Interview conducted & written by contributing writer Helena McMurdo

Photo courtesy of Deborah Jones

Mourad Lahlou is the Chef behind San Francisco’s Aziza, where his cuisine marries the traditions of Morocco with the fresh local ingredients of the Bay Area and the advanced culinary techniques employed by only the most modern of chefs.

Virtually self-taught, he learned to cook “accidentally” while at university, trying to recreate the dishes of his childhood Morocco and longing for a connection to home. Eventually abandoning his studies to open a restaurant with the support of friends and his former professors, his restaurant became a success almost overnight and took him from economics major to major chef. Today, he is known as the Chef behind the innovative cuisine at Aziza and has a Michelin Star to boot!

I spent an hour with Mourad recently when he stopped in Vancouver on a whirlwind trip to our beautiful city to talk about his first book; Mourad: New Moroccan. Nostalgic and passionate, he shared childhood memories of his upbringing and the place that food holds in his culture. Inquisitive and curious by nature, he also spoke about his somewhat trial-and-error process and new techniques he’s employing in his kitchen. It was a pretty inspiring conversation and I ran home to start my preserved lemons so I’d be ready to start cooking! I left feeling that even I could learn to hand-roll couscous and with a wonderful reminder of the very important role that food plays in all our lives.

What was the inspiration behind this book?
People write the same book (on Moroccan cooking) over and over again. Every book has the same table of contents, the same dishes, the same pictures. It’s stuck in people’s heads in the west that ‘that’s what it is’.  So I felt like, you know what, we’ve done some really amazing things here and we need to document it and share it with the world. We need to change this notion that Moroccan food does not evolve. If we can convey this knowledge that we’ve gathered over the years to somebody who can take it further then that would be awesome.

The book is stunning! It’s a beautiful story, visually beautiful and a wonderful read. How involved were you in the design and the day-to-day production of it?
There were five of us and we were all involved in every single aspect of the book for two years. So it literally took a total of 10 years – two years of five people’s lives. I came up with the recipes and when I wanted to write the book, Suzie Heller (the producer) said instead of thinking about two years from now (when the book was scheduled to come out), that we needed to take it back. People are not accustomed to seeing this kind of Moroccan food and they’ve been told that Moroccan food is what has been previously documented in other cookbooks so let’s bring them a little bit further. Crack open the door and let them see through it.

What is the biggest misconception about your book?
I think, and I never thought about this before doing the book, that one of the biggest misconceptions was that people assume that because I’m a Chef and I have a restaurant, that the recipes are going to be really hard. When we first started working on the book what we really wanted to do was to get home cooks inspired with Moroccan food. But, we wanted to do it from a different perspective. We didn’t want to ‘dumb’ down the recipes. I refuse to think that people are dumb when it comes to cooking, or that people are intimidated. I think that if people are given the right instructions, the right guidelines, they’ll be able to make some really amazing food.

I was really intrigued about the way you set up the book with the seven lessons at the beginning. It seems that would be a really great starting point to work through the book.
I felt like if somebody is going to cook Moroccan food for the first time, these are the things they need to know. If you read the first chapters, it’s basically like a lesson. It’s a guide for “what you need to know”. You need to build your pantry, you need to make the preserved lemons, make the Ras El Hanout. Once you have the pantry ready, then you have the tools and you can go to virtually any recipe and be able to do it a couple of hours.

I love that approach because it makes it easy for people in the long run.  What about making your own couscous? I read that and I thought WOW! Is that feasible for everyone?! What advice would you give to people who might be daunted by the thought of attempting something like making couscous from scratch?
Making couscous is something that people read about and it’s something that has become so romanticized. You know, it’s like this ‘mysterious thing’, it’s so ‘weird’, it’s so ‘hard’. And it’s true it’s really hard, but it’s just like riding a bicycle. Once you make that first turn and get going, there’s no stopping you. It’s the same with couscous.

