My Fun Eatcyclopedia from 1989

January 9, 2023

Marion Kane: On food and cooking — EATERS’ DIGEST: Food editor Marion Kane hungers for knowledge and shares a fact feast with readers. It is young me dressed in a hat adorned with plastic fruit, sitting on pile of books and wearing carrot slippers.

I began my career in food journalism by accident. Before that, I attained B.Ed. in French and English as a Second language. I taught New Canadians for several years and I was a social worker. In the late 1970s, my journalist friend assigned me a few restaurant reviews for Toronto Life. Next, I heard that the Toronto Sun was searching for a food editor – I spent the role from 1983 to 1989. In that year, a Life Editor for The Toronto Star reached out to me – I accepted the offer. I found my calling and my consuming passion – writing about chefs, home cooks and recipes. My role as a food editor/columnist at the Star lasted 18 years. I resigned in 2007 as a freelance Food Sleuth® creating podcasts and blogs on social media. This is a feature, illustrated by the above photo of me, from the Toronto Sun appeared in 1989. Read more…

My Favourite TV Food Shows

July 15, 2021

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…

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

June 10, 2019

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…

Sweet! Two Delectable Chocolate Creations That Take the Cake

March 10, 2017

Click on this – my podcast chat with domestic goddess Nigella Lawson recorded in Toronto in late 2015 – and you’ll hear her say that we are “kitchen cousins”: https://www.marionkane.com/podcast/chat-nigella-kitchen-cousin

She’s referring to several important things we have in common: A willingness to freely improvise when cooking; an acceptance of failure in the kitchen as a necessary path to learning, and a penchant for eating her dish of Squid and Orzo Pasta cold for breakfast.

Nigella and I have another important bond: a love of chocolate cakes. In her book “Feast,” published in 2004, there is an entire chapter – beloved my me – called “Chocolate Hall of Fame.” This collection of nine recipes includes her famous Chocolate Guinness Cake – delicious but tends to sink in the middle – Chocolate Gingerbread, also good, and Chocolate Malteser Cake that I haven’t yet made. Read more…

As I Turn 70, Immaturity and Hair Dye Keep me Young

August 20, 2016

“Immaturity and hair dye keep me young.”

I’m repeating the title of this post for a few reasons: First, everything clever is worth repeating. It usually gets a good laugh – one of life’s giddiest pleasures, especially at my age. It’s true and unabashedly honest. It sums up what’s to follow – the announcement that I turn 70 in a few days. And last, it’s original.

I used to think I stole this funny line from my beloved heroine: the American journalist, author, screenwriter and director Nora Ephron. I steal a lot from that eminently quotable woman who died too young at 71 in 2012 from a rare form of leukemia. It’s hard not to steal from her because we seem to have parallel lives. I talk about her in the present because she lives on in my heart.

We both love food and cooking. We consider crushed pineapple mandatory in carrot cake, we like meatloaf – done right – and both have a recipe for cottage cheese pancakes. We both adore Julia Child and all that she’s about. Read more…

The Doc ‘Semisweet’ is Beautiful, Bittersweet – and Choco-Locate is the App for That

June 5, 2012

Nia and Awa who escaped from Côte d’Ivoire

I was attending the recent launch for the documentary Semisweet at the Royal Cinema in Toronto’s Little Italy.

I had already watched the film twice at home and was telling its producer Lalita Krishna before the screening how its poignant ending had made me cry. “That’s the sign of a good film,” she replied softly. And I agree. Read more…

London’s Hot – and Top – Spots to Nosh

June 6, 2011

Two weeks in London (U.K.) last month wasn’t long enough to sleuth the hot ‘n’ happening food scene in that fair city.

In the 1950s and ’60s, when I spent formative years there, bagels and baguettes were a novelty In fact, my Canadian dad used to make a pilgrimage to Soho’s Berwick St. Market to find cobs of corn: an imported delicacy in those days that cost the equivalent of a dollar apiece. Sunday was the day for our visit to Zlotnick’s in the North London suburb of Finchley where we lived to purchase bagels – almost unknown in our white, white-collar, white-bread nabe – at that lone Jewish deli.

Today, London is a hot-bed of delicious chow – from the nutrient-packed, luscious Muesli pot at Pret a Manger to high-end stuff like snails at the new St. John Hotel. What’s more, corn is on almost every menu along with harissa, veal cheeks, smoked eel, burrata, lovage and other exotica. Read more…

Recipe Mistakes can be Serious

January 13, 2009

A recipe mistake can be downright dangerous.

Take the case of Aunt Vertie’s Sugar Cookies: a confection that appeared in a 1991 issue of Gourmet.

Unable to find wintergreen extract, the magazine’s testers substituted wintergreen oil in that recipe: a substance sold in some pharmacies to treat sore muscles. Read more…