New Owners for C’est Bon Cooking, Ottawa’s Premier Cooking School and Gourmet Food Tour Company

Ottawa, ON - Founder and Owner of C’est Bon Cooking, Chef Andrée Riffou, will pass the torch of her beloved company to Chef Georges Laurier and his partner, Stefanie Siska, on Feb 15th.

The transition marks the return of Chef Georges, former restauranteur and chef of Laurier sur Montcalm, to the Capital. For the past couple of years, he has been guest chef at C’est Bon Cooking. Upon Chef Andrée’s decision to sell her company which she opened in 2008, it only seemed natural for Chef Georges to step in, given his passion for hands-on teaching of the culinary arts to others:

“I’m as passionate about my craft as I am about sharing what I have learned throughout my career with others. Teaching people about the origins of dishes, showing them a few tricks of the trade, and sprinkling in a few anecdotes along the way really ignite me. Those will be the driving motivators, the leitmotif, of what I bring to C’est Bon Cooking.”

Partner Stefanie Siska is a communications and marketing specialist in Ottawa and joins the project as co-owner and Operations & Marketing Manager.  The draw for Stefanie was to keep the gourmet food tours Chef Andrée had developed alive, and continue to put the National Capital Region on the culinary tourism map:

“The National Capital Region has a very rich culture of food producers, artisans and establishments that go somewhat unnoticed by most locals let alone the out-of-town tourist. Our tours put our food scene on the map.”

C’est Bon Cooking is the only cooking school and guided walking tour company in the area to offer French and English services. The new owners being French Canadian (Georges is a Québécois native of Hull, Stefanie is a Franco-Ontarian from Hearst), it was essential to them that all services cater to both audiences.

“It was important for us to continue to offer classes and tours in both French and English,” says Stefanie. “And we wanted to be able to welcome people from both sides of the river, so the ByWard Market area seemed the perfect place to relocate the business.”

The transition will take place on February 15th. The food tours - 8 in total in 5 different neighbourhoods of Ottawa - will continue as normal as the new owners work on building the cooking school’s kitchen in its new location housed in the ByWard Market. Classes should resume in early April. Registration for both the classes and the food tours can be made via C’est Bon Cooking’s website at www.cestboncooking.ca