food, culture, photography

Things are going to start looking a little different around here. If you browse through the blog, you’ll notice most of the pics disappearing, bit by bit. I’m taking most of them down, slowly replacing old shots with new ones. When I started Gratinée, my focus was on the writing; the photography was an afterthought. [...]

Last week I booked a flight to Europe. I mentioned in my last post that I will be visiting France for the first time in five years, but I will actually be spending most of my vacation abroad in Serbia, staying at my parents’ home in a village just outside of Novi Sad. I have [...]

Nothing would be more tiresome than eating and drinking if God had not made them a pleasure as well as a necessity.  ~Voltaire   With Easter around the corner, I thought I’d pull out a dessert recipe I developed last year for Framework Magazine, a really cool lifestyle magazine that I love–especially since it’s based here [...]

Today was one of those days where I was hopeful that this year we’ll actually have a spring. We’ve had a few beautiful days in March, breaking up some of the seemingly endless rain and wind. Even when the air is brisk, if the sun is out I feel it in my body, with that [...]

I always drop the ball when it comes to posting recipes for those special occasions. Seldom do I manage Valentines posts or Thanksgiving recipes. Somehow when bloggers worldwide are putting up their tried-and-true Christmas recipes, I can’t get my act together. But I couldn’t let the fourth anniversary of my blog pass by without posting [...]

It’s hard to believe but four years ago I started this blog. It’s crazy how fast times go and how life has changed. Four years ago I was freelancing as a food writer while I searched for a new career. A year after I became a career counsellor, I decided that what I really wanted [...]

I baked a cake last week. It had been awhile. When considering dessert, I’m much more inclined to go for a French pastry, like a croissant or lemon tart. Something small and self contained, slowly enjoyed but quickly forgotten. A whole cake is a dangerous thing to have around when there is no one but [...]

  Last weekend I was fortunate enough to attend an exclusive tasting event with Chef Alex Chen before he left for Lyon, France to participate in the Bocuse d’Or, the world’s most prestigious culinary competition. Chef Chen originally hails from Vancouver and is now the Culinary Architect for Moxie’s Grill. However, he has spent much [...]

I’m back this weekend with a couple more Italian recipes, which I’m really digging again. I go through phases, eating a lot of a certain dish or cuisine until I’m sick of it. I’m definitely back in the pasta phase. And eating a lot of Caprese salad, even though tomatoes are out of season. This [...]

One of my favourite cuisines to cook and eat is Italian food and my go-to authority on the subject is Marcella Hazan and her Essentials of Classic Italian Cooking. What Mastering the Art of French Cooking did to bring French food into the American kitchen, Hazan’s Essentials did for Italian food, capturing its true essence [...]