There was a time when I tried to be a certain kind of parent. The kind that stays up late on December 24th to build a train table for a four year old. The kind that carves chocolate cake into a WWII trench and tosses plastic...
In the middle of my parent’s property on the edge of the Saint Mary’s River stand two tall spruce trees, growing together, intertwined. They began as many trees do, small and seemingly well spaced apart. In the summer of 1999, a big wedding tent was erected...
Have you ever been to a rousing dinner party when towards the end, you insist everyone gather round to watch a video on your phone? They agree because they’re your friends, but then they lean closer, they shh the others, because what they’re watching is...
When I sit down to write and nothing flows, I use food as a writing prompt. Things like...
The Food Podcast is back to its usual programming, sharing personal stories through the lens of food. It’s a tapestry of a show, one where music, sensory experiences, sounds and voices are woven together to tell the guest’s story. ...
Welcome to Part Two of Side Dishes, The Food Podcast mini series exploring the Flavours of Home. In this episode, Australian writer Maggie MacKellar shares the flavours of her home on a Tasmanian merino wool sheep farm. Maggie begins with thoughts on...
Welcome to Side Dishes, The Food Podcast mini series exploring the Flavours of Home. We begin the series with a letter from Flore Vallery-Radot, or Flo, a French- Australian photographer, filmmaker, entrepreneur, workshop host, mother, wife, beekeeper and passionate cook. I asked Flo to tell me about...
Bahahahaha! This is how Luisa Brimble laughs online when audio just isn't available. She might throw in a boompow! emoji, or a lightening bolt, or a big fat heart - whatever it takes to express her unbridled enthusiasm for others and their efforts. When I was a...
The behind the scenes details of how an artist works fascinate me. What they have for breakfast, where they sit when they work, what the light is like. Do they wear slippers? These are all details that act as a portal into their world to...
Jessie Kanelos Weiner is an artist, author, food stylist and long term American living in Paris. Her latest book, Paris in Stride, takes the reader on an illustrated walk through Paris. I wanted to be that reader, so I ask Jessie to walk us through...
What do you think about when you daydream? Sometimes questions flow in an interview that I would never ask a person, let alone someone I had just met minutes before. But interviews create a sense of urgency. You want to capture the essence of a person,...
“When you’re drinking tea you must always be polite to people, you don’t say anything disturbing, or discourteous, that goes with coffee.” -Alexander McCall Smith, Episode 25 of The Food Podcast This is Alexander McCall Smith, but he says you can call him Sandy. He's our guest...
Why We Bake The other night my son Charlie was hanging out with me in the kitchen while I baked. He had just come home from a ski race and was skiing around gates, if you can picture it, through the kitchen. I asked him, what's your favourite...
This is the lovely Claire Ptak, owner of Violet Bakery in London. Violet is a special place. It's where Claire and her baking team plays with flavour, embraces the seasons, forages in the neighbourhood and creates beautifully baked goods for the community. Violet is also a...
I’m interviewing Alexander McCall Smith for The Food Podcast today. I've been thinking about this day ever since November when Mr. Smith spoke at the Halifax Central Library to a packed audience of mature women. He had recently published the eighteenth book in his No. 1 Ladies’ Detective...