Marion Kane: Food Sleuth®

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New York City

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

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’

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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…

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

I Discovered Brilliant Anthony Bourdain Many Years Ago

March 13, 2017

In Memoriam: Anthony Bourdain – an inspiration to me and the huge number of devotees who followed his ground-breaking, intrepid and wondrous work – committed suicide while filming an episode of Parts Unknown in France on June 8, 2018. He was one of a kind. RIP dear friend. Read more…

Filed Under: Beef, Chefs, Cookbooks, Food Industry, Foodies, New York City, Recipe, Restaurant, Vegetables Tagged With: anthony bourdain, beef stew, celebrity chef, Manhattan, New York, recipe

NYC Chef Michael Lomonaco Survived 9/11 and is Still Cooking

January 26, 2017

“I dedicate my work every day to the colleagues I lost on 9/11” – chef Michael Lomonaco.

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Michael Lomonaco loves food and people. But it was an act of hate that pushed him into the spotlight: the tragic events of September 11th, 2001.

Michael was executive chef of Windows on the World: a restaurant once on top of the North Tower of the World Trade Center in New York City. Following the attacks, he helped raise $23 million for the families of foodservice workers killed that day. Those included 79 of his staff working the morning shift and a hot dog vendor on the ground outside. I interviewed him in May 2002. Read more…

Filed Under: 9/11, Beef, Chicken, New York City, Recipe Tagged With: 9/11, Chicken, meatloaf, New York, recipe

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

Chef David Garcelon Prepares a Waldorf Salad on the 18th Floor of the Waldorf Astoria

January 24, 2013

n-bm-waldorf chef-1108 T200 IM5 .1
Chef David Garcelon and his Waldorf Salad
Read more…

Filed Under: Chefs, New York City, Podcasts, Recipe, Restaurant, Vegetables Tagged With: Chef David Garcelon, podcast, recipe, Waldorf Hotel New York, waldorf salad

Thomas Keller’s Sage Advice to Budding Chefs: Patience, Persistence, Practice

November 16, 2012

Famous American chef Thomas Keller

The sold-out scene at the Isabel Bader Theatre in downtown Toronto on a recent dark and stormy night was akin to a Bob Dylan concert (firsthand experience) or a gathering to hear the Dalai Lama (only hearsay). Read more…

Filed Under: Chefs, New York City, Potato, Recipe, Thomas Keller, Vegetables Tagged With: american chef, chef thomas keller, cookbook store, cookbooks, dalai lama, devotees, foodie, french laundry, isabel bader theatre, napa valley, potato, recipe, restaurateur, stellar reputation, Thomas Keller

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

March 22, 2012

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…

Filed Under: Brussels sprouts, Fall vegetables, New York City, Recipe, Salad, Vegetables Tagged With: brussels sprouts, celebrity chef, comfortable shoes, epicurious, glorious days, grand central station, grasshopper, haunting photos, hubbub, jewish heritage, julian medina, lexington ave, midtown manhattan, minded souls, New York City, pumpkin seeds, roger smith hotel, sapporo, steak frites, tacos, toloache

My Interview with Judith Jones, Julia Child’s Editor, at her Home in New York

March 15, 2012

I arrived at the door of Judith Jones’s compact, six-room apartment in a classic brownstone on New York’s Upper East Side to the sounds of enthusiastic, high-pitched barking on the other side of the door.

It was her little white and furry Havanese dog Mabon who was happy to see me and proceeded to jump up and down as I entered the cozy place where she’s lived for several decades. Read more…

Filed Under: Judith Jones, Julia Child, New York City, Podcasts, Recipe Tagged With: anne tyler, cookbook editor, cozy place, diary of anne frank, eventual role, gravelly voice, havanese dog, houghton mifflin, john hersey, john updike, judith jones, Judith Jones and Julia Child, julia child, Julia Child and Judith Jones, literary greats, mastering the art of french cooking, midtown manhattan, ms jones, room apartment, sense of humour, Split Pea Soup, The Way to Cook, time collaboration, william maxwell

Roger Smith Cookbook Conference was Bound to Please and a Winner in my Books

March 3, 2012

I’ll begin this blog post by serving up a link to an excellent piece of writing by a young fellow from the U.K. who was sitting next to me during one of the lively panels at the excellent two-day Roger Smith Cookbook Conference I attended recently in New York.

While I scribbled away using the old-school journo’s tools of the trade – a pen and paper – he, Nick Robinson, was calmly taking notes on some kind of tablet, checking in with Twitter and probably his e-mail at the same time.

We had a brief chat, exchanged cards and, upon my return, began following each other on Twitter and connected on LinkedIn. Read more…

Filed Under: Chicken, Cookbooks, New York City, Roger Smith Cookbook Conference, Shove-it-in-the-Oven Chicken Tagged With: cookbook, New York City, roger smith hotel

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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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