‘Do what you love’: N.B. teen soon to compete at national Skills Canada competition

Georgia Eastwood, 17, shows off her Wagyu beef burger, a hit at the restaurant where she’s developed her culinary skills over the last 2.5 years. Now the teen is heading to Toronto in a few weeks, to compete against other young chefs across the country. (Laura Brown/CTV News)

MACTAQUAC, N.B. - Georgia Eastwood tried a lot of different jobs as a young teen: lawn care, dishwashing, and cleaning.

At 15, she found herself applying for a summer job working in the kitchen of Big Axe Alehouse and Grill in Mactaquac, N.B. The teen even worked her way up to sous chef and supervisor.

“Getting into the environment, I immediately liked doing the fast-paced stuff, the prep, the cooking,” she said. “I’ve always liked it. Like I cook at home all the time, and I did when I was younger too, I just, I enjoy it.”

Two years later, Eastwood has earned a spot at the Skills Canada National Competition in Toronto at the end of May, where she’ll compete against top young chefs in their respective provinces, in menu writing, culinary math and cooking

The 17-year-old is juggling practicing for the big event, finishing up high school, and her work at Big Axe. But she says she wouldn’t have it any other way.

Her great-grandmother, grandmother and mother all worked as cooks.

“I think about the ingredients and the process of how I’m going to cook it and meal planning, like, I do a lot of meal planning at my house with my mom,” she said. “I like trying to figure that stuff out and like what you can make with the ingredients you have. It’s really interesting.”

Behind the grill in the Big Axe kitchen, Eastwood carefully pieces together the makings of a Wagyu beef signature burger, topped with house-made sauce. Because of the quality of the beef, she says it only needs a little salt. It’s cooked 80 per cent on one side, then flipped, where cheese and bacon are added.

Eastwood proudly adds the sauce and sliced pickle. “This one is a fan favourite, everybody loves it,” she said.

The restaurant’s executive chef, Jessica Lavigne, who hired Eastwood, said that at the time the teen had expressed a desire to go into law enforcement after graduation.

“I think I knew before she knew that she was meant to be in the kitchen,” she said.

Last year, the restaurant participated in Fredericton’s annual “Dine around Freddy,” event, where restaurants create dishes for patrons to try in the dead of winter – when people aren’t always going to restaurants.

Lavigne says she tasked Eastwood to create a dish on her own.

“Wouldn’t you know it; it was the top selling one. She outshined me by far. And when Georgia got her first customer feedback on her dish, just the look on her face when she first heard her first feedback on her own dish, you could tell right away that, like, this is probably what she is going to do forever,” she said.

Eastwood has been accepted at Holland College’s culinary program for the fall. After graduating, she hopes to be back in the Big Axe kitchen.

Her advice to other teens trying to decide what they want to do with the rest of their life:

“Try as much as you can to really figure it out. Just try a bunch of different things,” she said. “Find a job where you can do the thing you like, because, I got advice from my grandfather, ‘if you love your job, you’ll never work a day in your life,’ which I’m sure everybody’s heard…So, find that job, do what you love. That’s what I’m doing.”