Don Genova's Blog

Food and Travel Writing Classes Start Again Soon!

Posted on January 10, 2012 by Don Genova

Mr. Underwood

You don’t need to have made a New Year’s resolution to ‘become a writer’ to sign up for my food writing and travel writing classes, which start in just a few weeks. All you need is a burning desire to share your experiences in the world of food or travel; I show you how to do the rest.

In-person courses take place at the UBC Point Grey campus starting January 30th. On Monday nights it’s Food Writing, Tuesday nights, Travel Writing. Each course lasts for 8 weeks, with no classes the week of February 20th. If you can’t make the commitment to be there at the same time every week, you can sign up for the 100% online courses instead, which start the same week. To enroll in any of the courses go to this page on the UBC Writing Centre website.

But I guess you’re wondering what you’re in for if you sign up… Quite simply: all the basic things you need to know to create and sell a story. Notice I said ‘sell’. There are still lots of opportunities to have your work published in print or online and make some money doing it. So, in each course I spend some time teaching you about generating story ideas for publications you’ve researched, as well as showing you how to approach editors with a query letter to convince them to hire you. From there, I go on to help you shape your story and bring your experiences alive for your potential readers.

Food students will also learn how to write restaurant reviews and construct recipes in a proper format. Travel students will write about how to spend a weekend in their favourite destination, photography tips and the pros and cons of scoring some free travel. Both online and in-person students get personalized feedback from me on all of your assignments. Online students will have 1-2 opportunities to take part in live text chats with me and the whole class and more interaction is possible in online discussion forums.

What’s expected of you? Every week there will be articles to read that illustrate my lectures/lecture notes. You’ll be asked to research a publication for which you’d like to write and come up with story ideas appropriate to that publication. All students will write a query letter aimed at selling their ideas and then write a story based on their successful query. I act as your ‘editor’ throughout the process so you can get a sense of what it would be like to be freelance writer in the real world.

Each course does cover blogging as a way to get published, but if you want a real intense shot of learning how to construct your blog on WordPress and how to populate it with great content join WordPress expert Tris Hussey and me on Saturday, March 10th for ‘Building and Promoting a Food Blog‘. This day-long session (BYOL – Bring Your Own Laptop) will have you up and blogging by 5pm!

If you have any questions about any of these courses feel free to send me an email at don@dongenova.com. Hope to see you in a classroom or online soon!

Posted in Announcements, Classes | Tagged blogging, food writing, freelance writing, travel writing | Leave a comment

Food Matters – 2012 Lookahead

Posted on January 4, 2012 by Don Genova

The Road Well Taken

The beginning of the New Year is usually a time for people to try going on diets, or at least trying to be a little more conscious about what they eat after the holiday excess. If you also want to put a little more ‘green’ in your diet by eating in a more sustainable fashion for the planet, you need to tread carefully. There are many obstacles, though, to taking a more sustainable route to your shopping and eating:

A lot of it comes in the form of advertising. When food producers and manufacturers started to realize that people were getting on the local, sustainable bandwagon when it came to their food purchases, they started to take advantage of that in a couple of ways. When it comes to advertising you will note the increased use of the words, ‘natural’, ‘artisan’, and ‘local’, or anything else that will give you a feel-good jolt when buying their product. I’ve seen a couple of excerpts from a new advertising campaign coming from McDonald’s that feature some of the ‘regular folk’ farmers who grow potatoes or ranch cattle that turn up as McDonald’s fries and hamburgers. Of course it doesn’t tell you the entire story of what happens to the cattle once they leave the ranch or exactly how those potatoes are grown. And just ask yourself what it really means when you buy Wendy’s ‘natural cut’ fries?

The corporate world goes deeper into the idea of getting your dollars you want to spend on sustainable foods by purchasing or taking over smaller, successful, organic companies. For example, chocolate giant Cadbury bought Green and Black Organic Chocolate in 2005, Coke owns Odwalla Juices and Pepsi owns Naked Juice. They don’t necessarily make clear the ownership on their labels, so if you have a problem with large companies that produce non-sustainable products you might be contributing to their bottom line even if you think you are buying from a smaller, organic company. The other problem with this is that it makes it very difficult for those small companies who have to compete head to head with the large companies on grocery store shelves. So the economies of scale of production quite often means that one organic chocolate bar from a large global company will cost a dollar or two less than one from a local producer, and if people vote with their wallets instead of their hearts that is bad news for the local producer.

