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…

Chef Michael Stadtlander is Canada’s Father of Farm to Table

December 8, 2021

Chef Michael Stadtlander with his wife Nobuyo and their son Hermann in the kitchen at Haisai

Serendipity sometimes happens.

It was on a Saturday evening in November when we drove on dark country roads from the Blue Mountains in Collingwood to the little village of Singhampton about two hours north of Toronto. The small restaurant Haisai was our destination. Read more…

Surviving and Thriving in Toronto’s Kensington Market

February 23, 2021

(Left to right) Potsothy (Pots) Sallapa, Adam Zimmerman, Danny Zimmerman at
4 Life Natural Foods

Whither Kensington?

These are podcasts recorded a few years ago about the changing nature of Kensington Market.

Everyone knows him as Pots. His full name is Potsothy Sallapa. This popular, kind, soft-spoken man has found his roots — literally and figuratively.

His dream is to build a rooftop greenhouse above his store 4 Life Natural Foods on Augusta Ave. in Toronto’s downtown Kensington Market. These are the literal roots. Read more…

Recipe for Success – or Failure

July 8, 2020

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…

Greek Salad and Whole Roasted Cauliflower are Tops in “The Last Schmaltz”

November 8, 2018

Country Greek from “The Last Schmaltz” is a Salad Comprised of
the Usual Ingredients Plus the Welcome Addition of Chickpeas

What is a nice Jewish boy from North York doing with a mini-empire of quirky restaurants in a gritty neighbourhood of downtown Toronto? Doing pretty well is the short answer. Read more…

Mutual Love of Prunes is One Bond I Have with Gabriella

September 20, 2018

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…

Chef Lynn Returns to Scottish Roots with Mince ‘n’ Tatties

October 15, 2017

This recipe is from the excellent cookbook ‘AT HOME with LYNN CRAWFORD’.

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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…

Linda McCartney Signed My Book “Go Veggie, Marion!”

August 22, 2017

This article by me appeared in the Toronto Star after I interviewed Linda McCartney in Toronto in October, 1991 about her vegetarian cookbook “Home Cooking”. Sadly, she died too young from breast cancer in 1998 at the age of 56.

In real life, Linda McCartney is nothing like the stilted photo that graces her cookbook.

And, say I, thank goodness for that. Read more…

My New, Improved Version of Chicken Marbella – and a Killer Side Dish of Fried Onions

February 24, 2014

When famous American chef/restaurateur Thomas Keller was in Toronto last year to address an auditorium packed with chefs, foodies and other ardent fans, he listed what he considers the keys to success in cooking: “Patience, persistence, practice.”

These three ‘P’s, it seems to me, go together. To persist, you need patience. It’s a case of constantly tweaking a dish – and practising it over and over again – until it’s close to perfect.

In this case, I’m talking about that iconic concoction called Chicken Marbella – one that’s been a crowd-pleaser at dinner parties since it appeared in that ground-breaking “Silver Palate Cookbook” by Manhattan caterers Sheila Lukins and Julee Rosso published in 1979. Read more…

Big Apple Bites: Weird Grasshopper Tacos and Superb Brussels Sprouts at Toloache

March 22, 2012

Manhattan-20120212-00041 — Brilliant Brussels Sprouts at Toloache

I recently spent four glorious days in midtown Manhattan.

For two of those, I was pretty much closeted in the Roger Smith Hotel attending back-to-back seminars at a cookbook conference. Read more…