Posts Tagged: interview

Bal Arneson / Chef / Cookbook / Indian — View Comments
17
Mar 11

Meeting the Spice Goddess – Bal Arneson

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Bal Arneson, Spice Goddess

We recently had the opportunity to sit down with Bal Arneson, host of the show, Spice Goddess, currently airing on Food Network Canada show and CookingChannel TV. She was in Toronto to promote her new cookbook Bal’s Quick & Healthy Indian, in which she promotes healthy Indian food that can be prepared in under 25 minutes.

An hour passed by quickly with Bal’s stories of growing up in a Punjab village, starting from scratch in Canada, her entrepreneurship spirit to get herself through school, her perseverance to get her first book published, her experience as an Iron Chef judge and more. We’re excited to share our conversation with you.

What do you want to share through your cookbook?

I wanted to share recipes that were similar to what I ate in my village. We didn’t eat rich foods because cream and butter were saved for only very special occasions…like the birth of a boy! We stuck with natural spices and vegetables. People had also told me that their other Indian cookbooks had long recipes that took forever to cook. In India, cooking was so quick because we had to do so many chores, we didn’t have the privilege to be cooking for hours and hours.

Which recipe would you recommend we try? Do you have a favourite recipe?

They’re all good! The chickpea and avocado salad. Such a beautiful, healthy, amazing, quick lunch. Start with that. I recently made the spiced honey chicken on garlic asparagus – that’s great too.


Spice Goddess Spices

How did your upbringing in India influence your cooking?

I was 4 or 5 years old and remember my mom cooking by the bbq pit. We had no phones, no fridges, no TV’s, and I remember my mom getting up early at 4:30 and milking the cows and bison. We would bring the milk back to the kitchen and churn it.

She would take coriander or cardamom, cloves and put it in a tray out in the sun because we didn’t have an oven and they would get toasted beautifully under the sun. It was our job to put it in a huge mortar and we would crush it for hours, with our faces covered because the peppercorns were so strong. We would do this for hours and it was very sensory-orienting and meditating. Lo and behold, I realized this was gonna be my job for the rest of my life.

How did that lead to your success in Canada?

Seventeen years ago when I left my first husband I was disowned by my family, I had no money and I had no English. As a single mom, I started cleaning people’s homes to make money and at night I was taking ESL classes so I could learn to communicate with people. I remember going to people’s houses and offering to make them some food! And they were like ‘No, just stick to cleaning’.

I started taking classes at UBC and because the cafeteria was so far from our classroom, expensive and you had to wait in lineups, I brought my own food. People would say “Oh, what are you eating?” and I would be like “I’m eating my chick peas!” and so they asked if I could make some for them. I started offering it to them and, you know, after a while I started selling them for $2 or $3. I started coming to school with a backpack and a big icebag full of containers with people’s names on it. One thing led to another and soon they were asking me to teach them how to cook dishes and to cater their mom’s birthdays.

What was your biggest challenge getting to where you are now?

Growing up in a village where you have no identity and then being here with this freedom, I didn’t find English or men were a challenge. My only challenge was to find my own identity. Coming to Canada and going through a divorce, I was like “what do I do now?”. I needed to make big decisions without any father figure or brother figure. It was to overcome the thousands of years of teaching I grew up with where women were the property of men and meant to serve them. My audience is still 80% women so my vision and desire is to show them how to cook amazing meals and then get out of the kitchen as well as empower women by sharing my story.

What do you tell women who want to succeed in the culinary world?

You’ve got to have a plan A that’s gonna pay your bills. Teaching was my plan A that paid my bills. Have a plan A that is in your control and plan B, which is out of your control; this can be your passion. If you have your food and shelter covered, you’ll have time to discover your passion. Whatever fears you have, stop, embrace them, and face them.

But absolutely, follow your dreams.

What tips do you have for beginner home cooks?

Just start with two spices: Turmeric powder and garam masala. That’s all we had and we would make the most amazing meals ever. Add whatever flavours you like in the masala mix… cumin, coriander, bay leaves… Turmeric has tremendous health benefits and adds a nice colour. Garam masala is based on coriander and cumin, but whatever you could afford or whatever spices you prefer to have could be added. Kind of like spaghetti sauce, everybody makes it a little different. The key is to heat up the spices to release the wonderful flavours. Start with a little garlic, ginger, and oil, and then add the spices. You don’t need any fat because of the spices, which are great for medicinal purposes. After that, follow your own palate.

Is it possible for beginner cooks to stick to your 25 minute cooking philosophy?

Absolutely, it’s possible. Nobody should be in the kitchen for more than 25 minutes. You should cook and then get out of there so you have more time to do meditation, or yoga, or dancing with your friends. The great thing about Indian spices is that you don’t need to marinate for too long. If it’s done right, freshly toasted and ground, you don’t need to marinate for hours and hours, just mix it in.

Do you have a favourite tool in the kitchen?

If I can cook with a clay pot, a dug up pit with cowdung patties – any tool is a blessing! You don’t need to buy fancy knives or fancy pots. You just need your hands.

