“When I turned 11 or 12 my parents said, ‘You know what, you can cook your own meals.’ I was tripping in the kitchen and falling over sauces and dishes, but you learn your way.” Luther Shavers’ early lessons in food kickstarted a steady stream of them, taking early inspiration from his father’s natural talents before enrolling at the Culinary Institute of Canada in PEI, which led him to work with major influence/mentor, chef Gordon Bailey.
The Dartmouth native’s culinary adventures then took him to kitchens—and all spectrums of cuisine—in Bermuda, the Philippines and Germany, Halifax’s Bonne Cuisine, Seven, RCR Catering and now, Uptown Catering and the small-but-mighty Untitled Eats, where his creations are “accessible, well-focused on pristine flavours…clear, concise cuisine.
“It’s the closest thing to being god. You’re taking raw ingredients and changing the properties of them, its just incredibly creative,” says Shave. “It’s a labour or love. And you get back what you put into it. If you put 1,000 percent into it, you’ll get 1,000 percent.”
This article appears in Aug 1-7, 2013.