Sharing stories connect us
From small town cook to world stage - Bring Chef Adam Loo to your next event.
Adam’s Story
Chef Adam Loo is the author of Let Rise: Stories from a Small-Town Cook (Pownal Street Press, November 2025) — an entrepreneurship memoir that follows his journey from growing up on a family farm in rural Prince Edward Island to building a celebrated culinary studio in the heart of Charlottetown.
From Farm to Kitchen
Adam Loo grew up between two worlds on Prince Edward Island; weekdays with his mom in Charlottetown, weekends and summers on the family farm in Springfield with his dad. He started working farmers markets as a kid, washed his first dishes at fifteen at the Shipwright's Cafe in Margate, and enrolled in culinary school
at seventeen.
World Culinary Stage
From there, he moved to New York to work at The Sagamore Resort, cooking in their fine dining restaurant Trillium Bis and running large-scale events and catering. He returned to PEI to join Youth Team Canada and went on to compete at the World Culinary Olympics in Erfurt, Germany, where he won gold and silver medals and finished ninth overall.
Becoming a Leader
At twenty years old, Adam took his first head chef position at Clam Digger's in Georgetown. He then spent fourteen years with Murphy Hospitality Group, where he ran Fishbones, took over Brickhouse, and transformed the Merchantman from a pub into one of Charlottetown's busiest seafood restaurants. During that time, he oversaw foodservice for Cavendish Beach Music Festival and helped bring Sommo Festival to life, eventually becoming Culinary Operations Manager for the group.
Opening Ada
In 2024, Adam stepped away to build something of his own. He opened Ada Culinary Studio, named after his daughter, in Charlottetown, focused on private dining, ticketed culinary events, and community-driven food experiences.
Let Rise
Months after opening, Adam lost his brother, his closest friend, suddenly to an aneurysm. It was the second devastating loss in his life, following the death of his father to cancer in 2013. Navigating grief while building a business from the ground up became the foundation of his first book, Let Rise: Stories from a Small Town Cook, published in November 2025. The book explores food, family, and the resilience it takes to keep going when everything tells you to stop.
Sharing PEI with the World
In 2025, Adam represented Prince Edward Island and Atlantic Canada as a guest chef at the World Expo in Osaka, Japan, cooking for international delegates and showcasing PEI products on a global stage. He is a Burnt Chef Project Ambassador, advocating for mental health and wellbeing in the hospitality industry, and returns in 2026 as the host of the Culinary Stage at Sommo Festival.
Making a Difference at Home
Adam speaks on kitchen culture, team building, foodservice operations, entrepreneurship, and the realities of chasing a dream while navigating loss. Growing up on a small island, he was told that success meant leaving. He stayed. To him, success is making a difference in his hometown every day through his business, his team, and the food he puts on the table and that means more than any big city ever could.
Speaking Topics
Let Rise: Building a Business in a Small Town
Adam's flagship keynote — the entrepreneurship story behind Ada Culinary Studio. From farm to kitchen to founder: what it takes to build something original in a place that isn't a major city, and why the constraints of a small market can become competitive advantages rather than limitations. A talk about conviction, community, and doing the work even when the conditions aren't perfect. Suitable for: entrepreneurship conferences, business associations, tourism and hospitality industry events, university and college audiences.
Kitchen Culture & Human Leadership
Building accountability structures, cross-training frameworks, and retention strategies that keep good people. Based on Adam's proven model that reduced overtime to the lowest in PEI's largest restaurant group while maintaining quality and staff satisfaction at peak season. Includes team culture audits, shift structure redesign, and leadership coaching for kitchen managers.
Resilience, Loss & The Creative Life
Building accountability structures, cross-training frameworks, and retention strategies that keep good people. Based on Adam's proven model that reduced overtime to the lowest in PEI's largest restaurant group while maintaining quality and staff satisfaction at peak season. Includes team culture audits, shift structure redesign, and leadership coaching for kitchen managers.
Farm to Table: Food as Identity, Community & Commerce
Building accountability structures, cross-training frameworks, and retention strategies that keep good people. Based on Adam's proven model that reduced overtime to the lowest in PEI's largest restaurant group while maintaining quality and staff satisfaction at peak season. Includes team culture audits, shift structure redesign, and leadership coaching for kitchen managers.
The Burnt Chef Project
Consulting engagements are available for foodservice operators, hospitality groups, culinary schools, and food entrepreneurs across Atlantic Canada and beyond. To enquire about availability, scope, and rates, please use the contact form below.
Book Adam to Speak
Consulting engagements are available for foodservice operators, hospitality groups, culinary schools, and food entrepreneurs across Atlantic Canada and beyond. To enquire about availability, scope, and rates, please use the contact form below.
Adam’s Memoir
“Let Rise is a deeply moving memoir that captures the heart of small-town life, the grit of the culinary world, and the enduring power of family. A testament to the transformative magic that results from cooking and sharing food with others.”