Industry Award - Back of House

Rob Feenie

Robert Feenie is the owner and executive chef of Lumière Restaurant in Vancouver, Canada. Since it opened in 1995, the restaurant and Feenie have received accolades from notable food critics around the world. Lumière was awarded Vancouver's Best Restaurant and Best French Restaurant awards an unprecedented six years in a row. In November 2000, Lumière became the first freestanding restaurant in Canada to receive the Relais Gourmand designation, an honor reserved for those who specifically cater to the passions of the art of living, quality, refinement and a sense of the exceptional. In late 2003 Lumière became the first restaurant in Canada to be awarded the Traditions et Qualitè, an award bestowed on Lumière by the top chefs of Europe and North America.

Feenie's interest in cuisine started during a high school exchange program in Europe and at 20, he attended the Dubrulle Culinary Institute in Vancouver. Following graduation he became a Sous-chef in some of this region's top restaurants, notably Le Crocodile and the Cheery Stone Cove in Vancouver and The Rim Rock Café in Whistler. While at Le Crocodile he began a series of work and educational travels, or stages, throughout Europe and North America, starting in Alsace with Chef Emile Jung at Au Crocodile and Antoine Westermann at Le Buerehiesel, both Michelin three-star rated restaurants. In North America he worked with America's top chef, Charlie Trotter, at Trotter's Restaurant in Chicago, with Daniel Boulud at Restaurant Daniel and Jean-Georges Vongerichten at Jean-Georges in New York.

Both nationally and internationally Feenie has also developed a reputation as a chef-consultant. He opened Accolade Restaurant in the Crowne Plaza Hotel in Toronto and undertook the monumental task of restructuring the dining experience at Le Régence in the Hotel Plaza Athenée in Manhattan, pulling the restaurant "right out of the doldrums" according to the New York Times. He is often called upon to represent Canada, traveling as an Ambassador for Canadian and British Columbia food products, wines and sharing Vancouver's culinary talents with the rest of the world.

In 2003 Chef Feenie opened the Lumière Tasting Bar at the entrance to Lumière, immediately sweeping the various restaurant awards for best new restaurant. In the summer of 2003 he opened Feenie's, a more casual Canadian Bistro right next door to Lumière.

He released his first cookbook; Rob Feenie cooks at Lumière, published in Canada by Douglas & McIntyre, and in the US by Ten Speed Press, in the fall of 2001 to critical acclaim and released his second book, Lumière Light, in 2003 where it quickly became a BC best seller. This fall Feenie will release his third book in the trilogy, featuring Feenie's estaurant a true Canadian Bistro. recently finished the fifth season of his Alliance Atlantis-produced television show, New Classics with Chef Rob Feenie, for Food Network Canada and will begin filming a new series this fall.