2025 Chefs Gallery
About the Competitors
Chef Madison Huseby
Cookie Creation: To Be Announced Soon!
Hello, I am Chef Madison Huseby. I’m a local farm girl born and raised on a mixed grain farm just outside Camrose Alberta. Starting from a young age having a passion and love for culinary and baking. With a love of supporting farm to table. I continued my career spending 4 years at SAIT, completing the Professional Cooking and Baking & Pastry Arts programs, graduating at the top of my class, and completing my journeyman’s ticket. Through my time at SAIT, I competed at Skills Canada, placing silver at provincials. After spending time working at Mission Hill Winery and the Guild, I returned home to my roots in Camrose. In 2022, with my family's help, my dream was born with the opening of Strada Coffee Company & Artisan Bakery, located just off historic Main Street in downtown Camrose. Strada strives to create a welcoming atmosphere where customers can come enjoy a coffee and pasty or grab a lovely lunch. With a focus on supporting local. Instagram: @stradacoffeecompany Facebook: Strada Coffee Company & Bakery
Chef Erica Box & Chef Lyndsey Burgess
Cookie Creation: Tiny Hamburgers — French Macaron that resembles a tiny hamburger. Almond Macaron shell, chocolate ganache, raspberry Swiss meringue buttercream, marshmallow fondant, flaked coconut.
Ingredients: Almond flour, egg white, sugar, icing sugar, food colouring, chocolate, whipping cream, butter, raspberry puree, coconut, and marshmallow.
Lyndsey and Erica are professional bakers who met years ago while working together as pastry instructors. This year, they are excited to return to the Highlands cookie competition as the "Sugar Mamas", great friends and proud moms of Highlands students.
Kathy Leskow
Cookie Creation: The Nutty Professor — White and milk chocolate cookie with cinnamon and the crunch of candied pecans! We dare you to only have one!
Ingredients: Butter, brown sugar, white sugar, eggs, vanilla, baking soda, flour, baking powder, cinnamon, salt, white chocolate, milk chocolate, and candied pecans.
Kathy Leskow, CEO (Cookie Eating Officer). Kathy was a stay at home who loved to bake cookies. She decided to share her delicious cookies at local farmers markets, and before you know it, she opened a retail space. After 11 years, Confetti Sweets is a thriving bakeshop selling cookies, cupcakes, cakes, and squares, and the shop also features many local vendors, from jewelry to perogies to ice cream! Follow on Instagram @confettisweets and Facebook Confetti Sweets
Chef Tyson Wright
Cookie Creation: To Be Announced Soon!
Meet Chef Tyson Wright, of Camrose Alberta, the resident chef at The Old Red Barn. Tyson has been working in the food and beverage industry for 23 years! He has traveled Canada, whilst working under and alongside some of the most talented and influential chefs that this country has to offer. Chef Tyson completed and graduated his trade from N.A.I.T. in 2015, at the top of his class, obtaining both his Journeymen ticket and Canadian Red Seal. Tyson’s approach to cooking, is both simple and sophisticated, focusing on a Prairie to Plate concept, offering the most local and fresh ingredients on his menus, while supporting local farmers and agriculture. Chef Tyson believes that the best quality and most valuable foods are grown as close to home as possible; our prairies have so much to offer, and often get over looked. Throughout the years, Tyson has competed in various competitions around Canada, including Food Network Canada’s “Firemasters”, Alberta’s Taste of the Heartland “Signature Chef”, and a handful of black box challenges and cookoffs. Follow on Instagram @oldredbarnleduc and Facebook The Old Red Barn
Chef Michelle Huynh
Cookie Creation: Neapolitan Cookie — A twist on the ice cream classic, with flavours of chocolate, strawberry and vanilla.
Ingredients: All purpose flour, eggs, white chocolate, vanilla extract, Ovaltine powder, brown sugar, white sugar, condensed milk, strawberries, corn syrup, butter, cocoa powder, milk powder, milk/dark chocolate, cocoa nibs, baking soda, and salt.
