Roger Mooking has an insatiable passion for food, travel, and music, even more so when all three are combined.
Celebrity Chef, and JUNO award winning artists Roger Mooking has earned an international reputation as one of North America’s premier Chefs by developing a culinary philosophy built on execution of globally inspired culinary dishes. The Trinidadian-born, Canadian-raised Chef, is no stranger to combing various cultural influences to new and exciting adventures. While Chef Mooking’s earliest culinary influences are his family’s Chinese and Caribbean specialties, he has also trained under Japanese, French, and Swiss German chefs over his 20-year culinary career.
Roger’s prolific television career includes the internationally broadcasted television series Everyday Exotic. His award-winning cookbook, based on the show, explores pairing ingredients from all corners of the globe with everyday meals. He is the host of food travel shows Heat Seekers and Man Fire Food. Most recently, Roger has taken a seat at the judges table on hit television show Chopped Canada airing on Food Network Canada. His culinary talents have led to appearances throughout Asia, North America, the Caribbean & Latin America and include features on The Today Show, Good Morning America, Top Chef Canada, Iron Chef and Chopped America as a guest judge as well as winning the special All-Star Chopped celebrity chef episode.
Taking his talents outside of the kitchen, this JUNO award-winning recording artist began his entertainment career in the studio as much as in the kitchen. According to Roger, when he was first starting out as a young chef in Alberta, he would take his pay cheque from working in the kitchen all day and head to the studio to record all night. The hard work paid off when his group Bass is Base, a Toronto acid jazz and hip hop trio, won a ’94 JUNO and exploded on the music scene with hit songs Cry & Funkmobile.
Today, you’re as likely to find Mooking at his restaurant “Twist by Roger Mooking”, travelling around the globe searching for new inspirations or making beats in the studio for his next album. For Roger, “Food feeds the body, and music feeds the soul”.