How was your experience as a judge on Iron Chef America?

Jose Garces was the Iron Chef and Michael Solomonov was the challenger. The secret ingredient was passion fruit. Before the judging, they tell you that you can’t say all good things. I’m eating it though and keep thinking ‘This is really good!’ and at one point, I said to Michael, ‘This food is so good, I want to take you home with me.’ Then I thought ‘What did I just say?’ because my daughter was in the audience! I have been a judge twice and it’s so fun, I would do it again.

If you could have the luxury to go spend a year abroad learning another cuisine what would it be?

Everyone raves about French cooking so if there’s any cuisine I had to choose, that’s what it would be. I’m actually headed to France this week!


It was such a pleasure to meet with Bal Arneson! She is a strong, independent woman who showed us perseverance and passion in both her professional and personal life. With Quick and Healthy, she continues to change people’s perception of Indian food as being unhealthy and showcase the beautiful aromas of fresh spices to create quick and delicious meals.

After the interview, she had a cooking demo of honey chicken and asparagus for a crowd of women at First Canadian Place. We agreed that people come into our lives for a reason, season or lifetime and it was truly a priceless experience for YouCook to meet the Spice Goddess.

Stay tuned as YouCook tries out some recipes from Bal’s new book in our test kitchen.

Bal Arneson Demo

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Cookbook / Recipe — View Comments
20
Apr 10

Interview with Authors of Quinoa 365: The Everyday Superfood

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Patricia Green and Carolyn Hemming
Quinoa is the new superfood – with a perfect balance of all eight essential amino acids. I had never heard of quinoa before – in fact, our earlier post on Four’s Grilled Salmon with quinoa Tabbouleh was my first introduction to quinoa, but ever since then, I have been noticing it on menus and grocery stores everywhere. When YouCook got ahold of Patricia Green and Carolyn Hemming’s Quinoa 365: The Everyday Superfood book, we were very excited to find out more about quinoa’s nutritional value, and find many different ways to incorporate it into recipes we eat everyday.

Here’s some background on the authors from their website:

Patricia Green
Patricia is a health-conscious mother, balancing family and career while constantly creating nutritious meals tasty enough to please her husband and two active children. Patricia’s post-secondary studies include nutrition, marketing and geography.

Carolyn Hemming
Residing just outside of Toronto, Canada, Carolyn is dedicated to eating right and being physically active. Always busy balancing career & fitness goals, whether she is travelling on business or training for a marathon, Carolyn seeks foods that provide the right balance of energy and nutrition. A sociology and communications graduate, Carolyn’s critical perspective causes her to evaluate every bit of healthy information.

On the nutritional content of quinoa

YouCook: I am so glad to see a section on making your own baby food. Although I don’t have children, my friends are all beginning to start their own families now, and it’s great to see that you can start your children off with a taste for healthier foods. Do you have any advice for the new parents out there who are trying to give their children all of the nutrients they need?

Carolyn: Well, there’s always your physician knows best, they know what nutrients your baby needs. However, what gave us that idea to add that chapter was what we borrowed from the Incans, to wean their children on quinoa. They had really low infant mortality rates. And they were of course very healthy people with very low illness rates. We thought, why don’t we let other people know about it, especially after we were talking to some scientists out in colorado, who studied quinoa. They were also sharing their amazement with us that North American society primarily weans their children on rice pablum, and isn’t it incredulous, that the nutrition value in rice pablum is so minor? And the nutrition in something like quinoa, is exponential. And one of the key parts of that is Histadine which is an essential amino acid. There is a lot of it in quinoa. It is very important to a child’s development. It is the key amino acid for human development. It’s one of those hard to find amino acids.

Patricia: And another thing too, babies also require iron, fortified. quinoa also has iron in it and calcium. So when you think of all that development going on, those items are covered. And it’s also hypo-allergenic, which means when you think of all these allergies to milk and soy and wheat, it gives parents an option, an healthy option, where they’re absorbing nutrition from the food, with no risks from food allergies, and easy digestion.

We have included a baby recipe from the book: Super Quinoa Fruit Puree below.
YouCook: Carolyn, I see that you run marathons. Did you notice any improvement after you started eating quinoa, like in your energy levels?

Carolyn: I do a lot of weight training, and that was probably the biggest place I noticed it. Just really training and lifting weights, and feeling my muscles respond better than they had. Also, my whole life I’ve been a protein shake drinker and supplement user, and when I started using quinoa, I felt like I didn’t need my protein shakes anymore.

Patricia: There is one person that really swears by quinoa, and credits his performance to the use of quinoa. That (person) is Anthony Calvillo. He’s from the Montreal Alouettes.

Carolyn: He’s a professional athlete and of course, the Alouettes won the Grey Cup. He was in the media saying, look, it’s because of quinoa, because his wife had to eat so much coming out of cancer treatment. So he said if you’re going to eat it, I’m going to eat it. During the Grey Cup actually, he had his family making him quinoa, and delivering it to the hotel, because he swears that that has put him in the best shape of his life… This was in the media recently because he was asked if he was ready for retirement, and he said: No way, this is the best shape I’ve ever been in. It wasn’t even an hour after the Grey Cup, and you could see everyone twittering Anthony Calvillo and quinoa. People just started talking about it so fast.

