Welcome to my blog. I started this blog to share my passion for food with everyone. I am sharing everything from recipes, my favourite cookbooks and the knowledge I have developed about food during my journey with food.
My journey with food started when I was very young. One of my first memories is when my mom made cakes for my brothers and me when we were young. She would make these amazing cakes every year for our birthdays. It became something that I was so excited about every year. Ever since then, I remember spending time in the kitchen with Mom and slowly learning about food from her. As I grew up we would make the cakes together.
Food was something that mom grew up around as well. Her father was a chef, and her mother made cakes. When she was younger they ran a restaurant. They both passed away when I was young, but I always felt a connection to them when I would cook with my mom. She would tell me about them and when we made recipes they left behind. That is why I believe that food connects people and brings people together. Food can connect us to the past and relatives who are no longer with us, through the recipes they handed down and the dishes that they loved. It also brings people together to the table to share food from their families and cultures.
When I was around 6 years old we moved into my childhood home. That is where my passion for food grew even further. This is because we had the space to have a huge garden. My brothers and I often spent the summers outside playing in the yard while Mom and Dad worked in the garden. Growing up with a large garden I got to try lots of different food. Like purple potatoes which make very good French fries. Zucchinis which my brothers and I were not the biggest fans of when we were young but now I enjoy them a lot we would make zucchini fries, and zucchini bread and my mom would also sneak them into her spaghetti sauce.
My mom loves her tomatoes. So she always grew lots of tomatoes everything that didn’t get eaten right away would be processed into tomato sauce and salsa. I always found this funny cause my brothers and I have a strong dislike of tomatoes and yet we grew flats on flats of tomatoes. Every year we would have to try a tomato. However, none of us particularly care for a raw tomato. Recently I have discovered that if I am going to have a raw tomato. I will only have homegrown tomatoes cause they taste much better than others. It just means I will not pick them out of a salad unless it’s a caprese salad that’s still too much tomato for me. I hope that eventually, I will like raw tomatoes. It only takes me 26 years to get this far I should enjoy them by the time I’m 50 right? Just in case you were wondering what a harvest of tomatoes might look like the photos below depict our 2009 tomato harvest.
Growing up something I noticed that a lot of my friends were not as familiar with vegetables and how they grew as I was. So when I started high school I wanted to start a garden so that others would not have the opportunity to experience working in the garden and eating freshly harvested produce. So when I went to high school I decided to try and start a community garden as part of my self-directed studies. I applied for a grant from the World Wildlife Fund, and luckily I was awarded $5,000 to build the community garden for my school. For the following years, I tended to the garden trying to share my knowledge and experience of gardening with my classmates.
After high school, all I could think of for post-secondary education was culinary school and this is when I did a deep dive into my culinary journey. I attended the Northwest Culinary Academy of Vancouver. That year is still one of my favourite years of my life. Even though I was not a fan of my 2-hour commute each way the the 7 hours of cooking, eating and learning everything that I could about food was amazing. During my one-year diploma program, it was 4 months of culinary, 4 months of pastry and 4 months of practicum. I did my best to document everything about my time there but I got to be honest it was a lot that it was definitely hard to stick with my blogging. If you are interested in checking that out you can visit my blog here.
After graduating with my diploma in culinary and pastry from NWCAV. I worked in the Hart House restaurant on the banquet team where we did the food for the wedding and other events that people would have at the Hart House. However, after a while I decided that I wanted to go back to school again so I applied to Douglas College’s Business Management diploma program. At the time I wanted to open a restaurant/catering business in the future. Along with the schooling, I opened a small business called Marvelous Bites where I would do catering, cakes and food consulting on a small scale. After a couple of years and with covid. The entire industry came to a halt. I needed to find a new direction. So I decided to close the business and the blog that I operated with the business. However, after a couple of years, I found that I was really missing blogging about food and sharing my recipes so that is how I ended up here with a new blog as I will continue more as a hobby. Also, gives me somewhere to send everyone who is always asking for my recipes. Something I did not know I would miss.
Even though I discovered that the traditional food/restaurant industry was not for me I found something still related to food. I found out that a new community center in my area was opening with a teaching kitchen I went and applied for the position, and when I say “applied” it was more like I want to work here and this is why you need me. I was able to get the position of recreational instructor which meant that I was now in a position to teach cooking/baking classes to kids and adults. It was the perfect fit for me. I discovered how much I love teaching cooking. Getting the chance to introduce kids to foods, cooking and life skills is wonderful. I hope that it helps them on their way to having a healthy relationship with food. I also get to help adults learn more about foods and feel more comfortable in their kitchens.
My current dream would be to run a cooking school for kids and home cooks. There are lots of culinary schools that cater to people going into the culinary industry but few for people who want to grow their kitchen skills as a home cook. Ever since I was a kid I always believed that food education was severely lacking and that is something I would love to help change.
In summary, my goal for this blog is to provide a channel to educate people about food in all aspects. Inspire them to pick healthy options of foods. Try to increase the public’s understanding of food. Emphasis the importance of cooking and how it is a life skill that everyone should develop especially from a young age. Hopefully repairing the connection that people have lost with food due to the convenience that today’s food industry provides.
