Marion Kane: Food Sleuth®

Dessert

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…

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…

Mutual Love of Prunes is One Bond I Have with Gabriella

Prune Soufflé
The Prune Soufflé that my mother used to make from her 1940s edition of the ‘Joy of Cooking’

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It was May, 2004, during a glitzy dinner celebrating that year’s James Beard Awards at a mid-Manhattan hotel.

Gabriella Gershenson, at that time a fledgling food writer living in New York, was seated next to me. I discovered that I and this soft-spoken young woman with thick, wavy black hair and a winning smile were kindred souls. Read more…

My Lovely Late Mum Ruth Made a Mean Beef Stroganoff

My mother Ruth Schachter (née Nisse) in the garden of her flat in Primrose Hill, London UK, in 2014

I wrote this in 2002 when I was food editor for the Toronto Star. My dear mother, 95, died peacefully in her sleep a month ago 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…

Terrific Cookbook “Bread is Gold” by Massimo Bottura and Friends is Pure Gold

Massimo Bottura & Friends - Bread is Gold cookbook

“Bread is Gold” is the result of the “refettorio” launched at Milan’s Expo in 2015. Top-notch recipes from famous international chefs creatively use discarded food. The caramelized bananas with balsamic drizzle from the book are delicious! Read more…

Sweet! Two Delectable Chocolate Creations That Take the Cake

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”:  http://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…

It’s the Real Cup of Joe – Going Strong for More Than 100 Years

Martinson coffee and sour cream coffee cake

Martinson coffee, founded by my great-uncle Joe Martinson

This column appeared in the Toronto Star in 2002. I was reminded of it recently when I stayed in a hotel in Kitchener, Ontario, and found this coffee in the room.

A cup of joe.

Who would have thought I am related – albeit distantly – to the “Joe” of that famous culinary phrase.

It all began, as is often the case, almost by accident. Read more…

Mum, I Knew I Was Coming So I Baked a Cake

Mum in her garden, 2014Mum with Ruthie and Esther, 2015

Top photo: My mother, Ruth Schachter, in her NW London garden in 2014

Bottom photo: Mum in 2015, after her serious fall, with my daughters Ruthie (L) and Esther (R)

In Memoriam: My mother Ruth Schachter (nee Nisse), age 95, died peacefully in her sleep at home in NW London UK on April 21, 2018. 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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