It was Sheila Dillon – longtime host of The Food Programme on BBC 4 – who recommended I get in touch with Kerstin Rodgers on my recent two-week visit to my favourite city and childhood home: London, England. Read more…
My psychic bond with Nora Ephron, though one-sided (my side, of course), is a long-standing one
I have never met the brilliant American author, movie director, screenwriter, humourist and foodie but feel I know her well.
I did interview her by phone for my column in the Toronto Star a few years ago when her hilarious little book about the downside of being a middle-aged woman came out called I Feel Bad About My Neck. I could relate. Read more…
It took a flurry of e-mails and phone calls between publicists and p.a’s but I finally obtained an audience with Martha Stewart: one of the most powerful women (up there with Oprah, methinks) in North America and now the come-back queen of cuisine.
She was one of the stars at this year’s annual South Beach Wine & Food Festival: a four-day feast on the beach that took place from Feb 19 to 22.
Like everything in Miami – home to the SUV, boob-jobs, tanned abs and obscenely large restaurant portions – the event was a non-stop, over-the-top wing-ding. Celebrity chefs cooked up a storm, the King and Queen of Spain attended celebrations of Spanish food and there were all manner of before- and after-parties at swanky hotels like the Raleigh and Delano. Needless to say, the booze flowed freely. Read more…
This appeared in the Toronto Star food section in November, 2008.
Dear readers, you read it here first.
The all-Canadian culinary controversy about the origin of poutine that has simmered, and occasionally boiled over into a food fight, for several decades has been resolved thanks to yours truly and a trusty team of helpers. Read more…
QUEBEC CITY – Paul McCartney has left the building.
Wrong. He’s about to arrive by limo through the statuesque gates of the Chateau Frontenac: the landmark Fairmont hotel where he’s about to stay and where hordes of fans and paparazzi have gathered this sunny afternoon to catch a glimpse of the man who is arguably the world’s most famous musician.
Nope. The latest buzz is that McCartney, whose free outdoor concert for an audience of 200,000 happens tomorrow on the famed Plains of Abraham, has surreptitiously entered by a back door. Read more…
SOUTH BEACH, Fla. – Lee Schrager, the energetic fellow who founded the annual South Beach Wine and Food festival seven years ago, is one smart cookie.
After all, who, in his/her right mind would not move heaven and earth to attend North America’s biggest food event of its kind in February – a month when most of this continent is experiencing the worst of winter. I should know; I live in Stratford in the heart of Ontario’s snow-belt – one of the reasons I’ve headed south to Miami for this mammoth gastro-fest for the past three years. Read more…
In case you didn’t catch my chat with host Jeff Goodes on Fresh Air on CBC Radio on Saturday morning, January 27, here’s a list of places I mentioned during our discussion about eating out in winter:
Down the Street, Stratford, Ontario, especially for its warm welcome but also for the cozy decor and excellent food. Read more…
Just as I’m not a fan of food gadgets – being technically challenged is one reason, finding the wooden spoon, whisk, a good quality iron skillet and good knife to be key tools of the trade is another – I am not one who seeks out the latest trendy ingredient.
However, it does make my day when I find a food – from humble to haute – that packs a powerful punch of taste and/or texture. Here are a few I’ve discovered lately: Read more…
My brother Eric and I were both born in Montreal. We didn’t live there long as the wanderings of our academic parents began soon after, taking us to Halifax, Nova Scotia, followed by London, England, where we spent 15 years and then back to Canada in the late ’60s.
Still, that lovely city of my birth has always loomed large, partly because, as children, we regularly made summer visits there to see both sets of grandparents, crossing the Atlantic several times by ocean liner (not a good memory) and because my dad would sometimes talk about growing up in that city’s famous Jewish neighbourhood now called Mile End or The Main. Read more…
