Marc Rollier

What is your signature dish?

My signature isn't one dish, it's how I cook. Cooking across continents taught me flavor doesn't care about borders, and neither do the people who sit down to eat. At The 'Wich Doc, that looks like Southern hot honey fried chicken on Japanese mochi waffles, or a local smoked BC sockeye melt, with caramelized onion jam on a loaf I baked that morning. Different roots, same table. That's the signature, pulling flavors from everywhere I've been and making them feel like home on the plate.

Who is your culinary inspiration?

It started with my Oma. I was a kid in her kitchen, marveling at what she could pull out of thin air. Later it was my other grandma, teaching me a different way. By high school I was driving my parents crazy, coming home hungry, stinking up the kitchen with bowls of tuna and hot sauce, chasing whatever flavor was in my head. From humble beginnings, my craft has honed into something I didn't have words for back then. Cooking is how I love people. That's where it started. That's why I still cook.

What would you do with the $25,000?

'Wich Doc Bake Shop is my pet project in Parksville, BC. A small operation built from scratch with a lot of heart and not a lot of cushion. $25,000 would go straight into the business. Better equipment, ingredient sourcing, the room to grow it into what I know it can be. Every dollar earned here goes back into the shop, the community, and the people who keep showing up. This prize wouldn't change the vision. It would accelerate it.