Local cook, Chelsea Copley was recognized with the Top Apprentice Award from the provincial government last month.
Copley, a cook at the Fairmont Jasper Park Lodge, finished school at the Southern Alberta Institute of Technology in February and received the award for achieving top marks in her final year, as well as for receiving a glowing letter of recommendation from JPL’s executive sous chef.
The award is presented annually by the Alberta Apprenticeship and Industry Training Board. This year the board recognized 66 students from across the province.
“These awards show the value and importance of the skilled trades to our province,” Dave Hancock, premier and minister of Innovation and Advanced Education, stated in a press release.
“Recognizing these outstanding accomplishments reinforces the impact apprentices, trades professionals, employers, instructors and members of industry have on developing tomorrow’s skilled trades workforce while enhancing Alberta’s world-class apprenticeship and industry training system.”
Copley said she had no idea she was in the running for the award—at least not until her sous chef was asked for a recommendation letter.
Copley moved to Jasper in 2009, following a one-year basic culinary program in Montreal—her hometown.
“I came out as a general cook for Fairmont and through them I signed up with the apprenticeship program,” she said. “So two months every year I went to school down at SAIT, and that was for three years. I finished last February.”
Copley didn’t set out to be a cook. Rather, out of high school she went to university in hopes of becoming a marine biologist. But, once in school, she realized sitting at a desk just wasn’t for her.
“I just wasn’t happy with what I was studying. So I decided to move back home and I started cooking, and I fell in love with it.
“I wanted a job that was more active, more on the go, and cooking provided that for me.”
Describing a typical day in the Fairmont kitchen, Copley said it’s non-stop.
“We run around from the moment we get in—prepping for dinner service or lunch, whichever shift you’re working, and then it’s completely go, go, go.
“It’s definitely a job where you’re constantly moving around and you don’t really have time to relax.
“I love it. I’m five years in and no regrets.”
Nicole Veerman
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