Foodists
Foodists is a collective of like-minded food worshippers. We breathe and sleep in order to eat and drink. Have something to share with us? We'd love to hear from you. If it's something to eat or drink, even better.
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Contributors
Mark Busse
Mark first developed a respect and passion for food at home where his father was the family’s primary cook. Despite having spent much of his formative years sweating over grills and prep stations; he still has a love for kitchens and the culinary arts. Some of Mark’s favourite things are his pots, pans and various kitchen gadgets. Known affectionately as Mr. Stitches, Mark is also fond of his collection of knives, which he frequently uses to nip the end of his fingers with – so be careful if he makes you a “red sauce”. Mark has observed how many fellow artists and designers share a passion for creating, discovering and enjoying good food and wine. He compares cooking to fine art, with the palate serving as canvas and fresh ingredients as paint. Interested in all aspects of the culinary arts, Mark travels as often as possible, exploring different cultures and their cuisine with the joy of discovery. Favourite food style so far? Anything Asian. Or French. Or, wait, Italian. Mark Busse is a founding principal and Design Director at Industrial Brand in Vancouver, BC. He and his business partner Ben occasionally daydream of one day opening a small restaurant of their own, but quickly dismiss the notion recalling how much hard work the restaurant business is. Perhaps one day?
Colin Coutts
Colin is a very well-read waiter who works at one of the city’s finest restaurants. Favourite food style so far? Anything Asian. Or French. Or, wait, Italian.” And let’s see, Hungarian food is pretty good, and the delicacies of Russia not far behind. Not overly fond of Inuit cuisine (raw whale blubber upsets my stomach, as does raw walrus blubber – I guess only they can tell the difference), but those Scandinavians are onto something. Ethiopian food’s pretty good, and I like the sausage and pyrogie school of Polish cuisine as well….Let’s just say that if you’re cooking, I’m interested. Or if I’m cooking. My love of food is deep and abiding…
Andrea Busse
Andrea Busse has had years of experience eating and creating extraordinary and wonderful foods. Coming from a Chinese/Filipino/Polish/American background, she has an adventurous upbringing where no food was too strange to eat. She should have known something was up in elementary school when no one wanted to trade lunches with her. Perhaps bringing liverwurst sandwiches wasn’t the best way to make friends. For Andrea, creating a meal starts with perusing cookbooks, walking to Commercial Drive to find the freshest of ingredients, and then putting together the most organized mise en place that you’ve ever seen. (The little white ramekins are the best invention!) In recent years, she has discovered that many of those dishes that were perceived as ‘too difficult’ to attempt really aren’t that hard at all! Cooking just takes a bit of patience, prep, and creativity.
Colin Kohler
Colin began eating solid foods at an early age and has been hooked ever since. His perspective on food was changed forever by three experiences. The first was getting a job at an organic ice cream shop where he learned that good ingredients make good food. The second was the boss’s required reading, Anthony Bourdain’s “Kitchen Confidential”. Later at the ice cream shop, he fell in love with a ‘hippie girl natural foods genius’ who taught him what to do with it all. Colin’s favorite things in his kitchen include his 8″ Wüsthof chef’s knife that he doesn’t sharpen enough (Mr. Bourdain would be so disappointed), his perfectly seasoned set of cast iron pans, and a chopping block that he found by a cactus in the middle of the desert. Colin lives in Los Angeles, where he is a resident expert on Taco Trucks. His favorite spice is nutmeg.
Steve Mynett
A young and budding foodie, Steve can often be found in his kitchen looking blankly one of his recently bought kitchen gadgets with a bottle of wine in one hand and a puzzled look on his face. One of Steve’s food theories, cheese goes well with everything, was recently put to the test when a late night all you can eat sushi restaurant offered cheese sticks. Surprisingly the dishes complimented themselves (though it was a late night all you can eat joint which often alters reality. Though cheese can go with sushi the prefer option is a medium rare filet mignon, wrapped in bacon with melted blue cheese.
