If you’ve been following the latest season of Top Chef Canada, then you’ve probably developed a major friend crush on Chef Nicole Gomes, the Calgary-based owner of Nicole Gourmet catering. Our homegirl is proving to be a solid contender, turning out consistent performances week after week. However, it’s her hilarious self-deprecating, foul-mouthed confessionals that make her so endearing. Nicole is serious about cooking without taking herself too seriously.
Case in point: Chef Nicole’s now (in)famous submission to the challenge to create Canada’s National Dish, maple-drizzled meat mouthfuls that she cheekily deemed “Beaver Balls.” Nicole herself could barely say it without cracking up, and the subsequent judges’ tasting was the most entendre-laced discussion of a spherical food heard on TV since Pete Schweddy took to the airwaves on Saturday Night Live.
Now, the same dish that made stoic judge Mark McEwan giggle like a schoolgirl has been immortalized on a t-shirt thanks to Food On Your Shirt, the line of humourous, food-inspired Ts designed by local chef, illustrator, cookbook author and Avenue Magazine contributor Pierre Lamielle. It’s a must have for Nicole fans, Top Chef fans and pretty much anyone else who wishes that food could be funnier now and then.
$25, available via foodonyourshirt.com.