YouCook: What are your next steps in promoting quinoa?

Carolyn: I think it’s part of a big gradual plan. To your point, a lot of people do respond with “What is it?” The awareness piece is not there yet, and there is so much distance to go, that we will do our continued speaking engagements, on what it is, the benefits. I think that could have a lot of longevity. It seems to, just because the awareness is so low right now.

Patricia: We are in constant contact with the growers and manufacturers of quinoa – everyone in the quinoa industry. (We do that) to get more knowledge, what new products are out there, and telling people that this is what they need to know about quinoa. Eventually once it really filters out, maybe we’ll feel like we’ve done our job and can move on to something else.

On inspiration for their recipes and book

YouCook: I love how you have incorporated quinoa in so many different dishes, including desserts. Did you have any previous culinary experience that led to such an expansive array of recipes?

Patricia: Well, I have to say Carolyn and I are very creative people. Like yourself, you do cakes, so you bring your creativity into your cakes. And we do that in our cooking. As far as culinary experience goes, I have had commercial cooking experience, but I’m not working in that industry. Essentially, it’s just a matter of using our creativity and what we knew, and the knowledge that I had from my commercial cooking experience, and start creating recipes.

YouCook: Are there any in here that’s part of your repertoire, that you eat at home?

Patricia: All of them are. My kids will eat everything.

YouCook: So the book is all family-type recipes? What inspired you to write this book?

Patricia: Our goal, initially, was to incorporate quinoa into everything we were already eating, so that we could bring it into our diet. We ended up with a huge collection of recipes that we thought we would share. Because we saw that there was a need, for a book that told people a story. (A book) that used it everyday as opposed to things that, you know, fanatics would make, or maybe foodies and gourmets would make, but what would an everyday person use? How could they incorporate it into everyday meals? And they would enjoy it… It just feels like it can fit right into the average consumer’s diet.

YouCook: Was there any moment where you realized you wanted to write this book?

Patricia: Well, I think when I discovered what quinoa was, and all of its nutritional properties, I started putting it into my everyday meals, I told her (Carolyn) about it, and we both started creating recipes. So we had all these recipes, and there’s no other cookbook on the market. So that’s why we started it, because we could see the need for it.

Carolyn: You could see the (demand) out there, on the blogs and Twitter. People are (asking) “Do you know how to do this with it? Or does anyone know if I’m making this and this; can I put quinoa in it?” Nobody really had the history, the nutrition, you know, just the combination of recipes and everything. So that was the “ah-ha” moment Patricia had that said let’s do this, let’s share our recipes.

Baby Food Recipe: Super Quinoa Fruit Purée

Well, we’ve certainly learned a lot about quinoa. Thanks to Patricia and Carolyn for sharing your quinoa knowledge and recipes with us. Infants and Children actually don’t produce Histidine, Cysteine and Tyrosine making them additional essential amino acids that kids require! Luckily Quinoa has these amino acids as well!! Here’s a healthy recipe from the book to feed babies starting at 6-9 months. If you use this, let us know how your baby liked it!

Summary

Preparation Time: 10 min for pitting/dicing fruit
Cook Time: 20 min
Servings: 2 cups
Meal type: Baby Food

Recipe Rating: ★★★★☆ 

Ingredients

baby quinoa

  • 1 cup (250mL) washed/pitted/peeled/diced fruit
  • 1/2 cup (125mL) water
  • 1 cup (250mL) cooked quinoa

Instructions

1. Combine the diced fruit and water in a large saucepan and bring it to a boil.
2. Cover and reduce to a simmer and cook until fruit is soft (8-10 minutes)
3. Remove from heat and allow to cool.
4. Cook quinoa.
5. Put fruit and cooked quinoa into a blender or food processor.
6. Puree until smooth.
7. Thin the mixture with water or milk until desired consistency is reached.
8. Strain the fruit if a smoother consistency is required.

Storage Instructions

Pour the puree into an ice cube tray and freeze for 5 hours. Remove the frozen cubes from the tray and place into a resealable freezer bag. You can keep it in the freezer for 2 months to maintain best nutritional value.

To service, thaw the cubes in the fridge or a small saucepan on the lowest setting. Thawed puree will stay fresh in sealed container in the fridge for up to 48 hours.

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Matt Rosen / Restaurant — View Comments
29
Mar 10

Interview with Four’s Chef de Cuisine Matt Rosen

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Matt Rosen
We recently had the opportunity to visit Four and talk with their Chef de Cuisine, Matt Rosen. Four is a restaurant located in downtown Toronto (below Far Niente at the NE corner of Bay St and Wellington St), with an unique concept of low-calorie food – all their dishes are less than 650 calories! I’ve had the chance to dine at Four, both for drinks and lunch, on a few occasions and found their food quite good, so I was definitely curious to learn the secret behind their low calorie, tasty food. Chef Rosen was nice enough to demo his recipe for Grilled Salmon with Quinoa Tabbouleh and share his nuggets of information about cooking, creating a low calorie menu, and challenges of running a kitchen with us, all while feeding us his delicious salmon and desserts! It was so much information that we decided to write about it in a separate post from our Salmon post. Read on for some highlights from our conversation.