Ray “Doc” Marasigan
Friends call me “Doc” and I hate food. In fact, I hate it so much I try to find the easiest way to down it. If there could be a pill to simulate the effects of photosynthesis for the human body I’d be the first in line to sign up. When I was a kid I remember it always being a drag to sit down and eat breakfast, lunch and dinner. I found it more interesting to watch the meals being made verses eating them. My older brother, a chef, would always create some great dish from the dregs of the refrigerator leaving me with a sense of awe and bewilderment of how someone could create something – that not only looked like a well sculpted piece of art but actually tasted good and was worthy of sitting down to eat – from virtually nothing. Eating it was one thing but that whole idea of watching this process happen made me happy for some reason. I still find the idea of eating to be more or less a chore, much like breathing or going to the bathroom. Fortunately the idea of creating something from nothing stuck with me. I still like to watch it happen and occasionally I’ll attempt to make something from the dregs of my refrigerator. I may not eat it but it will at least have been fun to make.
Alex Leynes
I’m not a chef, I don’t claim to be. I do however appreciate a good meal and the nuances that go into making it memorable. Food’s ability to bring people together, and inspire are what drive me to write it. My interest in cooking began with backyard grilling but, it really took off after volunteering with a local cooking school. Since then I’ve become an avid home cook, willing to dedicate my free time to try out new recipes.
Anthony Nicalo
Anthony Nicalo wants to be a farmer when he grows up. Anthony’s grandfather was the first in the family to work outside of the family farm. His Papa Bill still had a garden that was nearly an acre, and Anthony helped plant seeds as soon as he could walk up and down the rows of vegetables. He spent hours cooking food from the garden with his and mother. Anthony launched his culinary career as Executive Sous Chef under Dean Zanella at 312 Chicago, learning to create dishes based on the local produce selection at Chicago’s Green City Market. After serving as interim Executive Chef at Hotel Monaco’s Poste, he cooked during the launch of Ristorante Castello Banfi, under the direction of Guido Havercock, where Anthony learned the intricacies of complementing dishes with regional wines. During a brief stint as Chef de Cuisine at Merriman’s in Kamuela, Hawaii, Anthony was inspired by Peter Merriman’s passion for locally farmed products. Anthony last served as a cook at Avec Restaurant in Chicago, with award-winning Chefs Paul Kahan and Koren Grieveson. Anthony thinks the job of a chef is to buy great ingredients from skilled farmers and not mess themup- which he helps do for a private chef service known as Inevitable Table. This idea also led to the founding of Farmstead Wines, where he connects people to artisan farmers who make rare, handcrafted wines of sustainable provenance. And with the start of a not-forprofit, FarmFed, he hopes to make farming sexy enough that it can finally be considered a real job.
Denise Boyle
Denise is a ‘recovering vegetarian’. After 18 years she has recently chosen to start eating meat again. No stranger to meat growing up, she is looking forward to rediscovering old favourites and trying exciting new delicacies. Denise grew up with a mom who loved to cook, so she learned an appreciation for good food at an early age. She loves the whole process of making a meal and can sometimes get a little obsessive about the details – from searching through recipes to find just the right one (which she will then change), to lists of ingredients, and thinking about the preparation and how it will all come together (her ‘meez’) That being said, she also has a knack for whipping up a tasty meal even when there seems to be nothing in the cupboard. Along with a love of food, Denise and her husband Edan have traveled extensively in North America, Europe and Southeast Asia. Travel and food go very well together, and Denise loves the challenge of recreating the delicious dishes they’ve eaten on their adventures. She makes a pretty mean Thai curry, but admits that pad thai is still somewhat elusive (even with the awesome recipe she posted way back)…nothing beats the real thing! And now that meat is an option for Denise, the desire to delve deeper into French cuisine is back with a vengeance. Denise loves the fact that you can never learn everything or know it all when it comes to food and cooking; she believes that since you have to eat, why not eat well and have fun while you’re at it?
