In 1996, when Glen Clancy officially hung up his chef's apron, he never dreamed that Clancys' Restaurant in Lac la Hache, a business he built on good food and creative marketing, would one day be a pile of ashes.
The landmark eatery burned to the ground on April 17, 2011, and although Clancy was no longer the owner, a little piece of him also smouldered away.
Clancy put the family-style restaurant on the epicurean map during his ownership by offering complimentary dessert with a meal, and it wasn't just any dessert. What he offered his customers was their choice from a list of up to 15 gourmet confections that he had in the cooler at any given time.
They included decadent black forest cakes, chocolate mint cakes and B52 cakes that Clancy and his staff made themselves, and for many years, he successfully used them as a drawing card to his restaurant.
"I was the only one in [British Columbia] doing it. This went way past the ice cream and cake level."
Clancy, who is an award-winning pastry chef, made everything himself, but not many people knew about the level of culinary talent he brought to the restaurant.
His passion for the world of cooking started in 1959, when, as a new navy recruit, he requested to be a cook.
As with everything he does, Clancy carried out his job the best way he possibly could and experienced an ever-growing aptitude for baking.
"Bakers were hard to find at that time. After the navy, I did a variety of jobs and was always made the baker."
After owning and operating the Windy Point Lodge, near Mackenzie for six years, Clancy moved to Prince George where he became a cooking instructor at the College of New Caledonia.
Always wanting to be the best teacher he could be, Clancy kept current by taking different courses, including a couple from one of the best pastry chefs in the world, and passed his knowledge on to his students. He also nurtured his growing talent to the point where Clancy felt he could compete among some of the best in the culinary world.
Going into his first competition in 1981, Clancy says he felt quite confident armed with an ornate cake surrounded by chocolate covered pears. He was surprised and disappointed to not even receive an honourable mention, but the letdown served to make him more determined.
For the First National Grand Salon Culinaire in Montreal in 1983, Clancy invested 60 hours in creating a life-size chocolate falcon, with each feather individually carved from a piece of chocolate and attached one by one with melted chocolate. It was only his second attempt at competition and the bird garnered the coveted Courvoisier Trophy, which is above gold and given out only for exceptional work.
At the same competition, he was also a member of the four-man regional team from Prince George that won a bronze medal.
What he considers his greatest accomplishment is a trio of gold medals and an overall gold won at the American Culinary Arts competition in 1984 in Seattle, Wash. His entry included a wedding cake, a white chocolate mousse and the chocolate falcon. The collection won second over-all in the show, missing first place by one point because he used plastic pillars instead of glass for the wedding cake.
In 1987, Clancy was among 1,000 competitors at the World Culinary Arts Festival where he came away with a bronze medal for another chocolate carving - this one, a macaw made from coloured chocolate, using the same techniques as the falcon.
He says there was no fast and easy way of attaining the skills to compete at that level.
"When you see guy make something for a show, they would have done it 50 times already. You read a recipe and if it doesn't work, you tear it apart and do it again and again until you get it right."
Even an icing rose, as simple as it may look, takes time to perfect.
"Picture the flower in your mind, and the trick is to make a million of them. Practice, practice, practice."
With competitive culinary arts, he says bakers start with the basics and work their way up, but at some point, it becomes a science.
Throughout the years, Clancy earned close to 30 culinary arts awards, but one of his most cherished reminders of his life as a competitor is the chocolate falcon, which he keeps preserved in a Plexiglass case.
He considers his baking days to be behind him now, preferring to enjoy his retirement to decorating a fancy cake. He's still pretty handy in the kitchen, though, and prides himself in being able to juggle numerous tasks at once.
"I can do 15 different things in the kitchen at a time, but don't ask me to do it anywhere else."