When it comes to less-manufactured foods like fresh fruit and produce that’s a tricky situation as well. The demand for organic produce has increased so much that in certain areas of Mexico, for example, there are organic farms producing tomatoes for our winter consumption that are putting a strain on the local water tables. The tomatoes pass the USDA organic standards, but they are kind of skirting around the issue of true agricultural sustainability. More and more organic produce is also coming out of China, which cuts local farmers out of the loop and puts you very far away from being to ask questions about exactly how those fruits and vegetables are being produced.

There is a silver lining when production it is done right. An Economist magazine article published last year cited some important strides in sustainability being made in emerging world economies:
“Manila Water, a utility in the Philippines, reduced the amount of water it was losing to wastage and illegal tapping by 50 per cent over the past decade by making water affordable for the poor. A Chinese aquaculture company recycles uneaten fish feed to fertilise crops. An Egyptian food producer set itself the task of reclaiming desert land through organic farming. A Costa Rican food and drink company adopted tough standards for the amount of water it uses to produce drinks.”

What can you do you want to eat more sustainably in 2012? Get out there and buy local. We still have Winter Farmer’s Markets on the go, there is one this Saturday in Victoria in Market Square. In the winter it is still possible to find free range eggs, organic or pasture-fed chicken and turkey, pork and beef, all from local farmers. Plan in advance to freeze or preserve the upcoming harvest. I was so happy over the holidays to pull out some of my peach preserves and blend them into drinks, top my oatmeal with a compote I had frozen earlier this year, and give gifts like my Paradise Jelly…made from quince from my tree, apples from my neighbour’s orchard, and cranberries from a farm up island in Yellow Point. And finally, start asking more questions about where your food comes from.

Resources:

The McDonald’s Feel-Good Video

Wendy’s New “Natural” Fries Caught Using Chemical Stew

Organic Agriculture May Be Outgrowing Its Ideals

Is Whole Foods Wholesome? The dark secrets of the organic-food movement.

Wal-Mart’s Organic Offensive

Green growth: Some emerging-world companies are combining growth with greenery

Bill C-474, Triffids, and the genetically modified / engineered food debate we’re NOT having

Organic food and drink sales slump

Organic Industry Structure

How Green Is Your Eco-Label? (aquaculture)

And the two free Smartphone apps I talked about yesterday that I downloaded onto my iPhone are ‘True Food’ and ‘Good Guide’. Both are U.S.-based, so while they provide some information they don’t have full details on Canadian products. ‘True Food’ helps you determine which food products are GMOs, and the Good Guide is supposed to let you scan UPC codes with the camera in your phone and then reveal ratings on their health, environmental and social performance. Too bad it doesn’t have that large a database and it doesn’t seem to include any Canadian products.

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Food Matters – Cookbook Gifts 2011

Posted on December 21, 2011 by Don Genova

Today on Food Matters I revealed my suggestions for cookbooks as gifts for the 2011 holiday season. But it’s very important to match the cookbook to the cook. You don’t give a book that has complicated recipes in it to a beginner, and you don’t give someone who already has 300 cookbooks the Dummy’s Guide to Boiling Water.

Michael Smith

I started with someone who is known for producing cookbooks that are for the relatively inexperienced home cook. The latest from Chef at Home, Chef at Large, and Food Network star Michael Smith is called Chef Michael Smith’s Kitchen, in which he has put together one hundred of his all-time favourite recipes that he makes at home on a regular basis. No fancy ingredients, not too many fancy methods and a photo for every recipe.

