Angelo Prosperi-Porta’s career as a chef has taken him around the world. In May, after a 34-year absence, he returned to live in his hometown of Powell River with his wife Ina Haugemann. The couple is currently building a home north of town.
“I grew up in Wildwood and I kind of feel like I’ve come full circle,” said Prosperi-Porta. “Not just physically, as I’ve moved back to Powell River, but also in what I cook and what I value. I feel very connected to this community.”
After winning gold in the culinary competition in Singapore referenced in the 1994 Powell River News article below, Prosperi-Porta decided to leave his job as head pastry chef at a luxury Whistler resort and start a business of his own.
“At the end of 1994 I decided I didn’t want the whole hotel, corporate ladder-climbing kind of thing; it just wasn’t for me,” he said. “I’d always wanted to have my own little place, so my wife and I moved to Sooke and opened Cooper’s Cove Guest House in the spring of 1995. We ran that for close to 18 years.”
Along with the guesthouse, he and Ina developed a large kitchen garden and based their menu off of its harvest.
“We did dinners and cooking classes that incorporated what we were able to grow,” he said.
In 2005, at the urging of many returning guests, he published his first cookbook, Flavours of Cooper’s Cove. The following year, through another guest connection, he started culinary tours of Italy based on a farm in Tuscany.
“They were great experiences,” he added. “I got to do something I probably wouldn’t have done on my own.”
During this time in Italy, Prosperi-Porta said he was able to closely connect with his family and heritage there. His parents and older brother emigrated to Canada from Italy in the 1950’s, settling in the Wildwood neighbourhood of Powell River. The ties made visiting his Italian hometown influenced him personally and as a chef, he said.
“I found myself progressing by going back to basics, to what I call peasant food; with pride,” he added. “That’s the origin of great food.”
In 2015, Prosperi-Porta released his second cookbook, Honey, filled with recipes and history of one of the most traditional foods on earth.
In 2012, he and Ina decided to close their guesthouse and he began working as a chef at remote camps, first in Alberta and then, since 2016, he has worked six-week stints in Nunavut, where he serves the crew maintaining the North Warning System radar stations monitoring the polar regions.
During his weeks off he is overseeing the building of their new home and writing his third book.
“I’ve been working on this cookbook for quite some time now, basically to capture the origin of the food that I grew up with,” he said. “Not necessarily classic Italian but reflective of what we had here in Wildwood.”
Although the community has changed in the decades he’s been away, he said he believes the changes are positive.
“Powell River seems to be thriving now; there’s life here,” he said. “A lot of new people and small businesses have brought excitement. I’m happy see it and want to somehow be a part of it.”
Prosperi-Porta kept close to his family and friends in the community, despite being away for a long time,
“I was gone for 34 years but I never lost those connections,” he said.
Now that he’s back, he is eager to tell people about the unique and beautiful place he gets to call home.
“I stress to my friends and everyone I know that we have it pretty good here.”
Editor’s note: The following article, also written by Peak reporter Sara Donnelly, appeared in an issue of the Powell River News in March of 1994.
Local puts culinary talent to international test
Angelo Prosperi-Porta, local boy makes good...pastry.
After graduating from Max Cameron High School, Angelo Prosperi-Porta went to work in Powell River’s paper mill.
When he suffered an injury working at the mill, he figured it was time for a career change and decided he wanted to cook.
In 1984, Prosperi-Porta moved to Nanaimo to attend cook’s training at Malaspina College, and he hasn't looked back.
After a number of different cooking jobs around BC, Prosperi-Porta settled at Whistler in 1990 where he has lived since.
Currently, he is head pastry chef for the Delta Whistler Resort.
“It’s great,” said Prosperi-Porta of his job during a visit home on the weekend. “As far as my career is concerned, to work in an international resort like Whistler is great for exposure.”
The mountaintop resort is known around the world, not only for its excellent skiing and breathtaking scenery, but also its fine dining.
Along with his successes at the restaurant, Prosperi-Porta has participated in international culinary competitions in the US, Germany and Malaysia.
This year, he is a member of Team Canada, a group of five top chefs who will represent the country in some international cooking competitions.
Prosperi-Porta has competed with Team Canada twice before, winning a gold medal in 1990 and 1992 in Singapore.
The team then carried on to Frankfurt, Germany, to what Prosperi-Porta describes as the biggest of the culinary competitions.
“Any serious competing chef sets his sights on Frankfurt,” he said.
When he isn't cooking ‘haute cuisine,’ Prosperi-Porta enjoys, “simple things, the traditional foods I grew up with are what I eat myself.”
This year’s competition in Singapore takes place April 11-15. He and four other chefs will fly to Singapore on the sixth of April, and spend three days prior to the competition preparing for the first day.
“On the third day we will work throughout the night until about 5 am to be ready for the judging,” he said. “It’s a better part of a week going pretty hard, with not much sleep for three or four days.”
He said his accident in the mill has “led to a lot of good things.”
“I started pretty late as far as a chef is concerned. I was lucky and I had opportunities,” he added.
When asked about his family he said: “I like to think they're proud of what I've done, fairly impressed.”
His job, he said has “allowed me to go places I wouldn't have gone on my own.”
