Marion Kane: Food Sleuth®

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Dessert

Recipe for Success – or Failure

July 8, 2020

Failed carrot cake - instead, pudding!

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…

Filed Under: 9/11, Baking, Bonnie Stern, Chef Michael Lomonaco, Chicken, Chicken, Dessert, Fall vegetables, Mairlyn Smith, New York City, Podcasts, Recipe, Toronto Tagged With: carrot cake, Chicken, Ian Brown, Jennifer Segal, Jerusalem, Mairlyn Smith, michael lomonaco, mustard sauce, nigella lawson, pudding, recipe, recipe mistakes, Sittin' in the Kitchen, Yotam Ottolenghi

Sistering’s Vintage Cookbook Yields a Lovely Lemon Loaf

December 19, 2018

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

listen to the podcast

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…

Filed Under: Baking, Dessert, Recipe, Toronto, Women Tagged With: baking, homeless women, lemon loaf, recipe, sistering, Toronto

Surviving the Apocalypse Involves Dutch Babies

November 24, 2018

Dutch BabiesDutch Babies are a crepe-like dish that can be filled with a variety of goodies
Read more…

Filed Under: Baking, Beef, Chefs, Cookbooks, Dessert, Foodies, Montreal, Podcasts, Recipe, Restaurant Tagged With: anthony bourdain, baking, Canadian cuisine, cookbook, David McMillan, Dutch Babies, Fred Morin, Joe Beef, Joe Beef: Surviving the Apocalypse, Montreal, recipe

Mutual Love of Prunes is One Bond I Have with Gabriella

September 20, 2018

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

listen to the podcast

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…

Filed Under: Baking, Cookbooks, Dessert, Fall vegetables, Foodies, New York City, Recipe, Vegan, Vegetables, Women Tagged With: dessert, Gabriella Gershenson, Joy of Cooking, Lebanese, New York, prune souffle, recipe, stuffed zucchini, Vegetables

My Lovely Late Mum Ruth Made a Mean Beef Stroganoff

May 19, 2018

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…

Filed Under: Baking, Beef Stroganoff, childhood, Dessert, identity, Jewish, Latvia, Linzertorte, London, My mum Ruth Schachter, Recipe, Riga, Women Tagged With: beef, Beef Stroganoff recipe, dessert, linzertorte, London, mum, My mum Ruth Schachter, recipe

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

December 6, 2017

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…

Filed Under: Banana bread, Chefs, Cookbooks, Dessert, Fruit, Recipe, Restaurant, Uncategorized Tagged With: Bread is Gold, caramelized bananas, cookbook, Italy, Massimo Bottura, Modena, Osteria Francescana, recycling

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”:  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…

Filed Under: Baking, Chefs, Chocolate, Cookbooks, Dessert, Foodies, Nigella Lawson, Recipe Tagged With: cake, chocolate, chocolate dessert, cookbook, delicious dessert, feast, nigella lawson, recipe, torte

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

May 23, 2016

Martinson coffee and sour cream coffee cake

Martinson coffee, founded by my great-uncle Joe Martinson, and a coffee cake to go with it

This appeared in the Toronto Star in 2002. I was reminded of it when I was at a Wegmans supermarket in New York State and bought a can of Martinson’s coffee.

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…

Filed Under: Dessert, Latvia, New York City, Recipe, Riga, Sleuthing Tagged With: coffee, coffee cake, Joe, Martinson, New York, recipe

My Top Spots to Nosh in South Beach, Miami

March 21, 2016

a key lime pie from home

My ultimate Key Lime Pie, Florida’s signature dessert (scroll down for recipe)

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Miami, Fla: I call Miami “New York on the beach.” Read more…

Filed Under: Dessert, Key Lime Pie, Pie, Pie, Podcasts, Recipe Tagged With: key lime pie, Miami, South Beach Miami; restaurants and cafes; Tap-Tap Haitian food; Puerto Sagua Cuban restaurant; Delano Hotel Kobe Burger

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

November 30, 2015

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…

Filed Under: apple, Dessert, identity, Latvia, My mum Ruth Schachter, Recipe Tagged With: apple galette normande, apples, baking, Canada, daughter, holocaust, holocaust survivor, Latvia, London, memories, mother, WWII

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Marion Kane, Food Sleuth®

Marion Kane, Food Sleuth®

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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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