When Jo Marie Powers retired from the School of Hospitality and Tourism, University of Guelph, in 1998, as a volunteer activity she began the Canadian Culinary Book Awards. In the beginning this was a way of collecting cookbooks for the University’s culinary collection (now numbering more than 12,000 titles) and letting Canadians know who our super-star authors and publishers were. Soon it became such a fun activity that it became her primary retirement activity.

Last fall, Jo Marie turned the awards over to Fiona Lucas and a team of four headed up by Karen Baxter. Before this, at the University of Guelph, Penn State University and Morris Brown College, she taught restaurant management courses, specializing in the history and culture of foods. Her work during the 50 some years since she finished university included almost every job in food beginning with a media job in the late 1950s telling people what foods were in season (does that sound familiar 60 years later?) Before she began her teaching career, she also planned menus for hotels her husband managed. Jo Marie will now manage the Hall of Fame book award for Cuisine Canada.

Her five sons with their families live both in Canada and the United States. She has five grandchildren and five grand-dogs. She and her husband, Tom, will be celebrating their 50^th wedding anniversary this year.

What’s your weakness? Dessert or mains?
Ice cream in any shape or form – it’s a family thing. When we go to a new town we seek out the best ice cream shop.

Who or what got you interested in food?
When I was about three, I cut out pictures of food instead of paper dolls and pasted them in scrapbooks. My mother influenced me the most – she’d send me off to the kitchen to cook something to get me out from underfoot.

What inspires you?
Cookbooks – well written and beautifully illustrated. If I find one recipe in a new cookbook that I love it’s worth the price.

What was your favourite dinner when you were a kid? Do you like it now?
My mother was a nutritionist and you won’t believe that for our birthdays parties we asked her to make our favourite dinner of liver and bacon, baked potato and spinach (not a great hit with our friends as I remember). Now liver is not the “in” healthy food it once was and no one in my family will eat it so occasionally I’ll find it on a restaurant menu and fill up.

What’s the first dish you remember making?
Mud pies with my sister beautifully decorated with wild flowers. Mother put up with it and just had us hose off at the back door. The next step up was Wacky Cake and Magic Mountain Muffins that we made during World War II.

Proudest food-related moment?
There were two, both student-related. The first was in the 1960s when teaching in Atlanta at an African-American college. The students were planning the faculty Christmas party – a traditional Southern African-American barbecue. Just before the party the flu struck and the school closed. Most students left to enjoy a longer Christmas vacation at home. But all my students stayed to cook the whole pig and everything that went with it, and that meant staying up all night turning, poking and basting the pig. The other event was at Guelph when I was teaching  the fine-dining course. A similar situation – a snow storm that closed the University the first time in its history. My students had studied and were presenting a traditional Chinese banquet. They had spent days planning and going to Toronto for supplies. The dinner was the day the university closed. Again, every student in the class stayed to work the dinner. I always found that nothing can hold back students if they get excited about something.

Strangest food you’ve ever eaten?
1987 — a live seafood platter in La Rochelle, France.  My son still claims he was chasing little critters crawling around on the plate.

Favourite sound in the kitchen?
Classical music while cooking or perhaps the sound of the dishwasher running.

Favourite cooking smell?
Least favourite, I have to confess, is smoke, due to my frequent  inattention to what I’m doing. The smoke alarm doesn’t like it either.  If company is coming, with a smokey kitchen I put on a pot of spiced mulled cider (a pinch of 5-spice powder is good cover-up).

Quintessential Canadian dish?
Maple sugar candies and I like mine boiled down with heavy cream. We start the maple with the sap so it takes about a week to get to the candies! That is indeed “slow food”.

Molecular gastronomy, best thing ever or the unwearable haute couture of food?
It’s been around for decades – believe it or not, gelatin and Jello were wonder foods of the early 20^th century – the library has a great collection of Jello recipe booklets with amazing photographs that look like molecular gastronomy today. I think they even made a kind of Jello spaghetti.

Cilantro — can’t get enough or tastes like soap?
Love it but wish I could buy a smaller bunch. It’s a great plant for the garden because I can clip off what I need and it comes back year after year, but I haven’t had much luck growing it in a window during the winter.

What local foods can’t you live without?
A game I play when I go to the Farmers’ market is to see how much local food I can buy, even in the wintertime. In addition to winter vegetables – potatoes, carrots, turnips, celery root, onions, green-house vegetables (tomatoes, lettuce, cucumbers) don’t forget our staples — eggs, milk, chicken, turkey, beef and pork. I’m still amazed to see some of the market produce available — each summer I look forward to the fresh figs brought  in by a man who brings his trees indoors during the winter.

What’s your greatest culinary extravagance?
Really great seafood – lobsters, scallops, large shrimp  and when my son comes home from Vancouver, sable fish.

