Melissa Hryb

When it comes to cooking, Melissa Hryb is a professional. Such a professional that even the third-degree burn she received when an oven door snapped shut on her arm during a culinary competition didn’t stop her from competing.

“I rolled my sleeve down and finished the competition while the skin was hanging off my arm. And then immediately went to the hospital,” Hryb remembers, with a laugh. “I would have won, but they took points off for safety.”

All in a day’s work for Hryb, a 24-year-old sous chef at a Winnipeg catering company who is also a member of the Canada Pavilion’s culinary program at Expo 2010 in Shanghai.

Like other colleagues on the Canadian culinary team, Hryb (pronounced HrIB) is an experienced competitor in cooking competitions. They have taken her as far afield as Chile, where she attended a world chef’s convention in January as a prize for winning an earlier competition.

Hryb is accustomed to whipping up three or four-course meals with prescribed ingredients, such as the scallop-wrapped salmon, crepe- and cranberry-wrapped pork loin, and trio of lemon tart, strawberry parfait and chocolate paté that she created during one provincial competition, all while on public display.

“It’s nerve-wracking, but you get over it, after a while,” says Hryb.

Her love of cooking began when she was 14, working at a small family pizza and burger joint in her hometown of Niverville, Man., just south of Winnipeg. At first, Hryb hated the job – but one morning, she woke up and told her mother she wanted to be a chef. She had realized that “people always need to eat. I will never be out of a job!”

After obtaining her culinary arts diploma from Red River College, Hryb completed an apprenticeship and is now a certified Red Seal chef. Her personal specialties include perogies – a specialty of her Ukrainian background – and crème brulée.

Today, her dream is to own her own small family restaurant – just like the place where she started out.

“To be happy with what I’m doing is my dream. Making good food for people,” Hryb adds.

She’s excited about representing her country as part of the culinary team at the Canada Pavilion, and hopes to get the opportunity to cook with some of the fish popular in Manitoba, like pickerel or Arctic char.

“I’m really looking forward to seeing everybody’s ideas come together, featuring Canadian cuisine,” says Hryb.