 The era my professional cooking is grounded in: I put a chef jacket on for the first time in 1985. I was an apprentice in a French restaurant with a chef-owner from Lausanne, Switzerland. Fortunately for me, André Donnet looked toward Europe. I was free to dream of staging in France and eight years later it happened. I matured through the 90s during the New York and British invasion (that’s what it felt like to me in my mid-20s to 30s) and I was influenced by a young Jean Georges Vongerichten at the Lafayette and JoJo, Joel Robuchon at Jamin, Lydia Shire at Biba in Boston, St. John, Sally Clarke, The Quilted Giraffe, Mark Miller, Alastair Little… Some of the chefs I admire: Eugénie Brazier, I hope soon you’ll know all the reasons why. Fernand Point for his joie de vivre, abundant spirit, and his respect and admiration for women. This is something I wrote about them a few months before going to writing school. Deborah Madison. Who can forget Greens? I was a vegetarian for a long stretch of time in my teens and it was formative. My favourite station to work in a restaurant kitchen is entremetier. Joyce Goldstein...Judy Rodgers…Peggy Smith…Lindsey Remolif Shere…Barbara Tropp Professional cookbooks that are precious to me: River Cafe Blue Book. I have a British edition full of memorabilia. As soon as I got it I knew I would stage there and five years later I was getting off the Tube at Hammersmith station. That spring morning walk along the Thames to the restaurant is a tattoo on my memory and spirit. Chez Panisse Cooking. Paul Bertolli with Alice Waters. the Gail Skoff edition. Again, crammed full of love with pages falling out from how much I have cooked from it. Also, a former student gifted me a copy of Patricia Curtains, Menus from Chez Panisse (signed for me) and it is a book that I sometimes fall into visually. The Natural Cuisine of Georges Blanc. Extraordinary and revolutionary. It vividly expresses a love of family and place. White Heat. I have a first British edition bought in 1990. Shook is how I felt at the time — in the first year of cooking school. La Varenne Pratique by Anne Willan. It should still be in print. My bible for most basics. It was the companion text to Escoffier at chef school. Food writing that changed me: Elizabeth David’s An Omelette and a Glass of Wine. Christmas 1991 was alive and magic because of it. I read a chapter in it for research this past week. The Unprejudiced Palate by Angelo Pellegrini. A charming and wise voice for immigrant Italian culture and cooking in the Pacific Northwest. Kermit Lynch’s Adventures on the Wine Route. Read it as a first-year student on the urging of a wine instructor. Many of us have made the pilgrimage to his shop in Berkeley. Jeffrey Steingarten in Vogue. I shared so many of his articles with my Larder students. What do I cook now? Vegetable and vegetarian side dishes. I like having a few things in the fridge that improve with time. Dishes that I can shape shift with other ingredients over a day or two. I made the carrot and chickpea curry above last week with a watercress, mint, and coriander salad. It was vegan and a tight-budget pleaser. Funky dinner salads with canned, fresh, or smoked fish and shaved vegetables and crispy rice — thank you for the inspiration Daniela Galarza. Anything I can marinate in Shio koji — chicken is *swoon.* Fisherman’s Sauce made with too much garlic and anchovies. I love to bake and will forever be grateful for the quality of my professional pastry training. It set me apart from a lot of cooks. What is my ideal season? I could not do without all four Canadian season. But as a proficient canner and jam maker, I’m built for May to October. What tastes better than raspberries, apricots, black currants, Brandywine tomatoes, asparagus, flat green pole beans, Lacinato kale, and Hubbard squash. The pleasure of opening a jar of something special on a February day when I’ve stopped believing in everything. What historical figures would I like to cook for me? Myrtle Allen, Alain Chapel, Robert Carrier, Penelope Casas. *** My mom had a Cricut machine and made a scrapbook for me. I was going to crop the congratulations out and then I realized it’s perfect. That’s me in grade seven accepting a prize for an essay I wrote for the Maitland Valley Conservation Authority. It’s wild how long I’ve thought I wasn’t a writer. *laughs* Slow Down. *** I needed love this week. I’ll listen to any song with a horn section and a woman in a leotard and leggings. Snoh Allegra is this generations Roberta Flack — a sublime voice and a seductive tempo. 20242021Comments are closed.
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