I’m Dining Out Here
by Andrew Sprague

John Pritchard at Dayboat.

Prince Edward Island is the best place in the world to come home to, and thousands do it every summer.

For two Island chefs, this summer marks a return to the flavours upon which they honed their craft. For one, the Island will provide a place to raise a family, and to re-explore the flavours he’s raved about for the last decade in other places. For the other the Island has already provided a place to heal, and it will soon make for a fine retirement.

In 1996 John Pritchard was head chef at The Island Rock Café in Charlottetown, but he was looking for something more. He wanted to work with chefs from other backgrounds, with different cooking styles.

“I decided to leave the Island and I headed to Bermuda,” says Pritchard, the new Executive Chef at Dayboat. “I worked at a number of restaurants, over a number of years, in a variety of styles, and it really gave me a taste of what I was looking for, which at the time was new experiences and new flavours.”

Through good luck and good timing Pritchard received what many chefs would consider a once in a lifetime opportunity, his own cooking show.

“I knew some people with a production company, and they got a call looking for a chef who would be fitting for a show aimed at a young demographic,” Pritchard tells me. “They thought I’d be a good fit and before I knew it, we’d done 130 episodes of Red Hot and Ready for Global in Toronto.”

In 2002 Pritchard returned to the Carribean for a few more years. He worked at a number of restaurants and did some consulting as well. He won several awards for his work. This year he decided to return to PEI to raise his family, but the chef in him is looking forward to something more.

“Dayboat has always been focussed on delivering the freshest, locally-sourced food possible, and that's something I can relate to,” says Pritchard. “I'm looking forward to re-imagining the dishes that make this place famous, and at  the same time trying to incorporate new flavours that have found a home here.”

Larry Wilson in the new patio at Fitz Café.

For Larry Wilson, chef at Charlottetown’s The Fitz Café on University Avenue, the return to the Island was a way to heal after two surgeries last year. But it has since provided an opportunity to retire doing what he loves.

Wilson says he’s worked at so many restaurants on PEI it’s hard to remember them all. He remebers the Queen Street Café best, probably because he owned it, but he also worked at the Stanhope Beach Lodge, the Island Rock, and the Prince County Hospital, among others over the years.

“In 1998 I moved to Vancouver and started work at a dude ranch,” laughs Wilson. “We used to slaughter our own buffalo and cook it over a fire on a spit. You just don’t get the chance to do that on PEI.”

Over the last ten years Wilson has also manned the line at Rodney’s Oyster House in Vancouver, as well as a trendy organic café, which is quite a switch from fire cooked Buffalo.

“When I had my surgeries I decided to come to the Island to get better,” says Wilson. “I ended up being introduced to the owner of the restaurant in the Islander Motor Lodge and we hit it off. So now I’m the chef.”

Wilson is keeping the menu at the Fitz simple, but he’s moving the focus toward organic and locally-sourced food. “Nothing fancy,” he says. “But delicious all the same.”

Wilson has plans to open a seafood patio this summer. He and the owners of the restaurant also plan to open a bed and breakfast in the near future in Charlottetown, and Wilson hopes it will provide his retirement. “I can’t imagine it turning out better than it has. I’ll even get chance to re-connect with my artistic side and do some painting, sculpting and mosaics.”

John Pritchard and Larry Wilson have come back to the Island. Their reasons for returning are quite different, but one reason they share; PEI has some of the best tasting and freshest local food available anywhere. And for a chef, it makes makes Prince Edward Island a damn good reason to come home.