Most over-rated kitchen gadget?
I have cupboards full of them. All I need is a good knife and cutting board but my kids think I have to have every implement known to humankind. Perhaps the funniest were the special forks for carrying a large turkey!

What’s the most treasured possession in your kitchen? Why?
French knife.

Fill in the blank. If I never cooked / ate / heard about  ______ again, I’d be happy.
Can’t think of anything. I’m like my Chinese students who used to brag that they would eat anything with four legs except the table, and anything that flies except an airplane.

If you could cook for anyone, alive or dead, who would it be and why?
Funny you should ask. This year my husband, Tom, and I will have our 50^th wedding anniversary. We’re planning a weekend with all our children, their partners, grandchildren and grand-dogs. I’m hoping to have a chef friend prepare the big anniversary feast. I love his meals because each course is a surprise, totally different from the previous course.  That’s what I really love – a celebratory meal lasting about three hours with eight or so courses. (We are encountering a problem however finding a place that will take the five dogs!)

What  was the last thing you ate?
Today Tom and I had magret of duck, sweet potatoes, mixed frozen vegetables, tossed  salad and chocolate bread pudding. I don’t usually have duck during the week but found one in the back of the freezer along with the frozen vegetables. I made two meals with the duck. I cut off the breasts and sauteed them quickly with slices of  honeyed orange slices. Tomorrow I’ll roast the rest of the duck.

If you had to work outside the culinary field, what would you do?
I think I’d like to work in a remote park as a forest ranger.

Karen at the 2009 Canadian Culinary Book Awards

Karen Baxter, Brazilian born, from German immigrants, has now settled in Fergus, Ontario, where she lives with her husband and daughter. She has started her career in Business Administration, later completing her MBA at the University of Guelph with a specialization in Hotel and Food Management. Karen works as a Project Manager with Cuisine Canada and the Culinary Book awards presented at the Royal Winter Fair every Fall.

What’s your weakness? Dessert or mains?
Did you say weakness? I would consider an undeniable desire a strength. Definitely mains. With meat, stews, curries, beans, rice… The smell is what first gets me, and then I can’t stop thinking about it until I eat it.

Who or what got you interested in food?
I do not think it was an immediate happening. At first I recall my mother insisting I eat the green peppers (which this day I still don’t like) on my plate. But I also remember, as a child, walking in the house and smelling the wonderful things that were happening in the kitchen. The food in Brazil is fairly simple, with beans and rice as staples, cooked with a lot of garlic and onions. I think I almost took food for granted, as it was always there, good and tasty, ready to eat.

When I was 23, I moved away from home for the first time. I had two roommates. One introduced me to KD. “Wow!” I said, “I never thought cooking could be this easy.” Well, to my horror, she also ate green peppers as you would eat an apple. My other roommate had much more sophisticated taste, and she started to show me some really neat techniques, like baking an apple pie in a paper bag, and baking fish with very tasty herbs. I began to get inspired and started calling my mother — in Brazil — for recipes. They were the most expensive dishes I created when you counted the phone bills. From that time on I began to cook.

What inspires you?
The sea! I must have been a fish in my previous life. I really become whole when I am near/in the ocean.

What was your favourite dinner when you were a kid? Do you like it now?
Favourite dinner; Goulash with Spaetzle. My mother learned how to make this when she married my father. His parents were German, and she wanted to impress them. Yes, I love it to this date, and have myself mastered it, although mine is not as good as hers. My daughter Maia also loves it, and started asking for “Peate” since she was a wee one.

What’s the first dish you remember making?
Coq au vin.

Proudest food-related moment?
Not sure there is one. I think whenever I create something delicious from the ingredients I already have in my fridge and pantry, and can spark some “Yumm, this is good!” from family and friends, then I feel happy that my gut feeling in assembling things delivered a tasty concoction.

Strangest food you’ve ever eaten?
They are called “picorocos”. I was on this ship heading down the Pacific Ocean, towards some Glaciers in the south coast of Chile. The Captain announced the menu; “Sopa de Picorocos” which means Barnacles soup. The plate came to the table with the soup and this volcanic looking shell, with a hook coming out of the top, inside this giant barnacle! It looked scary at first, but truly delicious!

Favourite sound in the kitchen?
Sizzling onions and garlic – it could be the smell they emanate though, that makes me like the sound!

Favourite cooking smell?
Above answer!

Quintessential Canadian dish?
Fiddlehead soup.

Cilantro -- can’t get enough or tastes like soap?
Definitely, can’t get enough! Love it, love it.

What local foods can’t you live without?
That is a tough one, I may be inclined to say the eggs from our neighbor. I think all his chickens (maybe 10) have names, and the eggs are so fresh.