On how to create low calorie meals that taste good

Chef Rosen: So it’s really important when we’re designing the recipes that we take a lot of things into consideration. For example, vinaigrette is always 3 parts oil to 1 part vinegar. Unfortunately, each tablespoon of oil has 140 calories. So if I give the full quantity of oil I would like to give in a vinaigrette, it doesn’t tend to work out as well because I don’t have room in the recipe for other things. So it’s really important that we build really intense flavours right off the start. We start off all vinaigrettes the same way. Basically what we’re going to do is use salt and sugar to break down the shallots. What that’s going to do is basically suck out some of that harshness in the shallots and allow that sweetness to come out. But what you’re also doing is building a really strong flavour base.

On the process of creating new menu items

YouCook: How do you create new menu items for Four?
Chef Rosen: I’ll download 10 of the exact same recipe, and then find the commonalities in each recipe, and from that create my own. Once that is done, once my recipe is created, I’ll email it over to our nutritionist, who will email them back to me and say, you might want to watch your sodium, you’re under the calorie count, but your sodium is really high – something along those lines. And it’s been a battle – I know when we did Winterlicious this month, I had a recipe for tofu and black bean enchilada. It came in 200 calories over because of the oil in the sauce, not what’s actually in the enchilada. So we spent an hour back and forthing with each other. Ok, let’s take 15mL of oil out of the recipe because, that’s going to drop it, you know, a ton. Take the cheese out of the inside of the enchilada, so it’s only on top. So it was back and forth, back and forth, until ok, she said, “You’re at 650 now”. Great. So, it’s a big learning experience.

On types of cuisine as inspiration for new dishes

Chef Matt Rosen
YouCook: What types of cuisine do you use for inspiration for new dishes?

Chef Rosen: You know, whether it’s Japanese food, Indian food, Southwestern cuisine, like being from the New Mexico-Texas type of area, that sort of thing. It (has to be) really intense off the start.

YouCook: Ok, so you use food that’s really intense off the start so you don’t need to use a lot of oil. So do you find things like French food not as good for this concept, because it uses a lot of butter?

Chef Rosen: It’s not that it’s not good…I like French food. But maybe it doesn’t lend itself, in some ways, to this cuisine we do because we have to focus on being much lighter. It’s a rash generalization that all French food is 35% cream and lots of butter. But it’s not that far off in the sense that it’s easy to build a strong flavour base.

YouCook: Would you classify your cuisine as fusion?

Chef Rosen: No. I don’t like the term fusion necessarily, because I feel that if you are going to do something, you should try to do the whole dish that way. Maybe “worldly”. I think fusion is the fusing of 2 cuisines, like we’re fusing together Chinese, Japanese, and French. There have been some wacky combinations out there, so I rather think of my food as a little more “worldly”. If I’m going to do something, I’m going to study about it and learn about it, and then try to do it the way it should be done. Like marinating something in soy sauce and calling it Asian fusion. I think it’s dis-respect to the good Asian food, and it is what it is.

On making low calorie desserts

Four Desserts

YouCook: For desserts, how do you keep the calorie count low? Is there anything you can substitute for butter/cream/sugar that tastes almost as good?

Chef Rosen: (By having a) very skilled pastry chef… She comes up with very intense desserts, but they’re all in shot glasses. So the small portion size gets it under 200 calories. However, we still use butter and cream – just less of it.

At this point, Chef Rosen offered to bring out desserts for us to try, and they were delicious! I had the Double Chocolate Cream in cute shot glass size so it satisfied my craving for a sweet, intense chocolate dessert, but small enough to only cost 194 calories! I guess I was so busy devouring desserts that I failed to notice my camera had stopped recording so I will have to write up the rest from my notes and memory.

Chef Rosen and I continued to talk about desserts and portion control. He noted that in France, they still eat lots of butter and cream, but they are not as fat as North Americans. He believes that this is due to the smaller portion size. Their food is more rich and intense, so you eat less of it. He believes in “everything in moderation”. Also he made the point that you should use natural food over manufactured food, and there is nothing wrong with using real butter. I definitely agree with that!

Four Desserts

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Vikram Vij — View Comments
26
Mar 10

Interview with Vikram Vij: Home Cooking and Health

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Vij's
We had the opportunity to spend some time with Vikram Vij, a proven Vancouver restauranteur whose restaurant, Vij’s, has become an institution in Vancouver in the past 16 years for combining French cooking styles with Indian spices. Everybody who has dined at Vij’s knows how good it is. Mark Bittman in the New York Times described it as “easily among the finest Indian restaurants in the world”. It has consistently remained on top of the Best of Yelp Restaurant list for Vancouver.

Vikram and Meeru now own Vij’s Restaurant, and Rangoli, a new line of frozen curry products in supermarkets all over Canada. There is also a new concept in the works!

