Last week the mighty Stratford Chef’s School brought an entourage of teachers, directors and students to Toronto for a day of instruction in the kitchen by Chef Emily Watkins. With not even 24 hours in Canada and just coffee and innate passion for food did this young chef based in Oxfordshire (an hour outside of [...]

For those that have been to Istanbul, you know what I mean when I say it’s surreal: the density of the city, the endless traffic, boats and ships running up and down the Bosphorus, the seemingly endless city filled with historical landmarks and everywhere…I mean everywhere – there’s food to be had. When you’re a [...]

Last year my brother married a gal of Polish origin which makes me automatically interested in the ways, culture and food of this northern European neighbor. This past weekend while looking for cookbooks at thrift shops and used book stores I tripped upon a a couple of Polish cookbooks which were quickly snapped up. I [...]

I’ve always been in awe of southern American cooking – both high & low country, born of rustic beginnings and absolutely delicious! There’s corn bread, macaroni & cheese, biscuits, meatloaf, hush puppies, ribs, roast ham and one of my favourites, fried chicken. My very first fried chicken came out of a bucket by way of [...]

Yorkshire Puddings are an accompaniment served along with Prime Rib Roast. They are made of an egg and milk batter and the most successful “Yorkies” are big and fluffy with holes in them so that you may add “au jus” into them. You’ll need reserved beef drippings/fat from your roasting pan, muffin tin and a [...]

One of the adopted traditions of my family is to have egg nog offered during the Christmas holidays to family and friends. Egg nog is a milk-based drink that’s offered at supermarkets just before and during Christmas. It also has eggs, nutmeg and may contain other spices. Often it gets spiked with rum, whiskey or [...]

Sometimes you’re busy, sometimes you don’t feel like cooking or sometimes you want something quick and easy. A comfort dish from your childhood also helps! Once again this past weekend I was called upon to cook-up a comfort dish at Toronto’s Harbourfront, near the skating rink. It’s cold outside and warming dishes is what’s cold [...]

This past summer I was out at one of these “Tweet-ups” where folks who have been connected through Twitter (hopefully with similar interests) get together. Most of the folks who gathered were food-centered, I knew some of the people attending and I was hungry! We met at a pizza joint and ever since I began [...]

A couple of weeks ago I did a cooking demo at Toronto’s Harbourfront. No stranger to crowds, cooking in front of strangers didn’t present a problem and besides..I was doing what I love – sharing good, comforting food. When I was asked to conduct some cooking demos the prerequisite was that I showcase comforting dishes [...]

Here’s a dish my family’s made since I can recall holiday dinners like Thanksgiving and Christmas. This rice comes together rather easily which is good to have in your arsenal of holiday side dishes, what with the mad dash going on in the kitchen. The dish would originally be made with “ksinolahano”…a coarser Greek version [...]