Marion Kane: Food Sleuth®

  • Home
  • Podcasts
    • Sittin’ in the Kitchen®
    • Whither Kensington?
    • Assorted
  • Blog
  • Recipes
  • Bits & Bites
    • Marion’s Books
    • Videos
    • Books for Cooks
    • “Marion’s Farewell”
    • “Au Revoir Kensington”
  • Julia Child’s 100th
  • About Me
    • Bios
    • Mum and Me
    • Ode to Mothers
  • Contact Me
Pie

20 years on, I’m Still a Fan of Charming Chef Jamie Oliver

May 25, 2020

The Naked Chef - Jamie Oliver

This appeared as a longer feature article in the Toronto Star food section on January 26, 2000, after I discovered Jamie Oliver’s fledgling show “The Naked Chef” on TVO. I spoke to Jamie in the flesh a few months later when he was consulting at a London restaurant – the Toronto Star article appears below this one. Twenty years later, he’s had his ups and downs, and I am still a fan. 

Jamie Oliver must have supernatural powers. He can make a person leap out of her comfy chair, run downstairs, fling open the freezer and act on an overpowering urge to roast a leg of lamb. I should know. It happened to me. Under slightly different circumstances, it also happened to Jody Read, acquisitions programmer for TVO. Read more…

Filed Under: Chefs, Chicken, Fall Recipe, Food Industry, Foodies, London, Pie, Pie, Recipe, Restaurant, Vegan Tagged With: British TV, carbonara, chicken curry, Jamie Oliver, Jools, Keep Cooking and Carry On, lamb, London, organic farming, quarantine, recipe, roast leg of lamb, sausage meatballs, The Naked Chef, toronto star, vegan shepherd's pie

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)

listen to the podcast

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

I Serve up Two of the Best Fruit Desserts I’ve Ever Tried. Yer Welcome!

July 6, 2015

french apple tart

The recipe for this French Apple Tart comes from ‘America’s Test Kitchen’

Food magazine covers often catch my eye.

Such was the case recently when I was browsing the racks of a newstand at the Toronto airport on my way to to visit my elderly mum in London, UK. Read more…

Filed Under: Apple Cake, Applesauce, Dessert, Fall Recipe, Fruit, Pie, Pie, Plums, Recipe Tagged With: apple torte, fruit desserts, plum cake, recipe

Nanny and Child Reunion: My Dear Evelyn and I Find Each Other After 50 Years

March 1, 2014

evelyn x 2 plus marion

L – Evelyn in Montreal ca 1947 R – Evelyn and me in Morrisburg ca 2011

This appeared as my column in the Toronto Star on June 25, 2005. IN MEMORIAM: Evelyn died in May, 2015. Read more…

Filed Under: childhood, Pie, Pie, Recipe Tagged With: cream pie, Evelyn Smail, nanny, podcast, raspberry, raspberry cream pie

Joanne Yolles and I Get to the Core of the Matter and Bake the Ultimate Tarte Tatin

September 11, 2013

joanne yolles and tarte tatin

listen-to-the-podcastThis appeared in my column “Dish” in the Toronto Star in 2004. 

I baked my first Tarte Tatin late last fall. Read more…

Filed Under: apple, Dessert, Fall Recipe, Fruit, Joanne Yolles, Pie, Recipe Tagged With: pastry chef, tarte tatin, toronto star

The Tale of my Missing Cookbooks and How I Made Lemonade from Lemons

December 5, 2011

listen-to-the-podcastIt all began about a year ago when I gave two people I had no reason to distrust full access to my large, fully-furnished house while I was away.

All went well for several months during which time I would visit the place occasionally to pick up mail and move items to my new place – mostly clothes, work-related stuff and some important papers.

The pride and joy of my former abode was its cookbook library: a room I had specifically designed to hold the 1,200 or so cookbooks I had accumulated during my almost 40 years as a member of Canada’s food media. Many of those – 18, to be exact – were spent as food editor/columnist for this country’s largest newspaper the Toronto Star where I received review copies of cookbooks on a regular basis. Read more…

Filed Under: Bonnie Stern, Cheesecake, Cookbooks, Julia Child, Nigella Lawson, Pie, Pie, Recipe, Rose Levy Beranbaum Tagged With: bonnie stern, cookbooks, julia child, nigella lawson, pie crust, recipe

Ginger Pear Pie: A One-Crust Wonder

September 28, 2011

When a reader of this blog e-mailed me with a question about my recipe for Jewish Chicken Soup – the best medicine I know for whatever ails body or soul – we had an exchange about the source of that recipe: my esteemed colleague and longtime restaurant critic for the Globe & Mail, Joanne Kates.

