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…
Radio Waves Blast from the Past
Listen to CBC radio’s archival tapes by clicking on play buttons in the audio players below. Read more…
Appetite for Favourite Cookbooks
I will begin with a shocking fact: I have about 1,000 cookbooks.
When I moved into my narrow, tall townhouse in downtown Toronto about a decade ago, I organized them on shelves in my third-floor office — by ethnicity, subjects and reference books. Read more…
Holy Trinity Church Does God’s Work
Zachary Grant sits on the steps of the Church of the Holy Trinity in downtown Toronto
“loving justice in the heart of our city” – Quote from the Church of the Holy Trinity’s website
(Note: Zachary Grant has asked me to use the gender-neutral pronouns “they/them” and I have agreed.)
Zachary Grant gets the irony.
They are the community director of downtown Toronto’s the Church of the Holy Trinity just a few steps away from the massive, glitzy shopping mecca: the Eaton Centre. Read more…
A Thanksgiving Meal Means Pie
Wanda Beaver in front of her bakery-cum-café Wanda’s Pie in the Sky at the corner of Augusta Ave. and Oxford St. in Kensington Market
It’s a beautiful fall day 10 days before Thanksgiving.
The sun is streaming through the open windows at Wanda’s Pie in the Sky in downtown Toronto’s Kensington Market. I’m chatting with Wanda Beaver, the co-owner of the bakery with her husband David, sitting on a tall stool at a small, tall table. Read more…
My Favourite TV Food Shows
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…
My Favourite Food Finds and the Upside of the Pandemic
You don’t have to search for my favourite food finds. They are readily available.
Food is a universal connector. Therefore, this blog post is about much more than food.
The global pandemic we’re living through is a mass trauma. I’ve been up and down for the past year. I sometimes have cabin fever and feel like a captive in my own home. I have floating anxiety, sometimes bordering on panic. But there’s an upside for me to these surreal and turbulent times. In a nutshell, I have slowed down. Read more…
Recipe for Success – or Failure
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…
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.
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…
Surviving the Apocalypse Involves Dutch Babies
Dutch Babies are a crepe-like dish that can be filled with a variety of goodies
Read more…
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