Karl Wells

Karl Wells is a food writer and restaurant reviewer with The Telegram in St. John’s Newfoundland. He has hosted and produced many television food segments for CBC in the past two decades and currently hosts the popular Rogers TV programme, One Chef One Critic, seen throughout his home province. In addition to judging many culinary competitions, such as the upcoming Gold Medal Plates in St. John’s, Karl has served for many years as enRoute Magazine’s Best New Restaurants’ Newfoundland panelist.

What’s your weakness? Dessert or mains?
Mains. I love high flavoured braised dishes. Lamb shank is one of my addictions, cooked slowly on a low heat for a few hours. Shrimp and lobster are also favourites, especially when done very simply.

Who or what got you interested in food?
My father. He was a chef with the now defunct Newfoundland Railway before I was born and cooked professionally for several years before becoming a grocer. (We lived above our grocery store when I was growing up.) My dad cooked with an ease and efficiency that I found fascinating. I was also a big fan of the early television cooking shows featuring Jehane Benoit and then Graham Kerr, the Galloping Gourmet. I also took great delight in reading my mother’s collection of cookery books.

What inspires you?
In the culinary world it would be the passion displayed by folk who make great food, be they cooks, farmers, chocolate makers or whatever. Nothing thrills like hearing a true believer talk enthusiastically about the quality of grass fed beef or making the ultimate chocolate truffle.

What was your favourite dinner when you were a kid? Do you like it now?
Macaroni and cheese with lots of Canadian cheddar on top and crispy at the edges. I will always love it. Who doesn’t enjoy macaroni and cheese? I’d like some now as a matter of fact. In fast food it would be fish and chips. We have the best fish and chips in St. John’s. When I was growing up it was a real Friday treat.

What’s the first dish you remember making?
My grandmother taught me to make apple pie when I was 10. We’d make a bunch of them together at first but afterward I did it all by myself. Then I learned how to make baked beans because I liked them and making baked beans didn’t look that hard.

Proudest food-related moment?
Believe it or not I had the opportunity to make crème brulee for the actor, William Hurt, at a private dinner. He was in St. John’s making a film. He said my crème brulee was as good as the crème brulee he’d enjoyed in Paris. It probably wasn’t but it was nice of him to say so. He has a well-educated palate.

Strangest food you’ve ever eaten?
Chocolate coated insects. Essentially they tasted like crunchy chocolate.

Favourite sound in the kitchen?
The sound of meat sizzling on a skillet.

Favourite cooking smell?
Bread when it comes straight from the oven.

Quintessential Canadian dish?
Moose stew with local root vegetables cooked in a little Canadian beer.

Molecular gastronomy, best thing ever or the unwearable haute couture of food?
The latter, mostly. It has its place as an adjunct to more traditional methods of cooking but I wouldn’t care for a meal prepared entirely by using molecular cooking techniques. It’s getting too far from real food for my liking.

Cilantro – can’t get enough or tastes like soap?
I’ve acquired a taste for it, especially in some Indian dishes.

What non-local foods can’t you live without?
Obviously many types of fruit like mangoes, oranges and bananas. Oh, and peanut butter. I cannot survive without peanut butter.

What’s your greatest culinary extravagance?
Real caviar from sturgeon but only on extremely rare occasions. I have champagne taste and a beer budget I’m afraid.

Most over-rated kitchen gadget?
I’m not a kitchen gadget person but my uncle was given a George Foreman rotisserie oven that takes forever to clean. It has a million parts. Sticking a chicken in the oven is much simpler and just as good. He never uses the thing. I think the landfills must be full of such devices.

What’s the most treasured possession in your kitchen? Why?
My dad’s 2-cup ladle that he used when he cooked professionally.
It’s pretty special because every time I see it or use it I think of him and the wonderful meals he and my mom cooked for us. It’s over sixty years old.

Fill in the blank. If I never cooked / ate / heard about  ______ again, I’d be happy.
FOAM. I hate the stuff. So many chefs decorate their plates with it that it has become a culinary cliché.

If you could cook for anyone, alive or dead, who would it be and why?
Clement Freud. He was a great foodie and great wit. I particularly enjoyed his food writing.

What would you prepare for him/her?
My moose stew. I think he’d love it.

What was the last thing you ate?
A meal prepared for me by a lovely Russian couple. They’re new friends of mine. It began with mushroom soup and ended with blinis filled with cream cheese and topped with blueberry preserves. There were lots of interesting dishes in between with names that I cannot pronounce. One featured pounded out pork cutlets that had been cooked with cheese on top.

If you had to work outside the culinary field, what would you do?
I’d be a professional actor.