You take semolina, you take flour and water, then you try to make a pasta basically. You’re rolling it and it’s all in the feel. It’s something that you have to do over and over and over again but it’s so rewarding and once you taste the difference there is no going back. I said in the book that the couscous you buy from a store (that is precooked) –  I compare that to those noodles, you know in the little boxes. It doesn’t compare to a nice bowl of fresh pasta.

That’s interesting. I feel like there are lots of things in your book that are really teaching people techniques. Like making cheese for instance – that would be attractive to a home cook to learn how to do.
You know, the purpose of the book is not to say “hey this is how you make Morroccan food.” At the end of the book, people will be better cooks. They will say “I made cheese in this Moroccan way. Why can’t I apply that to something else?” People will be more willing and inclined to do things. If we can achieve that, then it’s great! I want people to be able to shed those fears of “I can’t cook at home so now I’m going to order a pizza”. It’s so easy once you have the skills to cook at home.

What lessons can we learn as a society with regard to the way we eat in North America? Are there lessons we can take from your cuisine, but also from Moroccan cuisine and the way people eat in Morrocco that are helpful?
If you were to go to Morocco even today, lunch is huge. People go back home for lunch. Lunch does not start before everybody is there seated at the table. It breaks the day into two parts – you know, you go to work, you go back home, be with your family for two hours and then you go back to work. Here it is the other way around. Work takes you away form everything. You are continuously being yanked from your family. The kids are in day care, you don’t see your kids.

The way it’s looked at in North America, food is something that gives you fuel. The whole nurturing part of food is taken out of the equation. The Italians do that so well. The Moroccans do it. The Spanish do it. The French do it. It’s an emotional experience every single time. Food is what brings people together. Food is what allows people to tell stories. It allows them to gossip, it’s therapy. It’s your shrink. When I came here I was astounded about how many people go to shrinks. In Morocco people don’t go to therapy. In California, if you don’t have a shrink, there’s something wrong with you. You need a shrink for the fact that you don’t have a shrink.

Ha, ha! So you’re saying maybe if we just ate better…?
It’s not just about eating better. It’s about allowing food to do it’s job which is to bring people together. To bring the family together. Don’t get me wrong – I’m not saying that Morocco is better than the USA. But when it comes to food, I consider an approach similar to the Moroccan way to be critical to people’s lives.

Your book really speaks from the heart. What is it about Moroccan cuisine that has captured your heart?
It is typically food that is not put together quickly. It’s food that involves skill. It’s food that allows people within the family to have importance. Like in my case, my grandma was the master of the couscous. My mom, she made these pancakes. Nobody could make them. It gave her status in the family. My grandfather would make the Tangia. Nobody would make it but him. Each person had something important to do. People express their love through cooking, through what they make for you. If you go to somebody’s house, they could be a family that’s struggling to survive but they’ll somehow manage to provide lots of food. It’s just a way of expressing love. And that is unique. It’s refreshing.

How much of your book is inspired by your life in America?
Oh my life in America was a tremendous source of inspiration for my book! You know, some Moroccan people will come to the restaurant and I will serve them my food and their first reaction is “this is not how my grandma made it” and I will tell them “Do I look like your grandma? I’m not your grandma! She made it that way because she loved you and you made that connection with her but I’m here giving you an expression of what I think”.

I came here when I was 17 and I have lived in America for 25 years, so the majority of my adult life has been in America. And not just in America, in the Bay Area specifically, where it’s just the mecca of food right now. For me to say that I was not influenced by the Bay Area, and what’s happening there with the food world, would make me a hypocrite.

