Category Archives: Uncategorized

Dear read­ers, you read it here first.

The all-Canadian culi­nary con­tro­versy about the ori­gin of pou­tine that has sim­mered, and occa­sion­ally boiled over into a food fight, for sev­eral decades has been resolved thanks to yours truly and a trusty team of helpers.

Any pou­tine pil­grim­age worth its salt has to begin in Bois-Francs: the bucolic, ver­dant coun­try­side dot­ted with dairy farms, vil­lages and small towns an hour or two’s drive north-east of Montreal.

I’ve long wanted to visit Brasserie Mag­nan (Magnan’s Tav­ern), 2602 Rue St. Patrick: a huge vin­tage restau­rant that opened in 1932. About a 10-minute drive from down­town Mon­treal and located in a semi-industrial part of the city, this is a won­drous, mainly blue-collar eatery pop­u­lar with work­ing fel­lows and rec­om­mended to me by sev­eral chefs who go there to chow down on the famous roast beef on their day off.

This appeared in the Toronto Star on Sep­tem­ber 13, 2008.

“It’s like a death in a fam­ily,” says Sarah Dear­ing to friend Steven Davey on hear­ing the dev­as­tat­ing news.

“It is a death in the fam­ily,” he replies, express­ing what so many of us feel as we con­tinue to grieve the loss of beloved Kens­ing­ton Mar­ket restau­ra­teur Amadeu Goncalves.

This arti­cle appeared in the Toronto Star on August 13, 2008. It is one of my favourite food finds.

SEBRINGVILLE, Ont. — It pays to check fly­ers pinned to the wall of Keep-U-Neet, the trusty dry clean­ers I fre­quent in my home-town of Stratford.

QUEBEC CITY – Paul McCart­ney has left the building.

Wrong. He’s about to arrive by limo through the stat­uesque gates of the Chateau Fron­tenac: the land­mark Fair­mont hotel where he’s about to stay and where hordes of fans and paparazzi have gath­ered this sunny after­noon to catch a glimpse of the man who is arguably the world’s most famous musician.

This arti­cle appeared in The Toronto Star on July 9, 2008.

I’m in my local health food store, recipe for tofu cheese­cake in hand. It’s one of the items I’m test­ing for this arti­cle on vegan food.

At my request, the help­ful young man­ager is lead­ing the hunt for vegan gra­ham cracker crumbs.

In spite of attend­ing food con­fer­ences across the United States over the years — includ­ing a mag­i­cal few days about 15 years ago dur­ing which 100 food writ­ers were all bil­leted at winer­ies in the Napa Val­ley — I have never eaten at Chez Panisse.

Here is a dish I made the other night to rave reviews. It’s easy, delec­table and makes a great casual meal to serve friends, espe­cially for an unplanned meal. As usual with Nigella’s recipes, I had to tweak hers. It’s a winner.

Pasta with Chicken, Raisins and Pine Nuts

Every time I visit my birth­place, Mon­treal, I dis­cover some new deli­cious food source. Of course, I try to re-visit favourite spots (Schwartz’s and L’Express top that list, depend­ing on my mood.

“The food pro­duc­tion chain is really sim­ple. We plant it, we grow it, we gather it, we cook it, and then we eat it. When this process occurs with a cer­tain imme­di­acy and a min­i­mum of inter­fer­ence and, if it is nur­tured by peo­ple who are truly pas­sion­ate about what they are doing, the results can be glo­ri­ous.” — John Ash.