What’s your greatest culinary extravagance?
I am inclined to say that seafood for me is an extravagance. And I mean good, fresh (never frozen) seafood; not fish sticks, or shrimp rings. I remember dining in a fancy restaurant once in NY city, and I asked for the seared Mahi-mahi. It was barely cooked, and the flavor was out of this world. Melted in my mouth. It was perfect.

Most over-rated kitchen gadget?
Food processors.

What’s the most treasured possession in your kitchen? Why?
Well, let’s see if I can explain this in a very complicated mathematical equation:

Brazilian = coffee
Coffee = Coffee Beans
Coffee Beans + Coffee Grinder = Good Coffee
Coffee Grinder inside coffee machine = Very expensive De’Longui Cappuccino maker!
No need to explain the “why” part is there?

Fill in the blank. If I never cooked / ate / heard about ______ again, I’d be happy.
Tripe! Blahhh.

If you could cook for anyone, alive or dead, who would it be and why?
My husband and my daughter, just because they really love my cooking.

What would you prepare for him/her?
Curries, beans, check peas and rice.

What was the last thing you ate?
Sushi. I ordered take out and it took a lot of self discipline to wait until I got home to eat it. At each set of lights that allowed my hands to be free, I considered just a little bite. But then again, considering what it would take to open the take out box, dip the sushi in the soy sauce and wasabi, and drip it all over the seat and clothes…., I remained determined to wait.  Once home, the dog wanted attention, the phone was ringing, but I decided “first things first” and savored the lovely Japanese snack.

If you had to work outside the culinary field, what would you do?
I would love to be a landscape architect or marine biologist.

What’s your weakness? Dessert or mains?
Mains and lots of it. None of this small portion California cuisine for me.

Who or what got you interested in food?
Grew up on a farm. Have spent the last 15 years as Canada’s principal food regulator or acting for companies dealing with food regulations. Food law is as interesting as it gets.

What inspires you?
Learning new things. I still learn something new about the food industry and its regulatory system every day.

What was your favourite dinner when you were a kid? Do you like it now?
Roast pork, scalloped potatoes and frozen corn; homemade apple pie and cheese. Still like this food. At 85, my mother still bakes a great pie.

What’s the first dish you remember making?
Toasted scrambled egg sandwich with melted cheese.

Proudest food-related moment?
Receiving a doctorate from the University of Guelph; both my father and grandfather were graduates of the Ontario Agricultural College, University of Guelph.

Strangest food you’ve ever eaten?
Pickled, diced moose nose on a reserve in northern British Columbia.

Favourite sound in the kitchen?
My wife saying that supper is ready.

Favourite cooking smell?
Roast beef in the oven on a Sunday afternoon.

Quintessential Canadian dish?
My mother’s butter tarts (with vinegar) and my wife’s wild rice dish.

Molecular gastronomy, best thing ever or the unwearable haute couture of food?
Never heard of it.

Cilantro — can’t get enough or tastes like soap?
Love cilantro. I grow it myself. I use it in my soups especially.

What local foods can’t you live without?
The first tomatoes from my garden and local corn on the cob bought from the farmer down the road.

What’s your greatest culinary extravagance?
Tropezian custard cake is pretty extravagant; so is my wife’s Guinness Chocolate Cake.

Most over-rated kitchen gadget?
I don’t have many gadgets but can say that large BBQ’s with all the bells and whistles are highly overrated. I like my simple little 2 burner.

What’s the most treasured possession in your kitchen? Why?
Pepper grinder. Fresh ground pepper goes well on almost any meal.

Fill in the blank. If I never cooked / ate / heard about  ______ again, I’d be happy.
Organic foods. This will not be popular with your readership and outrage some of your fancy chefs. Organic is not tastier, healthier, safer or more sustainable. The inflated price people pay is a tax on the gullible.

If you could cook for anyone, alive or dead, who would it be and why?
My wife and daughter. Best company in the world.

What would you prepare for him/her?
T-bone steaks on the BBQ on the deck at the cottage with baked potatoes and fresh asparagus with butter. Watch the sun set over Otter Lake. It doesn’t get any better than this.

What  was the last thing you ate?
Tuna salad sandwich at my desk.

What’s your weakness? Dessert or mains?
Mains… Unless the dessert is the finest quality homemade ice cream.

Who or what got you interested in food?
My mother. Despite having no formal culinary training she was a great cook and adventurous as all get out. She was forever bringing home bargains (conger eel and lambs’ testicles are two I remember) that she’d never cooked before and she always turned first for advice to her culinary bible, a dog-eared, food-spattered copy of Mrs. Beeton’s Book of Household Management.

What inspires you?
Traveling. Nothing tastes finer than an ingredient enjoyed in its own home town.

