Video exclusive: In the kitchen with star Ottawa chef Lizardo Becerra

Raphaël Peruvian Cuisine chef-owner Lizardo Becerra shares how he reworked his championship dish to handle the pressure of serving 600 plates with a brand-new team, just days before facing Canada’s top chefs.

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Published Jan 29, 2025 • Last updated Feb 01, 2025 • 2 minute read

Chef Lizardo Becerra from Raphaël Peruvian Cuisine in Ottawa. Photo by Tony Caldwell /PostmediaAs good as the dish was that Lizardo Becerra created to qualify for this weekend’s Canadian Culinary Championship, the Ottawa chef says he’s made it even better.

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Becerra, the chef-owner of Raphaël Peruvian Cuisine on Elgin Street, prevailed over five contenders last September at the Ottawa qualifying event for the national competition.

In the four months since his regional victory, Becerra has consulted with some of Ottawa’s top chefs about how to improve his dish.

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“We’re still working and tweaking,” Becerra says of his dish, which features B.C. salmon with an escabeche demi-glace.

The Peru-born chef, who has been cooking for the past dozen years in Ottawa, divulges more about version 2.0 of his winning dish in the video interview that accompanies this story.

He explains that he’s made the dish more seasonal, appropriate for February rather than September, and simplified it, given the new brigade that will help him serve nearly 600 portions of the dish on Saturday night at the championship’s grand finale at the Rogers Centre Ottawa.

Becerra, chef-owner of Raphaël Peruvian Cuisine on Elgin Street, outperformed five rivals last September in Ottawa’s qualifier for the national competition. Photo by Tony Caldwell /PostmediaWhereas Becerra was surrounded by his restaurant’s crew at the regionals in September, he will work this weekend with just one chef from his restaurant plus students from Algonquin College’s culinary arts program.

This weekend, Becerra will cook off against nine other finalists who won their regional competitions from Vancouver to St. John’s.

While some chefs have a lot of competition experience, Becerra is new to such culinary exploits. “I cannot deny that we all feel nervous,” he says.

But Becerra says he’s been preparing for the championship’s ancillary black box and wine-pairing events while at the same time trying to smoothly operate his restaurant.

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He also describes what makes Peruvian food so unique and potent, as well as his ambitions for his restaurant, which has grown over the years from a ghost kitchen in City Centre to a Clarence Street eatery to its present incarnation on Elgin Street.

The Canadian Culinary Championship was held in Kelowna for nine years before its move to Ottawa was announced in 2019. Ottawa chefs have taken top spot on its podium four times. Atelier chef Marc Lepine won the championship in 2012 and 2016 and is the only chef to win twice. Yannick LaSalle, now the chef for the Supreme Court of Canada, won in 2019. Chef Briana Kim won in 2023.

Both Lepine and Kim are expected to open new restaurants on Somerset Street West in 2025.

In addition to promoting culinary excellence across the country, the national championship gives a portion of its proceeds to support national and Ottawa-area charities including MusiCounts, Spirit North, Ottawa Network for Education (ONFE) and BGC Ottawa.

Canadian Culinary ChampionshipWhen: Jan. 31 and Feb. 1

Where: Rogers Centre Ottawa and Collège La Cité

Information and tickets: greatkitchenparty.com/ca/culinary-championship/

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