Maestro Chef Wes

It’s been a heck of a year for Canadian hip-hop legend, Maestro Fresh Wes.

He was inducted into the Canadian Music Hall of Fame. He won a Governor General’s Award for his contribution to the arts. And, the man who gave us the groundbreaking hip-hop single, “Let Your Backbone Slide” is coming to Edmonton not just to perform, but to cook.

“It’s been an epic year, and now I’m going to top it off at Epic,” he says from his home in Saint John, N.B.

On Oct. 24, the Maestro (real name: Wes Williams) will be conducting things in the kitchen at Epic Market, before picking up the mic and entertaining the audience with some of his rap classics.

Maestro Fresh Wes is also Maestro Chef Wes. He’s launched a TV series by that name which celebrates great conversations about food. He’s had musical guests like Kardinal Offishall, and chefs like Michael Smith appear. Edmonton’s own Roger Mooking, who’s both a hip-hop artist and celebrity chef, has cooked with Wes.

“I’m coming in with the idea that I’m taking the place of the viewer, I’m learning things as we go,” says Wes. “I’m not The Galloping Gourmet. I am learning along with you. Think of me as the hype man for the executive chef.”

During the early months of the COVID pandemic, Wes developed a friendship with R.J. and Rowena Cui of Edmonton’s Planit Sound. They came up with a drive-thru show that would allow Wes to perform in a safe socially distanced way in Edmonton. Planit Sound is now working with Epic to book events, so it was a marriage made in hip-hop heaven.

Wes will curate a menu that includes Backbone Sliders and Conducting Wings, cheeky names based on two of his biggest songs.

“I can’t give you the recipe,” he says of his sliders. “But they’ve got a bit of a kick — just like the song.”

After the food is served, he’ll interact with the audience, and then perform, with songs that he says “will strike the notes of nostalgia.”

Wes, along with the likes of Kardinal Offishall and the Dream Warriors, laid the groundwork for Canadian hip-hop culture. He’s just blown away by how far it’s come. He compares Drake to Michael Jackson. The Weeknd is a global household name.