This page is about food and cooking: how to make the most of the food revolution in Revelstoke.
I love to eat. I learned to cook when my mother went to work, and I realized we could either exist on hot dogs or I could share kitchen chores. I was 15.
When I was 18, other values of cooking clicked in. After an all-night party, I conjured up Hang-Over Soup out of two potatoes, an onion and a quart of milk, for a bunch of bleary-eyed engineering students. Wow. Was I a genius or what.
The column is about real food, as opposed to the fast-food junk we pour down our gullets in moments of hunger or anguish. Real food comes from plants or animals, with little or no processing. Food found in the outside aisles of the supermarket, food from local growers, your brother’s hunting trip, from the farmer who butchers his own, the guy down the road who makes sausage, your aunt who makes
pickles and jam, the local restaurants producing chutney and dal and soup-to-go, the in-town bakers whose stoves go on at 3 am.
Food is truly the staff of life: knowing what’s in food, what’s happened to it before you buy it, is critical. I’ll be doing interviews with local producers, trying to tell you more about food production, and with local chefs, for their knowledge and insight.
Real food is often local but not always. Canada can’t grow olives, oranges or nutmeg. We import oils, spices, fruit, coffee and tea. We cangrowvegetables, even in winter. The Okanagan is Canada’s fruitbasket. We are meat producers. You may be lucky enough to have a huntin’ shootin’ fishin’ guy or girl in the family. But my kitchen depends on olive oil, so local doesn’t always work.
Do convenience foods have a place? Of course. There’s nothing a manufacturer can do that you can’t do better at home. But who can live without the occasional tin of tomato soup, frozen fish and chips, nachos, and pizza delivery?
Restaurants? Absolutely — chefs have lots to teach home cooks. Professionals introduce us to new foods, new ways of eating. I’ll interview them, eat their food and tell you about it.
The food revolution in Revelstoke is here, and with your help, we can urge suppliers towards an even wider range of food sources, kitchen equipment, and restaurant menus. Food is an adventure. I hope you’ll join me each week to support Revelstoke’s food revolution. We invite your input, and will respond to letters and queries.
Next week: Chopping onions with Goldie and Pam; a morning in Paramjit’s Kitchen.
