you to go to these places? I'm looking at the list I have of my questions, the Galapagos, Colombia, Osaka, Japan, Jordan, what has it been like for you?
Siobhan Detkavich:
First and foremost, I think it's so eye-opening. It is so beautifully eye-opening. In 2023, I took a little bit of a break of just working in kitchens. I just wasn't in a great spot, and I'm like, "I need a break."
And so I was actually in Thailand for a little while. It's a little bit corny in a sense. So, G Adventures, one of their slogans is ‘embrace the bizarre’ and looking back on it-
Kerry Diamond:
That's a good slogan.
Siobhan Detkavich:
Totally, right? And looking back on it, how I traveled before I even got into the travel industry, that's exactly what I always, always has been my mission. I've always been fascinated by history. I've always wanted to know what is the truth of the people who live here? You never know how it's condensed into history books and everything like that. So when I was in Thailand, I was in this far northeastern little province called Nakhon Phanom. Funny enough, the capital of Nakhon Phanom is called Nakhon Phanom, maybe only about the size of Penticton in this Okanagan, 20,000, 30,000 people, but maybe half an hour outside of that. There's this tiny little village, 200 people called Na Thon, and I lived in this little homestay.
No one really spoke a lick of English. I just used Google Translate, and that brought me so much peace and tranquility because that was one of the biggest eye-openers for me, especially at the time where it just shows me that people who have so little are just willing to give you so much. And when you compare that to Western culture, I mean whether people find it offensive or not, goodness gracious, Western people, we're selfish. We are so selfish in the sense and just so entitled to so many what we believe. I think so many people forget that what we deem or what we have in our day-to-day life to what so many people worldwide just don't even have the basic right or access to, that has always ignited a flame inside of me because you get to see how also so many cultures are just so similar, especially if we're going back into history, looking at different communities.
You look at the Irish, you could even look at anyone from Central or South America. And when it came to anything like colonization or the conquests, so many people were put under the similar, not identical necessarily because a little bit different, of course, every different place, but so many similar experiences. Maybe it's not called residential schools where they were, but so many people were put under the same premonitions that their people had suffered in some sort of way. And I think to be able to understand that and then understand why they do what they do and how it's brought them to where they are, where their family, how they started their farms, there's so many different things and there's so many stereotypes that are attached to these countries.
I would move to Colombia in a heartbeat. It is beautiful. Of course, there's always going to be, everywhere you travel, Canada, U.S., Mexico, anywhere you travel, Japan even, there's always going to be some sort of risk, it doesn't matter where you're going. The world in itself is just a risk. To be able to go to Colombia and see that the people there want to give you nothing but warmth and love, and they just want to share their culture, share their food. They just want to show you what their history and everything is.
And when I was in Jordan, it was so unbelievably beautiful getting to speak with the Jordanians, and even people who were Palestinian, Jordanian, or maybe there were Syrian refugees who moved to Jordan. Ultimately, what everything comes together is the community, how community is so impactful, and then being able to be a traveler. And I think being able to have this genuine curiosity to travel to places that people don't really want to travel to. It helps me be a voice for them to be like, it's not what people perceive it to be. Jordan is a Switzerland of the Middle East, despite the countries that surround it is a hundred percent safe to travel to, and they've lost 90% of the tourism since the Israel-Palestine conflict. All they want is for people to come and be able to recognize and still be able to immerse themselves in their culture because so many places rely on tourism as part of their economy.
As someone who has this genuine curiosity to travel, I feel like it's almost part of my duty to be able to go and travel to these unknown places, to be able to help give them a voice, to hopefully be able to encourage others where if they do have maybe even a hint of this curiosity, it pushes them to also go one person at a time, helps build that economy and helps build that community back to where it should be.
Kerry Diamond:
I had to look up G Adventures. Okay, I want to go on some of these trips now.
Siobhan Detkavich:
Totally.
Kerry Diamond:
I just looked up the Canada part and I'm like, "Oh my God, I want to do all these things." Do you do any of the Canada trips?
Siobhan Detkavich:
The Canada trips actually just recently launched, not too long ago.
Kerry Diamond:
Oh.
Siobhan Detkavich:
Yeah.
Kerry Diamond:
Okay.
Siobhan Detkavich:
Sorry, a little promo. My manager knows that if I'm leaving Flight Centre, it's for G Adventures. I have their logo tattooed on my arm. I am in it to win it.
Kerry Diamond:
Wait, do you really?
Siobhan Detkavich:
Oh, I do here. I don't know if you can see.
Kerry Diamond:
Oh, that's so cool.
Siobhan Detkavich:
Right here.
Kerry Diamond:
I believe you.
Siobhan Detkavich:
The Canada trips are a little bit newer this year, especially, of course, knowing everything, let's say, socioeconomics and everything between Canada and the U.S., Canada has this whole elbows up situation currently happening right now.
Kerry Diamond:
I've heard of it, yes.
Siobhan Detkavich:
Yeah.
Kerry Diamond:
I apologize to all the Canadian listeners.
