Member Profile — Judith Lane
Fri, Jul 10, 2009
Judith Lane
Judith Lane is a Vancouver-based wine, food, and travel writer who contributes regularly to the Georgia Straight, Taste, BC Restaurant News, Flavours, Vines, and gremolata.com who will go almost anywhere for a good story and a glass of wine. She’s also an in-demand judge for wine, food, and cocktail competitions, including the several at the annual Vancouver Playhouse International Wine Festival.
What’s your weakness? Dessert or mains?
Mains. Anything savoury. Right now spatchcocked lemon chicken is a favourite as is mérquen rubbed grilled chicken.
Who or what got you interested in food?
An aunt who lived on a farm in Manitoba. Her breads and buns were amazing, as was her flavourful braised beef.
What inspires you?
Fresh ingredients like spot prawns and pink salmon fresh off the boats at the False Creek Fishermen’s Wharf, local mushrooms–chanterelles and pine, and just-picked veggies from our Farmers’ Markets which go year round in Vancouver.
What was your favourite dinner when you were a kid? Do you like it now?
Fish and chips and orange crush which I was allowed each birthday at my daughter-and-Dad restaurant dinner. Still love fish and chips.
What’s the first dish you remember making?
Cakes because I loved to decorate them. My mother would serve them at tea time to her envious friends.
Proudest food-related moment?
Turning out dinner for 12 in my teensy 5′ x 8′ kitchen.
Strangest food you’ve ever eaten?
My Mom’s boiled tongue complete with taste buds, and stuffed heart…not great kid food.
Favourite sound in the kitchen?
Sizzle.
Favourite cooking smell?
Garlic.
Quintessential Canadian dish?
Bison burgers, bannock.
Molecular gastronomy, best thing ever or the unwearable haute couture of food?
Somewhere in between. Its ‘hauteness’ is often altered enough so that it can go mainstream.
Cilantro — can’t get enough or tastes like soap?
I actually liked the taste of soap as a kid but detest cilantro…it overpowers every dish it’s used in rather like a bully or an attention-getting kid who says “look at me, look at me”.
What non-local foods can’t you live without?
Lemons, pepper.
What’s your greatest culinary extravagance?
Good olive oil, and Solera Pinot Noir Balsamico made by Okanagan Vinegar Brewery in Peachland, B.C.
Most over-rated kitchen gadget?
Don’t know–my only ‘gadget’ is a Waring blender.
What’s the most treasured possession in your kitchen? Why?
My chef’s knife given to me many years ago by a chef friend.
Fill in the blank. If I never cooked / ate / heard about ______ again, I’d be happy.
Goat cheese. There are thousands of cheeses in the world. Let’s see something else on menus and in the dishes we make.
If you could cook for anyone, alive or dead, who would it be and why?
Jacques Pepin. He’s an enormously generous man, and a sparkling table companion. (I had the pleasure of dining with him a few years ago and the experience is worth repeating.) I cook simply and find that chefs are the easiest and most appreciative dinner guests.
What would you prepare for him/her?
Fish or chicken.
What was the last thing you ate?
Mérquen-rubbed grilled chicken (mérquen a Chilean spice mix based on smoked goat’s horn chili).
If you had to work outside the culinary field, what would you do?
Go back to my previous profession, designing and making clothes.
Though I do think Goat Cheese is used in too many places, I also just love it to death so wouldn’t rule it out completely.
I love goat cheese, too, but tend to get lazy since it’s so versatile. This is likely an ingredient that’s become a victim of its own success.
Over-use of an ingredient can kill the appreciation for it. I believe Mark Bittman has banned balsamic vinegar from his pantry for just such a reason.