John Catucci is my morning meditation.
During the pandemic, he gave me hope. He’s a comedian and he is funny – in a low-key way. He is endearing. The two TV shows he hosts — You Gotta Eat Here and Big Food Bucket List — are entertaining and educational. They are life-affirming. They are two of my favourite TV food shows. Read more…
Dutch Babies are a crepe-like dish that can be filled with a variety of goodies
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Rob Firing’s barbecued ribeye steak with service berries and garlic scapes
Rob Firing has changed my life. Read more…
Carlos Frias at El Palacio de los Jugos with an array of Cuban dishes
I think it was in the early 2000s that I started making an annual pilgrimage to Miami. Read more…
This recipe is from the excellent cookbook ‘AT HOME with LYNN CRAWFORD’.
When I was interviewing well-known Canadian chef Lynn Crawford for a podcast, we chatted about our long friendship, her TV career, our joint project that raised $40,000 for a new kitchen at a Toronto homeless shelter for women called Sistering – and what we like to cook at home. Read more…
In Memoriam: Anthony Bourdain – an inspiration to me and the huge number of devotees who followed his ground-breaking, intrepid and wondrous work – committed suicide while filming an episode of Parts Unknown in France on June 8, 2018. He was one of a kind. RIP dear friend. Read more…
“I dedicate my work every day to the colleagues I lost on 9/11” – chef Michael Lomonaco.
Michael Lomonaco loves food and people. But it was an act of hate that pushed him into the spotlight: the tragic events of September 11th, 2001.
Michael was executive chef of Windows on the World: a restaurant once on top of the North Tower of the World Trade Center in New York City. Following the attacks, he helped raise $23 million for the families of foodservice workers killed that day. Those included 79 of his staff working the morning shift and a hot dog vendor on the ground outside. I interviewed him in May 2002. Read more…
This appeared as my column “Dish” in the Toronto Star in 2002. My mum Ruth Schachter (nee Nisse) died peacefully in her sleep at home in NW London UK on April 21, 2018.
Today is Mother’s Day and this is a tribute to the person who first inspired my love of food and cooking – my mum. Read more…
Some years ago, I spent a few hours in a restaurant kitchen with a young chef called Omar Houmani who was a recent immigrant to Canada from Algeria. The purpose of that evening’s venture: To learn from him how to make couscous.
Standing at the stove in front of an improvised couscoussier – a cheap large saucepan bought in Chinatown in which he had pierced holes and placed tightly on top of a large stockpot – Omar explained how he was going to prepare the couscous. By boiling water in the stockpot, he would steam our couscous in the improvised steamer on top. Read more…
For some reason – probably as an antidote to stress, this being the onset of that silly season – I’ve been cooking a lot of late, in particular trying new recipes from books by my Toronto foodie friends.
If you’ve read the previous blog – my tragic tale of the missing cookbooks – you’ll understand why the tomes in question are dear to my heart.
Especially treasured are those 100 or so that I keep close at hand on shelves I had built for this purpose in the important room where it all happens: my compact, cozy kitchen. Read more…
