Marion Kane: Food Sleuth®

Delicious Food Memoirs that Entertain and Feed the Soul

From North America to the United Kingdom, these are my favourite food memoirs

A few days ago, I was craving a Walnut Whip. I bought three of them.

Why did I have a longing for an iconic British candy first made by Duncan’s of Edinburgh in 1910? Why did a milk chocolate cone with a whipped vanilla filling and a walnut on top urgently beckon to me? The answer: I was recently researching this blog post by re-reading the compelling memoir “Toast” by Nigel Slater and watching the brilliant BBC film by the same name. Read more…

Recipe for Success – or Failure

Failed carrot cake - instead, pudding!

The Stuffed Carrot Cake I baked was obviously a failure but it was extremely tasty as a pudding

First, a little first-person backstory.

I quit my job as food editor and columnist for the Toronto Star, Canada’s largest newspaper, after 18 years in 2007. It was arguably the best job for a food journalist in Canada. Four years later, I re-invented myself as a freelance Food Sleuth. Meanwhile, I did a couple of community cookbooks with residents of Toronto public housing and for an advocacy non-profit group called FoodShare. Read more…

20 years on, I’m Still a Fan of Charming Chef Jamie Oliver

The Naked Chef - Jamie Oliver

This appeared as a longer feature article in the Toronto Star food section on January 26, 2000, after I discovered Jamie Oliver’s fledgling show “The Naked Chef” on TVO. I spoke to Jamie in the flesh a few months later when he was consulting at a London restaurant – the Toronto Star article appears below this one. Twenty years later, he’s had his ups and downs, and I am still a fan. 

Jamie Oliver must have supernatural powers. He can make a person leap out of her comfy chair, run downstairs, fling open the freezer and act on an overpowering urge to roast a leg of lamb. I should know. It happened to me. Under slightly different circumstances, it also happened to Jody Read, acquisitions programmer for TVO. Read more…

John Ota Serves up Delicious Matzo Balls in Chicken Soup

This delicious chicken soup with matzo balls from the Tenement Kitchen in New York City appears in John Ota’s book: The Kitchen
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Ingredients: A hunger for knowledge; boundless energy and enthusiasm; a love of architecture and design; a passion for cooking and for good food. Read more…

I’m a Convert to Mairlyn Smith’s Healthy Fibre Crusade

Decadent Chocolate Chunk Cookies from “Peace, Love & Fibre”  

“Dear Canadians, Fibre not only keeps you regular, it lowers your chances of developing breast cancer and heart disease. Add a salad to your day, eat a handful of nuts, switch to whole grains, eat some beans! Signed Your Body” – Mairlyn Smith. Read more…

Fond Memories of my Mother and her Delicious Food

LONDON UK – It was about six years ago and my mother and I were about to leave her flat on Steeles Rd. in Primrose Hill. We were standing in the small hallway when she put on her new navy blue gabardine coat with a hood. Read more…

Ontario Farmers and Chefs Serve up a Tasty Cookbook

Farm to Table: Celebrating Stratford Chefs School Alumni, Recipes & Perth County Producers - Andrew Coppolino

Char Siu Pork in Lettuce Cups Served at a Launch for “Farm to Table”

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It was the year 2005. In search of a geographical cure with an escape to the bucolic countryside, I moved lock, stock and barrel from the big smoke of downtown Toronto where I had lived and worked for 30 years to the small rural Ontario town of Stratford – the land famous for swine and Shakespeare. Read more…

Sistering’s Vintage Cookbook Yields a Lovely Lemon Loaf

Sistering – a drop-in for homeless and marginalized women – has been a stalwart front-line facility in downtown Toronto since 1981.

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Today, this busy place is located on Bloor West at Dovercourt and, for the past three years, it has expanded its services to be a “low-barrier” shelter. That means that they operate 24/7 and turn away no-one. With the homeless crisis reaching a peak this year and only getting worse, it’s a crowded spot. Read more…

Marion Kane, Food Sleuth®

Marion Kane has been a leader in the world of food journalism for a few decades. She is an intrepid populist whose work combines social commentary with a consuming passion for all things culinary. For 18 years, she was food editor/columnist for Canada's largest newspaper: the Toronto Star. She lives in Toronto's colourful Kensington Market and is currently a free-wheeling freelance food sleuth®, podcaster, writer and cook.

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