Irwin MacKinnon

After graduating from The Culinary Institute of Canada, Irwin began his culinary career in Switzerland and Germany, returning home to PEI in the early 1990s.  He became the head chef at Joseph’s restaurant (later Papa Joe’s), and has worked there with the Jabbour family, for more than 27 years.

Irwin has mentored dozens of interns and students from The Culinary Institute of Canada and has helped many up-and-coming chefs find their own culinary voice.

He has traveled globally to promote Island seafood, and is well known among farmers, producers, and artisans as a pioneer of the “use local” movement on PEI. He has also led many PEI-focused initiatives, including Fall Flavours. 

In 2017, Irwin was a Taste Our Island Award finalist and People’s Choice Award winner, and the recipient of the 2017 PEI Association of Chefs & Cooks Chef of the Year award recipient. In 2018, Chef Irwin was awarded the Culinary Federation Eastern Region Chef of the Year and - in 2018, the Canadian Culinary Federation's Chef of the Year Award. 

Irwin is president of the PEI Chefs’ Association and was inducted into the Honour Society of the Canadian Culinary Federation in 2014.  Papa Joe’s was named in 2011 as the winner of the annual Taste Our Island Award, and won the Best Burger Award in Burger Love in 2012.   

In 2015 and 2016, Chef Irwin was named as the Best of Sea Chic Chef of the Year as well as being named a semi-finalist in the Garland International Chef’s Challenge.  Most recently, he represented the National Canadian Culinary Championship in Kelowna, BC.

Irwin received a Distinguished Alumni Award in 2018.