Evan Leeson
I am a vancouver-based new communications technology pro who is constantly being distracted by making art, epicurean pursuits, love for his family, and a wide bon vivant streak. Born and raised in cities, I come from a long family history of farmers and food culture from the historic Earls of Milltown brewing family in Ireland, Canadian farmers and ranchers and a recently revealed link to Turkish-Hungarian roots. My interest in food and food culture is best exemplified in the pages of Saveur magazine.
Ben Garfinkel
Once Ben was old enough to eat dinner at various friends’ homes he came to realize that his parents had set the food standards bar very high. This set the stage for Ben’s love of eating good cooking. In fact, an impromptu dinner at a Filipino friend’s house was probably one of his earliest experiences with Asian cuisine and began his pursuit of authentic food experiences. A stint as a bus boy at a local, family-run Italian restaurant completely turned him off a career as a food service whipping boy, but inspired a passion for cooking. Ben has been accused of traveling with his stomach. And it’s true, his foreign adventures are filled with a desire is to experience cultures through their food. Other accusations include hoarding of condiments, a proliferation of kitchen gadgets (though he’s prone to enjoying traditional French food preparation techniques) and an unhealthy obsession with the maintenance of said gadgets; especially his pots, pans and knives. His favourite ethnic cuisine is a tough choice, but currently Malaysian warms his heart most dearly. His secret weapon: white truffle oil. Ben Garfinkel is a founding principal and Creative Director at Industrial Brand in Vancouver, BC. He’s had many dining experiences that led him to believe he could do much better, however, he’s under no illusion that entering the restaurant business is a good idea no matter how romantic the notion.
Stephanie Co & Todd Smith
She grew up in a Chinese-Manila suburb, he grew up in some mismatched Slavic-Canadian prairie town. When she brought longganisa, shao long bao, and king crab to the table, he brought kielbasa, perishky, and different cuts of venison. Somewhere along the line they met in the middle—possibly a bubble tea house, but for now we’ll say Richmond, Canada—and from then on they began to consume, prepare, and photograph cuisine together. They equally dislike dining at “fusion” restaurants and detest eats that hold presentation over taste, texture, and quality of ingredients. This duo travels the world, far too often guided by pangs in their stomachs and the various pitches of street vendors; but in all fairness they won’t hesitate to mention that together they’ve dined at McDonalds in over 20 countries.
Read all posts by Steph and Todd.
Janeen Leynes
Janeen Leynes learned to bake cakes from scratch at the age of ten, and has been known to enjoy waffles with whip cream and strawberries for dinner. With a passion for making desserts, Janeen graduated from the Pacific Institute of Culinary Arts specializing in Baking & Pastry. Having worked in the kitchens of some of Vancouver’s most recognized restaurants, Janeen went on to work for one of Canada’s top pastry chefs where she honed her skills in making high quality chocolates. Today, Janeen is working on a chocolate cookbook inspired by sustainable and equitable cocoa farming.
Matt SamyciaWood
For myself, cooking is not about following the rules and getting it right. I rarely use recipes, I relate to them as being ‘work’ and often hard to follow, in short, I don’t draw much pleasure from using them. Sure my cooking could benefit from using a recipe from time to time but for me cooking is about being creative and enjoying the process. Basically, I wing it and love doing so.
Johnathon Vaughn
Having grown up in an East Vancouver maelstrom of multiculturalism, Johnathon was fortunate to enjoy the culinary treasures of his neighbours, initiating a desire of taste exploration. Discovering the nuances of regional food and wine while traveling only furthered an addiction to the luxuries of taste. Combining food, wine and life is the ultimate table setting and he is no stranger to partaking in fine food, fine wines and fine combinations of the two. A designer, photographer and educator, Johnathon’s work has taken him to many award winning dining establishments and even more tiny gems of delicacies created by those passionate in their craft. Due to the combination of a decades long diet of foie gras and a flip of the 40 switch, running has become a part of life and posts will come from an understanding of how to balance the pleasure of culinary creativity and keeping (reasonably) fit. Expect a Tongue-in-Cheek approach to the writing inspired by the fact that Tongue & Cheek taste so damn good!