I felt like I was so dishonest when I first opened the restaurant in trying to convince people that I was making Moroccan food. Even when we were making the most traditional Moroccan food – because at the beginning I did not open with this idea of evolving Moroccan food – I just wanted to recreate the dishes that we had in Morocco and I did the best that I could. But I realized that it was wrong. I realized that the food that I was making did not have a sense of place. For that food to be enjoyed fully, it had to have the surroundings, it had to have the families, it had to have the stories. It had to have the smells, the sights, the noises. If you take a sandwich of Merguez and you eat it in the middle of Marrakesh with the smoke from all the stalls and the people walking by, there’s no traffic, and people are screaming, and the kids, and all the people – when you taste it, you are taking a bite of everything that’s around you. You see the light against the sun but it bounces off differently in Morocco. All of that plays a part in what we eat and how we taste. It’s a whole package. You can’t just take the sandwich and take it to San Francisco and give it to somebody in the middle of the Ferry Building and tell them to eat it and they are going to get the whole experience. So I felt I was being dishonest. I felt like what I needed to do is to be honest with myself and be honest with the people who are giving me their money every night. I’m going to make food that makes sense to this place, which is the Bay Area. I’m going to make food that has a connection with this place. That is the only way to be successful and to make a connection and to be direct and honest.

You’ve been quite a champion for local products haven’t you?
Yeah Yeah. We started out 10 years ago. We go to the farmer’s market four days a week. We have strong connections. That was so weird for me! We were not just this Moroccan restaurant, but we were this Moroccan restaurant that was doing all these things that American chefs were supposed to be doing. You know this vision… Alice Waters, David Kinch, Daniel Patterson. We became really at the forefront of this movement; slow food and sustainable food and relationships with growers and ranchers. And when the tide started to turn a little bit and molecular gastronomy started to come to the fore, we were at the forefront of that as well. So people started to think of us not as this Moroccan place, but as this Moroccan place that is doing really cool things. It was great! I wanted Moroccan food to be in the conversation. I didn’t want people to think of Moroccan food as something that they go eat every six months. I didn’t want people to go to a Moroccan restaurant and expect a belly dancing show, like they are on some desert island with Aladdin coming out as a server. That’s just gimmicky, it’s Disneyland. It’s not real. So I took away all those clichés.

Some may be surprised to find ingredients such as xanthan gum, lecithin, in a book about Moroccan cuisine. Understanding that your cuisine is more modern, how did you come to use these things?
Basically it’s just the nature of how I taught myself to cook. I’m always curious. I’m friends with some of the best chefs in the USA and in Europe, and when I see what they can do and how they don’t limit themselves to traditional methods I ask why can’t I apply that to Moroccan food? That sauce would be so much better if we could manipulate it a little bit without sacrificing the taste.

In terms of using those emulsifiers and stabilizers, for some home cooks some of those ingredients are not familiar. What advice would you have for using these ingredients?
To look at them for what they are, that they are not chemicals. Xanthan gum is used in probably 90% of things you buy from stores. It’s everywhere. It’s a natural product. It’s an emulsifier. It allows you to do things, to have consistencies in sauces. Let’s say I’m making a sauce and it needs to be reduced so much that it would become gummy and sticky on your palate – if you use a little bit of xanthan gum, and you know how to use it, you can give it the consistency you want without having to reduce it so much. There’s a huge amount of trial and error. We failed many times. We fell over and over. You have to be cautious with those things. It shouldn’t become a habit. It’s not something to use whenever you want. You have to know which door to open and which to leave alone. Practice a lot of discipline.

What does the future of food hold for you?
I just want Moroccan food to be able to evolve, to have it be a circle where we could go through this whole process and get back to the source. Sometimes we feel that what we are doing is not as good as what has been done and we just try to go back and we have the discipline to do that. The future is for somebody to take what we are doing and to take it to the next level. Maybe five years from now, maybe tomorrow, maybe ten years from now, maybe 20. I have no idea who is going to get this book and be really inspired by this to the point that they’d be willing to do what we are doing now. That’s going to be beautiful. It will open a lot of doors. All the Moroccans that I know, and the reception that we had in Morocco because of the book, tell me that people are so hungry for it.

