Meet Arthur Dodsworth, passionate foodie
Going back to 2014, 15-year-old Arthur Dodsworth couldn’t have imagined how much his life would be affected after attending the Ravenous for Rhubarb Festival in Stewiacke, Nova Scotia. Coming from the nearby community of Wittenburg, he was a student at South Colchester Academy in Brookfield. During his middle school years, he gained a strong passion for cooking and set his sights on a career as a professional chef. As a grade 10 student at the time of the rhubarb festival, he wasn’t very keen on attending; however his grandmother persuaded him to go as The Kilted Chef was hosting and she thought that Arthur may have a chance to speak to me and get some insight on what it takes to be a professional chef.
There was an immediate connection between the two of us and by the end of it Arthur said he knew that I’d would be a mentor for years to come and it couldn’t have been truer.
During the next few years Arthur attended various events around the Maritimes with the Kilted Chef team. He was exposed to various aspects of the culinary world, from cooking in professional kitchens to serving food in muddy and wet festival fields, and appearing on our very own Saltscapes Expo stages.
Over time Arthur gained more interest in the food industry and by grade 12 he knew exactly how to parlay his passion into a career—but not as a chef.
While food was his passion, Arthur felt that business was a safer choice, and he became determined to find a way to marry both. Wanting to further his education in his home province, he stumbled upon a program at Dalhousie University’s Agricultural Campus in Truro, International Food Business. The program combined a Bachelor of Business Administration and a Bachelor of Agriculture, all within a four-year period, and included a study tour in Scotland along with a year abroad in the Netherlands. This would be the perfect opportunity for Arthur to see the world and expand on the global curiosity he had developed while working with us over the years.
Classes began in September 2017 at the Dalhousie Ag Campus, and by the second week, Arthur was heading to Scotland for a food business study tour. By second year he was living in a foreign country and travelling throughout Europe to visit international friends he’d made during high school. He gained valuable insight into how food systems work globally, while experiencing some of the finest cuisine Europe has to offer. He arrived back home in August 2019 with a renewed sense of who he wanted to become.
After graduation Arthur landed a job at Infarm, a vertical farming company based out of Berlin, Germany. The company runs farms that grow fresh lettuce and herbs inside of Sobeys stores in select provinces across the country.
Now 23, Arthur has his sights on Queen’s University’s Dual Degree MIB program, with the second degree being gained in Austria at the Vienna University of Economics and Business beginning in September 2022.
The two recipes Arthur chose to feature focus on two important aspects of his life—spending time abroad and working for a food business startup. The pasta dish is inspired by his good friend Kevin Ham from South Korea, who made this dish frequently while they lived in residence in the Netherlands. The second recipe features crystal lettuce from Infarm. This kind of lettuce is as tasty as it is beautiful.
European inspired cheesy chicken pasta; a one pot wonder