It was with typical humility that John-Carlo Felicella, head of Vancouver Community College s culinary arts department, reacted to the honour of being selected by his peers around the country as Canadian Chef of the Year.

 It s nice to get the recognition for all the work you do for the industry but there are a lot of other people who do the same,  he says.  If there were a thousand awards to be given that night, it still would not have been enough.

The night Felicella refers to occurred during the national convention of the Canadian Culinary Federation held in Windsor, Ont., earlier this month.

Jonathan Rouse, dean of VCC s school of hospitality, says he was literally speechless when Felicella was named as Chef of the Year.

 This is such a brilliant achievement for JC,  Rouse says.

 I m just so proud of his being recognized like this, as an industry leader.

The award reminds Felicella of his responsibility to his industry, peers and to VCC, he says.

The Chef of the Year title recognizes outstanding contributions to the CCF.  Felicella was up against the nation s regional finalists, including Allan Williams from PEI, Luc Boissy from Quebec, and Roary Golden from Ontario.

Felicella has had a strong association with the CCF. He held the elected position as manager of Culinary Team Canada from 2005 to 2009, with 15 gold medals and one silver medal during his term. At the 2008 IKA Culinary Olympics, Team Canada placed fifth out of 34 countries under Felicella’s management.

Felicella was also involved in the winning effort put forth by VCC s team of student chefs at the conference. The team won the competition to represent Canada as the CCF Youth Team Canada at the World Culinary Olympics, to be held in Germany in the fall of 2012. In fact, winners in all four CCF award categories are VCC alumni.