Meet Chef Ben Kelly

I started cooking at 15 in a Chinese restaurant, thrown into the heat, learning on the fly, and falling in love with every minute of it. I never went the formal culinary school route. My education was practical, hands-on, and relentless. The kitchen was my classroom, and I wouldn't have had it any other way.

At 27, I moved to Montreal and became sous chef at a dynamic bistro. That experience shaped everything: the precision, the creativity, the rhythm of a service that actually hums. It's where I understood that cooking isn't just about food. It's about what happens when people gather around a table.

Life threw some hard turns along the way. I lost my mother, and later spent a long stretch recovering from a serious car accident. Cooking pulled me through both. It has always been my anchor.

I earned my Red Seal certification in the Yukon, Canada's highest trade standard for chefs. After returning to Nova Scotia, I spent four years in various culinary roles before launching my personal chef business in April 2017. Over the years I've had the chance to appear on television countless times, write two cookbooks, and travel across Canada and Nova Scotia cooking, but the work I'm most proud of happens in people's homes, around tables that matter to them.

My wife Suzanne and I are raising two young sons, whose energy and curiosity push me to keep growing. More than 25 years into this career, the goal is exactly the same as it was at 15: create experiences that bring people together. I just do it in your home now, and I make sure you never have to worry about a single detail.