We can only hope to be that successful 16 years from now.

We covered many topics but all of it revolved around the common theme of how passionate Vikram is about food: what he enjoys eating, drinking, cooking, shopping for, and presenting at his restaurants, as well as bringing awareness to his culture and cuisine.

This interview is split into three parts:

  1. Advice for home chefs and health.
  2. New Indian Cuisine and Asian Fine Dining around the world.
  3. Vij’s – All about the business – past, present and future.

What is your advice for new home chefs?

What is your favourite tool in your kitchen?

My kitchen has a big huge 10 foot long wooden chop block with little curves in it. I cut everything on it. I don’t use cutting boards. I scrape it, I cut it, I chop it. For me, it’s not a tool as such but it’s my work place.

What can’t you cook without?

I enjoy wine. I usually have a bottle of wine while I’m cooking and when I sit down and eat, we’ll have a second bottle. Maybe we don’t finish the second one but one and a half is normal.

How do you keep your restaurant food healthy?

Do you like grocery shopping?

It takes time but it’s also fun though. It’s something I did when I grew up in India. Going to the markets and buying some stuff. I still remember going out with my grandfather on the rickshaw and going to the farmers market and picking up stuff that we needed to pick up and bringing it home and then cooking it.

I don’t think of it as a chore, it’s not a big deal. You gotta do what you gotta do. It’s almost therapeutic – go to the market, looking at the vegetables, at the mushrooms. At the farmers market, I just go walk around for a couple hours just to see what’s out there.

Buy a little lamb from this guy, buy a little beef from that guy…

Do you have your own garden?

I do have a little patch of garden at home. We have Kale, herbs, carrots that grow. But not actively just because the time is not there…and it is easier to go out and buy it. I really don’t have the time – I’m pretty go go go. When I come home late at night, I’m not farming but wanting a glass of wine to chill out.

So are you involved with the UBC Farm?

Michael Pollen was here to promote Omnivore’s Dilemma and I did a cooking show with him at the UBC Farm.
Meeru maintains the dialog with UBC Farms. They tell us what’s growing and what’s happening there.

I’ve been to the UBC farm a couple times and I enjoy what they’ve done. I think it’s a great effort to bring the awareness of farming to the people on this side of the world. If you aren’t in the Fraser Valley, chances are you don’t know anything about farming so UBC does a great job in bridging the gap.

Do you share recipes?

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Anna Olsen — View Comments
28
Jan 10

YouCook Interviews Anna Olson – Part II

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After enjoying Part I of our interview with Anna, you will love reading through Part II. Here, Anna reveals more of her personal likes and dislikes; and even commentary on the recent movie, Julie and Julia!

YouCook: In your new cookbook, you mention how our “culinary identities are ever evolving”. At this moment, how would you describe your culinary identity? And what sort of influences helped you to shape it?

Anna: I am at a very fun place in my culinary identity. Kind of like your life experiences, I don’t know how strictly you can plot where it’s going to go, but what you can do is look back on who you are in the culinary world & take lessons from that. What a lot of people don’t realize that I became a chef first before I became a pastry chef.

In terms of the “ever evolving”, just this week, I am about to register for a nutrition class through Niagara college. Because as I started the show “Fresh” and the cookbook, it has opened up a lot of conversation with my viewers and readers as to nutritional considerations and food allergies and sensitivities; and feeding a family when you have a variety of tastes. And I realized that, as a chef, I know how to put the food together, but I worked recently on a project with a dietician and I learned SO much! …about how our bodies absorb vitamins & minerals through food. And I realized I need to do some learning. And that’s what’s great about our industry: you can never learn everything. So I’m looking forward to learning how to not just create dishes that taste good and make us feel good, but physically will actually make us feel good. Just learning and educating myself will help me do my job better.

The other thing is that I just love finding new treasures. Yesterday, I was in Toronto, and we went to Miga in Mississauga for Korean food, which is a fantastic barbecue place. Just after the dinner hour, we were driving along Dundas West and we see Starsky. Friends of ours with European backgrounds always go to this European deli before Christmas time to load up on their holiday staples. We had never been before, and we walked through this super-deli with all these beautiful meats. I didn’t know there were so many ways you can cure and smoke pork. We were completely blown away, and we bought so much stuff just to taste and try!

So there’s always something new to learn. I always want to follow the philosophy that Opportunity Does Not Wait For Convenience. You have to have your eyes open because something may come along… And if you’re so focused on Task X, you’ll turn down an opportunity that could lead to something exciting. I’d rather try and fail than not have tried at all.

YouCook: What is your favourite dish to make?

Anna: I can’t say that I can pick one thing because I am so craving motivated! You ask me that question now, I’ll tell you one thing; ask me next week, it’s another; you ask me in July, it’ll be completely different.

I’m going to make a spicy seafood gumbo for dinner tonight, I’ve decided. The other night, we were craving Swedish meatballs in that mushroom-y sauce that we built from scratch. It’s having the time to make the dishes that I like.

