Trained as a classical French chef in his native Quebec, Yves Potvin has dedicated his culinary career to creating healthy, tasty, convenient foods found in major supermarkets and restaurants around the world. Over the past thirty years, Yves has successfully built three plant-based food companies.  

He founded his first, ground-breaking enterprise, Yves Veggie Cuisine, in 1985, where he invented the fresh veggie dog. He then launched Gardein™ in 2009–a proprietary food technology that redefined the plant protein category and which expanded into 25,000 supermarkets. 

His latest venture is Konscious Foods, founded in 2021. The company’s 100% plant-based sushi and onigiri are a world first, combining wholesome ingredients with culinary excellence and convenience that can be found in the freezer aisle, as well as plant-based seafood for foodservice. 

Yves’ chef-led culinary creations have been recognized on such influential television programs as Bloomberg News, Good Morning America, the Ellen Degeneres Show and Oprah. Yves himself has been recognized as one of Canada’s Top 40 under 40 by the Financial Post magazine, named Pacific Canada’s Entrepreneur of the Year in Agriculture and Food, received the BC Food Processors’ Innovation Award and won the BC Export Award for Sustainability. He currently serves on the UBC Faculty of Land and Food Systems Board of Advisors and the BC Ministry of Agriculture Board of Advisors. Yves enjoys spending part of his time mentoring young, start-up companies through the Creative Destruction Lab at the University of Calgary and continues to inspire the young chefs of tomorrow as owner of the Pacific Institute of Culinary Arts in Vancouver, BC. 

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