Don’t expect Mark Picone to dish on what he has cooking for Feb. 7.

On that evening, this chef professor and a team of culinary students will be the focus as part of the Canadian Food and Wine Institute’s Chef Signature Series. Picone’s dinner will be the first of six events planned between February and April 2013, designed to showcase the talents of different chef professors at the CFWI.

For guests, it will be an opportunity to experience the masterful culinary talents of chef Mark Picone, former executive chef of Vineland Estates, who is currently so sought-after that reservations at his small studio restaurant in Vineland – the Mark Picone Culinary Studio – are taken by referral only.   

Picone has embraced the event as an opportunity to work with the next generation – his students. He has hand-picked a team of second-year students to participate in the planning and preparation of the menu. The four-course meal will be paired with local Niagara wines – a sparkling, a Niagara College wine and two that are produced from fruits grown on his own Vineland property including an award-winning Charles Baker Riesling and a Cabernet Franc produced at Ravine Vineyards.

While the menu will remain a secret until the evening of the event, he does say that his intention is to highlight his students, as well as the beauty and abundance that exists in Niagara. He views the Chef Signature Series as a small snapshot of what has come to be synonymous with Chef Mark Picone and his food.

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Picone developed an appreciation of food early in life – a fact that he attributes to his family’s Italian heritage as well as his family’s business: Picone’s Fine Foods which has thrived for three generations and almost 100 years in his hometown of Dundas, Ontario.

He was not always on the culinary track, however. In his youth, Picone originally aspired to become a medical doctor. While he jokes that his crisp white chef attire is the closest he’ll ever become to being a doctor, he does draw parallels between the cooking he does today and the practice of medicine.

“I may not be doing a suture or a heart transplant but I’m masterfully handling fruits and vegetables that will provide that nourishment to a guest that appreciates quality,” he says. “I have a responsibility as a chef to prepare food in a healthy and safe way.”

Picone didn’t consider becoming a chef until he was already studying for his undergraduate degree in Commerce. He had been taking on various cooking jobs to help fund his education, when it struck him that he should pursue it full force.

“I realized that cooking wasn’t really work for me,” he says. “It was so much fulfillment, so much joy that I was asking myself, ‘why am I not doing this?”

Picone trained in several restaurants across Ontario before working abroad in France (Trianon Palace in Versailles, Parraudin in Biarriz, Chef Chamille in Burgandy) and Italy (Antica Dolceria Bonajuto in Modica, Ristorante Tivoli in Cortina, Ristorante Arnolfo in Colle di Val d’Elsa) for six years.

He returned to Canada in 1996 when John Howard recruited him to head his new venture at Vineland Estates. There, Picone became a pioneer of culinary excellence in Niagara. He was the executive chef at Vineland Estates restaurant for 10 years. While there, he worked closely with Niagara College.

“My best employees always came from Niagara College,” he says.

By the time he joined NC staff as chef professor in 2005, Picone saw it as a natural fit for him as his career evolved.

“Here, my hallmark is very much the fulfillment of sharing my knowledge and passions with the next generation of future chefs,” he says. “Teaching provides me with a creative outlet to instruct, to foster to mentor; while, at the same time, sharing the excellence and passion of quality food.”

Picone secured his Certified Chef de Cuisine designation in 1999 and has received many awards and honours. He has multiple AAA/CAA four-diamond awards, a Fellowship in the Hostelry Institute and DiRoNa recognition. In 2001, he was appointed to the Order of Professional Italian Restaurateurs, a rare distinction outside of Europe, for bringing Italian culinary standard to a new level.

Picone takes tremendous pride in quality. He works closely with local suppliers and growers who can provide only the freshest premium ingredients.

“I refer to it as a triangle – the grower, the chef and the guests. The guests know me as a conduit to the grower based on what I use,” he says. “It really is a thrill because the guest becomes a much more educated consumer to appreciate or discern where there’s quality food and, when you pair that with quality wine, that’s the ultimate in guest services.”

The ultimate in guest services is what his 10-acre farm nestled into the Niagara escarpment is all about. Picone often passed by the Vineland property while commuting from Dundas to Vineland estates, and purchased it immediately when it became available. As a steward of the land and vineyards, he takes pride in the quality of fruit produced there. In fact, both wines he has carefully selected to serve at the Chef Signature Series – the Charles Baker Riesling and Cabernet Sauvignon from Ravine – have recently won the Lieutenant Governor’s Awards.

“That is a great testament to what I’m doing in the vineyard and brings credibility to the excellence that I’m fostering in the vineyard and here at the College,” says Picone.

So what is a chef doing growing grapes? The question Picone feels more fitting is, why not – especially those in Niagara. He points out those who visit Niagara seek a food and wine experience are similar to those who visit regions like Bordeaux, Tuscany or Napa California.  It’s precisely that food and wine experience that he offers on his farm where guests enjoy a single table dining interactive experience, custom created by Picone.

And that’s what he will also offer through the Chef Signature Series.

“Food is about sharing, people gathering. Food is really a metaphor that brings people together to sit down, talk and exchange ideas, and that’s what we love,” he says. ”When it all comes together it’s about creating a memory that people will have an opportunity to experience and talk about.”

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Following the Feb. 7 event with Mark Picone, the CFWI’s Chef Signature series will continue in March with Olaf Mertens (March 6) and Osvaldo Avila (March 22). April events will feature Tony de Luca (Apr. 4) and Avi Hollo (April 25). The series will conclude on May 9 with Michael Olson.

For more information on the Chef Signature Series click here.