Dave Delibato
Dave has been writing for a living in advertising for over 13 years – or as he terms it “greasing the gears of capitalism.” In that time, he has worked and lived across Canada in Toronto, Vancouver and Calgary. He prides himself in maintaining his repertoire of definitive food experiences in those cities but admits there is oh so much more to consume. His parents are both as Italian as it gets, which he believes grants him food snobbery as a birthright. David enjoys cooking, eating what he cooks, increasing his ponderous, lifetime total of half-read books and watching alarming amounts of television. You can view Dave’s “other” writing at davedelibato.com.
Dave Shea
There are two points on which you need to take Vancouver local Dave Shea seriously. Though he probably spends as much time thinking up new culinary adventures as he does running his one man design shop, it’s all just exploration and unqualified opinion… except when it comes to his drinks. He knows the bean and the grain like mothers know their children. Offer him a frothy IPA or a Belgian Tripel if you want to get on his good side, or ask him to explain his home coffee roasting process sometime if you have a spare hour.
James Sherrett
James likes to eat. He likes to eat good food. So, being poor when he arrived on the left coast, he needed to learn to cook for himself. That led to various trials and many errors. And a few successes with various peasant foods. James likes to eat all manner of good food. He believes that humans are meant to be omnivores. If you want proof, look at our teeth. Some for tearing meat. Some for grinding grains. We’re meant to eat it all. And we’re meant to find it too. The fooding starts with the growing, the harvesting, the foraging and fishing. Come along and James will try to show you what he knows of this thus far. And he mentioned to me that he’d like to learn from you too. Put it this way: there will be regrets. We all have them. In a moment over good bourbon, James may paraphrase Michael Caine and suggest that regrets should come from things done, not things undone. Do it and regret it. Don’t whiff and wonder. As for outputs, James launched a personal restaurant called Purloined in Summer, 2008. He takes reservations with one-month notice and a joke that gets a smile. Or you could shortcut the line and join AdHack.
Boris Mann
In 1994, Boris lost a coin toss. He had his TB test clean bill of health and an application to Vancouver Community College’s chef program in one hand, and an acceptance letter from Capilano College in the other. The coin toss said that he was off to university, rather than chef school. Every since then, he’s focused on flipping his only child status to be the “Italian mama” that feeds everyone. Usually large quantities of meat, since he is German, after all.
Jules Morgan
It was very recently, over a particularly amazing meal, that Jules looked up and declared that she was going to pursue her one true love. Very conveniently said love is the art of eating and drinking, as it is rich in her blood: both her paternal great grandfather and her uncle were bakers and her great, great grandfather was the founder of The Flowers Brewery. Added to the mix is a strong Welsh heritage and a tradition of comfort food. If you are sad, there’s a high likelihood she will attempt to feed you. Just remember to bring the wine. A self confessed sugar junkie, whiskey fiend and avid collector of cookbooks from travels, Jules’ quest for adventure has taken her all over the world, leaving her with incredible memories of markets from Ha Noi to Barcelona and several more in between. Chances are any tales she tells will be focused on what was eaten and what was drunk. After several years living in the UK discovering that there is, indeed, some pretty damned good nosh, Jules is now based in Vancouver dreaming of the best baklava in the world and wondering if it’s time for wine.
Sylvia Zygalo
Food is an extension of love, and as with love, our relationship with food doesn’t always come easy. Such is the universe that food evolves within, and one in which Sylvia is determined to explore.
In 2004, Sylvia’s gears shifted suddenly, and as if almost possessed by the unpredictable onset of her destiny, she began to harvest an awareness for food in realization that her relationship with it was layered in denial. Her experience with food has so far been a fragmenting journey, full of unexpected surprises, gustatory gratifications & shocking revelations about where it is that it actually comes from. Her drive for discovery is relentless, and she is motivated by a blend of pleasure, awareness, education and responsibility. The more she knows, the less she realizes she knows, and so the more she wants to learn.