How do you see food in North America evolving? What trends do you see coming?
I think America is one of the best places to be right now when it comes to food. I think America allows people to think freely and it allows them to evolve in a way, that if you are doing something that makes sense, it’s embraced. Change is good. That doesn’t happen very often in a lot of places. We can see that in France, where the French are having a hard time breaking away from the sauces, the mother sauces and things like that. Denmark is doing a great job at evolving. Spain is doing a great job at evolving. Japan is doing a great job at evolving. But I think right now, America is really turning a lot of heads. You know, 20 years ago, if you were to tell someone outside of America that Thomas Keller is the best Chef in the world, they would laugh at you. But now nobody questions that fact. When you tell people that we have some of the best restaurants in the world, people don’t question that statement. They don’t say American doesn’t have a history, that it has only been around for less than 300 years. I think the trends now are for constant change.

Do you think that’s because Americans are not constrained by their past, like say the French may be?
Yes I think so. In America, this notion of innovation is embraced. That’s what’s keeping America at the forefront.

What other global cuisines influence you?
Right now it’s Japanese. And I’m not talking about sushi. I’m talking about the whole idea of how they eat. I started asking myself “Why are they using chopsticks? Why aren’t they using a spoon or a fork like the rest of the world?” And it makes a lot of sense for their food. Their palate is so clean. It’s so delicate that when they eat, they want to make sure that whatever utensils they are using are not so huge that they consume large amounts of food with each bite. They don’t pile their food on a spoon and shove it all in their mouths to the point where they can hardly tell what they’re tasting. There are so many components. When was the last time you heard of a Japanese person using salt? They use things that are better than salt. Things that have umami. I think Japanese cuisine will have the biggest influence on chefs in the next 5-10 years.

What’s the one thing that you want readers to take away from this book?
That food is about a lot more than just feeding yourself. It can feed a lot of things in you. It’s not just like “OK, I’m hungry – I’m going to eat”. Food evokes so many emotions in you. When you are cooking for somebody you love, it’s different. When you are cooking for your kids, it’s different. When you are in a hurry and are cooking just because you need to get some food so you don’t pass out, it’s different. Food is a language, it’s an art, it’s a science. It’s what keeps us going. We’d be nothing without food. And it’s just cool for people to become reacquainted with that, to the point where they make food a really important part of their lives. And the purpose of the book is to give people an alternative. To show them that this is something you can do. It doesn’t take much but if you get it planned right, it could dramatically change the way we eat.

Food can make the gulf between people smaller. It really brings people together. It goes beyond calories. It goes beyond how hard it is to make. I’m here because of food. And I’m talking to you because of food and that’s not a bad feeling.

For more information on this cookbook, please visit Thomas Allen & Sons

The latest project for Calgary-based broadcaster, blogger and cookbook author Julie Van Rosendaal, is a cookbook collaboration with her good friend Sue Duncan. The subject matter? BEANS!

Full of humorous stories and anecdotes, Spilling the Beans is an informative guide to everything bean related that will help guide you towards a healthier, fiber filled lifestyle. Julie and Sue provide you with the tools and knowledge on how best to prepare and cook a variety of beans, lentils and grains. Recipes range from appetizers to desserts and are sure to please established legume lovers as well as the rookies.

Julie and Sue were recently at Well Seasoned Gourmet Food Store, where they spent the evening cooking up tasty dishes from their new book. I got a chance to sit down with them before their class to chat about Spilling the Beans.

What was your inspiration behind writing a cookbook entirely about beans?

Sue: Julie and her husband were visiting us during the 2010 Winter Olympics, and when the two of us get together it seems like we always end up in the middle of a strange cooking project!

Julie: Always.

Sue: On this particular visit we tackled homemade lard! So while we spent long hours in the kitchen toiling over our lard, somehow we got to talking about beans. We both agreed that beans are often a neglected area in most people’s culinary skill set. People are curious and interested in learning more about beans, but most cookbooks on this subject are either frighteningly hippie or staunch vegetarian.