Hi! I’m NAIT Culinary Arts’ 2025’s Cookie Monster and I’m in my last semester of the Culinary Arts program. I enjoy developing new cookies, and I’m working towards my goal of becoming a well rounded chef in savoury food and pastry. In September I’ll be joining the Baking and Pastry Arts program at NAIT. I post a lot about my culinary and baking journey on my Instagram: @miimiiroh. Please follow me if you’d like to see my adventures!
Chef Shane Chartrand
Cookie Creation: “Hascap Cookie & Fun-Dip”
Ingredients: Flour, eggs, sugar, hascap berries, chocolate chips, vanilla, nutmeg, baking powder, and sugar sprinkles.
Renowned Indigenous Chef Shane Chartrand of the Maskêkosak people from Enoch Cree Nation grew up learning the importance and value of food through hunting, fishing, and foraging with his father. In grade 9, he started out as a dishwasher at a diner and eventually worked his way onto the line as a cook. At 19, he moved to Edmonton to pursue culinary training through the Culinary Arts program at NAIT and became a Red Seal-certified chef. After graduation, Shane travelled all over Canada and the U.S. working with award-winning chefs and training in some of the best restaurants nationwide to hone his craft and deepen his Indigenous knowledge. Find Chef Shane serving up delicious Indigenous culinary experiences at Paperbirch by Chartrand, located in the Old Strathcona Farmers’ Market. His extensive Edmonton career history includes Vons Steak House & Oyster Bar, SC Damn Good Food, Sage, Murrieta’s West Coast Bar & Grill, L1/L2, Fairmont Hotel Macdonald, Sutton Place Hotel, and Union Bank Inn.
In October 2024, Shane represented Western Canada competing in season 11 of Top Chef Canada. Other competitive cooking and TV shows include Chopped Canada, Iron Chef Canada, Fridge Wars, Moose Meat and Marmalade, The Social, and Wall of Chefs. Notable awards include the Gold Medal Plates competition- 1 Gold (2017), 2 Bronze/ 1 Silver; CCFCC Chef of the Year Competition- Gold Medal, Provincials; Chaine Des Rotisseurs - Plate of the Year Award; Foodie Under 40- Finalist; NAIT Alumni Hall of Fame Award- Finalist; Alberta Aboriginal Role Models Award- Culinary Arts. In 2019, Shane released his first cookbook, tawâw: Progressive Indigenous Cuisine, which he co-wrote with Jennifer Cockrall-King. Currently, he is writing a book called MARROW – Progressive Indigenous Cuisine. In addition to supporting our past and present culinary arts cook-off fundraisers, Shane’s an advocate for such charities as the Canadian National Institute for the Blind, Kids with Cancer, and the Make-A-Wish Foundation. Follow on Instagram @shanemchartrand and Facebook Shane M Chartrand
Chef Mary Eun
Cookie Creation: To Be Announced Soon!
Mary Eun is an accomplished baker who has been honing her craft since the age of 7. Her passion for baking was further ignited at the age of 10, inspired by her best-neighborhood friend, Mary Charlotte Wilcox - a 60+-year-old actress and grandmother. Through their time spent baking and cooking together, Mary Eun learned the value of kindness and love, which continue to guide her work today.
Mary pursued formal training in the culinary arts at the award-winning Pacific Institute of Culinary Arts in Vancouver, specializing in Advanced Pastry Arts. Her skills and dedication led to her recruitment by Dorchester Collection, a prestigious hotel group that sought to hire five chefs from across Canada. At 19 years old, Mary Eun was fortunate to be selected, and she began her professional career as a pastry chef at The Dorchester Hotel in London, a renowned 5-star establishment, making her the youngest chef on the team.
