About the Author

Chef Sharon

On Sharon Steward’s family’s grain farm in southern Manitoba, cooking and baking from scratch was an essential part of everyday life. The Culinary Arts program at Red River College was a natural first step. During her college program, she worked under Chef Takashi Murakami at the St. Charles Country Club and Chef Tim Appleton at the University of Manitoba’s University Club. After attaining her Cook’s Red Seal, Sharon earned a sommelier diploma through the International Sommelier Guild, under the guidance of sommeliers Gary Hewitt and Patrick Oakes. Sharon stepped away from the “back of house” for a few years to work in “front of house” management at Catch Restaurant in Calgary, including training other businesses to build beverage programs paired with food menus. She also spent a few years as a sales associate for a leading Italian wine importer.

Sharon returned to professional cooking in 2012 as head chef at InterVarsity Pioneer Camp Manitoba, a seasonal outdoor camp on an island in Shoal Lake. At Pioneer, she led teams of young people in kitchens that doubled as a classroom. In camp’s off-season over the last 10 years, Sharon taught culinary and baking classes in the Continuing Education Department at Red River College Polytechnic in Winnipeg. She and her husband became Co-Directors at Manitoba Pioneer in 2020, and the pandemic provided exciting opportunities to impact the community through the VOLUME Foodshare program, and online cooking classes.

2024 brings exciting changes as the Steward family settle in Port Sydney to accept Co-Director positions at Ontario Pioneer Camp.

Sharon celebrates a very full and well-rounded career in foodservice and beyond the exciting foodservice at Ontario Pioneer Camp with 4-kitchens to run, oversees the Culinary Ministry for InterVarsity Canada . She lives in Muskoka, Ontario with her husband Neil and their three boys, Nikolai, Zachary and Samuel.