Canmore's Tracy Little Opens Up About Her Top Chef Journey

When Canmore chef Tracy Little stepped into the kitchen for Top Chef Canada Season 12, she knew the competition would test her technical skill. What she did not expect was how deeply it would test her sense of self. Little, the chef and proprietor of Sauvage, a foraged-focused fine dining restaurant in Canmore, was eliminated in Episode 3. It was a short run by television standards, but one that left a lasting impression on her.

“Top Chef was an introspective exercise like no other,” she wrote on Instagram after her elimination aired. “You learn a lot about yourself when you are placed in a situation far from home with a bunch of cameras in your face.” For Little, who built her career on deliberate, seasonally attuned cooking, the show’s pace was a sharp contrast. “I learned that I really do prefer the intentional, slow process of dish creation,” she said.

Season 12 brought together ten chefs from across the country, many with championship pedigrees or Michelin level experience. It featured a lineup of prominent judges such as Daniel Boulud, Susur Lee, and Mijune Pak, along with a series of challenges designed to push contestants far beyond familiar ground. For Little, whose food is rooted in the precision of foraging, fermentation, and slow development, the competition created moments where the dish she envisioned was not always the dish the judges tasted.

That challenge surfaced immediately in Episode 1 when she introduced a pine flour dessert inspired by her father, a forester. Pine flour, she explained, has been used as a survival ingredient in many cultures but becomes extraordinary when paired with luxury flavours. “It possesses a unique flavour profile and adds so much character,” she said. During the episode, reheating caused the cakes to overbake and dry out. It was the type of slip that can occur in any kitchen, yet the pressure of competition magnifies every detail.

In Episode 3, Little reached for another of her signature ingredients: seabuckthorn. She described its flavour as similar to an apple and a lemon combined, although the lemon takes over. The fruit is not indigenous to Alberta, but it appears throughout the region as an ornamental plant and as windbreaks on farmland. “If you ask your neighbours, you can probably get their permission to harvest them,” she said. Homeowners often welcome the help because the berries attract bears along with smaller pests.

These types of ingredients have shaped Little’s culinary identity. They are tart, wild, and surprising. Yet she acknowledges that not every palate embraces them immediately. “I have a bad habit of cooking what I want to cook sometimes, and forgetting that things need to be approachable,” she said. “Your sense of nostalgia and excitement might be antithetical to someone else’s.”

Her time on Top Chef Canada followed other demanding television experiences, including Chefs vs. Wild, the survival style competition that required chefs to forage their own ingredients in remote terrain. “On Chefs vs. Wild, we were starving, but the filming days were shorter,” she said. “On Top Chef Canada, there are very early starts and sometimes very late days. I appreciated being warm and fed, but I loved that on Chefs vs. Wild, the judges knew they were in for a wild adventure of flavour.”

Little has also appeared on the United States edition of Top Chef as a guest judge in Season 22 during a foraging challenge. The experience gave her a window into how American contestants interpret Canadian ingredients. “It was an honour,” she said. “Representing our region on an international stage reminded me how special our ingredients are. The rest of the world is only beginning to understand how diverse and rich Canada’s wild pantry really is.”

In the Canadian competition, her elimination meant she did not witness every example of creativity, but one moment stayed with her. Vancouver chef Katy Cheung made noodles from McCain potatoes, an unexpected technique that showed the creativity required to succeed as the season progressed. Little declined to pick a single favourite chef but admitted she had artists she admired. “If Katy, Shai-Anne, or Alex were to take the prize, I would not be sad about it,” she said.

Despite the early exit, Little’s humour remained intact. She joked that she might one day offer a tasting menu called “Try My Dishes That the Top Chef Canada Judges Hated.” It is the type of self-aware irreverence that has long resonated with Sauvage diners who link her food to both technical ambition and confidence in unusual flavours.

Back in Canmore, her focus is firmly on Sauvage. The restaurant is known for dishes built on regional game, mushrooms, herbs, tree bark, and edible flora. “We cannot stop, will not stop,” she said. “There are some amazing things coming but I cannot talk about them yet.” The menu changes with the seasons and with the foraging calendar, which often dictates the creative direction more than any trend.

For winter, she highlights a dish that she believes captures her approach: duck with mountain ash berries, sunchokes from a local French farmer, and a sauce made from pinecones. “The way everything comes together is magical,” she said. In her view, pinecones remain deeply underrated. “People do not even know that is where pine nuts come from. The cone as a whole adds beautiful flavour.”

Her return from the show has not shifted her belief in wild ingredients or the potential of Alberta’s wilderness. If anything, the competition clarified what she values most: intention, patience, and the ability to cook far from the glare of television lights. “Being part of some of Canada’s most elite chefs is pretty friggen cool in its own right,” she wrote after leaving the competition. “Being home and focusing on my restaurant is where my heart is.”

She hints at projects underway, although she is not ready to reveal details. What the show ultimately offered was perspective. It challenged her, humbled her, and returned her to the Bow Valley more committed than ever to cooking on her own terms. For Little, that is the prize that matters most.