Sittin' in the Kitchen

Julia Child loved her visits to Toronto. On her first visit to our fair city in 1991, she was wowed by a lunch cooked by some of Canada’s top chefs. I'll always remember the touching moment when she walked into the kitchen to thank the chefs who had cooked for her. Listen to my podcast and you'll hear from Toronto’s finest chefs, the former Cookbook Store manager and an elite ice cream maker recall their love and respect for Julia.

JULIA and JUDITH: Next Tuesday, the Canadian Food Network premieres The Julia Child Challenge (it has begun in the U.S. this week) - a show where home cooks enter culinary challenges, each competing to win a paid three-month cooking course at Le Cordon Bleu in Paris. Julia was my friend and mentor until her death in 2004. She changed my life forever. Another friend of the beloved TV cooking star was Judith Jones - Julia's long-time editor. From the moment the manuscript for Mastering the Art of French Cooking dropped onto her desk, Judith's life was never the same. I travelled to New York to interview Judith Jones about five years before her death. In this episode of Sittin' in the Kitchen from 2012, you'll hear Judith talk about how a down-to-earth American woman became the world's first TV celebrity chef. https://www.marionkane.com/podcast/judith-jones-julia-childs-longtime/

'The Julia Child Challenge' airs on March 14th in the U.S. and March 22nd in Canada on The Food Network. You can read more about the show here: https://www.foodnetwork.com/fn-dish/shows/the-julia-child-challenge

Want to hear more about Julia from the people who knew her best? Listen to my podcast series from 2012 celebrating Julia's 100th birthday here: https://www.marionkane.com/julia-child-100/intro/

For recipe suggestions of all kinds, join my Facebook group, Sittin' in the Kitchen: https://www.facebook.com/groups/SittinInTheKitchen

The Waldorf Salad – named after its birthplace, Manhattan's legendary Waldorf Astoria hotel – has evolved since it was first created in 1896. In my 2013 interview with the hotel's then executive chef David Garcelon, we talked about the enduring popularity of the famous salad. At the time of this interview, the Waldorf Astoria was serving 20,000 salads/year!

A few steps away from my home in Toronto's Kensington Market is the Pow Wow Café where they make the most delicious #indiantacos. The restaurant, owned by the talented and energetic #Ojibway / #Jewish chef Shawn Adler, has turned to catering for homeless shelters in the wake of Covid. The Pow Wow Café isn't offering take-away or dine-in until further notice but Shawn has hinted that pop-ups at the restaurant are likely to happen during the spring/summer months. Shawn’s second restaurant, The Flying Chestnut Kitchen in Eugenia, Ontario, currently offers take-away on Friday and Saturday nights.

Rosemary Kelly is my long-time friend. Her Facebook name is: rosieonthemove. Her LinkedIn profile is: Independent Health, Wellness and Fitness Professional. Rosemary is an intrepid traveller. She cooks. And she’s treated cancer patients with massage. She is a free spirit. Rosemary told me her story at the kitchen table in her cozy apartment in downtown Toronto. I began asking how long we’ve known each other.

17% of food produced globally each year is wasted. In 2020, 811 million people around the world went hungry. When I interviewed chef Massimo Bottura in 2017, we talked about his consuming passion to end hunger. Massimo believes we can restore dignity to society's most vulnerable people with a sense of community and food. Massimo was warm and friendly. We had an instant connection over our shared interest in decreasing food waste and he was delighted with this photo of me dressed in cabbage leaves that accompanied my article in the Toronto Star in 1992: How to be a Green Cuisine Queen! We chatted about the success of his brainchild Refettorio Ambrosiano at the 2015 Milan Expo. Refettorio Ambrosiano was created as a hub to feed the city's homeless and refugees with food that would have otherwise been discarded. You can find my lively conversation with Massimo Bottura here: https://www.marionkane.com/uncategorized/cookbook-bread-gold-chef-massimo/



I can highly recommend Massimo Bottura's book, Bread is Gold. I tried six recipes from the book and all worked brilliantly. You can read my thoughts on Bread is Gold – and find a recipe for caramelized bananas – in my blog post here: https://www.marionkane.com/uncategorized/cookbook-bread-gold-chef-massimo/

From its beginning as a wild seedling to the tragic death of its first-generation tree, Canada's own McIntosh apple has a dramatic history of success and near ruin. Listen to my podcast in which I visit Dundela, Ontario – the birthplace of the McIntosh apple - and sleuth the colourful story of our nation's favourite apple.

Try my recipe for Apple Crumble: https://www.marionkane.com/recipe-2/apples-of-my-eye/

The Gefilte Manifesto' authors Liz Alpern and Jeffery Yoskowitz have done much to redeem the maligned reputation of gefilte fish. In honour of next Monday night’s Rosh Hashanah – the Jewish New Year – I'm revisiting my 2017 podcast when we talked about our love of this Jewish food delicacy.

Every June, right around Father's Day, thousands of people descend on the small town of Midland, Ontario, to eat thousands of butter tarts. The oldest documented butter tart recipe comes from the Barrie Royal Victoria Hospital Cookbook published in 1900. There is a hot debate about the butter tart’s origins but this much is clear - butter tarts are a truly Canadian confection. Covid has deferred Midland's next butter tart festival until June 11, 2022. Meanwhile, please listen to my podcast from the very first Midland butter tart festival in 2013. It was a rollicking event where I sleuthed out the secrets to baking the best butter tarts. I interviewed contestants, organizers, the town's mayor, artist and butter tart judge Charles Pachter and the festival's ambassador – a drag queen who was dubbed "Queen of Tarts."

This week, I'm taking a look back to my first ever podcast (recorded in 2011) when I sleuthed the incredible legacy of food scientist Dr. Robert C. Baker.

Dr. Baker completely transformed how people consume chicken. Prior to his work, Americans largely farmed chickens for egg production and ate an average of just 15 lb of chicken per year. After his work at Cornell University developing 40+ poultry innovations, American chicken consumption skyrocketed to 90 lb/year! It was Dr. Baker, not McDonald's, who is credited with the invention of the chicken nugget nor did he profit from or seek accolades for his innovation.

One of Dr. Baker's proudest achievements was inventing the recipe for barbecued Cornell Chicken. This tasty dish was served at the New York State Fair's Chicken Coop run by the Baker family for 70 years. Sadly, The Chicken Coop recently closed for good, marking the end of an era.