I actually crave, in the wintertime, a lot of Asian flavours. Quite often, my husband and I make things like Vietnamese pho at home; we’ll make Japanese soup, sushi; miso soup for lunch for the protein, but the comfort at the same time.

YouCook: Do you think that Canadian chefs are recognized outside of Canada? What do you think we can do to promote Canada as a nation of great food and chefs?

Anna: I think media is definitely one means to do so, and with the support of people like yourself and the blogs.

There’s been this sense of a quest for a national dish, and what is our culinary identity… I think what we have to do is step back and relax, because you can’t force something like that. Let it evolve and we’ll find our way. I think if we try to force our way into the international market with something that’s not naturally authentic, no one will believe it.

Though I have heard, there were news segments right after New Year’s, how poutine has become a hot thing in New York. There are a few Quebecois who have opened poutine shops down there and they’re really doing very well.

Anna: How did you respond to the movie Julie and Julia?

YouCook: I loved it! I love Julia Child… She has such a flair for things. And, like what you just said in your interview about how you should forgive yourself for mistakes… I saw that throughout the entire movie. Something wrong happens, but you try to get past it and you save your dish as best as you can. Just watching [the movie] made you want to be in the kitchen and made you want to cook. It actually made me want to go to France!

Anna: I find that everyone who liked the movie connects with a certain moment – a food moment, and it’s different for everyone. I can tell you MY moment was when, on Julia Child’s side of the story, finally after years and years of trying to get her book published, she has that New York City editor making her Beef Bourguignon in her own apartment… She’s looking at the paper and she’s got her pot on the stove, and she pours in the wine from the bottle… There’s just a close-up shot of the page of the recipe and the wine splatters just splashing across it. I went to go see the movie with my recipe tester, and at the same time, we both yelped, and that was our moment… Because I have boxes (I keep all my testing notes) of stained, wrinkled, scratched-on notes of the recipes. And we both related to that because that’s what we do. I have these pages all over the kitchen and they’re just everywhere.

And I love to see cookbooks that are used and battered, and well-loved. I have people that come to me at book signings and they’ll bring me, almost ashamedly, their copies of “Sugar” and they’ve got post-it notes in them and they’re sloppy. They think it’s shameful… Meanwhile, that’s the best compliment you could pay me! It means you’re using it and you’re loving it – you’re connected to it.

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Anna Olsen / Chef — View Comments
27
Jan 10

YouCook Interviews Anna Olson – Part I

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Recently, YouCook had the extreme pleasure of chatting with Anna Olson, host of “Fresh” on the Food Network and the author of her new cookbook of the same name. Having been inspired by Anna since my University days, it was definitely a special treat for me to get to interview her. Since I discovered baking, my dream was to open my own pastry shop… I guess my own wedding cake business counts! :) Thanks Anna for showing me the basics!

After reading this post, I think that you will have a better sense of who you are in your own kitchen… Anna is truly inspirational in that she encourages everyone to discover themselves and to enjoy every moment of that journey.

YouCook: I really like how you categorized your new cookbook, “Fresh”, according to the seasons. Other than the season, where do you get inspiration for your recipes?

Anna: Outside of the common sense approach of using what’s available and at its best at that moment, it is more craving based than anything else. I find that that still ties in closely with the seasons. Because this is the time of year, when we’re looking at winter, that we’re craving the comfort foods.

The common sense approach of shopping with the season also extends to the common sense approach in recipe choices. In this time of year, you’ve got the oven on more & you’ve got the stoves on. You tend to be inside a little more, and the style of recipes you choose to make is based on what our mood tells us. I find also that the sort of tools & techniques you use suit the season too. So the oven’s on, and you’re doing some slow braising…

YouCook: I really like what you said in Fresh: “What grows together, goes together”. Do you have any other tips for our readers who are trying to cook at home?

Anna: I would say the simplest tip is forgive yourself any mistakes, because mistakes happen no matter who you are at what level. You can be a professional chef; you can be doing a recipe that you’ve been doing your whole life – and mistakes happen. I always like to remind people that you’re cooking because you love cooking; and you’re cooking for that love and for sharing. And remind yourself that you’re cooking for friends and family… And if a mistake happens, your friends are your friends; they’ll forgive you. And your family is your family, so they have to.

YouCook: You mention in your book that your shopping trips to St. Lawrence Market in Toronto was an inspiration for you to cook professionally. Were there other inspiring moments? And what was the final defining moment that motivated you to take the leap to become a chef?

Anna: I did really have an epiphany. There were a lot of building blocks along the way… Part of it was not being content in my position in banking in downtown Toronto and escaping to the St. Lawrence Market.

Growing up, like many young women, I had mentors in my mother and grandmother to share with me tricks and secrets. Sometimes you’re interested, sometimes you’re not. But I very much used cooking as a hobby. It was one of those things, baking particularly, that I would do after school and on weekends. I was sort of the house cook when I was in University.

Then there was a moment when I was working in banking when I was up in the middle of the night, stressed and I couldn’t sleep. And I found myself making banana muffins; not because I wanted to eat them but it was that act of making them that relaxed me. That was the moment when I said “What am I doing??”. Three months later, I had quit my job and was on my way to cooking school.

