​ABOUT US
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​Our Founders

Doug & Jewel Taylor have been together for more than 40 years!

They met when Doug's band started playing at the restaurant Jewel owned.  While Jewel originally hails from Horseshoe Bay,  the couple moved around for years before settling in North Vancouver in the 1980's.

These days when they aren't planning food tours & connecting with tour partners, they are running after 3 small grandkids. 

Doug is a serial entrepreneur specializing in Real Estate and Jewel's background in Restaurant Management inspired Taste Vancouver Food Tours.

After a few holidays that included trying food tours in a few other North American cities, they realized that Vancouver was missing the opportunity to showcase the rich history and delicious culinary scene. The result? Taste Vancouver Food Tours was born! 
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Operations Management

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Maria Bellamy is our operations manager and behind-the-scenes person. With a background in tourism & hospitality, Maria has the perfect combination of skills to manage the day-to-day happenings at Taste Vancouver Food Tours. From assigning tour guides to connecting with our restaurant partners and managing our booking system, Maria is the glue of all we do!

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Marketing Management

Catherine Mellon joined the Taste Vancouver team in 2017. A Digital Marketing specialist with a passion for the City of Vancouver, her specialty is connecting people to fantastic local places, events & people. Taste Vancouver is the perfect combination of all of these. Catherine has been known to work the occasional shifts as a Tour Guide because of her love for the tours.

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Our Tour Guides

Brent Hirose
Senior Tour Guide

Hailing from Winnipeg, Manitoba, a storied city with the most restaurants per-capita in Canada, He's always had a great love of food and history, and loves spreading that love in his new hometown of Vancouver. Food is best enjoyed with good company and conversation, and Brent aims to make every tour as filled with interesting knowledge and fun times as possible, while sharing his passion for the city & the many delicious foods on offer on each tour. 

Tia Glenn-Cooke
Tour Guide

Tia originally hails from from Northern Ontario. Since moving to BC in 2007, she’s continually hunting out new food & drinks, and doing her best to imitate her favourite flavours at home.Tia performs improv and stand up comedy all over the city. She believes the beautiful marriage of good stories and great food is what makes Taste Vancouver the best way to introduce new friends to her favourites (like the sweet and savoury empanadas of El Dorado in LoLo and Bao Down’s Bao Chicka Bao Bao in Gastown) every weekend. 

Matteo Marra
​​Tour Guide

Matteo is a Canadian-born Italian with a passion for great food who  learned about food through working as a chef and travelling Italy. Commercial Drive is one of Matteo's favourite spots in the city, and there's no better place to pick up a panini than our first stop, La Grotta Del Formaggio. He always enjoys spending a great afternoon with guests on the Taste Vancouver "Little Italy" tour.

Jordy Matheson
Tour Guide

Jordy is an improviser, writer, and actor in Vancouver. He has always enjoyed learning about the history and culture of the places he has traveled to, and is so happy to be doing that now for people who want to learn what Vancouver has to offer.

​He especially enjoys introducing people to Vancouver's food scene. He looks forward to meeting all the curious, hungry, tour guests who are joining the tours.

Tracy Jennison
Tour Guide

Tracy arrived in Vancouver in 2016 and promptly dove into one of her favourite pastimes, exploring the city's culinary scene.  A foodie at heart she has come to embrace Gastown and all the history, culture and great food it has to offer. 

​A true storyteller, Tracy loves sharing Vancouver's rich history with fellow adventurers while experiencing some wonderful flavours along the way.

Max Wallace
Tour Guide

Max is a local actor and writer. Born and raised in and around the Toronto area, he has always had a deep passion for food, travel and meeting new people. When not on stage, he has worked as a cook in many different restaurants over the years, from small cafe/bistros to large fine dining establishments.

His industry experience and travels around the world have given him a detailed understanding and appreciation for food. Max loves to show people around this amazing city  and can't wait to share it with you!"

Sean Sonier
​Tour Guide

Sean LOVES food. He often finds himself talking about his next meal while eating his current one.
One of the best feelings in the world is discovering a new restaurant. he hasn't stopped talking about SALT Tasting Room since he first went there.

It's probably the Maritimer in him that loves to shares stories and food with family, friends and complete strangers! Vancouver is rich with history and filled with yummy eats and Sean is thrilled to share that all with you.