Sylvia is also a blogger at galoera.com, where she writes at the intersection of food, wine and design.
Jer Thorp
Jeremy Thorp is perhaps the hippest propeller-head you’ll ever meet. A former geneticist and part-time rock star, Jeremy is a Flash designer, instructor and digital artist from Vancouver, Canada. For Jeremy, “crafting code”, for him, “is just like making art or composing music”. Jer travels extensively speaking at conferences around the world, following his nose and stomach while on his globetrotting adventures. Blprnt.com, Jeremy’s unique collection of organic Flash experiments and generative artworks, has won numerous awards and has been featured in many design magazines both online and in print.
Kevin Broome
In 1999, a nasty 3-day experience brought on by questionable Turkish pizza in the town of Goreme left Kevin with a stomach of steel. Ever since, he has fearlessly roamed the globe in search of its finer culinary offerings. And whether it is iguana curry from the street stalls of Malaysia, deep fried scorpion on a stick (pictured above) at the Beijing Night Market, or the simple perfection of a Parisian bistro, he has rarely been disappointed. Settling in Vancouver, with its incredible mix of ethnic offerings and consistent high end West Coast cuisine seemed like an obvious choice. He has since taken to translating his global experiences into gastronomic creations of his own while at the same time juggling the challenges of life as a new father. When not filling his belly, Kevin works as a Senior Designer for Karyo Edelman and posts to his own blog on design, art and culture at kevinbroome.com
Alexa Clark
Lex’s culinary adventures started early one Sunday morning, when she decided to make her parents scrambled eggs in an electric skillet. Ingredients? 1 dozen eggs, 1lb of butter, 1 bottle of soya sauce. Luckily the skillet was off. So was breakfast. However, her love of greasy spoon breakfasts was born that fateful morning. Lex started working in the food industry at the age of 5, selling organic vegetables in the Saint John city market. By 13 she was working in her first professional kitchen. She wrote her first cookbook, exclusively for friends and family, in 2000. Waitressing her way through a BMath, Lex leveraged her resulting high tech career to subsidize eating her way through the finest restaurants and diviest dives everywhere she went. Saturday mornings were spent chasing down the best greasy spoon breakfasts and lunch hours were consumed searching for Chinatown’s best char sui fun and dim sum. Finally Lex decided it was time to merge her worlds of business, technology and food to create and publish the CheapEats Restaurant Guide Series. With over 12,000 copies sold of CheapEats Toronto & CheapEats Ottawa, Vancouver and Montreal are next in line for CheapEats guides of their own. On the side, Lex cooks, blogs, and continues to pursue her other fascinations: business and technology.
Nancy Wu
The love of good literature, Japanese cartoons, cheesy British films and delicious food experiences is what brought my husband and I together to boldly go to fine dining establishments near and far for the pursuit of…aw, c’mon we just love to eat. Period. My love of food started with the Food Network and numerous trips to Europe & Japan. (Experiencing what I lovingly call my accidental order of a bowl of phelgm with sashimi on top. The loogeyfest was a mountain tuber that gets gluey as you grate it. I forget the name of it but now that I think of it, it was more like that goopy creme for eczema.) Since then I’ve bought every issue of Everyday Food, spent 2 hours at Barbara Jo’s on a single visit, read all of Anthony Bourdain’s books, obsess about al dente noodles or fresh ramen, watched every UK Gordon Ramsay series, attended a 2 day tasting session for the summer 2008 edition of Sobey’s Inspired food magazine, completed said art direction of that same issue that gave me 2 complete weeks to eat my way around Toronto (photos of my experiences at Susur, Terroni’s, Batifole & Jamie Kennedy’s Wine Bar to come), and savored what must have been a $35 bowl of eel chirashi in Osaka and a $100 meal of fish & chips at Geales in London….and thought they were both worth it. People ask me why I run? For my health, for my sanity, to cleanse toxins from my body, to be around for my son when he needs love advice and, so I can eat. Period. I’m a Senior Designer and Art Director living and (always) designing in Vancouver, BC. Check out where the awards came from at www.nancywudesign.com. Btw, my favorite food movies are Eat Drink Man Woman and Tampopo.
