Selah Schmoll and Ray Syegco hadn’t updated their resumés in years when an email arrived earlier this summer requesting recent versions.
As owners of Incoho restaurant, they haven’t needed CV’s since opening their dining room in downtown St. Catharines in early 2019.
This request for their work history — reference letters, too — didn’t come from a prospective employer, however. It came from Kostuch Media, the organization that runs the prestigious 30 Under Thirty awards, recognizing the Canadian hospitality industry’s top young performers.
Both Schmoll and Syegco had been nominated for the accolades, formerly hosted by the Ontario Hostelry Institute. They got the nods as individuals rather than as a team. And it was time to pull out all the stops to dazzle the judges.
“It was very nice to get something like that after the year we had,” Syegco, 29, said, referring the pandemic and its toll on the hospitality industry. “I didn’t want to celebrate right away because it was a nomination.”
But about a month later, they could rest assured their resumés were still top notch, much like their ability to operate a restaurant that bucks many industry conventions, including the idea that work-life balance is impossible if you want to succeed.
News came that both made the cut, with Schmoll and Syegco taking up two spots on a list that’s not all that big, considering the size of Canada’s hospitality sector.
“It really means that much more (to win as individuals) because we obviously function as a team,” Schmoll, 28, said. “But we are individuals. We have specific roles in the kitchen and it’s nice to be recognized for those roles.”
It’s not the first time either has won awards. Schmoll won bronze for Canada at the Young Chef Olympiad in India in 2017. Both she and Syegco earned the Judge’s Choice Award at the RBC Brunch in the Vineyard during the 2019 Niagara Wine Festival.
Before opening Incoho, they also worked in the kitchen at Trius Winery — Syegco as sous-chef and Schmoll as head of pastry. Trius, formerly Hillebrand, is one of the original Niagara wine country restaurants, helping to establish the area’s regional, seasonal dining scene.
Despite the pandemic devastating restaurants and forcing many to close, Incoho thrives. Even at the lowest points in the past year and a half, Schmoll and Sygeco still purchased produce from their farmer-suppliers, sometimes just to cook and donate to those in need.
They’ve continuously refined and reinvented themselves, giving Incoho staying power. They’ve retained all their staff, too, and hired two new members of the team. And this fall, they will open Alitura, similar in concept and culture to Incoho, in Niagara-on-the-Lake.
“It speaks about our core values and how we run a business, the culture in the restaurant,” Syegco said about Incoho’s survival.
They also give credit to their Niagara College education. Both studied culinary management at the Canadian Food and Wine Institute (CFWI), which has spawned several 30 Under Thirty winners and gave them the foundation upon which to build a successful enterprise like Incoho.
“There’s so much that we learned, the basics, that would have been so much harder if we hadn’t gone to the college,” Schmoll said.
That could include getting one of those reference letters requested by the 30 Under Thirty organizers.
CFWI Dean Craig Youdale headed up the institute when Schmoll was a student and happily penned an endorsement for an alumna he said was — and still is — a passionate, determined and positive person.
“To start a business right away like she and Ray did, it really takes a lot of guts,” Youdale said. “It takes a lot of passion and conviction to start a business right out of school, let alone a restaurant, which requires a lot of commitment to be successful.
“They really know what they’re doing,” he added. “They had a great concept and the food was exceptional from Day 1. I’ve just been so impressed.”
Getting nominated for the 30 Under Thirty awards was enough of an honour, Schmoll and Syegco said. Still, making the final list and all the ensuing support are validation of how they’ve chosen to do things differently, they said.
“It’s great recognition from where we’ve come, where we started and where we are now,” Schmoll said. “We’re on the right track.”