I have long been grateful to her for that soup, especially her tip about adding the mandatory parsnip. It gives delicate sweetness that elevates that winter mainstay from good to simply sublime.

That young male reader of my blog, after discussing the merits of adding chicken feet to the actual chicken (feet give thickness and a luscious, glutinous texture along with extra flavour), told me he was about to make a delicious dessert from The Joanne Kates Cookbook (my source for the soup and a vintage tome published in 1984) called Ginger Pear Pie. Read more…

Filed Under: Dessert, Ginger, Joanne Kates, Pear, Pie, Recipe Tagged With: ginger, joanne kates, pear, pie, recipe

Peach Galette – Finally Got it!

July 20, 2011

When I get obsessed with a recipe, it pervades my waking and sleeping hours.

Of late, it’s been peach galette, how much ground almonds to use in the layer below the peaches, what oven temperature, how long to bake – the list goes on. Then comes the testing and re-testing until Ross and I are  eating the dessert daily and the freezer is full of  various renditions, all clearly labelled. Read more…

Filed Under: Dessert, peach, Pie, Pie, Recipe, Toronto Tagged With: peach, peach galette, peach pie, peach recipe, pie, recipe, Toronto

In-Your-Face Pie Fest Was a Slice

August 3, 2010

the contest

In spite of the mild sun-stroke I incurred during the sweltering afternoon heat at a recent country pie festival, it was all worth it. It happened in a lush field at the lovely McCully’s Hill Farm located a short drive from my part-time home of Stratford, Ont.

Here, I witnessed my first pie-eating contest up close and personal, something I would not have thought would be any fun until I experienced it. In general, I’m against eating competitions which I find gross and unappetizing, especially when people are ramming hot dogs or spaghetti with meatballs down their gullets. However, eating one pie – and that was the challenge in this case – does not seem over-the-top. To boot, pies have a reputation as an in-your-face food (remember Jean Chretien) and are among my favourite foods both to make and eat.

There were several eating styles among the six contestants: the two-handed approach, the full pie-in-the-face modus operandi, the one-handed scoop and even a drink-the-filling style adopted by one fellow whose blueberry pie was quite runny. Read more…

Filed Under: Festival, Pie Tagged With: afternoon heat, beacon herald, beik, blueberry pie, country pie, eating contest, face food, favourite foods, flaky pastry, gullets, hot dogs, jean chretien, juicy peaches, mccully, mild sun, organic farm, peach pie, pie in the face, s hill, sun stroke

Easy as (Greek) Pie

November 7, 2007

I’ve long been expert at sniffing out a good recipe. After all, I’ve done it professionally for more than 25 years and as an intriguing hobby for most of my adult life.

So when I recently met Judy Trogadis, a friend of my good pal Visnja Brcic, it wasn’t long before we were talking spanakopita, that delectable, deservedly famous Greek pie made with phyllo, spinach and feta that’s often served as a snack at parties. Read more…

Filed Under: Pie, Recipe, Vegetables Tagged With: Greek dish, pastry, phyllo, spanakopita, spinach

Marion Kane, Food Sleuth®

Marion Kane, Food Sleuth®

Get Tasty Updates on the Latest Podcast and Recipes

Recent Podcasts

  • All You Need is Love – and a Nicely Designed Kitchen

  • Carlos Pereira’s Little Shop Spices Up Kensington Market

  • Haven Toronto Serves up Hot Meals and a Warm Welcome

  • Sean Brock: His Friend Tony, Fatherhood and Fried Chicken

  • Street Nurse Cathy Crowe: A Fearless, Passionate Activist

Recent Blog Posts

  • My Favourite Food Finds and the Upside of the Pandemic

  • Surviving and Thriving in Toronto’s Kensington Market

  • Delicious Food Memoirs that Entertain and Feed the Soul

  • Recipe for Success – or Failure

  • My Croqueta Quest in Miami

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.

Connect with Marion

  • Facebook
  • Twitter
  • Instagram
  • YouTube
  • Spotify
  • TuneIn
  • RSS Feed

Tasty Updates

Get Tasty Updates on the Latest Podcast and Recipes

copyright © 2021 " Marion Kane, Food Sleuth® " web site by nrichmedia