Valerie Soon, a Red Seal Certified and award-winning chef, master baker, foodie and true Renaissance woman loved feeding people. She was perpetually fascinated with culinary technique, recipe development, hospitality, food management, sports nutrition, new food trends and food’s cultural place in society. During her decade long stint as Chef de Partie, the Vancouver Trade and Convention Centre was voted best in the world. She loved creating dishes for avant garde multi-media events that included theatre, dance, music and food. At home, she made muffins and soups for neighbours and delivered weekly meals to her widowed father.

Valerie’s career included many notable Vancouver and Montreal restaurants and hotels. Her proudest moment was welcoming over a thousand stranded airline passengers to the Delta Hotel in Richmond during the 9/11 shutdown of Vancouver International Airport. Conservatively, she prepared one million meals over her forty year career.

In 2008, her focus changed to food and nutrition management for seniors in care. She was a passionate advocate for fresh foods and palate-pleasing ethnic dishes to serve the myriad cultural backgrounds found in local senior residences. She volunteered at the BC Seniors Advocate office and interviewed hundreds of seniors to better understand their needs.

She leaves a vast collection of cookbooks, many friends across the country and her best friend and husband, Brian, who wishes to honour her legacy request of creating a culinary scholarship for young, under-privileged women who are passionate about cooking.