Mark McEwan

If you are looking for a book with just a little more technique, but still fairly easy recipes to make in the Italian fashion, check out Mark McEwan’s Fabbrica. McEwan is the chef behind quite the culinary empire in Toronto, with Fabbrica being his latest restaurant, what he describes as a casual but elegant, authentic Italian eatery. As he built the restaurant he built his collection of Italian recipes, so decided to put all those together in a cookbook. He takes pride in both the restaurant and the cookbook for being authentic Italian, and says you can learn how to do it, too.

Jennifer McLagan

The recipes in this next book aren’t necessarily ones that require a lot of skill but it’s the ingredients that are the challenging part. This book is called Odd Bits, How To Cook The Rest of the Animal, by Jennifer McLagan. Jennifer had real hits with her previous books, Fat, and Bones, and since she’s taken care of those underused parts of animals, the Odd Bits was everything else left over. So, liver, tongue, heart, kidney, all the stuff many people shudder at just at the thought of eating it, but she takes it on in an effort to stop us from wasting an animal we’ve raised to eat and to get us new flavour sensations. This book is also full of fascinating facts about offal and if the person who you’re thinking about giving this book to already goes just to butcher shops instead of supermarket meat counters they would probably like to see this under the Christmas tree.

Natalie MacLean

The perfect wine read for this year is Ottawa-based wine writer Natalie McLean’s second book, Unquenchable, A Tipsy Quest for the World’s Best Bargain Wines. For this book Natalie traveled the world to find bargains, we’re talking well under 20 dollars a bottle for the most part here…because there is a lot of wine out there we can experience at lower prices that is just as good or even better than the higher-priced stuff.

Other books you can consider as great gifts for this year:

Jacques Pepin: The Essential Pepin

Nigel Slater: Tender, Volume II

Jamie Oliver: Jamie Oliver’s Food Escapes

Coleman Andrews: The Country Cooking of Italy

Edward Behr: The Art of Eating

Becky Selengut: Good Fish

Ottolenghi: Plenty

My Last Supper – The Next Course

While researching this item it was a real pleasure to be able to interview Jennifer McLagan, Natalie MacLean, Michael Smith and Mark McEwan. The entire interviews cover much more detail about their books and other facets of their lives than I had time to mention on the show today, so if you’d like to hear more from them, just click on the files below to listen.

Don Genova Interviews Natalie MacLean

Don Genova Interviews Michael Smith

Don Genova Interviews and Mark McEwan

Don Genova Interviews Jennifer McLagan

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Food Matters – Ethical Holiday Gifts

Posted on December 14, 2011 by Don Genova

World Vision

We all know that the holiday season can be a time of excess. We consume an awful lot of food and drink this time of year, perhaps without thinking about those less fortunate. Today on Food Matters, I talked with All Points West host Jo-Ann Roberts about a few ideas for gifts that keep on giving in the world of food that have the added bonus of being ethical and sustainable. One of the first places I tell people to visit is World Vision Canada. World Vision is Canada’s largest private relief and development agency. The Canadian arm of the charity goes all the way back to 1957 and they do a great job of helping you give gifts in someone’s name that aren’t simple relief, but a way of helping people climb out of hunger and poverty on a more permanent basis.

Get your hands on a World Vision Christmas catalogue or again, go to world vision dot ca and click on Gift Catalogue, and if you’re interested in these long-term type of gifts click specifically on ‘animals’ or ‘hunger’. When you click on animals you will find quite a few listings for live farm animals you can donate to families in need around the world. For example, you can give $100 and purchase a goat and two chickens for a family in need. The chickens, as they multiply, provide eggs to eat and to sell if there are excess, as well as a source of meat.

A dairy goat can provide up to 16 cups of milk a day which is loaded with protein and minerals and is easy to digest. And the animals also provide a source of manure that is used to fertilize crops, so it creates a very sustainable circle of life for those who need a way to take care of themselves.

The menagerie of animals available has expanded since the last time I checked the catalog. You can purchase ducks, rabbits, sheep, pigs, donkeys, alpacas, a dairy cow, even a beehive and bees. Prices range from 25 dollars all the way up to filling a farmyard or stable with up to 28 animals for $2000, which can be a great gift that your office or sports group folks could all chip into.