Degan Beley
Degan is a food blogger and connoisseur, wine lover and whiskey drinker and all-round culinary adventurer. But she wasn’t born with that bent. Being raised on a farm and eating endless meatloaf prepared by a British nanny spawned a decade of militant vegetarianism and a wariness of the spice cabinet that deprived her taste buds of much joy. She eventually came to her senses, however, and will now eat pretty much anything. Especially if someone else is cooking. Her search for culinary excellence takes her around the city, around the globe and yes, sometimes even into her kitchen (although her specialty concoctions are mostly of the alcoholic variety). She has a special fondness for dim sum and can’t go more than a couple of weeks without a bowl of good pho, so feels lucky to live in Vancouver where there is such an abundance of quality ingredients, culinary talent and ethnic diversity.
Karen Hamilton
Karen’s obsession with food has its origins in her family’s adoration of it. Food was associated with notable conversations and fond memories. It seemed only natural to her follow in her family’s footsteps and make time spent at the dinner table a happy experience. Karen’s move to Winnipeg in 2003 cut the cord from the culture of eating that she had taken for granted. In order to maintain that connection, she started a blog about her new life in the Prairies, peppered with her first foibles in the world of baking and documenting her accidental apprenticeship in digital photography. In late 2004, she returned to Vancouver and continued to report on the food scene in their new environs. Karen upgraded her camera gear in Fall 2007 and in March of 2008, launched a local food blog called Tiny Bites. Tiny Bites was the catalyst for propelling Karen into a shiny new path as an entrepreneur; she now runs a web consulting firm that caters to people in food, tourism, and hospitality. Karen is excited to share her enthusiasm for unforgettable culinary experiences with the community on Foodists.ca.
Eagranie Yuh
Eagranie is the only child of a cooking-averse mom and a dad who eats lots of toast. Always a fighter, she overcame adversity and emerged a foodie. After completing her M.Sc. in chemistry, she attended Le Cordon Bleu Ottawa, where she specialized in French pastry and artisanal chocolate. Highlights of her pastry days include catering the James Beard Awards, working for Canada’s top pastry chef, and getting some pretty wicked scars. Eagranie sees food as the perfect intersection of art and science—you can’t have one without the other. You can’t cook without understanding the science behind the technique, nor can you blindly apply science and hope to have good food. In the end, it’s all about respect for the ingredients, the farmers or producers, the chefs, and the enjoyment of well-prepared food. She’s an avid food tourist and a member of the International Association of Culinary Professionals (IACP). She’s still thinking about a barbecued shrimp sandwich she had in New Orleans at the 2008 IACP conference. Eagranie is a technical writer focusing on usability and information architecture, and writes an award-winning food blog at
The Well Tempered Chocolatier.
Brandon Tennant
Although I still prefer to eat Kraft Dinner, my culinary experience has brought me into the world of such oddities as ‘fresh produce’, and ‘hand made pasta’. Strange times indeed. I love to cook for myself with a keen eye on getting away from packaged products and paint by numbers recipes and just enjoy the experience of cooking.
Luce Beaulieu
Luce is known amongst her friends as 1) the Montreal Martha Stewart 2) the girl who refuses to pay for something she could make herself, arguably better. She started cooking out of necessity when she moved out of her parents’ house and managed to graduate from Campbell’s cream of mushroom soup and crackers to full blown 8 course meals in the span of 3 years. Being a sustainable designer, she chooses to purchase organic and local food whenever possible and hope to never cook the same meal twice.