Sittin' in the Kitchen

Anthony Rose and I both love old fashioned Jewish food. Anthony is a popular chef and restaurateur with a cluster of hip eateries on a gritty strip of Dupont Street in downtown Toronto. Rose and Sons, the original one, is a deli style diner featuring a mean pastrami sandwich, chicken soup with matzo balls and chopped liver. We met at his French-style bistro, Bar Begonia, to chat about his mini empire and his cookbook: The Last Shmaltz.

I met Gabriella, a fledgling food writer, at the James Beard Awards dinner in 2004. We caught up again in New York this year and chatted about our Jewish roots in Riga, Latvia, our affinity for Montreal and our mutual love of prunes.

It was a sunny day in Rob Firing's Toronto garden where he grilled a ribeye with service berries and garlic scapes on his humble barbecue - delicious! Meanwhile, he gave me a tutorial on his favourite topic: steak. His new book "Steak Revolution" explores the more unusual cuts of beef including my new favourite - culotte. His book introduced me to the best way to cook it - the reverse-sear method.

Chef Joshna Maharaj is driven by a passion for social change. She rejects the processed, dreary and bland food served in most institutions. She was chef at The Stop Community Food Centre in Toronto where she worked to re-imagine the traditional soup kitchen. Joshna has also revitalized campus food and the fare in hospitals. She is a compelling talker who expresses her spiritual beliefs eloquently. She says, “The intersection of food stuff and god stuff is my happy place.”

Award-winning journalist and Miami Herald food editor Carlos Frias reconnected with his ancestral homeland in his memoir, “Take Me with You: A Secret Search for Family in a Forbidden Cuba”. His restaurant recommendations included Miami’s Palacio de los Jugos and Empanada Harry’s – both fabulous finds. He shared his lively stories with me at the Herald newsroom on the outskirts of Miami.

Marlene Benedicto has been in a wheelchair since she was three years old. She lives with her boyfriend in downtown Toronto and has a day job. Since 2011, she has been writing a blog called 'Tasting Toronto on Wheels'. In it, she writes restaurant reviews, reports on food events and shares recipes. I chatted with her in the kitchen of her apartment.

On the second Tuesday of every month, homeless people and their advocates gather at the Church of the Holy Trinity in downtown Toronto. They read out names and honour those who have lost their lives on the streets of the city. Merylie Houston has been cooking lunch for the event for 15 years. The day before, I visited her at home as she prepared mac 'n' cheese for 100. During the communal meal, I spoke to several people who shared their stories.

Famous chef Massimo Bottura has received accolades and awards for his restaurants in Modena Italy and for his latest mission: recycling food waste. He and other top chefs, with their helpers, started feeding the homeless and refugees at Milan Expo in 2015 using only discarded food. This groundbreaking effort is documented in the stunning film 'Theater of Life'. Since then, his project has been duplicated in other countries. Massimo's most recent success is the brilliant cookbook 'Bread is Gold' which features recipes that use what he calls "ordinary ingredients".