What was your favourite dinner when you were a kid? Do you like it now?
This is too, too embarrassing. As a VERY small child I absolutely loved fried Spam and Heinz baked beans. I hasten to say I grew out of that preference very quickly.

What’s the first dish you remember making?
Treacle toffee, a traditional English candy. I was just a kid although of an age, I guess, to be deemed responsible enough to handle boiling sugar. I failed to realize the importance of keeping watch over the pot. You can imagine the result. My mother and I were scrubbing the stove for days.

Proudest food-related moment?
Receiving my first freelance cheque a thousand years ago and realizing that perhaps I could, indeed, make a living eating.

Strangest food you’ve ever eaten?
Muktuk, an Inuit “delicacy” (I use the term loosely) which is whale blubber. The version I tried was from a beluga and was served at a dinner some years ago to launch the annual conference of circumpolar nations. It was – and remains – the most disgusting thing I’ve ever eaten.

Favourite sound in the kitchen?
My husband’s voice as he chats about his day while I cook dinner.

Favourite cooking smell?
Bacon frying.

Quintessential Canadian dish?
Don’t laugh but it has to be poutine. It’s a dish found nowhere else in the world and its description alone makes most non-Canadians shudder. However, it has to be said that a good poutine can be a thing of beauty.

Molecular gastronomy, best thing ever or the unwearable haute couture of food?
I’ve eaten at Ferran Adria’s El Bulli, the so-called temple of molecular cuisine in Spain, and, while some of his dishes were sublime, others were frankly execrable. The real problem with MG is that in a lesser chef’s hands it just becomes a foamy joke. Enough already.

Cilantro — can’t get enough or tastes like soap?
In the appropriate dish—something Thai or Indian—it’s delish.

What local foods can’t you live without?
Ontario asparagus in the spring through autumn’s Ontario pears, and everything in between.

What’s your greatest culinary extravagance?
Nothing’s an extravagance if it tastes good but I do confess to having a weakness for expensive coffee.

Most over-rated kitchen gadget?
A juicer. Don’t have one, don’t want one.

What’s the most treasured possession in your kitchen? Why?
The ancient, battered solid silver spoons my mother used for all her day-to-day cooking. I think of her while I stir.

Fill in the blank. If I never cooked / ate / heard about  ______ again, I’d be happy.
Bad food.

If you could cook for anyone, alive or dead, who would it be and why?
Laurie Lee, the late, great English author and poet. His book As I Walked Out One Midsummer Morning made me first fall in love with Spain.

What would you prepare for him/her?
It would have to be something Spanish. Perhaps olives and some good almonds with a nice dry sherry, followed by pollo al ajillo (chicken cooked in garlic and sherry), some saffron rice and probably the ubiquitous flan for dessert.

What was the last thing you ate?
Leftover chicken and Swiss chard risotto.

If you had to work outside the culinary field, what would you do?
I’d love to be able to paint but, for sure, I’d starve doing it.

What’s your weakness? Dessert or mains?
Even with an incredible attachment to sugar, I would still choose a vegetarian main dish, but I might add a drop of maple syrup.

Who or what got you interested in food?
Growing up in the 1950s with a last name like mine, it might be argued that my interest in food was pre-destined, but in fact, it was my insatiable sweet tooth. At the age of 8 I realized that I could dramatically increase my intake of desserts if I made them myself.

What inspires you?
Thoughtful use and new combinations of herbs and other ingredients in recipes

What was your favourite dinner when you were a kid? Do you like it now?
In the winter it was oxtail stew and in the spring it was butter-fried smelt from the Humber River. My favourite summer dinner was simply buttered corn and in the fall, I loved the fat tomatoes from my father’s vegetable garden. I love those foods still, and yet I have not tasted smelt for a very very long time.

What’s the first dish you remember making?
Nanaimo Bars- to me they were the perfect dinner dish!

Proudest food-related moment?
My daughter’s first birthday cake.

Strangest food you’ve ever eaten?
Cod’s tongues.

Favourite sound in the kitchen?
My mother’s Sunbeam stand mixer.

Favourite cooking smell?
Vanilla

Quintessential Canadian dish?
Cod’s tongues or Nanaimo Bars- can’t choose.

Molecular gastronomy, best thing ever or the unwearable haute couture of food?
Just another food fad.

Cilantro — can’t get enough or tastes like soap?
My worst nightmare.

What local foods can’t you live without?
Garlic, garlic, garlic

What’s your greatest culinary extravagance?
My trip to Istanbul to visit the spice market.

Most over-rated kitchen gadget?
The garlic  press.

What’s the most treasured possession in your kitchen? Why?
Mezzaluna- it is efficient and precise in chopping garlic and green herbs.

