As an executive chef at the Union Club of British Columbia, Nicolas Hipperson is passionate about creating delectable dishes.
That is why the Union Club joined Hungry Hearts in 2019.
“When I found out it was with Our Place Society,” says Hipperson. “And it was to help out a great cause here in Victoria. I think we all kind of jumped at the opportunity to be part of the competition.”
The “competition” is a friendly one between a number of the top chefs in Victoria. Hungry Hearts is a fundraiser for Our Place Society, Victoria’s downtown street shelter.
Steven Seltzer from Our Place says that “Hungry Hearts started as a soup and sandwich event seven years ago, and the event has grown each year.”
In fact, this year, there are eight chefs competing.
“Which is the most we’ve ever had,” says Seltzer.
“They’re basically contacting us and saying, ‘we really want to make something special, and we really want to support you’ So the food will be incredible, and the whole evening will be great.”
“Being a non-profit society, we’re run on donations, so all these [fundraisers] are really important to us,” says Brian Cox, Food Service Manager at Our Place.
“It helps us run and function every day, in everything we do.”
The theme for this year’s Hungry Hearts event is “everything local.”
“This year we really wanted to profile local food, local distributors, local suppliers, and local dishes.,” says Seltzer There’s incredible food on Vancouver Island, and our chefs are going to spotlight that this year.”
Veronica Cooper
