Georgian College

Wanting to turn his wildly successful pop-up eatery into a restaurant, Dave Mottershall took to Kickstarter and exceeded his $25,000 goal within a week. He offered fans of his Canadian ingredient cooking style special rewards for their investments: Opening week reservations, tasting menus, cookbooks and more. Known as @Chef_Rouge on social media, Dave has been building his culinary reputation for almost 20 years and credits his Georgian instructors Becky Knight and Chris MacLean with giving him real world perspective. He has served as senior chef at Fairmont Banff Springs, competed on Chopped Canada on the Food Network and opened his own restaurant, Terre Rouge, in Charlottetown. "I made the closest connection I've ever had to food and ingredients," he says of his time in Prince Edward Island. When the Port Elgin native returned to Ontario, he searched for that same connection but couldn't find a kitchen that shared his values for locally sourced, raised and produced food. So he started Loka Snacks as a pop-up eatery in the back of Hi-Lo bar in Toronto. Loka – which stands for crazy, local – has been featured in Toronto Life, and Huffington Post named Dave one of 20 Canadian chefs to follow on Instagram. Using his Kickstarter funds, Dave opened a 32-seat restaurant on Queen St. W. in Toronto in November. He hopes to grow it into one of Canada's top 10 restaurants. "We want people to feel the connection to everything we serve, the farmers, producers and amazing artisans in Canada," says Dave. Follow Dave on Instagram and Twitter (@Chef_Rouge) or Facebook (/LokaSnacks). DAVE MOTTERSHALL Cook Apprenticeship program, 2001 Chef and owner of Loka Try making one of Dave's signature Loka snacks, crispy braised pig head, pickled grapes and sauce gribiche. Find the recipe at GeorgianCollege.ca/ georgianview EXCLUSIVE ONLINE CONTENT AVAILABLE 17 GEORGIANVIEW 2015 CRoWDFUNDING CRoWD-PLEASING IDEAS

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