Fill in the blank. If I never cooked / ate / heard about  ______ again, I’d be happy.
Cilantro.

If you could cook for anyone, alive or dead, who would it be and why?
I love cooking for my friends and family; I am in heaven in the kitchen with Susan Belsinger (www.susanbelsinger.com) and it would be a thrill to share the hob with Jill Norman (Herbs & Spices, DK Publishing, 2002).

What would you prepare for him/her?
It would depend on the season and what was up in the herb garden.

What  was the last thing you ate?
Home-fried potatoes with bacon, onions, dried tomatoes, balsamic vinegar, thyme, rosemary and leftover potatoes.

If you had to work outside the culinary field, what would you do?
Be a full-time gardener.

What’s your weakness? Dessert or mains?
Ice cream. I can’t not finish the container. Also anything topped with melty cheese.

Who or what got you interested in food?
My appetite got me interested. As a kid my mom was a really healthy cook – everything was grainy and when we were young she’d offer up apples for dessert – I figured if I learned to bake cookies and cupcakes myself, it would equal an unending supply of the stuff I craved. When I was 7 I opened a cupcake company, called the Kooky Cupcake Company – I got a $20 loan from my mom for ingredients, baked cupcakes using the One Egg Cake recipe in Joy of Cooking, and sold them up and down our street. When it was all paid back I made about a $7 profit. (Most of the profits were eaten up.)

What inspires you?
People. People are amazing.

What was your favourite dinner when you were a kid? Do you like it now?
I dreamt of McDonald’s because we never used to get it. And for my birthday I asked for Wonder bread with Jiffy peanut butter and jelly. I still remember my mom making it for me while I watched Happy Days. Today? Wonder Bread? Not so much.

What’s the first dish you remember making?
I pulled the ends off the long grasses in my backyard and turned it into “cereal” and made my sister eat it. She cried. It looked just like the wholesome waving wheat on the cereal commercials on TV…

Proudest food-related moment?
I won the Calgary Stampede chili cook-off when I was 13, and up against the grown-ups! The interviewed me on TV and it was very exciting. It was also my first time trying to be funny for the camera in an attempt to hide my shyness, and not the last time it didn’t go over as well as I thought in my head that it would… they asked me why I learned to cook and I said “someone had to or we’d all starve to death!” My mom almost left me there at the Stampede grounds to walk home myself.

Strangest food you’ve ever eaten?
Honestly, I can’t think of anything that strange. Frogs’ legs? Offal? (and it really is..)

Favourite sound in the kitchen?
Willem, my 4 year old, chatting as he cooks.

Favourite cooking smell?
Browned butter? Coffee? Baking bread? Roasting turkey? I can’t decide!

Quintessential Canadian dish?
Poutine. So easy to make, and so much better than you can get at most fast food joints.

Molecular gastronomy, best thing ever or the unwearable haute couture of food?
Don’t dig it. But maybe I don’t understand it.

Cilantro — can’t get enough or tastes like soap?
Used to taste like soap, but now I like it. I can get enough though.

What local foods can’t you live without?
Bison. It’s the new Alberta Beef! also flax oil from Highwood Crossing.

What’s your greatest culinary extravagance?
Extravagance, money-wise? Hmmm.. going out to nice dinners? Cheese? Bernard Callebaut chocolate? Oh yes – real Nutella – Bernard Callebaut chocolate and ground hazelnuts – $15 a jar and worth every penny!

Most over-rated kitchen gadget?
Salad spinner. Takes up far too much real estate.

What’s the most treasured possession in your kitchen? Why?
My grandma’s measuring cups and sifter. I love that the 1/2 cup measure has actually been repaired – a new metal handle attached back on – who these days would actually fix a measuring cup rather than go buy a new set?

Fill in the blank. If I never cooked / ate / heard about  ______ again, I’d be happy.
BLACK LICORICE. I’d be happy if no one else ate it anymore either, thank you.

If you could cook for anyone, alive or dead, who would it be and why?
My grandparents. Or John Cusack.

What would you prepare for him/her?
Oh boy, I have no idea. It wouldn’t matter, really.

What  was the last thing you ate?
Leftover lasagna and a Strongbow. I’m still eating it. Before that, Tim Horton’s and a cruller. Before that, baklava. It hasn’t been a good food day…

If you had to work outside the culinary field, what would you do?
Write, if I could, or photograph.

What’s your weakness? Dessert or mains?
Really fresh fish and seafood, couscous, and traditional dishes of Italy, France, England, Canada and Quebec.

As for desserts I like sugar pie and fruit desserts such as kuchen. But the best memory for dessert is the Britany Kouing Aman — absolutely delicious. I’ve never baked it, but I will surely try.