Julie: People want more fibre in their diet, and when most people think of fibre they automatically turn to whole grains. But beans are far higher in fibre than whole grains, plus they contain protein. The problem is that most people don’t know what to do with a bean! Another thing that people don’t know is that beans are a huge Canadian crop, particularly in the Prairies. Nowadays people are eating for environmental reasons as well as health, hence Meatless Mondays etc. But if you look at beans, they are fantastic for the environment! They are good for crop rotation as the legumes fix the nitrates in the soil, resulting in less work for the farmers and a decreased need for chemicals.

It’s funny because I have no problem using canned beans and do so frequently, but for some reason the idea of dried beans freaks me out. Is this a common issue for people with beans or am I just crazy?!

Sue: You are not alone! But people need to know there is no shame in using canned beans. Nutritionally they still have all the fibre, all the protein. If you are concerned about sodium content, just be sure to rinse the beans first.

Julie: People tend to get hung up on the soaking time, the cooking time, the variety of bean. First of all; you cannot really over soak your beans. With lentils, there is no need to presoak them at all! As for the cooking times, it depends on the size and age of the beans (older beans will take longer to cook). In terms of different types of beans, most are interchangeable.

Sue: It’s more often just an aesthetic preference. Chickpeas, lentils…those are a little more distinct in flavour and texture. But when it comes to white beans? It’s all pretty much the same.

So what is the main difference between canned and dried beans?

Julie: Canned beans are softer and mushier, making them perfect for baking. Little known piece of information (this factoid always gives me goose bumps because I am such a fibre nerd!) if you take a 19oz can of puréed kidney beans to a batch of white bread or cinnamon buns, you are actually adding more fibre than if you used whole wheat flour. It looks and tastes like white bread but is healthier for you than whole wheat bread. Cool, eh?!

Wow. You really are a fibre nerd!

Both: [Laugh]

Any steadfast rules for swapping out different kinds of beans in your recipes?

Sue: Not really. For the baking recipes we stuck to white beans just because visually it would look odd to have black beans in your pizza dough! Salads, soups…feel free to improvise in terms of the types of beans used.

Were you previously using beans in your baking or is this a new discovery?

Julie: Before starting work on this book, we had done some experimenting with beans in baked goods. I’ve used white beans in cookies quite a bit, and black bean brownies have been around for a long time, but putting them in bread dough was new for us. We discovered all sorts of new ways to use beans in our baking. For example; cooked red lentils have the taste and texture of oats making them a perfect addition to scones, muffins or cookies.

So were there any recipes you tried that just didn’t work with beans?

Both: Oh yes!

Sue: We definitely experienced a lot of recipe disasters along the way! For example; there were these chocolate chip cookies I made using chickpea flour. At first they tasted pretty good, but the longer they cooled the worse they tasted!

After completing this book, were you both beaned out?!

Sue: Not really. In fact on days when we didn’t eat beans we both kinda missed eating them.

Julie: Although I should add that I think our families were pretty beaned out by the end!

Okay you know I’ve got to ask: beans and flatulence. What’s the deal ladies?!

Julie: “Beans, beans the musical fruit. The more you eat – the less you toot.”

Sue: Basically your body adapts to an increased amount of beans in your diet. But if you happen to be a real meat and potatoes type of person, I would suggest gradually increasing the amount and frequency of beans you consume so as not to overwhelm your system.

Julie: Sometimes it can also help to soak the beans, rinse them and change the water.

Julie, you are the author of a number of cookbooks. In Spilling the Beans your Dad (who is a doctor) contributed to your book by providing up-to-date health information. How much fun was it to write this book with your father and your good friend Sue?

Julie: It was so much fun collaborating with Sue! We’d go off and work on different things on our own, but it was so nice to be able to share our recipe triumphs (and failures!) together. Working with my Dad was also a great experience, although his original copy was written very much in the style of a medical journal so we had to ‘groom’ it a little bit!

Julie, what some people may not realize is that you took the photos that appear in the book. Typical food blogger! Did you enjoy taking the pics yourself?

Julie: Yes it was fun! Sue came and helped me with the food styling which was great. When we were testing the recipes it just seemed to make sense that we take the photos at the same time. Kill two birds with one stone so to speak.

