oliver truesdale-jutras (canadian) and phoebe oviedo (phillipino) met at the legendary domus restaurant in ottawa, canada and have been living their self-made culinary adventure ever since.

as devotees of local and seasonal produce as well as recognising the importance of building relationships within the community, they’ve clocked up innumerable hours at some of canada’s top restaurants as well as places like benu, the famous korean-modern american in san francisco, and rockpool in sydney.

“it was when i bought thomas keller’s french laundry cookbook that i knew i wanted to cook for a living,” oliver explains, ‘i understood that cuisine could be used as a tool to touch other people and express yourself at a level that’s almost poetic.”

phoebe grew up with a mother and aunts who were already adept at harnessing their culinary history in order to turn out ‘epic’ meals. “i remember tamarind trees, pomegranate, star fruit, mango and guava growing in our backyard,” she says, “and for me cooking became about communicating warmth and comfort, excitement, education and enticement.”

having worked with analiese gregory during her residency in october 2014 the pair are back and looking forward to “evolving dishes in a way that is both respectful and forward-thinking of the culinary culture here,” they say, “we felt we had barely scraped the surface before and with so many ideas still floating around our heads we couldn’t resist coming back to execute them.”