Who or what got you interested in food?
I’ve always loved all things about food. My first memory? I was 5 years old  and I would watch my grandmother Mongrain prepare a cake with no recipe, unshell peanuts and mix them with salt and oil, and grind her coffee beans every morning.

What inspires you?
Fresh vegetables and herbs from my garden, the mushrooms I picked in the surrounding forest, dishes tasted when I travel, and the family dishes of the different countries of the world.

What was your favourite dinner when you were a kid? Do you like it now?
Roast chicken with meatballs served with rice and plenty of chicken juice — Mom’s recipe which I still prepare today. The flavour of the meatballs cooked in same pan is really special.

What’s the first dish you remember making?
Cream puff pastry filled with lemon pie filling at the age of 11.

Proudest food-related moment?
I was chef and manager in charge of preparing and serving 65 guests for Prime Minister Jean Chretien in our town. We had 2 1/2 days to plan, buy (no limit to the budget), and prepare the food — including cocktails, show pieces, homemade bread and desserts. The guests and Prime Minister had only 1 1/2 hours allotted for the lunch and all left 10 minutes early. Ouf!

All the while 10 bed-and-breakfast guests had their meals served as usual.

Strangest food you’ve ever eaten?
A jellied Japanese dessert. I disliked the taste and granular texture so much I don’t even remember the name of the dish.

Favourite sound in the kitchen?
Food sizzling in the skillet.

Favourite cooking smell?
Bread baking in the oven.

Quintessential Canadian dish?
French Canadian Ragoût de pattes et boulettes, pigs feet, and meatballs ragout.

Molecular gastronomy, best thing ever or the unwearable haute couture of food?
Close to haute couture.

Cilantro — can’t get enough or tastes like soap?
It tastes like soap most of the time.

What local foods can’t you live without?
Local pork, wild blueberries, La Ferme Basque duck products, fresh farm eggs, and Pain d’Exclamation bakery.

What’s your greatest culinary extravagance?
A fresh sockeye salmon my husband brought back on a jet directly to La Tuque (QC) from Campbell River (BC). It was promptly cooked and served with Hollandaise and fresh vegetables.

Most over-rated kitchen gadget?
A tool to hold potatoes while you peel it, bought in Germany.

What’s the most treasured possession in your kitchen? Why?
My cookbook collection and knives. These are the most important tools to discover new dishes and enjoy preparing them.

If you could cook for anyone, alive or dead, who would it be and why?
First, my husband, the best and most accurate tasting partner I will ever have by my side. My children. My late grandmother Anna Mongrain for the pleasure I had watching her preparing food and discover new tastes. She was a very adventuresome cook for her time. And finally Paul McCartney as I have been a fan since the beginning of his career –  just for the thrill.

What would you prepare for him/her?
Home smoked trout on greens.
Partridge à la crème with morels, wild rice and Brussels sprouts.
Maple syrup pie.

What  was the last thing you ate?
Pesto pasta served with sauteed medium pork loin flavored with marjoram.
Homemade chocolate doughnuts.

If you had to work outside the culinary field, what would you do?
I cannot think of another field — except writing.

Jeff Crump, Executive Chef at Ancaster Old Mill and cookbook author

Jeff is a Canadian chef who has developed his talents at a number of the world’s top restaurants; including The Fat Duck, Lumiere, Araxi, AGO and Chez Panisse.  He is a graduate of UWO, the Stratford Chefs School and is a Canadian Slow Food pioneer. He is currently the Executive Chef at the  Ancaster Old Mill & Spencer’s at the Waterfront in Ontario.

What’s your weakness? Dessert or mains?
Ice Cream is my weakness…vanilla with caramel sauce

Who or what got you interested in food?
My father cooked at home, so I started cooking

What inspires you?
Cookbooks, what other people are doing.  And just looking at ingredients, what is in season gets the ideas flowing.

What was your favourite dinner when you were a kid? Do you like it now?
Manicotti stuffed with ground beef. Yes, I still love stuffed pasta.

What’s the first dish you remember making?
Mussels steamed in white wine and garlic.

Proudest food-related moment?
Fortunately I have so many… cooking at Chez Panisse, publishing a cookbook, seeing my young cooks grow into very skilled chefs.

Strangest food you’ve ever eaten?
Bulet (duck embryo, soft boiled still in egg) on a street corner in Thailand.

Favourite sound in the kitchen?
Silence, I like when I’m in the kitchen before everyone else.

Favourite cooking smell?
Onions, garlic cooking in olive oil.

Quintessential Canadian dish?
Butter tarts.

Molecular gastronomy, best thing ever or the unwearable haute couture of food?
When done well it is astounding.

Cilantro — can’t get enough or tastes like soap?
Love it!

What local foods can’t you live without?
Corn, apples.

What’s your greatest culinary extravagance?
Le Creuset pots & pans.

