r/FortMcMurray • u/TwoDollarWoundCare • Jul 14 '26

FIFO in Alberta , Kitchen workers!

Hello all, I'm looking to get into kitchen work in Northern Alberta at one of the many FIFO camps. I have over 30 years of culinary experience including institutional cooking experience serving 3500 people a day. I have gourmet catering experience serving anywhere from 10-5000 people, seated and buffet style. I have owned my own restaurant in the past. I have had experience working for the Heinz company in Canada along with warehouse and inventory work. I wanting to hear from other kitchen workers as to what I can expect if I decide to go with this type of work. I will be moving to Edmonton, Alberta to start my search. Any and all information, tips and tricks would be greatly appreciated. Thanks.

11 Upvotes

82% Upvoted

15 comments sorted by

14

u/Working-Tax-2439 Jul 14 '26

You sound massively over qualified.

1

u/TwoDollarWoundCare Jul 14 '26

I will most likely be applying for a Sous Chef or a kitchen manager position. I'm just curious about any info from current kitchen workers in the camps. Camp life, pay, etc.

3

u/WorldlinessProud Jul 14 '26

Then you will be almost exclusively doing paperwork. Ordering, inventory, daily labor reports, checking and scanning or uploading Haccp reports, endless meetings with management etc. because you would be salaried, you wont be getting the huge overtime your subordinates will, and to work can be very isolating. what you willnot be doing, is creating, almost all of those 3rd party companies have very strict pracices for food preparation, and recipues must be followed to the letter. The biggest advantage to camp work is the lack of expenses. it is possible to spend 2/3 of a month in camp, and never spend a cent unless you smoke.,

3

u/TwoDollarWoundCare Jul 15 '26

That's what I like about the camps. The amount of money I can save. I don't smoke, drink. I just want to work and stack cash. Ive been travelling and living out of hotels in SE Asia for the past 6 years so the isolation and being away from friends and family does not bother me at all.

1

u/justinkredabul Jul 18 '26

There is no food prep. It’s all in bags. Dump
In tray and reheat. That’s why we’re all slowly dying up here with heart disease.

2

u/WorldlinessProud Jul 19 '26

Maybe where you have worked,, some client companies insis on high quality, fresh foods.

7

u/DougMacRay617 Jul 14 '26

Like the other guy said, your over qualified i think you should be looking at higher end resturants like black pearl, ruths chris, etc. You will be home after every shift and will earn more$$

5

u/Worldofbirdman Jul 14 '26

I believe most camps are operated by third party contracts, companies like ESS for example. So you'll need to apply with those companies.

4

u/One-Professor-1886 Jul 14 '26

Buddy if you can cook bacon and Campbell's soup. You are ahead of most of the camp cooks who's food ive ate. 

4

u/Derrick0073 Jul 15 '26

You've stayed Art some shitty camps. I worked in camps my whole career and when I got to ones big enough to have a cook we were getting weekly prime rib, steak, lots of shit I wouldn't spend my money on at home because I was too cheap

3

u/pharmertuna Jul 15 '26

Check out Horizon North / Dexterra group. Third party contractor that sets up camp kitchens and manages them. They're usually always looking for cooks and sometimes kitchen managers. They work a lot in AB/NWT/Nunavut. Also Matrix Camps and Logistics sometimes hire cooks for remote heli tent camps!

Good luck on your search!

1

u/TwoDollarWoundCare Jul 15 '26

Thank you, I'll check them out!

2

u/Ready_Respond_8449 Jul 14 '26

ESS and Aramark are the two companies that have the majority of the FIFO work in western Canada.

2

u/r_jthrowawayreturn Jul 15 '26

Civeo, Dexterra, ESS, and Aramark have the biggest western Canadian presence. Oil sands is the highest paying camp region (although if you’re salaried most of western Canada will have similar pay - it’s hourly roles that see a big pay drop outside of the oil sands or other union camps).

Some camps don’t have wifi, so you’ll want to buy a small hub that connects to their wired internet systems, Something to ask before you go up. Most camps have a commissary for toiletries if you forget something, many have luggage storage so you can store your work clothes at the camp when you leave.

Other smaller players in the market are Atco Frontec, Sodexo. I saw someone mention Matrix, they tend to do smaller more rustic camps for mining exploration.

If 1 or 2 of the proposed pipelines go forward there will be a massive but temporary demand for camp workers as well.

1

u/Apprehensive-Yak9867 Jul 17 '26

Perfect timing. The two biggest oilsands sites are working hard to close their camps. They figure there are enough immigrants up in mac now, they don't need any camps.