Caitlin Fulton
Rge Rd & The Butchery
Director of Operations
Caitlin Fulton is a founding partner in RGE RD and leads the front of house team. She was involved early on in the inception of RGE RD farm dinners and helped plant the first seeds of these long table community events. The first dinner-from-scratch experience that RGE RD put on at Nature’s Green Acres was the start of an ongoing passion for connecting the dinner guest and dining experience to the stories of the farm and the source of our food.

With a passion for storytelling and community engagement, Caitlin views the restaurant as another cultural gathering space where we can celebrate our own sense of place.

Peter Keith
Meuwly's
Owner/Executive Chef
Peter Keith has won international culinary competitions, cooked in Canada’s top restaurants, and earned degrees in culinary arts and business before going on to open Meuwly's - Edmonton's premier destination for charcuterie, fine cheese, and artisan local foods. He is an advocate for building a strong local food system, supporting farmers, entrepreneurs, and chefs through his many community initiatives. Peter was awarded the Culinary Federation’s “Canadian Chef of the Year” and Foodservice & Hospitality’s “Top 30 Under 30” in 2020, along with Edmonton's "Top 40 under 40" in 2022.

Chris Koetke
Ajinomoto Health & Nutrition North America, Inc.
Corporate Executive Chef
Chef Christopher Koetke was the executive chef at Les Nomades in Chicago for five years and also worked at the famed Le Francais restaurant in Wheeling, IL. He formerly served as the executive director of the Kendall College School of Culinary Arts in Chicago, and vice president of culinary arts for Laureate International Universities, where he was responsible for strategic leadership of culinary arts programs at 48 campuses in 12 countries. Koetke is a well-known expert on culinary matters, especially given his travels experimenting with ingredients and flavours worldwide and his knowledge of amino acids as flavour elements. In 2010, he was given the inaugural Chefs Collaborative Pathfinder Award for his work in making sustainability mainstream both within foodservice operations and education and serves as the Chair of the Feed the Planet Committee of Worldchefs.

Chef Koetke has an MBA from Dominican University and a BA in French literature from Valparaiso University. He has been honoured with the Outstanding Alum from the Brennan School of Business at Dominican University, alumni achievement award from Valparaiso University, and Worldchefs Educator award. He has hosted his own national TV cooking show on the LiveWell network for almost 5 years, written for prominent newspapers and trade publications, and authored a well-known culinary textbook - The Culinary Professional.

Mark Kondrat
Alberta Beer Festivals
CEO
Through his work at Alberta Beer Festivals, and as the host of the popular Let’s Meet For A Beer Podcast, Mark Kondrat has spent over 20 years showcasing some of the world’s greatest craft breweries and distilleries. Mark loves introducing consumers to new craft beers and spirits, but his true passion is having the opportunity to share inspiring behind-the-scenes stories from the people who have built the unique Craft Beer & Spirits Community!

Kevin Kossowan
Story Chaser Productions Inc.
Filmmaker / Forager
Kevin Kossowan has been on 100+ wild food adventures in the Canadian wild for his twice James Beard Foundation award nominated web series ‘From The Wild’. He’s taught field cookery at the Global Bushcraft Symposium, co-created the series ‘Wild Harvest’ with Les Stroud and chef Paul Rogalski airing on PBS and National Geographic Asia, has led numerous foraging workshops and forage-to-table workshops, and regularly works with chefs exploring the culinary potential of the Canadian wilderness.

Blair Lebsack
RGE RD - Eat Off the Beaten Path
Blair is a graduate of the NAIT Apprenticeship Cook Program as well as Food & Beverage Management at Red Deer College . Upon graduation, he began working at The Owl’s Nest in Calgary’s Westin Hotel where he further honed his skills under a German master chef. Following his time there, he secured Chef positions at The Living Room in Calgary and Rocky Mountain Resorts in Banff as well as the Executive Chef with CHIP Hospitality based out of Saskatoon. In 2006 he returned to Edmonton to take the helm as Chef at Union Bank Inn and Madison’s Grill. Having had an accomplished career as an executive chef for both corporate and boutique hotels, Chef Blair took on a role mentoring future chefs as a culinary instructor at NAIT from 2010-2013. This was a highlight for Blair, but he yearned to establish a restaurant of his own; he took advantage of the summers off to put on extravagant dinners in the middle of farmers’ fields. Blair Lebsack is now the co-owner and chef of RGE RD (Range Road) and The Butchery by RGE RD.

RGE RD was built out of a desire to connect further with Alberta’s unique culinary landscape. The restaurant grew out of a series of farm dinners held on rural range roads around the province, hence the name. While he wanted to exemplify the philosophy of local, healthful and ethical food, there was also a desire to reimagine the dining experience as belonging to a specific time and place. Rather than emulate a style of cuisine or be pegged as something instantly identifiable or categorical - like Italian, French, et al, RGE RD endeavours to be “untamed”. This means reflecting the changing landscape and the spirit of this city and province. Within the four walls of the restaurant, guests can feel a sense of adventure and be complicit in a culinary investigation. Ultimately, RGE RD is a restaurant that is wholly familiar and yet strangely underrepresented in our city —a terroir driven restaurant where common ingredients are presented in new ways and the high end experience becomes as inviting and nostalgic as a night around a campfire. Admittedly, when people ask what kind of restaurant RGE RD is, there is still a struggle to answer. The desired answer is terroir or Albertan, somehow this seems to be a strange concept to grasp.

The brick and mortar restaurant is an urban gathering place where the farm dictates the menu. A strong team has developed and continues to push forward with expansions of the dining room, private event space and full-service whole animal butcher shop. The work reaches beyond the four walls and into the fields on range roads where farmers steward the land, grow vegetables and raise the livestock that is showcased on the menu. The priorities are to produce outstanding food and offer great hospitality, but always be evolving… the cooks, the menu items, the style of food and the ability to best promote this circular community which has been created.

RGE RD quickly caused a stir locally and nationally. RGE RD was recognized by EnRoute Magazine as ranking fourth of the ten “Best New Restaurants in Canada 2014”.

Blair’s passion has not gone unnoticed and led to even more acclaim. Alberta Venture Magazine counted Blair among the Fifty Most Influential People of 2014. He was also named a Top Forty Foodie under Forty by Western Living Magazine and Top Forty under Forty by Avenue Magazine (now Edify). RGE RD was chosen as Best New Restaurant in Edmonton by Avenue Magazine (Edify) and and Best New Restaurant in Edmonton by Where Magazine in 2013. RGE RD has also received Best Restaurant Overall by Edify Magazine in 2014, 2016, 2017, 2018, 2022 in addition to recognition in Canada’s 100 Best Restaurants. Accolades include Vancouver International Wine Festival Wine Program Excellence Awards as well as an Award of Excellence from Wine Spectator. The restaurant has been featured in numerous publications nationally and internationally from the Globe and Mail, House and Home, to Vogue and The BBC.