Most over-rated kitchen gadget?
Garlic press.

What’s the most treasured possession in your kitchen? Why?
My head chef, Bryan Gibson. He makes my life easy!

Fill in the blank. If I never cooked / ate / heard about  ________ again, I’d be happy.
Raisins or green peppers.

If you could cook for anyone, alive or dead, who would it be and why?
My son, Kane.  He is young and I look forward to cooking for and with him.

What would you prepare for him/her?
We would make pizza.

What  was the last thing you ate?
Honestly, ice cream that was my  staff meal.

If you had to work outside the culinary field, what would you do?
Stock Broker?  Really I couldn’t imagine not cooking.

Dawn Thomas of Rouxbe.com

Dawn Thomas is the co-founder of Rouxbe. Rouxbe is the web’s first-ever Online Video Cooking School complete with practice video recipes, cooking exercises, culinary quizzes, progress reporting and personal chef support. We teach home cooks in over 180 countries how to become better cooks. Dawn leads the production team and is also the narrative voice that brings Rouxbe’s videos to life.

What’s your weakness? Dessert or mains?

I would have to say mains. I actually look forward to winter as I love things like braised meats and hearty stews. I also love a good spaghetti and meatballs, oh and a good curry…oh and Thai food…and…and…

Who or what got you interested in food?

Not really sure exactly. It happened later on in life for me. In my late teens and early 20’s I traveled for quite a few years, but at that time I was really just more into eating food. It’s a shame really as I spend 2 years in France and almost a year in Spain. Had I really been into cooking then I would have been able to pick up a lot. All the same…I am pretty happy with how things turned out.

Now I dream of being a “Big Fat Italian Nonna“. Why, because I want to be the kind of person that cares more about the food I cook and the people I feed, than what people think of me. Besides who doesn’t want to cook with the freshest of ingredients, smell like food all day and live in Italy!

What was your favorite dinner when you were a kid? Do you like it now?

My favorite dinner as a kid…that’s a good one. I can’t say I really had one favorite. My mom was a good cook though but nothing really sticks out. I do remember that I used to love going out to dinner (as we didn’t do it too often). We used to go Mr. Mikes and have steak, baked potato and the all you could eat salad bar.

What’s the first dish you remember making?

I used to come home from school and make the best toasted BLTCP sandwiches. That’s bacon, lettuce, tomato, cheese, and thinly sliced dill pickles. I can still taste it to this day. It was either that or a big bowl of boiled potatoes with butter, salt and pepper.

Proudest food-related moment?

Is when I can help someone else learn to become a more confident cook, so they can invite their friends and family over for dinner and just have fun!

Strangest food you’ve ever eaten?

Recently I had snake fruit…can’t say I loved it. I am sure I have eaten things more weird than that, but I just can’t (or don’t want to) remember them.

Favourite sound in the kitchen?

People laughing and wine glasses clinking! And I guess the odd “oh my goodness…this is so delicious” is not too hard on the ears.

Favourite cooking smell?

That’s a tough one….I guess it depends on my mood. I do love the smell of slowly cooking onions. I also love that moment when garlic first hits the pan and the kitchen fills with what I imagine every Italian kitchen would smell like.

Quintessential Canadian dish?

This is certainly not fancy, but I recently had a tuna casserole that was AMAZING! It still haunts me.

Molecular gastronomy, best thing ever or the unwearable haute couture of food?

My brain doesn’t function that way. Like I said, I am more of a Nonna when it comes to cooking and eating. I do admire those that can do it…but it’s just not my thing. That being said, I am totally fascinated and in awe with Grant Achatz and can’t wait to go to his restaurant Alinea one day.

Cilantro — can’t get enough or tastes like soap?

There are some dishes that I can’t even imagine eating if there was no cilantro. So generally, I would say that I am huge fan.

What local foods can’t you live without?

Good juicy tomatoes. Lately I can’t get enough of them. I love to make Pan con Tomate – I take day old baguette, cut it in half…grill it and then smooch the tomatoes all over the bread. Then I drizzle it with a good extra-virgin olive oil and sprinkle it with fleur de sel. Sometimes when I am feeling fancy I top it with some Serrano ham.

What’s your greatest culinary extravagance?

Right now…not too much extravagance going on, as we are totally focused on Rouxbe…not only emotionally but also financially.

Most over-rated kitchen gadget?

There are so many. I think that most people believe that the more gadgets they have the better they can cook…which of course it totally not true.

What’s the most treasured possession in your kitchen? Why?

My Le Crueset pots…I love them!

Fill in the blank. If I never cooked / ate / heard about ______ again, I’d be happy.