The overall design and photographs in the book make beans look sexy! Going into this project did you have a visual idea of what you’d like it to look like?

Sue: Right from the beginning of this project we knew we wanted to make beans seem approachable and appealing. Whatever it takes to make people eat more beans!

Do either of you have a favourite type of bean?

Julie: If I was forced to choose just one variety, I’d have to say I couldn’t live without chickpeas.

Sue: And lentils!

What advice do you have for people wanting to include more beans into their diets?

Julie: Just do it!

Sue: Don’t worry about whether you should use canned or dried beans, don’t stress over using a specific variety, and go slowly when first adding them to your diet.

To read more of our interviews with professional and celebrity chefs, please visit the Sound Bites section

Photo courtesy of Whitecap Books

For more information on Julie visit her website www.dinnerwithjulie.com
For more information on Sue visit her website www.foodwhereilive.blogspot.com

For more information on this book, visit Whitecap Books

For a full list of upcoming cooking classes at Well Seasoned Gourmet Store, please visit their website

I bet you can count the number of pastry chefs with a Harvard degree in applied mathematics and economics on one hand. In fact, you can probably count them using just one finger.

Joanne Chang.

Born in Houston (TX), Joanne’s passion for food was the impetus for an unexpected foray into the culinary world. In the year 2000 she opened Flour Bakery & Café in Boston (MA) that immediately began attracting legions of loyal fans. Joanne has since opened two additional Flour bakeries along with Myers + Chang, a restaurant she opened with her husband Christopher Myers and which she describes as being a funky indie diner with food inspired by Taiwanese soul food and Southeast Asian street food.

In 2010 Joanne released her eagerly awaited cookbook – Flour: Spectacular Recipes from Boston’s Flour Bakery & Café – and is currently working on a second book. She also writes articles and reviews cookbooks for Fine Cooking Magazine.

Confession? I have long admired Joanne Chang. Basically she inspires me to the point that I want to move to Boston and study pastry (shhh…don’t tell my hubby!) So when I recently had the opportunity to interview my pastry hero I jumped at the chance.

Okay so I’ve got to ask: how do you go from applied mathematics and economics to pastry?!
Well, I didn’t go straight into pastry. After graduation I spent two years working as a management consultant with no plans to go into the food industry whatsoever, but at the end of my second year I found myself at a crossroads and was trying to figure out what to do next. Because I honestly had no idea what I wanted to do, I thought I would spend a year doing something that I had previously enjoyed strictly as a hobby – cooking – and see where it might lead. So I ended up getting a job at a top restaurant in Boston working for famed chef/restaurateur Lydia Shire, which came about after I sent letters to various establishments basically saying that I had no experience or a professional culinary background but that I love to cook and would be willing to start anywhere. Working with Lydia I got my first glimpse into the world of professional pastry, and a year later I began working at Rick Katz’s bakery called Bentonwood.

What was it initially about pastry that held such fascination for you?
I really loved the controlled aspect of pastry. I appreciate the precise nature of pastry; there’s a lot of math and science involved which obviously resonated with my background. And to be honest I really enjoy eating sweets! I could eat pastries all day long.    

You first got into the food industry by sending out letters to chefs you admired. This was before the whole celebrity chef phenomenon, and so have things changed? How much of an importance do you place on culinary education vs. good ol’ fashioned experience in today’s market?
At the time that I sent out my letters people didn’t really do that sort of thing. Cooking professionally as a career wasn’t something that was on people’s radar to the extent that it is today. Nowadays the food industry in general is much more high profile because of celebrity chefs and the Food Network. Because I didn’t go to culinary school, our stores don’t have any food specific prerequisites for hiring. But because of today’s significant amount of interest in the food industry, I find we have to go through our non-experienced applicants with a finer toothed comb than was necessary when I was just starting out. A lot of people without experience tend to have a glamourized image of what it means to cook professionally, whereas in the past this desire to work in the culinary world came more from a genuine love of cooking.

