Anna Olson is a pastry chef and a star on Food Network Canada. She has a new cookbook: 'Bake with Anna Olson'. We discuss how to treat oven burns, ingredient temperatures, pan dimensions and baking tips and tricks.

Chef Martin Picard is famous for his nose-to-tail restaurant Au Pied de Cochon. Since 2009, he has divided his time between that Montreal eatery and his equally popular sugar shack 50 km away in the lush countryside. When I visited, he generously shared his thoughts on traditional Quebec cuisine, foie gras, maple syrup, cooking with leftovers and his 'last supper'.

Chef Claudio Aprile has been cooking for decades and his culinary journey has taken him from a Brampton doughnut shop to Michelin starred restaurants in the UK and Spain. He is a dignified presence as a judge on MasterChef Canada and a consummate gentleman.

He was a star chef with a young family but, one night in 2012, he disappeared without a trace for two weeks. Now he’s back with a hot new restaurant and a cautionary tale. Jonathan Gushue was the chef at Langdon Hall in Cambridge Ontario, named one of the 100 best restaurants in the world. Before that, he was one of the youngest chefs in North America to earn the coveted five-diamond rating at Truffles in Toronto. Today Gushue is co-owner of The Berlin, a new treasure in Kitchener. That’s where we met to discuss his struggle with addiction and his ongoing path of discovery.

I spoke with Amanda Cohen, owner of hugely popular NYC vegetable restaurant Dirt Candy, at the 10th annual Terroir Symposium in Toronto. She explained her love of vegetables and her no-tipping policy.

I first met Susur Lee more than 30 years ago when he and chef Michael Stadtlander were newcomers to Canada. His idealistic philosophy about food struck me as ahead of its time; as it turns out, he was. Now the high-profile owner of five successful Toronto restaurants, his Asian fusion food is refined, elegant and delicious.

Helen Antonopoulos owns and operates a Toronto food truck called Food Cabbie with her husband Spiro. Her version of the famous Greek egg dish called Strapatsada caught the attention of celebrity chef Nigella Lawson who used a rendition of the recipe in her book: Simply Nigella. It made the perfect lunch when Helen cooked it for me in my kitchen.

John Catucci and his fork travel far and wide boosting the popularity of local eateries on Food Network's "You Gotta Eat Here". He's funny, endearing and - what can I say? - you gotta listen!

I highlight a few of my favourite places to eat in the culinary melting pot of South Beach Miami: Haitian food at Tap Tap, in particular goat tidbits; a Kobe burger at the Delano Hotel; pigs' feet stew at Puerto Sagua and people watching at the News Cafe.

Lidia Bastianich came to the USA at age 12 with her family as a refugee from the former Yugoslavia. Her heritage is Italian and so is her cooking. I chatted with her at Felidia, the flagship restaurant she opened 35 years ago. Lidia's Mastering the Art of Italian Cuisine is her 10th and most recent cookbook. Don't miss her description of cooking for the pope.