Fred Decker

Fred is a trained chef and former restaurateur, graduating from culinary school as a mature student in 2004 and going on to preside over kitchens large (revenues in the millions) and small (his own restaurant in a boutique seaside hotel). He began freelancing part-time before culinary school and later spent three years writing a recurring column about local food and growers for the major daily newspaper in his market. Since closing his restaurants at the end of 2010, he has almost exclusively freelanced, with over 8,000 articles published online on a wide range of major sites and in print by Canada's Foodservice & Hospitality magazine. He describes his curiosity as a main driver of his freelance career, saying he "...grew from the kind of kid who read encyclopedias for fun to the kind of adult who reads academic papers for fun."

Fred spent two years at Memorial University of Newfoundland in his teens, then returned to formal education as a mature student. He began his culinary training at Nova Scotia Community College and completed it at the Northern Alberta Institute of Technology. He has also been a nationally certified food safety trainer.