Good morning, everyone.

The phrase “everything is political” often feels truer in Alberta than almost anywhere else.

Whether it’s rules around what content is available in school libraries, the back and forth with Ottawa over major infrastructure projects, debates over who gets to decide who is a girl and who isn’t, figuring out how best to clean up the environment or fights between police and Crown prosecutors over plea deals, politics always seems to play a major role.

Heck, even the contract standoff between hockey megastar Connor McDavid and the Edmonton Oilers got pulled into the political vortex this week. (Despite what The Globe and Mail’s Cathal Kelly has to say and Maple Leaf fever dreams, hope remains high in these parts.)

So it’s often refreshing to find a palate cleanser. And who doesn’t love a “local boy makes good story.”

This week, The Globe and Mail’s Dakshana Bascaramurty wrote about chef Jonathan Tam, whose culinary journey started in Edmonton and who is now running a Michelin-starred restaurant in Copenhagen.

The son of Chinese parents who were raised in Vietnam before immigrating to Canada, Tam was attending culinary school in Edmonton in 2006 when he watched a documentary about Spain’s El Bulli, which topped the World’s 50 Best Restaurants list at the time.

Not only did he decide he was going to work there, he came up with a plan.

Of course, as Dakshana wrote: “Chefs from Michelin-starred joints around the world jockeyed to work at El Bulli. He hadn’t even worked in the best restaurant in Edmonton.”

So over the next year, Tam e-mailed half the restaurants on the World’s 50 Best list, asking if he could apprentice in their kitchens. He received only one response, but it was from René Redzepi, the chef at Copenhagen’s world-famous Noma, who invited Tam to intern in his kitchen.

That foot in the door led to a career at a number of esteemed eateries in New York before Tam eventually returned to Copenhagen.

Then, in 2022, he opened Jatak.

With a name inspired by the Danish equivalent of “yes, chef,” Tam’s ever-changing menu – inspired by the 24-term Chinese solar calendar – draws inspiration from Chinese, Japanese and Vietnamese cuisines.

“Being from an immigrant family and being an immigrant here, why can’t we use the local things and tell our stories with our technique and precision and creativity?” asked Tam.

At Jatak, Tam’s take on the Hong Kong egg tart, inspired by the ones he grew up eating at Edmonton’s Garden Bakery, garnered much attention.

When the restaurant first opened, it received a glowing review from Redzepi, who posted a slow-motion Instagram video of a slice of the tart jiggling on a plate “like a burlesque dancer.”

Reservations poured in. Six months after opening, Jatak received a Michelin star.

This is the weekly Alberta newsletter written by Alberta bureau chief Mark Iype. If you’re reading this on the web, or it was forwarded to you from someone else, you can sign up for it and all Globe newsletters here.