I love how your book is so personal, and through your recipe introductions and personal anecdotes readers come away feeling as if they really know you. What was your initial vision for this book?
The end result of my book is pretty much what I had initially envisioned! Because I became a pastry chef indirectly, I can still remember what it was like learning how to make all of these pastries. So my goal was to create a book where I could share my love for pastry and passion for baking. Every recipe that I put in the book is very personal to me. A lot of people who cook seem nervous about baking, and I wanted to break down these perceived barriers between cooking and baking and show how a good recipe and learned technique can make a baker out of anyone!

You occasionally review cookbooks for Fine Cooking magazine. In your mind, what makes a cookbook great?
I definitely like the stories, learning where the recipe comes from and why the author thinks it’s worth including in their book. To be honest, I have a problem with baking books that don’t use weights (metric measurements). Personally, metric cookbooks signify to me that recipes have been calibrated and written in a precise manner allowing for the baker to achieve optimal results.

Your recipes are so exact and show the level of thought that goes into them…for example the banana bread calls for 3.5 bananas. I’ve tried making it with that extra half and it’s just not the same! What does it take to get a recipe to this point of perfection, and once you’re happy with something do you leave it alone forever or occasionally tweak it? People want to make the food that they buy at our stores. It’s the reason they buy the book in the first place! So the recipes in the book are what we make in our bakeries. That being said, we’re making batches of 28 loaves of banana bread so everything had to be calibrated to work for portions more applicable to home cooks. If you divide our banana bread recipe by 28 you end up with 3.5 bananas and so I didn’t want to mess around with that number! I often hear people complain that they love a particular restaurant or bakery and bought their cookbook but the results never turn out the same. It’s not that the author is trying to be deceptive – it’s just that there is a lot of adjusting that needs to happen when you take a recipe that is meant to be made in larger quantities and scale it down for readers. Trust me – it’s not an easy task!

Good thing you’ve got that background in math!
Exactly!

In your book you take complicated pastries that can take years of training and experience to perfect, and break them down into instructions that make them less intimidating for the home cook. How difficult was it to make your recipes home cook friendly?
It wasn’t overly difficult; it just took a lot of time. Throughout the whole process I kept having to think about why we do things a certain way. I’m naturally a very specific person, so approaching a recipe in this manner was fairly easy for me to do. It didn’t feel completely alien!

Last year was supposedly the year of the cupcake, this year is being labeled the year of the pie…do you believe in food trends? If so, what are your predictions?
I don’t think anyone can deny that cupcakes have become a major trend. The media works really hard to push trends and people seem to naturally gravitate towards the idea of food trends. Personally, I am a pie pusher! Hopefully we’ll see pie start to really increase in popularity with the masses. Love pie.

You once mentioned that one of the most challenging pastry items to make has been the infamous croissant. Have you mastered it yet? What’s the secret?
The tricky thing about croissants is that there are so many variables that can affect the final product; temperature of the butter, temperature of the water, temperature of the air, etc. When you make croissants every day or every week you are able to intuitively know how the dough and butter need to react, how your fingers can manipulate the dough for the look you want, the proper way to lineup the butter and dough layers for maximum flakiness.

What is your favourite thing to make?
That’s a hard question to answer! There isn’t just one thing I like to make the most above and beyond anything else. I enjoy making carrot cakes, I love tackling croissants, shaping brioche…actually there’s very little I don’t like to make when it comes to pastry!

How do pastry chefs not weigh 5,000 lbs?! I have a number of dessert cookbooks to review and I’m scared for my waistline. What goes into recipe development for pastry chefs? (When I asked this question to Gale Gand she said no one believes her when she says she comes home from work STARVING!)
I think when you work with pastry all day long and have access to it all the time there is less of a need to consume as much of it as you can! It will always be there so you don’t really feel any pressure to overindulge. I also think that doing pastry is such a physical job (lifting bags of flours, manhandling huge sheet trays, on your feet for 8-12 hours a day). It’s a very physical job! People underestimate how much hard work is involved in this profession.

