Food is essentially a celebration of life, so eating should be a joyous occasion, not the frantic dilemma that it has become. Food should be seasonal, so it's never made a lot of sense to eat a strawberry in January when June is when they are at their juiciest, gushiest, sweetest goodness!

Food should be honoured for what it is and treated ethically. We've gotten out of touch with how our food is produced and where it comes from; how it's grown, harvested and distributed around the globe. As active members of both Slowfood International and FarmFolk/CityFolk, we care passionately about the quality of the food that we produce. People are becoming increasingly concerned with food sourcing, and are demanding to know just exactly where that piece of fish came from, and what precisely is in that frozen, prepared entree in aisle #3...

Twenty years of professional cooking have, inevitably, focused and inspired my travels, my friendships and even my night table readings. It has led me down the back roads of Louisiana in search of the quintessential catfish fry; it’s taken me to Darjeeling, India to compose menus for the Windamere Hotel; it’s had me patting fresh maize into mumelitas in an earthen floored kitchen in Oaxaca.

This long and winding road led me to Vancouver in 1999 to head up the kitchen at “Major the Gourmet Catering” as Executive Chef. It was during this period that we took “Best Catered Event” and “Best Food Presentation” for a millennium celebration that was held in Whistler. What a way to start the year 2000! Then, in May of 2001, I was coaxed out of the kitchen and worked for 2 years as an event coordinator with “Out To Lunch Catering.” Although loving the creative challenges as well as the organizational demands of the job, the dream of running my own show kept growing stronger and it was ultimately, now or never!

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