Biographies

Born in Toronto, David Wolfman is a descendant of the Lillooet band in British Columbia. David honed his skills through apprenticing in prestigious kitchens such as The National Club, The Ashbridges Bay Yacht Club, The Island Yacht Club and the new defunct (French cuisine) Garbos' Restaurant.

While training at George Brown College, School of Hospitality, he had no idea how far reaching his knowledge of Aboriginal "Natural" foods would become. This knowledge was instrumental in his appointment as Team Captain of the first ever Aboriginal Culinary Team to compete in the 1992 IKA Culinary Arts Olympics in Frankfurt, Germany. The team sponsored by Medina Foods of Montreal, under the direction of Georges Chauvet (himself a many time gold medalist) won an unprecedented 7 gold, 2 silver and 2 bronze medals.

After serving 8 years as head Chef with Marriott Management Services, (The Philip Morris Kraft General Foods account), he opened Lillooet Catering, a foodservice catering company, specializing in the preparation of natural and traditional "Aboriginal Cuisine". He operated his business for 5 years at such locations as The Native Canadian Center of Toronto, and the Toronto Sailing Canoe Club.

David's extraordinary talents are World Renowned. He takes pride in his culture and is always involved in a variety of special and continuing projects, educating people about Aboriginal Cultures and Traditions, through his cuisine. In 1993 he won the Evian Health Menu awards in the Catering Division, and in 1994 won an "Outstanding Achievement Award" from the Canadian Council for Aboriginal Business. In early 1993 David initiated an Aboriginal Cuisine Program, that was taken to local friendship centers such as The Barrie Native Friendship Center, and eventually to Durham College, in Oshawa, as a continuing education program.

In October 1994, David designed an Aboriginal Cuisine Program for George Brown College, School of Hospitality, which is currently running as a Chef Training program. David is a full time Professor, delivering such courses as, Restaurant Operations, Culinary Techniques, basic and advanced, Food Theory, basic and advanced, Aboriginal Cuisine, Theory of Aboriginal Cuisine, Theory of Aboriginal Culture and Heritage. In his spare time, David with his wife, Heather, are developing and delivering training, for Native owned restaurants, which involved quality controls, food costing and plate presentations. Some of the other training is being offered at Community Health Centers, both on and off reserves.

The training involves healthy cooking methods of both aboriginal and non-aboriginal foods, as well as creating economical culinary dishes.

David has been involved with a project cookbook that was published in the fall of 1998, which includes recipes from The Sport Olympics; it will be donating a portion of proceeds to UNICEF.