This is not just a random distribution of charity. Along with the animals comes training. Especially for something like a beehive with which you need some specialized training in how to handle the bees and harvest the honey. World Vision wants these gifts to help families and villages with sustainable development so they can break out of the cycle of poverty and start providing a future for the children in the community. Part of helping out from here can also be contributing to clean water projects, foot pumps that help people irrigate their crops, and packages of seeds and tools to help grow and harvest more food.

Share Organics

If you are thinking about giving one large family gift instead of individual gifts, why not the gift of a share in a Community Supported Agriculture program? CSA’s can even be called ‘trendy’ now, and some farms even have a waiting list for people who want to join. I’ve talked about a couple of them in the past on the show, but CSA’s run like this: You pay a farmer up front, and this is a great time of year for them to have some money coming in, and then during harvest season you either pick up or have delivered a box of the best produce they have to offer that week which is a share of what is being produced at the farm. It’s a great way to increase your vegetable and fruit intake, and at the same time you’re helping a farmer stay in business and have a guaranteed source of income for theyear.

And if you can’t get access to a CSA, why not consider an organic grocery delivery service like Share Organics, which delivers, mostly by bicycle, to many communities on South Vancouver Island including Victoria and Langford. They use as much as possible Vancouver Island products to put in your box.

Denman Island Chocolate

For stocking stuffers, I like to look local producers to help keep them in business and either fair trade or organic. Denman Island Chocolate has some great chocolate Santas available this time of year, along with the regular nine different varieties of chocolate bar. You could always introduce a friend to some fair trade, organic coffee from Salt Spring Coffee and why not some Vancouver Island Salt, produced in the Cowichan Valley? Giving a gift basket stuffed with local ingredients is a great way to say I care.

I will be back next week with my last minute cookbook suggestions and don’t forget our contest is still running for that brand new KitchenAid food processor. To enter the contest, which has a deadline of December 19th, go to this post and scroll down to the comments section to submit your entry.

To learn more about chocolate bar stocking stuffers, many of which are fair-trade and/or organic, you can listen to my conversation with Jed Grieve about the 70-bar selection of chocolate available at Cook Culture in Victoria. Jed starts off by talking about Victoria chef David Mincey, who is responsible for bringing all this wonderful chocolate to Canada.

Don Genova and Jed Grieve Talk Chocolate

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Food Matters – Kitchen Gear Gifts 2011

Posted on December 7, 2011 by Don Genova

Miyabi Knife

****To enter the KitchenAid food processor contest scroll to the bottom of the page and post your entry in the Comments section*****

With Christmas only a couple of weeks away some good advice is always welcome when it comes to gift giving, especially in an area where there are so many choices, like the kitchen. On Food Matters on All Points West this afternoon I featured a pile of kitchen gadgets and cookware, and a chance for you to win a valuable appliance that will look right at home on your countertop.

Cuisipro Grater

A good cook can cook in any kitchen with any kind of equipment, but why should you have to when there are so many good things out there for you to take advantage of. Now, I’m not talking about those gadgets that purport to make miracles in the kitchen and then sit unused in your junk drawer. I’m talking quality stuff that in some cases will last you a lifetime and may even be passed down to your children…this year I took a tour of Cook Culture in Victoria with owner Jed Grieve. I’ve been teaching cooking classes there for the past year, and it’s a perfect spot to keep up with all the trends in cookware. Here are some of the highlights, starting off with a microplane box grater from a company named Cuisipro. Jed says this Accutec line is laser cut from stainless steel and has been improved by making the body all meta; before it had plastic sides which tended to crack over time. And there’s a great little removable pinch bowl that your food gathers in at the bottom of the grater.

From laser-cut stainless steel we go to something a little more organic…

Boos Board

Wood and paper! This is one of those things that we take for granted, but when you get something good you wonder why you never had it before. So I brought in two different cutting boards, one made of wood that you shouldn’t put in your dishwasher and one that you can that is actually made of paper.
Jed: “Boos Boards are made of Eastern hard rock maple…high quality, and long lasting.

