Inuk chef launches catering business in Ottawa

Sierra Conboy, an Inuk junior chef instructor at Ottawa cooking school C’est Bon, listens to the music of Nunavik singer Elisapie as she prepares for her morning classes.

On the stove, she simmers corn on the cob in Paurngaqutik, or crowberry tea — an experiment the 21-year-old apprentice tries, blending a staple of First Nations cuisine with Inuit flavours.

An Indigenous twist on a family recipe, Sierra Conboy’s maple sugar cookies, created with Chef Georges Laurier, are topped with Nunavik’s unofficial cultural flag design. (Photo by Nehaa Bimal)

After four years in the culinary industry, Conboy, who is Inuk, Irish and French Canadian, is launching her own business, Tuktu Catering.

At the same time, she’s teaching full-time and beginning studies in Algonquin College’s culinary program this year.

Conboy, who grew up in Ottawa, is Inuk on her mother Mika Conboy’s side, she said. Her mother was adopted from Kuujjuaq and raised in Ottawa by Brenda Conboy, who was Tungasuvvingat Inuit’s first executive director.

“I always grew up with my traditional country food such as my iqaluk or frozen Arctic char, my tuktu or caribou, and maktaaq or whale skin,” she said in an interview.

Her favourite is tuktu — which is also her Inuk name, and the inspiration for her business name.

Sierra Conboy slices salmon for sashimi in the C’est Bon Ottawa kitchen. (Photo by Nehaa Bimal)

Conboy began cooking when she was about 10, pan-frying Arctic char and serving it with homemade pasta.

“I was inspired to do a lot of cooking with my granny, who wanted us to be proud of our culture,” she said. “She loved when I started experimenting with food and joined cooking clubs throughout elementary school and high school.”

One of Conboy’s mentors is award-winning Inuk chef Trudy Metcalfe-Coe. They met at a parka-making class and Metcalfe-Coe invited her to volunteer to cook at Mādahòkì Farm, an agricultural farm in Ottawa showcasing Algonquin traditions, when she was 16.

That’s where she was introduced to First Nations cuisine.

Metcalfe-Coe encouraged her to pursue formal culinary training after high school, such as Mādahòkì Farm’s two-month Indigenous Foodways training program.

Conboy then worked at the Inuuqatigiit Centre for Inuit Children, Youth and Families as a youth program cook, the same centre she attended as a child and first learned how to use an ulu.

After two years there, Conboy joined C’est Bon Ottawa last May, mentored by co-owner chef Georges Laurier. She shadowed cooks, learned recipes, and eventually became a junior instructor teaching young chefs.

Last year, back from a month-long trip to the North, Conboy said family friend Beverly Illauq — a founding co-ordinator of Ottawa’s Isaruit Inuit Arts — learned she’d been doing small catering gigs and asked for the name of her business.

That’s when Conboy decided on Tuktu Catering.

She plans to run most catering work herself, depending on the size of the event, and prepare food in the C’est Bon Ottawa kitchen. She’ll adapt her offerings based on clients’ budgets and tastes.

“I don’t want to isolate myself and I want to cook for everyone,” she said. “As Inuit, we want to feed and take care of everyone and have that community feel.”

Conboy was also inspired by another young Inuk chef, Joshua Qiyuk, an Algonquin College student who worked part-time at C’est Bon Ottawa.

Qiyuk died last October after an apparent stabbing. The Ottawa Police Service is investigating it as a homicide.

Conboy and Qiyuk were the same age and occasionally worked together in the kitchen as they were both mentored by Metcalfe-Coe and Laurier.

“He was such a lovely, caring person to work with and always came in with a big smile. A happy presence of energy,” she said.

Conboy was devastated by his death. She had planned to ask him about working together.

“I want to always think of the things that we could have done as catering partners,” she said. “I’m always thinking about how I can inspire, encourage and be the fire that an apprentice would need, because that’s the energy Josh and I got.”

When her website is ready in a few months, Conboy will host a launch party in Ottawa.

“I’m hoping to educate people on Inuit culture and have more Inuit cuisine cooking classes throughout the year [at C’est Bon],” she said.