Surrey, B.C. concrete contractor David Jorge tasted sweet victory this month. After battling 15 chefs from across the country for seven weeks, he took home $100,000 and the top spot on the reality cooking show MasterChef Canada.
Many of the ingredients to his success came from experiences working on construction projects.
Jorge’s father started a concrete contracting company in the 1970s after immigrating to Canada from Portugal.
Seeing his father’s success, Jorge decided to take a similar path.
At 17, he began working full time at Avante Concrete and about eight years ago he started running its operations.
Currently, he and his brother, Kevin, have been in the process of purchasing the company from their retired father.
The full-service concrete company specializes in higher end finishes like driveways, sidewalks, retaining walls and steps, with the majority of work being replacing older concrete on residential projects.
"My lifetime doing construction and concrete construction gave me all the advantage," Jorge said.
"Deadlines, pressure, long hours – that was all very real and very familiar to me. Concrete being a very perishable product that you literally sometimes have minutes to work with, and it always changes, I was used to all that."
Jorge also credited his brother and the Avante team that he left while shooting the show for keeping the company’s wheels turning.
"Part of any organization – you are really only as good as your team," he said.
Jorge said one of his major culinary influences was his mother, who cooked traditional Portuguese food for him growing up.
"After getting married, those meals disappeared so I had to figure things out quick," he said.
He and his wife developed a keen interest in cuisine and dining out, planning their vacations to hit destination restaurants. One of Jorge’s favorites is Au Pied de Cochon in Montreal, which he said had a big influence on his cooking.
He also said he uses cooking as a way to de-stress after work and to entertain family and friends on the weekends.
Jorge said he and his wife had always been interested in starting their own restaurant, something he hoped getting on the show would help. Now, he is in the early stages of finding investors for one in his hometown of Surrey, B.C.
"We have a lot of amazing (restaurants) in the valley, but the majority are chains that are cookie cutters of each other," he said.
While he doesn’t plan to serve a particular kind of food, he intends to create an atmosphere that brings people together.
"I serve and I cook the food I like to eat, so I love getting people together and being communal about it, and making an event of it," he said.
"I’m proud to be from Surrey, I am proud to be a contractor and I was happy to represent not only myself and my team, but also the community."
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