Kelowna

As the winner of Gold Medal Plates Vancouver, the Waterfront Restaurant and Wine Bar owner, Chef Mark Filatow, moves on to represent  the province in the annual Canadian Culinary Championships.

Using local ingredients he will compete against nine others during the three-day event, in the hopes of taking gold again.

Saturday is a Black Box Competition where each chef will be given 60 minutes to plan and create two different dishes, using six diverse food items provided.

The local chef says each competition requires a different skill set, but he hopes to make Kelowna proud.

"There is a little pressure being the home town guy because you always want to play the championship card….. I am really trying to stay focused (with) myself and the dish we are doing for Saturday, as well as having a frame work for the other two competitions."

Filtow realizes this is a great opportunity for the whole Okanagan to shine as he serves local ingredients that many will not have tasted before.

"This is really what we do at the restaurant every day so we are carrying that forward to the competition as well."

Follow the competition over the weekend on Twitter using #CCC2013.

To watch the live feed from the Black Box Competition, visit here.