Currently, Mary Eun serves as the Academy Manager/Director at Little Kitchen Academy, a children’s cooking academy where she continues to foster her passion for culinary education. She will be representing Little Kitchen Academy in this event. The academy’s Instagram can be found at @lkaedmontonellerslie, and it is also active on Facebook as Little Kitchen Academy Edmonton Ellerslie. Mary’s personal baking journey can be followed on her Instagram account, @merryyyang
Nasrine Montasami
Cookie Creation: Chocolate Chip Banana — Craving banana bread & chocolate chip cookies at the same time? Why not have both in one with these delicious cookies!
Ingredients: Fresh bananas, unsalted butter, brown sugar, eggs, granulated sugar, vanilla extract, unbleached all-purpose flour, cornstarch, baking powder, baking soda, salt, ground cinnamon, and chocolate chips.
I am a single mother aspiring to one day open my own bakery and hope to show what I can bring to our community! Follow Nasrine's cookie trail @thesugarcottageyeg
Theresa Yaremchuk
Cookie Creation: Shortbread —These are my light version of a traditional shortbread and with an added drizzle of chocolate to make it even more delicious.
I am an Early Childhood Educator currently working with preschool age. I have two daughters, one in grade 7 at Highlands and one in grade 11 at Eastglen and we have been at Highlands for 4 years now. I enjoy baking and do the majority of my baking at Christmas to share with others. Our family believes in volunteering to help make our communities a better place and share our time volunteering between our daughters schools and the community leagues. I enjoy reading cozy mysteries in my spare time. This will be my 4th year in the cookie off and am excited to help the school raise funds. Find her on Facebook at Theresa Mclintock-Yaremchuk and Instagram @resaishereforthecats
Abby Reimer
Cookie Creation: Key Lime Pie — A soft graham cookie, a tart lime filling, and some crumbles.
Ingredients: Oat flour, wheat flour, brown sugar, butter, shortening, eggs, limes, cream cheese, condensed milk, white chocolate, graham crackers, salt, and baking powder.
Little Bird Baking (4937 50 Street, Camrose, AB) is a micro bakery dedicated to helping elevate your everyday celebrations. Abby especially loves gourmet cookies, macarons, and scones. She is completely obsessed with beautiful and delicious baking and started baking seriously in university when she realized that she could turn around a horrible day with something warm, buttery, and sweet. There's some legitimate magic in a good cookie, and that is her kind of wizardry. Abby is participating in the Cook-Off Cookie Edition for the 2nd year and was the 2024 Judges' Choice winner. Follow Abby's cookie trail @littlebirdbakingcamrose
Joanne Landmark
Cookie Creation: Chewy Coconut Cookies
Ingredients: Flour, coconut, eggs, vanilla, baking soda, butter, and salt.
The items I bake are the basics. Nothing fancy! Just old fashioned goodness out of my home kitchen. I make a variety of cookies: oatmeal raisin, peanut butter, chocolate chip, sea salt caramel, and coconut, as well as a variety of loaves. I’ve been told several times that my banana bread is incredible! I have a separate set of baking tools used ONLY for gluten-free and will make gluten-free items if ordered.
Rhyan Vercholuk, Aiden Hammermiester & Kit Anderson
Cookie Creation: Lemon & Raspberry Sugar Cookie — lemony base with raspberry cream cheese icing.
Ingredients: Lemon, raspberry, egg, four, baking soda, sugar, salt, vanilla, buttermilk, and powdered sugar.
Kit Anderson, Aiden Hammermiester & Rhyan Vercholuk — 3 friends who met at Highlands Junior High, graduated in 2022, and are excited to compete for a third time as a team.
David Dickie, Keith Goertzen, & Jeremy Frentz
Cookie Creation: To Be Announced Soon!
These foodie father friends are home bakers and like to challenge themselves with finding delicious treats that all their children enjoy (which is quite the feat!). From board games to ball games, these devoted dads always find ways to support their munching munchkins and our Cookie-Off is no exception. The Dough Dadz are participating in the Cook-Off Cookie Edition for the 2nd year and were the 2024 People's Choice winner.