Q. “Trick or treat!” With each new open door came chatty adults – some beghouled – and new household noises, smells, and Halloween lighting. If we were lucky, friendly dogs would come bounding up to meet us. But, one key question remained: what would these strangers drop in our goodie

Q. To many of us, preparing intricate dishes for even one round of a 2020 cooking competition looks plenty stressful. But what was it like to create and stage food for ravenous, judgy royals at Late Medieval feasts? . A. Master Chef Chiquart Amizco offers us a peek in. Poor

Q. With September but days away and the crisp of fall in the air, we best get our outdoor ice-cream kicks in while we can. We won’t yet know how the pandemic affected our overall August ice-cream consumption, but in August of 2019, Statista reported that 1.87% of Canadian respondents

Q. Sweet as honey. A taste of honey. A honey of a deal. You’re my honey (as long as you complete your ‘to do’ list) How did honey, of all the sugary alternatives, come to epitomize the ultimate, love-worthy sweetness? . A. Sweet, sweet honey finds it place in the

Q. If you happened to visit the Gulf Islands last August, you might have noticed two strange things: i) a lot of people smelled like cloves, ii) there were no cloves to be found in the grocery store. Why was there a late summer run on cloves and should we

Q. If you were lucky (?) enough to be invited to feast with the ravenous King Louis XIV, what would you be expected to eat? . A. Well, here’s a peek at a Sun King party menu that was recreated by chefs at the Palace of Versailles in 2010. A

Q. What is in Jamaican Jerk Spice? . A. When people learn that I’m half Jamaican, conversations quickly turn to the beautiful Blue Mountains, the turquoise sea, reggae, fresh mangoes, hard dough bread, and jerk spice. Jerk chicken, jerk pork, jerk breadfruit. The origins of jerk spice are up for

Q. Wanted: a moment of peace away from the madness. A sensory distraction. What types of food are particularly comforting? A. I scream. You scream. We all scream. For friends, jobs, and freedoms lost to a vicious virus. For George Floyd and a long list of Americans hunted down for

Q. Why, for centuries, have people worked so hard to find truffles? . A. There is no easy peasy picking for this fungus. Citizens across France, Italy, Spain have sent pigs, dogs, foxes, even badgers to sniff  these ‘black diamonds’ out of hiding. Why? Plutarch thought truffles were baked by

Q. How and when did chocolate become so popular at weddings? A. Photo-engraved chocolate bars, DIY chocolate buffets, chocolate dipped meringues, pyramids, bacon, truffle diamonds. Every year, brides and grooms get more creative in how they work chocolate into their wedding days. And why not? If you’re going to incorporate one