[1] MacKay first entered the food industry as a fry cook in Vancouver, British Columbia.

[1] He later became executive chef at Daniel Boulud's Lumière restaurant in Vancouver, following the departure of Rob Feenie from the establishment in 2007, until its closure in 2011.

He won the Top Chef Canada title soon afterward, investing his prize money in the venues, but closed them in 2012 after determining that rental costs in downtown Vancouver were too expensive for them to become profitable.

In early 2013, MacKay announced that he was returning to his hometown of Saskatoon, Saskatchewan to open a new restaurant.

[13] In 2019 he began appearing as a rotating judge on the BBQ competition series Fire Masters, which airs in Canada on Food Network and in the US on Cooking Channel.