Would you consider writing another book?
Actually I’m currently working on a second book right now! The working title is Flour Power: recipes from our kitchen all day, and it basically consists of breakfast, lunch, dinner and special occasion recipes. It has more of a focus on savoury foods; lots of sandwiches, soups, dinner ideas that have become signature items at our Flour Bakeries. But don’t worry – there will still be lots of pastries!

To read the cookbook review for Flour, please click here

To read more of our interviews with professional and celebrity chefs, please visit the Sound Bites section

Trish Magwood lives in Toronto (ON) and is a successful Canadian food entrepreneur, teacher, chef and cookbook author. Over the years she has earned a solid reputation for creating recipes that are simple, reliable, and pretty gosh darn tasty. Preferring to let her food speak for itself, Trish does not feel the need to overcompensate with flamboyant and unnecessary frills. Her first book –Dish Entertains – won a prestigious James Beard Foundation award, and her second cookbook is already creating quite a buzz amongst foodies. Some of you may recognize her from the television series Party Dish, a spin off from her successful catering and cooking school.

While enjoying some downtime at her family’s cottage, Trish talked to me about her new book, how she manages to juggle a young family and a high profile career in the food industry, and the importance of making the time to gather around the table.

To read my entire interview with Trish Magwood, please click here

Born in Vancouver (BC), Mairlyn Smith wears a variety of hats that include home economist, teacher, cookbook author, actor and comedian. Her cookbooks are renowned for highlighting her signature comedic flair, an approach that allows readers to feel both entertained and educated.

Mairlyn’s latest book (released April 2011) is titled Healthy Starts Here! It includes over 140 recipes to help guide you through adopting a healthy lifestyle that is meant to be more of a long term commitment rather than just another diet fad.

A firm believer in eating seasonal and locally grown foods, Mairlyn is also a strong supporter of educating youth and helping them to establish healthy eating habits and good nutritional choices from a young age. In fact, it is her hope that home economics will one day be mandatory in all Canadian high schools.

While on tour promoting her book, Mairlyn took some time out of her busy schedule to chat with me about her new cookbook and all things healthy!

To read my entire interview with Mairlyn Smith, click here

In 1997 Eric saw his dream of becoming a food writer come true after being hired by the Victoria Times newspaper. His recipe-rich columns have earned him a loyal following, and six years later he launched his best-selling Everyone Can Cook series. Renowned for his accessible approach to cooking, Eric Akis’ latest cookbook is entitled Everyone Can Cook Slow Cooker Meals (Whitecap Books $24.95 CAD), a plethora of recipes for your slow cooker that includes suggested side dishes to complete your meal. Perfect for weekday cooking or special occasions, this book contains a wealth of information on slow cooking 101, what to look for when purchasing a machine, and tips on adapting conventional oven recipes to use in a slow cooker.

A couple of months ago I got an opportunity to chat with Eric about his latest cookbook endeavour. To read my entire interview with Eric Akis, click here.

Based in Chicago (IL), Gale Gand has seven cookbooks to her name including her most recent release – Gale Gand’s Brunch!: 100 Fantastic Recipes for the Weekend’s Best Meal. The down-to-earth approach she takes in regards to recipes endears her cookbooks to home cooks, who love how she demystifies the secrets behind successful cooking and baking.

Gale Gand is a firm believer in sustainable agriculture and eating locally, and is an active member in several community organizations including Chicago’s Green City Market, Art Smith’s foundation, and Common Threads. As if this isn’t enough to keep her busy she also has three children including a 13 year-old son and 5 year-old twin girls.

While visiting Chicago I got an opportunity to dine at the world renowned restaurant Tru (owned by Gale Gand, Rick Tramonto & Rich Melman), and was thrilled when Gale managed to find time in her busy schedule to chat with me about her latest cookbook.

To read my interview with Gale Gand, please click here.

To read my review of Gale Gand’s Brunch! please click here.

For a copy of the recipe for Gale Gand’s Almond Ciabatta French Toast, please click here.