“Part of food coverage, by me or another news outlet, is hopefully facilitating some media literacy and helping people understand that there are payments, there are influencers taking money. Understanding there is also media that doesn’t do that and being able to distinguish between the two. That’s why I have The Food Section’s ethics code posted on its front page. This stuff is important for when people start asking not only how is their food reporter reporting, but how is all media coming together? It’s a nice way to get people into this news and media ecosystem. ” — Hanna Raskin News media ..read more

“When I was thinking about the language around the food I was creating in the cookbook, I had to keep in mind that perspective as someone with a history of an eating disorder: I’m a little more conscious to verbiage when it comes to how we talk about food. I really wanted to stay away from things like “oh this is clean” ... Language can really reframe the way that you think about food, and so instead, it’s “oh this is very simple, whole food ingredient recipe, that’s easy to make” and making sure there’s no emphasis on diet or skinny this/that. That was really important to me. ” — Remy Morimo ..read more

“The strength is in the diversity we have. The Depanneur, by inviting all these different people in, really became a mirror of the remarkable diversity of the city. And so that’s one of the things I’m proud of in the book. It’s going out with cooks from 80 different countries in one book. That speaks to the food culture of Toronto more than any one particular kind of dish.” — Len Senater When I think of a quintessentially Torontonian food experience, I tend to think of The Depanneur. Founded in 2011, The Depanneur was a tiny old corner store that transformed into a place where interesting foo ..read more

Anytime I get to talk about water and seafood on this show feels like a really special week for me, as I have spent most of my life thinking about how we connect with or form relationships around water. My guest, Dr. Jayson M. Porter, this week takes a really nuanced approach to this through a recent article he wrote called Fish Hacks for Distillations, which is a magazine and podcast that covers science’s historical impact on culture and society. In his article, he looks at a fish called porgy, which has often been dismissed as a “trash fish” but holds an important anchor in Black maritime ..read more

Often when we make our grocery runs, time and money are on our mind – which can quickly lead to following a stringent list of household classics and crowd pleasers. But sometimes, in the corner of your eye, you might catch a new to you vegetable and wonder what the heck it is, or how it works. My guest today, Becky Selengut, is here to provide knowledge and humour in getting to know these misunderstood vegetables more. Becky is a chef, author, instructor, and podcaster based in Seattle, and her latest cookbook is Misunderstood Vegetables: How to Fall in Love with Sunchokes, Rutabaga, Eggpla ..read more

We’ve spoken a bit this season about the drug poisoning crisis and how breweries can work to support their neighbours using substances, but with this affecting so many across Canada, I wanted to come back to this topic with some more dimensions. My guest this week is Danielle English, who’s on to share more about harm reduction strategies and unpack the misconceptions and stigma that surround drug use and poverty.  Danielle is a harm reduction and mental health advocate who comes from a background of lived and living experience. She does grass roots activism and lobbies for policy chang ..read more

The idea of fish industry tends to feel big, vague, and hyper-masculine – it’s easy to think of tales of fisherman and ideals of masculinity. But as my guest this week shares, there are so many complexities to how gender, fishing, and identities intersect.  My guest this week is Dr. María L. Cruz-Torres. She is an Associate Professor in the School of Transborder Studies at Arizona State University and a cultural anthropologist whose areas of teaching and research include: political ecology; impact of globalization upon local communities and households; gender and work; sustainability an ..read more

Across social media and TV advertisements, drugs like Ozempic and Wegovy have risen in recent years and are quickly associated with weight loss and celebrity lifestyles. Yet semaglutide drugs (which includes Ozempic and Wegovy) are intended originally as a drug for use by adults with type 2 diabetes, to manage blood sugar levels along with diet and exercise. With the shifts towards weight loss, Ozempic has become a powerful representation of our relationships with food, and the stories of how its used and experienced by type 2 diabetics are not always at the forefront. My guest today, Emily ..read more

When you think about the concept of a TV dinner, there is a wash of nostalgia that can takeover how you remember the tastes and functions of the dinner itself. But the story of how these TV dinners came to our North American freezers is a fascinating and fun exploration into a lot of the social and technological progress of the 20th century.   My guest today is here to unbox the TV dinner, Jeff Swystun. Jeff is a globally respected branding expert and author. He is the former Chief Marketing Officer for Interbrand and Chief Communications Officer at DDB Worldwide. He has ghostwritt ..read more

This is the first episode back after the holiday break, so I hope that this finds you rested, stuffed, and balancing all the new year expectations as well as you can be!   For today’s show, I am chatting with chef Ruben Rodriguez, who is a Galcian-born chef and restauranteur of Nai Restaurant Group. Ruben immigrated to New Jersey with his family when he was 11 years old and found inspiration by the Galician food traditions he grew up with. This led to him eventually opening his own first Spanish tapas restaurant, Nai in 2010 in New York City’s East Village. Nai means “mom” in Galic ..read more