Written by: Sylvia Cheverie

BEAUMONT – There’s excitement and competitive spirit brewing in Beaumont’s Centreville, as Chartier’s Executive Chef, Crystal Higgins, announced she will be competing in the PEI International Shellfish Festival this fall.

Marking its 30th anniversary in 2026, the PEI International Shellfish Festival is Atlantic Canada’s Largest Kitchen Party, a four-day celebration of Prince Edward Island’s world-renowned shellfish, chefs, producers, and hospitality. Presented by the Dairy Farmers of PEI and held each September on the Charlottetown waterfront, the festival exists to celebrate and champion PEI’s shellfish industry and to help ensure it prospers for years to come.

Chef Higgins was selected as one of twelve chefs to compete head-to-head in Garland Canada’s International Chef Challenge. It’s a 45 minute race against the clock as the highly talented chefs from around the world are challenged to produce epic PEI shellfish dishes, with a $10,000 grand prize on the line.

“We chose Chef Crystal Higgins because she brings the same hands-on approach to seafood that we champion here on the coast. As Executive Chef of Chartier, she’s built a menu around whole halibut, Arctic char, and a weekly rotating fish feature, and that same instinct translates naturally to shellfish.” says Director of Marketing for the festival, Jill O’Halloran. “Great seafood cookery isn’t about geography; it’s about craft. That’s exactly the spirit we want representing in the Garland Canada Chef Challenge.”

Competing chefs have just 45 minutes to prepare their dishes on the main stage. Shellfish must be the star of the dish, requiring at least 3 different Island shellfish products. Entries are scored based on taste, presentation, and overall menu creativity “I absolutely adore shellfish because of the variety of textures and flavours,” says Higgins. “Sweet scallops, briny oysters, umami of a mussel the flavours profiles are endless. The technique is what really excites me, you have to know how to treat each ingredient and execute it well in order to ensure the best experience”.

This isn’t Chef Higgins first experience competing in an international forum – during her training at NAIT she became captain of the first all-female team to compete at the IKA Culinary Olympics in Germany, where her team brought home a silver medal. Higgins will be practicing different shellfish applications over the next month as rotating features for Beaumont diners, giving her the chance to experiment with different shellfish to use in the competition.

According to Chef Higgins, her strategy is “Practice, practice, practice! There are so many different scenarios that can happen when you step into the “ring”. Having a good foundation and organization is key!

This year marks the 30th anniversary for the festival, which attracts over 10,000 visitors to Charlottetown’s waterfront over the course of it’s four day run.

For more information on Chartier, please contact Sylvia Cheverie at 780-668-3346.