Becoming a great chef doesn’t happen overnight. You must exhibit patience and passion – Cameron Smith does both. A graduate of the esteemed George Brown Culinary Management Program, Cameron sought to enhance his classic training at some of Toronto’s finest restaurants, including Jamie Kennedy Royal Ontario Museum and Scaramouche.

At the renowned Avalon Restaurant, he mastered the stations of saucier and entremetier and developed a deep appreciation for local growers, farmers and artisans under the guidance of his mentor, Chris McDonald.

His quest for knowledge then led him to Toque! in Montreal, where he learned the fine art of butchery under Chef Normand Laprise and, later, to Le Passe Partout to work for the legendary master of French technique, James MacGuire.

To acquire an understanding of the culinary arts that can’t be taught in a classroom or kitchen setting, Cameron travelled the world and found Mexico, Portugal, Spain and France to be a source of major inspiration for him professionally.

Photo of Cam - Hammad Attie

While she is an undeniably fabulous baker, Dana also knows her way around many other areas of the kitchen.

Dana attended the prestigious Stratford Chef’s School in Ontario, where she completed her chef’s training with honours as well as an extensive pastry training program.

After completing her formal education, Dana worked as the head of pastry and garde manger at the highly-regarded Avalon Restaurant in Toronto and under Normand Laprise at Toque! in Montreal. While in Montreal, Dana also staged and worked at many French bakeries, such as Le Passe Partout and Le Fromontier, and as the pastry chef at Les Caprices de Nicolas.

Dana has traveled to New York, California and France to study technique and theory with some of the industry’s finest. An internship on Quadra Island early on in her culinary journey sparked a natural affinity for sourcing superior ingredients, which remains a priority for Joy Road Catering today.

Both Cameron and Dana are excited about expanding and enhancing their repertoires and learning as much as they can about the harmonious relationship between food and wine.

Also re-joining team JRC is the lovely Melis. She is a bright, happy , hardcore cooking machine who always sports a smile and an uber funky head of hair.  Melissa hails from Quebec  and left some great Vancouver restaurants, Boneta and Chambar to spend the summer cooking with us. She is also in charge of Dom, has some of  the meanest  knife skills we have ever seen, and keeps us organized all summer.

Annie, an absolutely gifted painter as well as pastry girl, rolled with us for 2 seasons. She spent this winter with Terra Breads, and is now baking as well as honing her wine drinking skills in Australia. Annie created the best staff snacks to keep cool, such as nectarine and lime zest sorbet, not to mention the salted caramel swirl ice cream with cinnamon bun bits.  Good thing  we ingested so much sweet stuff with Annie around,  fuel for the three of us as we often baked well into the wee hours of Friday night before the Saturday early                                                  morning Farmers' Market.

Steph has been keeping us on target since our very first event.  She is
a total inspiration- mother of 3, part-time teacher, and the most kind soul ever. Stephanie is our expert at training new servers, customer relations, and has also spent many a Friday night baking with us for the Farmers' Market. Steph has  incredible stamina, and rescues our sanity regularly. Her friendship, advice and jokes have been invaluable.