I think it would have to be the word “FOODIE” I am so sick of this word. People that call themselves “foodies” are generally just pretentious (I know – don’t be mad at me…this is just my opinion). Go to Spain and you won’t find one person that calls themselves a foodie…yet you will experience some of the best food of your life.

If you could cook for anyone, alive or dead, who would it be and why?

My nana! She was the most amazing person and she loved to cook. Unfortunately she died when I was in my early twenties and I still miss her.

What would you prepare for him/her?

It wouldn’t matter, I would just love to be near her again – though it might be her famous Shepard’s Pie.

What was the last thing you ate?

I haven’t eaten yet today…and I am starving. I am going to have the Pan con Tomate (that I mentioned above) and then for dinner we are having leftover Braised Peppercorn Shortribs.

If you had to work outside the culinary field, what would you do?

I would love to be a part of a comedy show like Mad TV or something. I just don’t have the guts (or desire really) to get in front of a camera and do it. I just love to laugh and have a good time!

What’s your weakness? Dessert or mains?
How tragic is it that I must admit that my weakness is, in fact, weakness. I love desserts but I also love savouries. I find I get in a groove and can’t move on until I’ve had my fill of banana bread, curried lentils or whatever my favourite may be.

Who or what got you interested in food?
I hung out with old ladies when I was a kid. No, really, I did. My paternal grandmother lived with us and my maternal grandmother visited for a month or so each summer. Both were fantastic cooks and I was inspired by watching them whip up cinnamon buns, Swiss steak and perogies.

What inspires you?
It’s hard to pinpoint what inspires me. It can vary from eating in an interesting restaurant to chatting with someone in a waiting room. Most often I suppose hunger is my main motivation.

What was your favourite dinner when you were a kid? Do you like it now?
I loved the way my mom used to serve thick, juicy steaks on individual wooden boards with a baked potato. She was a true 70s style hound; she even had the individual wooden bowls for our Caesar salad. I do still love a good steak but I likely eat about half the sized serving my mom used to make for each of us. I can’t believe how much meat we ate!

What’s the first dish you remember making?
Chicken marengo. I was in grade six or seven and I made it for dinner for my family. When my mom and dad got home from work, I had the table set and was ready to serve my wine stewed chicken. I even peeled the pearl onions and served it over egg noodles. I was so proud and they were so encouraging. It was a great day!

Proudest food-related moment?
See above. : )

Strangest food you’ve ever eaten?
Hmmm. That’s an excellent question. I’ve recently learned that what I think is perfectly acceptable as food is totally offensive to others. That said, I think the weirdest thing I’ve ever eaten was this crazy, neon pink, freeze dried ice cream that my son got as a birthday present a few years ago. The package said that astronauts eat it but I can’t believe that for a minute. It’s more likely that they take it up into space to use as a repellent for aliens.

Favourite sound in the kitchen?
The coffee maker in the morning is wonderful but so is the sound of someone cleaning up. It’s a rare but much loved sound.

Favourite cooking smell?
Onions browning in butter. Hands down, the best smell in the world.

Quintessential Canadian dish?
The butter tart.

Molecular gastronomy, best thing ever or the unwearable haute couture of food?
Definitely not the best thing ever. It seems to reek of ego to me. I appreciate the skill but I’d rather eat a perfect peach than some foam topped concoction.

Cilantro — can’t get enough or tastes like soap?
I love it but it did taste soapy to me when I first started to eat it.

What non-local foods can’t you live without?
Balsamic vinegar and great quality extra virgin olive oil.

What’s your greatest culinary extravagance?
Every full moon my husband and I split a bottle of Veuve Cliquot. I also collect copper cookware which is pretty extravagant, too.

Most over-rated kitchen gadget?
The Silver Bullet. Or, the Ginzu Knife. I can’t decide.

What’s the most treasured possession in your kitchen? Why?
My Tuscan salt cellar that I bought when Martin and I were on our honeymoon in 1996. Every time I use it, I’m reminded of that great time in our lives.

Fill in the blank. If I never cooked / ate / heard about ______ again, I’d be happy.
Chicken nuggets.

If you could cook for anyone, alive or dead, who would it be and why?
It will sound sappy (I’d so much rather be pithy!) but probably my grandmothers to show them many stories I’ve added to the foundation they gave me.

What would you prepare for him/her?
Something seasonal, fresh and simple. If it were fall, likely a roast chicken with a sherry gravy, glazed root veggies with rosemary, a bitter lettuce salad and traditional double crust apple pie. And, to please my maternal grandmother, drip Eight O’Clock drip coffee. Lots of it.

What was the last thing you ate?
Spinach fettuccine with a ginger infused tomato sauce, bok choy and cashews.

If you had to work outside the culinary field, what would you do?
I’d like to be a literary reviewer. I read voraciously and I love discussing literature.