When both of your parents are chefs, you’re pretty much destined to become one.
That’s the story of Keith Pears at EBO Restaurant and Lounge inside the Delta Burnaby Hotel. The 30-something head chef has spent about half of his life in a kitchen and grew up tasting an extensive variety of dishes, thanks to his Chinese mom and French dad.
“Both my parents, they worked together a lot at different restaurants,” said Pears. “Me and my sister, we were going wherever their jobs took them, so we were always changing schools. They would work in White Rock, downtown, on the island, but always in B.C.”
Pears got his start as a dishwasher, working for his dad at an Italian restaurant, but at the time, he wasn’t that interested in the restaurant industry.
“When I was a teenager, it wasn’t what I wanted to do,” he said. “I started doing dishes and minor prep work just through high school.”
He may not have cared much for the restaurant industry at first, but it didn’t take long for him to find his passion for cooking. He got out of the dishpit and went to culinary school at 19 before returning and becoming a line cook at his parents’ restaurants.
“The art of it really is what stood out to me,” said Pears, who considers the presentation of a dish to be just as important as the preparation.
“It’s also instant satisfaction, being able to create a meal for someone and making them feel like they’re really taken care of.”
So, after years of working with his mom and dad, what drew Pears to EBO?
“I needed to separate myself from my parents – I was working for them up until this job at Delta Burnaby,” he said. “I just figured it was time for me to venture off and try something new.
“I’ve never worked in a hotel, this is my first hotel.”
Pears joined EBO about six months after the hotel’s 2008 renovations and became an integral part of the kitchen staff, according to director of sales and marketing Sebastien Theriault.
“He’s been in the business so many years now,” said Theriault, who has been with the hotel for two and a half years, “and he gets a lot of inspiration from different types of food.”
Pears’ flair for putting a modern twist on classic dishes was a perfect fit for EBO’s casual fine dining atmosphere.
“The perception of fine dining is (an emphasis on) presentation, really small portions and expensive,” said Theriault. “We’re still there with the presentation, but the quantity is more and it’s also affordable.”
The menu at the 150-seat EBO offers everything from homemade pastas to exquisite charcuterie boards to slow-cooked, braised meats and stews – a testament to Pears’ broad cooking knowledge.
“People always ask me, ‘What’s your signature dish?’ And I always tell them, ‘I don’t have one,’” said Pears. “That would be putting myself into one thing.
“I like all foods, so it’s so hard for me to narrow down to one. I like to be well-rounded and versatile with all ethnicities of food.”
His ability to cook every type of cuisine on Earth paid off: A few months ago, Pears was selected for the position of head chef at EBO, after acclaimed chef Daniel Craig was promoted to executive chef at the new Delta Toronto Hotel.
“It was important for (Craig) to work with our general manager to find the next head chef, and Keith has a lot of the attributes that correspond to our previous chef, but a different style,” said Theriault.
“It feels great,” added Pears. “I feel like it suits me. It’s what I’ve been wanting for a long time. But I’m pretty humble – I’m not like, ‘OK, I got the position now, it’s time for me to take over the world.’”
“My job’s to fill this room. I just want to make sure we have a consistent products, that my team is happy and that my guests are happy.”
EBO is located at 4331 Dominion St.