YouCook: How did you get selected to be on the Food Network show, Sugar?

Anna: It was in the early years of the network & the network knew they wanted to create a dessert show. So it was a product of a casting call, an open audition, and I was fortunate enough to have been short-listed and then selected. So it goes to show you that anyone has an opportunity.

Again, when I was in cooking school, I certainly had no sights on food television. There was no food network. Even at that point, it was post Julia child, but it was before Martha Stewart had any of her specials or TV programs.

STAY TUNED FOR PART II OF OUR INTERVIEW WITH ANNA OLSON!

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Chef / Susur — View Comments
20
Jan 10

YouCook sits down with Susur Lee

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The Setting

Date: January 8, 2010
When & Where: 5:30 pm, just before dinner service at Madeline`s
Atmosphere: European chic with Baroque flair

Before we sat down at the bar at Madeline’s for an impromptu interview, we were able to witness Susur’s amazing chemistry with everyone in his kitchen as he was preparing some of his Winterlicious dishes for us. It is incredible how he can multi-task: cooking, joking around with staff, and commandeering his kitchen all at the same time! Despite the cramped quarters and so many people running around, it was incredibly organized and everyone in the kitchen had a job. Watching them in the kitchen is like watching a well-oiled machine.

Another thing we could not help but notice was how international and diverse his staff was. The bringing together of so many races makes for some truly authentic fusion cuisine.

As you read through our interview with Susur, you may notice some recurring themes… Susur is extremely passionate about his heritage and culture, which really shines through in all of his creations. He is also deeply inspired by his family, his travels and by those around him. But most importantly, Susur has never strayed very far from his roots and his beliefs. Having had the privilege of sitting down with him, I can really feel the genuine love he has for what he does.

The Origin of Inspiration

YouCook: Where do you get your inspiration?

Susur: I’ve been cooking for so many years… It’s not the fear… It’s that feeling when you wake up every morning and you go to work; that feeling like you’re unmotivated or uninspired because you do this every day. The creative process is always there: places you travel to, people you meet, things you see or taste (especially for me). So I always have to get inspired by doing these things. Sometimes I have to go back to my old notes – because some things are so old they become new again.

YouCook: You have so many restaurants now… How do you build your menus? Are they theme-based?

Susur: Both Shang and Zentan are very Chinese-based because I am Chinese, and I love Asian food. There are so many ingredients that we have not yet been exposed to as Westerners. Sometimes you have your own ideas, but you must be able to share them in order to produce it, especially in a kitchen. It is very inspirational when the dish comes out and I say: “Yes! That’s my idea!” And then the staff, in turn, gets inspired. That’s why I always ask my staff “What do you think?”, “Think about this…”. You have to inspire them and share that passion. Because if you love the same thing, it’s easy to learn. If they’re not interested, no matter how much you teach them, it’s just structure. So I always say loving something always makes it very easy to teach.

For me, to get inspired about dishes, I always think about culture. Every part of the world has some very amazing dishes, techniques, and beliefs. Food related to family; food related to the individual; food related to modernization… So, in order to get inspired for new dishes, you need to be open-minded to all of these things. A lot of dishes can be very new, very cool, and kind of weird – but still tastes good. Those are the things I always get very excited about.

The strength that I have in fusion food is because I’ve been trained so many years in Asia. I was working in a Chinese restaurant, 北京樓 (Peking Restaurant) in Tsim Sha Tsui (Hong Kong). So I’m always inspired by those things. Especially because I didn’t get the chance to learn about Chinese culture or history since Hong Kong was a British colony and they were very against China. So we didn’t know anything about China. So now, if you look at Imperial cuisine: cuisine from the country, cuisine from the city, cuisine from different regions of China. It’s just amazing.
And then you start learning about how the emperor used to eat. The world has so much for us to learn, and we know so little.

The Evolution of Food

YouCook: As a leading chef in Toronto, do you see a trend for restaurants?

Susur: Trends have to come from within; it does not mean following what others do. Trends have to be inspired by something – by how you feel. People ask “how do you come up with these dishes” – It just comes naturally.

YouCook: Do you feel that Canadian chefs have a presence in the world of International Cuisine?

Susur: I think what it is is that Canadians have always been very reserved about our identity and what our comfort zone is. We live very comfortably, and we have health care. So a lot of chefs can enjoy having farms, growing their own produce, and it’s very much a way of living. If you look at the bigger cities in the United States, you still have chefs who do that, but Canada is way more understated. That’s one of those treasures of Canadian chefs because we do know a lot about what good quality is. If you look at the East Coast and West Coast, we have seafood and all kinds of produce. Just amazing.

Have you ever been to this place called “Canadian Herbs” on Ossington? This place has everything you’d see in Asia: Vietnam, Thailand… All the freshest herbs. You can’t even get it in the States – not even New York City. We have better Pho than in Vietnam because we have better beef, which makes a better stock. And we have all the herbs.

So, if you look at all those kinds of flavours, Canadians are way more exposed to them. People even grow them in their gardens. Whereas in the States, you’ll have a hard time finding fresh kaffir lime or fresh curry leaf. Those are the treasures of our culinary scene.

