Douglas King

Coming Up

Douglas King trained at University of Alberta before stepping into the spotlight as Head Chef at Pigeonhole in Calgary, Canada (from 2018). Today, Douglas is Executive Chef of Pigeonhole. The arc of his career has the clean decisiveness of a well-composed plate: training first, then the move into leadership, and then the steady refinement that comes with guiding a kitchen whose food is meant to feel both current and rooted. At Pigeonhole, that perspective shows in a menu built around small plates and the kind of detail that rewards close attention.

Where They Are Now

Now in the executive post, King leads a restaurant defined by Modern Canadian small plates, a style that gives him room to let ingredients speak with clarity and restraint. His stated cooking priority is "Using high-quality, organic and local ingredients." That focus gives the kitchen its particular rhythm, one shaped by seasonality, careful sourcing, and a respect for what arrives at the pass. One ingredient note is especially direct: "We are receiving beautiful fresh lamb from Ewe-Nique Farms in Champion, Alberta, that we use in our tartare dish. We rest it on a bed of hay to dry it out and the flavour is clean and outstanding." It is a glimpse into the kitchen’s sensibility—straightforward in description, but vivid in its method, with the hay, the lamb, and the tartare coming together in a way that suggests texture as much as taste. In that statement sits the story of a homecoming, and of a chef finding the right room for his ambitions.

Signature

Douglas's signature dishes include Colcannon. In the context of Pigeonhole’s Modern Canadian small plates, it reads as a dish with comfort and character, the kind of plate that can carry memory while still fitting neatly into a contemporary setting. It is the sort of signature that helps define a chef’s voice: familiar enough to invite, specific enough to remember.

In Their Words “We are receiving beautiful fresh lamb from Ewe-Nique Farms in Champion, Alberta, that we use in our tartare dish. We rest it on a bed of hay to dry it out and the flavour is clean and outstanding.”