Tim Everett, prepared foods team leader at the Yonge and Sheppard Whole Foods Market in Toronto, explains their popular hot and cold food bars. I enthuse about this - my favourite way of eating. Although self-serve food may have a bad rap, I point out the virtues of choosing what, how much, when and where I eat.

Nigella Lawson has bounced back better than ever after much-publicized personal troubles. She was recently on tour to promote her 10th cookbook and accompanying BBC TV show, both called Simply Nigella. I spoke with her in Toronto. It turned out we have a bond in our shared passion for food and cooking. In particular we both take a casual approach to recipes allowing for experimentation and even failure.

Cooking, eating, and sharing food can be deeply therapeutic. Ruth Reichl takes that to heart in her new book My Kitchen Year: 136 Recipes That Saved My Life. She is a renowned restaurant critic, author, and editor. She was editor-in-chief at Gourmet Magazine for a decade until it was abruptly closed in 2009. Her latest book was born out of the crushing day when she lost her job along with a part of her identity. I spoke with Ruth about her book and our shared path as food journalists in Toronto.

Roger Mooking is a Juno award winning hip-hop artist - and when he turns his talents to food, the results are no less entertaining. He is a star of Food Network and Food Network Canada who appears on Man Fire Food, Heat Seekers, and Chopped: Canada. He co-created Everyday Exotic and penned a cookbook by the same name. Between writing, TV, opening restaurants, and recording music - he is a very busy man.

Peter Neal and his brother Chris started their food company making croutons by hand in their mother's Aurora, Ontario kitchen. Now they distribute salsas, chips, salad dressings and more around the world. I had fun tasting Neal Brothers kettle chips at All the Best Fine Foods in Toronto.

In the summer of 2010, Globe and Mail feature writer Ian Brown drove across Canada eating whatever came his way. That included poutine, chicken wings, breakfast and lunch at a nudist colony and a prairie feast of Mennonite sausage and meat.

I visit Gelato Fresco's factory in Toronto. Owner Hart Melvin specializes in ice cream desserts for restaurants including The Keg's Billy Miner Pie. He got into the ice cream business 30 years ago to make people happy.

Fred Austin, an owner of Katz's Delicatessen on New York's Lower East Side, kibbitzes with me amid the lunchtime hubbub of this huge vintage landmark. The place is famous for its oversized pastrami sandwiches and for being a survivor in this gentrified neighbourhood that was once a hub of Jewish culture.

I visited Olivia Chow at her home in downtown Toronto just a few weeks before she announced her NDP candidacy in the federal election. We chatted about our mutual passion for food and cooking, in particular our wish for a Canadian national program offering nutritious food for all school children. Like her late husband, Jack Layton, she has a message of hope.

I visit the village of Dundela, Ontario, in the St. Lawrence valley where John McIntosh discovered the McIntosh apple in 1811. He and his son cultivated Canada's most famous apple and its popularity grew. I speak with Nancy McIntosh, John's great-great-granddaughter, who grew up in the Dundela farmhouse. She and I are determined to celebrate the McIntosh apple by making Dundela a tourist attraction.