Jennifer McPhee
Northern News Services

Iqaluit (Apr 01/02) - Kamotiq Inn chef Pierre Carpentier works with meat 50 hours a week, so he doesn't cook much at home.

"Almost never," he says. "I see too much meat during the day. But I sometimes cook for friends when they come over."

In fact, after 32 years working in kitchens, Carpentier prefers the administrative part of his job, the paperwork.

He says the worst part of his job is relying on cargo to bring fresh ingredients, pointing out the Kamotiq Inn sometimes runs out of meat.

"It takes a long time to get meat up here. We have Baffin Canners, but they don't have everything."

Carpentier eats at the Kamotiq himself about two or three times a week. "The best dish here is the seafood," he says. "And the pepper steak is good."

At lunchtime, he buzzes around the kitchen, preparing pizza, making sandwiches, stirring gravy, checking on nachos, and slicing caribou with a big knife. It takes seven minutes to make a pizza.

"We have to work fast because people at lunch have only an hour to eat," he says.

He says people rarely complain about the food at the Kamotiq. When they do, he takes it in stride.

"Usually these people are in a hurry. They ask for their food fast, and when they get it, it's not hot enough."

Once, while working in the south, he sliced off the end of his finger with a slicer. "Someone was talking to me and I wasn't looking at what I was doing."

The chef moved to Iqaluit a year and six months ago from the Ottawa area. He worked at The Snack and switched over to the Kamotiq seven months ago.

What prompted his move North?

"Money," he says with a smile. "My friends were working here, and I didn't have a job in the south."

He likes the North. "The people are nice," he says.

When he does do his own cooking, Carpentier prefers French cuisine.

"And I love seafood."