Okay, we admit to some bias here: three of the people who bring you this publication (plus half of a fourth) hail from the Upper North Side, more commonly known as Canada. But confess-you thought Canadian cuisine was limited to maple syrup and Nanaimo bars. We are very proud to correct this misconception by bringing you six Canadian chefs, all of whom work in New York City, to prove beyond a shadow of a doubt that Canada does indeed have vibrant, eclectic, and delicious food traditions all its own. The distinguished roster of this year's Team Canada at the Beard House includes Louis Charest, chef at the Canadian Consulate General, Le Régence's Robert Feenie and Andrew Hewson, The Tea Box cafe's Ellen Greaves, Cena's Normand Laprise, and freelance pastry chef, Dana Speers.

Ellen Greaves is an alum of such distinguished New York restaurants as the Quilted Giraffe, La Colombe d'Or, and March, but it is at The Tea Box in the basement of the lovely Takashimaya department store that she has made her mark. Within its tranquil walls, Greaves has made a specialty of elegant Japanese bento box lunches that combine East and West in a way that seems to transcend fusion. "The Tea Box is open only for lunch and for tea, but within these limitations Ms. Greaves's talent shines," Gourmet wrote in its review. Last year, Greaves and Wayne Nish co-authored Simple Menus for the Bento Box (William Morrow).

These days, the name Normand Laprise can be found on all the food pages. GQ called Laprise of Toqué the most accomplished chef in Montreal. Food & Wine praised him for running that city's most exciting kitchen. Food Arts was wowed by his ability to "reinvent dining on the spot." And last year he was named "Chef of the Year," Canada's equivalent of a James Beard award. Nevertheless, Laprise couldn't resist New York's siren call. Today, in addition to running Toqué, he commutes to New York to oversee Cena, a sophisticated New American restaurant near Gramercy Park. "This is wonderful food," Ruth Reichl wrote in her three-star review in The New York Times. "[Laprise's] food sounds eccentric, but he is firmly in control."

Laprise isn't the only chef who has formed a habit of hopping on the Canada-to-New York shuttle. Since last summer, Robert Feenie of Vancouver's Lumière has been flying to New York once a month to oversee his transformation of Le Régence within the Hotel Plaza Athénée. He brings an impressive résumé: last year, Lumière was listed among Gourmet's "Top Tables." The Globe and Mail's Joanne Kates also named it among her "Top 10" picks, writing, "This is cooking as good as it gets in our fair country." In the same paper, Jurgen Gothe wrote that Feenie's cooking makes "people rave and swoon." But even great chefs can't go it alone, so Feenie recruited fellow Canadian Andrew Hewson as chef de cuisine for Le Régence. Hewson is a graduate of Dubrulle French Culinary School in Vancouver, B.C., and an alum of Vancouver's Sutton Place Hotel. Most recently, he worked with Feenie at Lumière. Together, the pair has "turned the [Le Régence] kitchen into one of Manhattan's most distinguished," J. Walman reported on WEVD radio.

Louis Charest doesn't need to cross borders when he cooks; globetrotters come to him. Charest is a civil servant of a most unusual sort. He has spent his years of government service as a chef, cooking for such luminaries as Canada's governor general and prime minister, assorted United Nations dignitaries, and other world leaders. Nor does Charest have your usual chef's résumé. He began as apprentice cook at a Dominican monastery, and ran his own seafood business before finding his calling as executive chef at Canada's Consulate General in New York. (Along the way, Charest has earned a closetful of medals in prestigious culinary competitions.) Unfortunately, unless you're an invited guest of some Canadian Pooh-Bah, you're unlikely to get the chance to taste Charest's delicious fare...that's if you don't reserve a spot for A Taste of the Upper North Side at the Beard House.

Oops-how could we forget dessert??! Dana Speers took a roundabout route into the kitchen via liberal arts college. But after earning her degree in philosophy in 1993, she figured that something more practical was in order, and enrolled at the Stratford Chef's School in Ontario. After graduation, she headed south, seeking practical experience in the kitchen at The Tea Box, Nobu, Montrachet, and Gotham Bar & Grill. She moved on to Lespinasse, working her way up to assistant pastry chef. Today, Speers freelances for the TV Food Network and consults for catering companies.

Watch or read the American news, and you'll barely know Canada exists. But our neighbor to the north has brought us far more than Wayne Gretzky, Celine Dion, and Peter Jennings. Among its most glorious exports are these six talented chefs.