Siobhan Detkavich:
The one thing, how I even poise it to my clients, why I will always try to see if I can navigate their decision to choosing something like a G Adventures tour is not only are they a Canadian company, it's great, they have over a thousand different tours in a hundred different countries. But let's say you're taking a peek at the G Adventures website right now. They have a project called Planeterra, and that's their non-profit organization. I've been very blessed to be able to go with them on World Tourism Day, sit on summits, and be able to listen to so many incredible and why Planeterra does what it does for the communities.
And any of the tours you take a look at, they have what's called a Ripple Score, and those Ripple Scores are representations of how much money that you're giving G Adventures goes directly back to the communities that you could visit. And so if you're looking at anything like a G for Good moment, those are direct impacts of your dollars being able to help the communities, and you get to see a community project in action, real lifetime, and you get to see how essentially the way that they poised it is how can we turn your holiday into a way of giving back to communities? Because I know there's so many people in the world that want to be able to help, but they just never know, how do you help on such a global scale?
And why I travel with G so much and why I book them so often and why I love being an ambassador in the sense that I don't work for them, but why I love being that kind of spokes, I will talk about them till the end of the days because having them help you turn your way into a holiday of giving back, they give you that platform to be able to help communities worldwide, even if you're just going somewhere simple like Costa Rica. It helps the communities and they work with local hotels. They want to keep the money in the communities that you're traveling and they want to.
Kerry Diamond:
That's so important.
Siobhan Detkavich:
Totally, and it helps you differentiate, are you a tourist or are you a traveler? And I think that's huge.
Kerry Diamond:
Siobhan, that is the big takeaway from this episode. Okay, we're going to lose you in a few minutes, so I want to do a few quick questions with you.
Siobhan Detkavich:
Sure.
Kerry Diamond:
Okay. You're going to take me somewhere in Canada, and we're going to go eat some amazing food. Where are you taking me?
Siobhan Detkavich:
Ooh, it's cheesy. Some of the bigger places I would definitely recommend are either hanging out here in Vancouver. There's some incredible Asian cuisine, of course, but even more beyond just Asian cuisine, the fresh seafood that we have over here. I'd take you to Toronto because Toronto is so beautifully diverse in so many different places. Gosh, you go to Guelph and Guelph is pretty much part of the GTA at this point because Toronto's just expanded huge, but then also I'd be like, heck yeah, we're going to the Maritimes because I've never been to the Maritimes, so we are just going to indulge in all that Atlantic Coast goodness. And I'd say that helps us cover west to east. We'd be going on a food tour.
Kerry Diamond:
I love it. I'm getting out my passport. What are you known for cooking? If you're going to cook for me and I come over, whatever, what are you going to make?
Siobhan Detkavich:
Because I know I'm a yapper. I would say Terrafina.
Kerry Diamond:
That's the Irish in you. Have you been to Ireland?
Siobhan Detkavich:
Oh, I was last year. I didn't really actually kiss the stone, it was too far down, but my manager's like, "Please don't, you talk enough." No promises. But yes, I have been actually. Beautiful, beautiful country.
Okay, synopsis. I worked at Terrafina. That was my very first restaurant I worked at, so of course it will always hit home to me. A little bit biased because we cooked Tuscan Italian food, so I love me some carbs. Holy moly, anything pasta risotto hit me with it all. I just love it, gnocchi. So I'm always for those, for comfort foods, but also I really try to bring homage in the sense to do a Hawaiian, an Indigenous Native American kind of fusion.
For me, my band is Cowichan Tribes, that's Vancouver Island. If anyone's not familiar in the Duncan, Lake Cowichan area to have two coastal backgrounds like that, I think for me, I really connect with the ocean. I really feel like in Hawaii, it's the mana right? To me, the ocean itself, she's so powerful. And so I always try to bring a little bit of both, and I like to do a little bit of a blend between the two of them because I think there's cultural similarities that can really, really come together quite nicely. So Tuscan Italian, Hawaiian, Indigenous fusion, I would say.
Kerry Diamond:
I am ready for this meal. I'm coming over. You're going to cook for me, and then we're going to get on a plane and we're going to go to the Maritimes.
Siobhan Detkavich:
Perfect.
Kerry Diamond:
Honestly, Siobhan, “Are you a tourist or are you a traveler?” That's going to stay with me forever.
Siobhan Detkavich:
Wonderful.
Kerry Diamond:
Thank you for that gift.
Siobhan Detkavich:
Of course.
Kerry Diamond:
And your gift to all of us. Oh my God, you are so special. Siobhan, thank you for your time and sharing your journey with us. It's very inspiring.
Siobhan Detkavich:
Oh, thank you so much. It's an incredible honor to do something like this. I really appreciate the time that you took this, especially to invite me onto your podcast here, so thank you.
Kerry Diamond:
That's it for today's show. Thank you so much to Siobhan Detkovich. This is the last episode in our miniseries, brought to you in partnership with Destination Canada. If you missed our episodes with Eden Grinshpan, Amy Ho, or Janet and Jennifer Zuccarini, make sure to go back and give a listen. I plan to be in Canada very soon, and I can't wait to share my culinary adventures with you. Our theme song is by the band Tralala. Special thanks to City Vox Studios. Our producers are Catherine Baker and Jenna Sadhu. Our editorial assistant is Brigid Pittman, and our head of partnerships is Rachel Close. Thanks for listening, everybody. You are the Bombe.