He considers himself one lucky man, despite being driven into the boards by an opposing hockey player much bigger than himself. While Daryl MacDonnell was lying prostrate on the ice, he looked up to see an imposing Scott MacAulay bending over him. "Do you want a job?" the check-giver asked. "Come see me tomorrow."
And that's how Daryl got his job as executive chef at the Inverary Resort, owned by the MacAulay family and run by Scott. It wasn't a chance collision. The Inverary had just lost its chef and Daryl's reputation as a creative and talented cook was well known. Nine years after that "lucky" check, Daryl still presides over the kitchens at the Inverary, which overlooks the beautiful Bras d'Or Lakes, in Baddeck, Cape Breton.
It wasn't the first time Lady Luck had smiled upon the young Cape Bretoner who, born in Inverness and raised in New Waterford, was destined to be a chef. With both parents working, he was the self-appointed cook for his sister and two brothers while growing up. He loved the opportunity to try techniques he had seen on television, and his family generally enjoyed being guinea pigs.
After studying tourism for a year at Cape Breton University, Daryl enrolled in the culinary arts program at the Culinary Institute of Canada, at Holland College in Charlottetown. On his graduation, Lady Luck guided him to the kitchen of the St. Charles Country Club in Winnipeg, where the internationally acclaimed chef Takashi (Tony) Murakami presided. "He was very tough but fair," Daryl says.
"It was difficult to get in. The standards are high and you must be willing to work."
Daryl recalls the long hours he stayed on to practice the day's lessons with Murakami after everyone else had left for the night. "I didn't get paid for the first year, but the knowledge I gained was invaluable."
Over the years Daryl has stayed in touch with Murakami, who has visited him in Cape Breton. Although their relationship goes back to 1985, the student has never been comfortable calling his mentor by any name other than "Chef" or "Sir." Such is the respect he has for the teacher whose reputation was so prestigious that his name alone brought Daryl four job offers in one day.
The respect was reciprocated. As a member of Culinary Team Canada, Chef Murakami appointed Daryl as his trusted support member when the group competed and won grand gold in Basel, Switzerland, in 1987.
Meanwhile, Lady Luck has also had a hand in directing fate and happenstance in the private life of Daryl MacDonnell. It was while he was at the Culinary Institute of Canada that Louise DesRochers, a travel agent from Ottawa, was visiting a friend at the same institution. They met, and after a three-year long-distance relationship, the best friends were married in 1990. They have two sons: Justin, now 16, and Fabien, 15.
Following stints at Vancouver's Splash Café and the Four Seasons and Hilton Hotels in Ottawa, Daryl became chef/owner of the Lynwood Inn in Baddeck. Although the venture was not to last beyond five years, it had brought him back to Cape Breton, the place he wanted to live, raise his family-and play hockey.
After that fateful hockey game Daryl settled in at the Inverary Resort, working nine to nine, six days a week, from the first of May to the end of November. While Louise teaches French immersion in Port Hawkesbury over winter, Daryl becomes the boys' main caregiver; the roles switch during the summer when the Inverary opens and school closes.
Since he oversees catering for three dining rooms, a pub and a convention centre at the 141-room resort, as well as managing menus for approximately 30 weddings each season, it's not difficult to pack a year's worth of hours into a seven-month work schedule.
During the off-season, the 42-year-old chef works on changing the menus, which invariably include several seafood items. Among this season's choices are a seafood platter for two, lobster chowder and stuffed monkfish (also called lott), which he recently discovered and likes. The ever-popular halibut will remain, along with his signature fish cakes and, for dessert, the white chocolate cheesecake for which the Inverary is famous.
It's no wonder that when Daryl first prepared a meal for his future father-in-law he was told, "You have permission to marry my daughter." Luck didn't have much to do with that.