10/01/2026
There’s something pretty special about getting this many chefs together around one fire. 🔥
This September, Chef Rod Butters joined an incredible group of culinary talent at CooksCamp - a gathering built around good food, collaboration, sharing knowledge and the kind of camaraderie that happens when chefs get out of their kitchens and cook together.
Rod had the honour of leading the team for the World’s Largest Family Meal, including the rather impressive task of cooking 12 whole turkeys over open charcoal. And, in true Cooks Camp fashion, everyone jumped in wherever they were needed including Top Chef Canada winner Coulson Armstrong, who found himself cracking crab.
For Rod, it was also a chance to cook alongside some familiar faces and longtime friends from a career spanning decades, including the legendary Chef Bruno Marti.
His friend and fellow NAIT Chef in Residence Blair Lebsack came from Edmonton. Michael Viloria, now Corporate Chef for GFS, and Rod go all the way back to 1993, when they worked together at the Shangri-La Pacific Palisades. And Calgary’s talented Duncan Ly first crossed paths with Rod during his early days as a dishwasher and apprentice at the Wickaninnish Inn.
Old friends. New connections. A whole lot of fire. And one very big family meal.
That’s the magic of CooksCamp, bringing Canada’s culinary community together to cook, learn, share and reconnect.
We’re proud that our Chef Butters was right in the middle of it. ❤️🔥