YouCook: Can you tell us a little more about your new restaurant in Singapore, Chinois by Susur Lee?

Susur: It is in an IR, an Integrated Resort. [It is located in Hotel Michael in Resort World Sentosa.] They have quite a few restaurants: Robuchon, Scott Webster from Australia, a Japanese chef… It’s Chinese cuisine, but the room is very Japanese zen, but Euro… You know, the latino red, the black, the stone, the wood…

And finally…
YouCook: Can we grab a photo with you?

Susur: Sure!!

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Brazilian / Chef / Restaurant / Special Event — View Comments
20
Dec 09

A Talk with Caju’s Chef and Owner Mario Cassini

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After my last visit to Caju, a trendy Brazilian restaurant in Toronto’s Queen St West neighborhood, I became enamoured with their Moqueca stew, a spicy tomato-coconut milk broth served with fish and rice, that I attempted to make it at home by searching for similar recipes out there (see post: Moqueca Fish Stew with Rice) and requesting the recipe from Chef Mario Cassini, the owner and chef of Caju restaurant. He kindly provided me the recipe in response to my email request, which I also tried to make again (see post: Caju Moqueca Stew – Actual Restaurant Recipe). However, the most memorable thing that came out of these attempts was the chance to sit down with Chef Mario Cassini and talk to him about his restaurant and his unique Moqueca recipe. This talk gave me more insight into Brazilian food, his restaurant Caju, and tips on how to make a mean Moqueca Stew.

I met Chef Mario Cassini at Caju on cold wintry day in December. Despite it being smack in the middle of the holiday season, Chef Mario was kind enough to meet with me for almost 45 minutes. I started off asking him about his restaurant, Caju, and how he decided to open a Brazilian restaurant. I have noticed that there aren’t many Brazilian restaurants in Toronto, and I only knew of Brazilian steakhouses. He replied that first of all, he’s Brazilian, and knows that food. When he first opened Caju in December 2002, he saw that there weren’t any Brazilian restaurants like Caju, that were more upscale and catered to people outside of the Brazilian community. Also, at that time, fusion food was getting quite popular, so he decided to offer his fresh modern take on Brazilian classics and introduce it to the Canadian community.

Brazilian food is actually fusion in itself, since Brazil is made up of many different cultures. At its base, it’s Portugese food, with heavy emphasis on fish and pork. Then Africans came to Brazil and brought African influences to their food, such as spicy Malagueta peppers, coconut milk, and cassava. The Moqueca stew is a traditional stew, and there are actually 2 versions of it: Moqueca Capixaba from Espírito Santo state in the Southeast, and Moqueca Baiana from Bahia state in the Northeast. Moqueca Capixaba doesn’t have any coconut milk or Malagueta peppers in it and is simply a  tomato broth. The Moqueca Baiana has African influences, with coconut milk, Malagueta peppers and dende oil. This is the version Mario used to develop his Moqueca recipe. He removed the dende oil to make it lighter. He felt that the flavours in the Moqueca were so strong already that you didn’t really need the dende oil, which only added to the saturated fat content. He also uses a pan to cook it instead of the traditional clay pot, which he told me is heavy and not really necessary. The pan used to serve the Moqueca at Caju depicted in the above picture is actually the pan he uses to cook the Moqueca.  He explained that the traditional Moqueca is very rustic, and was originally a method of cooking over an open flame. Over the years, it gradually developed into this stew. So really, the Moqueca stew is a base where you can have many variations, using different spices and meats.

The last thing I asked was advice on cooking his Moqueca recipe, which I have detailed in my post on cooking his Moqueca recipe. Mario’s advice was to choose and cook your fish carefully. The fish should have a consistent thickness where it holds together well, such as halibut, grouper and monkfish. Thinner fish will flake easily so it’s easy to overcook it. He also emphasized the importance of the cilantro flavour and advised on using fresh cilantro instead of dried. These tips were certainly helpful and contributed to my success with his recipe!

I found Chef Mario to be very forthcoming in his advice and sharing of his recipes. He said he often gets requests from patrons for his recipes, and if he can, he will respond, though with being both the owner AND chef of his restaurant, that makes him a very busy man and it’s hard for him to respond immediately. I really appreciated his time in talking to me and the best thing was when he sent me home with his home-made cheese bread. Those are worth the trip to Caju alone!

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Chef / Cookbook / Special Event — View Comments
9
Dec 09

UPCOMING EVENT: Exclusive Interview with Anna Olson

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Calling all food enthusiasts! YouCook will be conducting an exclusive interview with pastry chef and cookbook author, Anna Olson, and we are asking you to contribute your questions. This will be an amazing opportunity for you to ask her just about anything!

Whether you want to know what it was like to share a kitchen at Inn on the Twenty with her husband, or what Anna enjoys most when she is not working, just comment on this post and we will try our best to include it in our interview.

For more information on Anna Olson, check out her website:  www.annaolson.ca

Thanks for your ongoing support,
The YouCook Team

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