Marion Kane: Food Sleuth®

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Jewish

Fond Memories of my Mum and her Delicious Food

April 19, 2019

LONDON UK – It was about six years ago and my mother and I were about to leave her flat on Steeles Rd. in Primrose Hill. We were standing in the small hallway when she put on her new navy blue gabardine coat with a hood. Read more…

Filed Under: addiction, Baking, Holocaust, identity, Jewish, Latvia, London, My mum Ruth Schachter, Personal Change, Recipe, Recovery, Riga, Seafood, Story, Women Tagged With: anniversary, Coulibiac, Latvia, linzertorte, London, mother, mum, pastry, recipe, Riga, Ruth, salmon, yogurt

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…

Filed Under: Chefs, Fall vegetables, Jewish, Recipe, Salad, Toronto, Vegan, Vegetables Tagged With: Anthony Rose, Greek, Greek salad, hummus, Jewish, restaurant, roasted cauliflower, Toronto, Vegetables

I Ate Up These Delicious Food Memoirs and So Will You

June 19, 2018

“The table could sometimes breed violence and it could be the backdrop to the proscribed and the forbidden and the perverse … But feeding people made them happy; it made me happy, and grounded me.” From “Treyf” by Elissa Altman

From left to right in the photo above, here are my favourite food memoirs. All of them are beautifully written (in varying degrees) and all evoke the way food played a part in the author’s life. Some contain a bonus: recipes. Read more…

Filed Under: addiction, alcoholism, Chefs, childhood, Cookbooks, Food Industry, Foodies, Healing power of food, identity, Jewish, Judith Jones, Julia Child, Recipe Tagged With: 32 yolks, anthony bourdain, books, cookbooks, david leite, elissa altman, eric ripert, Jacques Pepin, judith jones, julia child, kim severson, kitchen confidential, nigel slater, notes on a banana, spoon fed, tenth muse, The Apprentice, the hungry years, toast, treyf, Vikram Vij, william leith

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

Co-Authors Reclaim, Redo and Redeem Gefilte Fish!

November 24, 2016

“Bland, intractably beige, and (most unforgivably of all) suspended in jelly, the bottled version seemed to have been fashioned, golem-like, from a combination of packing material and crushed hope.” From an article about gefilte fish by Rebecca Flint Marx in The New Yorker (October, 2016)

listen to the podcast

The above is eloquent testimony to the bad reputation of gefilte fish – a downhome, humble staple at the Jewish holiday table. Read more…

Filed Under: Cookbooks, Jewish, Recipe Tagged With: Brooklyn, gefilte fish, Jeffery Yoskowitz, Jewish Cooking, Liz Alpern, New York, recipe, terrine

As I Turn 70, Immaturity and Hair Dye Keep me Young

August 20, 2016

“Immaturity and hair dye keep me young.”

I’m repeating the title of this post for a few reasons: First, everything clever is worth repeating. It usually gets a good laugh – one of life’s giddiest pleasures, especially at my age. It’s true and unabashedly honest. It sums up what’s to follow – the announcement that I turn 70 in a few days. And last, it’s original.

I used to think I stole this funny line from my beloved heroine: the American journalist, author, screenwriter and director Nora Ephron. I steal a lot from that eminently quotable woman who died too young at 71 in 2012 from a rare form of leukemia. It’s hard not to steal from her because we seem to have parallel lives. I talk about her in the present because she lives on in my heart.

We both love food and cooking. We consider crushed pineapple mandatory in carrot cake, we like meatloaf – done right – and both have a recipe for cottage cheese pancakes. We both adore Julia Child and all that she’s about. Read more…

Filed Under: Chocolate, Jewish, Julia Child, London, Mel Schachter, My mum Ruth Schachter, Podcasts Tagged With: food editor, julia child, kensington market, nora ephron, turning 70; aging

I Net the News on Fish and Chips from Humble to Haute, from London To Toronto

July 9, 2015

fish-and-chips3

My love of fish and chips dates back to formative years growing up in London, U.K., the historical home of this popular, populist, down-home dish.

In my early teens, I recall joining Girl Guides where we lived in the North London suburb of Finchley – then a white-collar, white-bread enclave where my Jewish family stood out like a sore thumb. Read more…

Filed Under: Jewish, London, Restaurant, Seafood, Toronto Tagged With: England, fish, fish and chip shop, fish and chips, London, Toronto

Save Kensington Market: The Battle is on for my Neighbourhood’s Heart and Soul

March 23, 2013

Kensington Collage #1

kensington collage 5

Kensington Market: my neighbourhood, my family – my first real home.

listen-to-the-podcastLocated in the heart of downtown Toronto bordered by College and Dundas to the north and south, to the east and west by Spadina and Bathurst, this unique enclave is a quirky, edgy, messy mish-mosh of old and new.

It’s where skinny Victorian row houses stand side-by-side with assorted shops and eateries selling everything from soup and suits to nuts and neckties – with plenty of stuff in between. Read more…

Filed Under: European Quality Meats, Jewish, Kensington Market, Story, Toronto Tagged With: Food, kensington market, marion kane, merchants

Jewish Penicillin: Chicken Soup Soothes both Body and Soul

January 14, 2013

chicken soup

chicken soup

This was written in 2013. My mother died, age 96, at her flat in NW London (UK) in April, 2018. I still make her food. RIP dear Mum and Dad.

My Jewishness is fraught with complexities and contradictions.

Raised without any religion in the North London suburb of Finchley in post-war Britain, it was white-bread, white-collar and Anglo-Saxon all the way. I’ve noted on recent visits, it’s not the case today. Finchley is a neighbourhood where kebab shops, curry houses and the Tally Ho! pub rub shoulders in a multicultural mix.

My late father Mel Schachter grew up poor and tough on the mean streets of Montreal’s Jewish ghetto to become “my son, the doctor” – a profession he once said he chose because “it was the best racket going.” Read more…

Filed Under: Bonnie Stern, Chicken, Jewish, Jewish Chicken Soup, Joanne Kates, Matzoh Balls, Recipe Tagged With: Jewish Chicken Soup, Jewishness, Matzoh Balls

My Energizer Bunny Mum is Bouncing Back and Baking her Famous Linzertorte to Boot

May 30, 2012

My mother Ruth Schachter in her garden a few years ago

This appeared in the Toronto Star in 2012 when I was its food editor/columnist. My dear mother, 95, died peacefully in her sleep on April 21, 2018.

I often joke with my mum that she’s the antithesis of a Jewish mother. Read more…

Filed Under: Dessert, Healing power of food, Jewish, Linzertorte, My mum Ruth Schachter Tagged With: anna karenina, bottom floor, british comedian, david walliams, demeanour, derek jacobi, doctor medical, french roll, helena bonham carter, jewish mother, life presence, morning coffee, mother ruth, north west london, primrose hill, sadie frost, schachter, stage actor, victorian home

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Marion Kane, Food Sleuth®

Marion Kane, Food Sleuth®

Get Tasty Updates on the Latest Podcast and Recipes

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Recent Blog Posts

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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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