Years of hard work for the Culinary Youth Team Canada culminated in a history-making performance at the highly anticipated IKA/Culinary Olympics last month in Stuttgart, Germany. With two gold medals and fourth place overall, it was a first for a Junior Canadian team to be awarded two gold medals. It was also the highest placing ever for a Junior Canadian…
Culinary Youth Team Canada heads to Europe in February for the Culinary Olympics Ask just about anyone to name an Olympic sport and you will probably hear replies like the 100 meter dash, hockey, gymnastics, swimming, curling, cycling, ski jumping, and rowing. But what about Restaurant of Nations and Buffet? Wait, buffet?! Buffet is one ‘sport’ that culinary teams will…
November 1, 2019
In case you missed it PEI Premier Dennis King announced the appointment of Brian Matheson as Deputy Minister of Agriculture and Land in early October. Matheson had been acting in the role since June and has extensive experience in leading agricultural policy. He previously served as Director of Policy and Agricultural Resources with the Department of Agriculture and Land. A…
June 1, 2019
Chef Ilona Daniel continues to push out of her culinary comfort zone Self-proclaimed food seductress, Culinary Institute of Canada instructor, writer, recipe developer, consultant, social media maven, and champion of PEI’s potatoes, seafood, and all that we grow: Chef Ilona Daniel is the epitome of the expression ‘if you want something done, give it to a busy person’. Celebrity chefs…
September 1, 2018
The funny thing about bouillabaisse is that like a lot of ‘fancy’ foods it has a very humble upbringing. Think of oysters, snails, frogs’ legs, caviar: all these expensive foods started out as very affordable foods. Some were used to encourage drinking (oysters and caviar), others were little better than fertilizer (lobster), and some came to be on the dinner…
June 1, 2018
Olive a little more, please… Olive oil is a simple product. At its best: perfectly ripe olives, minimally processed, bottled, and on your table as fresh as possible. Olive oil is at its core, just fruit juice, but unlike most fruit juices this one is full of good fats and surprising flavours. For almost 10,000 years this product has been…
March 31, 2018
From simple to complex, the hamburger is a blank canvas Hamburgers, burgers, Hamburg steak, Salisbury steak. Only something so loved and so ubiquitous could have so many names, not to mention the myriad variations: elk burger, veggie burger, roo burger. The history of this modest lunch is a bit murky. Chopped steak and chopped steak sandwiches have been popular for…
January 1, 2018
Braising There’s no better remedy to winter’s chills than a big, hot kitchen stove. While these wood-fired behemoths once doubled as a home’s main heat source, our modern appliances are often overlooked as a source of warmth during this darkest and coldest month of the year. When I am thinking of warm, comforting, cold weather cooking I am drawn to…
December 1, 2017
Brining is one of those cooking techniques that some shy away from because it sounds complicated, and difficult. But it can be one of the simplest ways to prepare food for consumption. You can brine fruit, vegetables, fish, meat, even cheese. At its most involved there are related techniques like curing and fermenting, which can be challenging. But brining meat…
April 1, 2017
Chef Stephen Hunter shares his journey through some of PEI’s popular food destinations What got you into cooking? I travelled, tasting cuisines from different countries. Then I found myself in Vancouver with $120 in my pocket. So I got a job in my field, aquaculture (salmon farms). I wanted to enjoy all of the flavours I had tried, and couldn’t…