Epicurean Cutting Board

The other company is Epicurean. This is pressed paper mixed with a food safe epoxy that is durable and dishwasher safe. They replace the plastic boards.” Jed told me everyone went to plastic boards in the 80’s and 90’s because we thought wood actually promoted the growth of bacteria. But now we know that wood actually can limit bacterial growth…and the plastic boards are harder on your knife edges than wood and paper.

Morimoto Miyabi

If your giftee likes sharp knives and is a fan of Iron Chef America or even the original Iron Chef Japan then you will have to put this in their Christmas box. You’re holding the Morimoto edition of a new line of knives called Miyabi from Henckels. For Iron Chef fans Masaharu Morimoto is one of the Kitchen Stadium chefs and this line of knives was designed with his help. Jed says these knives are a good entry by the German company Henckels into a Japanese-inspired knife: “Instead of starting from scratch Henckels bought a well-established Japanese knife company and came out with a line of knives that matches Japanese blades with Western-style riveted handles. The blades are made from 64 layers of steel for added flexibility and a tremendous cut.” This is a knife that is a bit of a splurge at $200, but it makes a great gift for someone just starting out in the kitchen or someone who has a whole batch of knives that aren’t good for anything but prying the lid off a jar of pickles. Will last forever with a high-quality handle and blade.

Other kinds of durable kitchen goods that are hot this year include Staub enamelled cast iron cookware, cast iron fry pan, Bamix hand blender, pizza and bread stones, pans and knives… My entire conversation I had with Jed is here for you to listen to as an mp3:

Don Genova interviews Jed Grieve

Now the really fun part…a recipe swap with a really great prize for one lucky listener….

The KitchenAid folks in Toronto have offered up one of their brand new models of food processor, the 13-cup model that retails for about Four Hundred Dollars! All you have to do to qualify to win is to post one of your Holiday Season recipes in the comments on this blog entry which calls for the use of a food processor in the method.. Deadline is December 19th. We will announce the winner on my Food Matters column of December 21st, so it will be an early Christmas gift for one of you. There are only two rules…one, you must be a resident of Canada, and two, if the recipe is not your own, please credit the source when you enter it. Uncredited recipes will NOT be eligible for the prize.

Posted in Contests, Food Matters | 19 Comments

Food Matters – Artisan Edibles Ideas for Holiday Entertaining

Posted on November 30, 2011 by Don Genova

Holiday Time!

It’s a time of year when all the cookbooks get pulled off of the shelves, family favourites are clamoured for and we say, ‘just one more piece of fruitcake won’t hurt, right?’ Food plays a huge role in the holidays, and I think you should put local products on stage with your Christmas pageantry.

Every good cook knows that preparing ahead of the big meals is key, and I guess I could argue that I start preparing in the summer and fall when I put up my preserves that will help me impress my guests at this time of year. But I know not everyone has my zeal for canning or freezing, so I have some suggestions that will help you showcase local products over the next few weeks with some easy recipes to get them on the table, as they say, with no muss and no fuss. Well, maybe a little bit of muss…

Cory Pelan at The Whole Beast

First I want you to consider your sources…sources which I’ll put on my blog, and people can feel free to recommend their own as well, since I’m sure there are some I’m not aware of.

– You can really shine just by putting good bread on the table, so make sure you check out your local bakery, and I’m happy to say there are a growing number of artisanal bakeries on Vancouver Island and the Gulf Islands. Order ahead if you can and make sure you know their opening and closing hours over the holidays.

– Butcher shops and charcuterie shops. This is really where you want to go if you want high quality meats and the advice to go along with it. Think about the great charcuterie places I’ve featured on this blog before like the Whole Beast Artisan Salumeria and Markt Artisan Deli in Nanaimo. These are people who can help you put together an amazing cured meat or pate platter complete with pickles and other condiments that go well.

Hilary Abbott

– Cheesemakers: We have excellent Island cheesemakers. Hilary’s here in Victoria and Cowichan Bay, Little Qualicum Cheeseworks and Natural Pastures from up Island, Saltspring Island Cheese and Moonstruck Organic Cheese from Salt Spring Island.
– Fishmongers, some good shops in Victoria, Cowichan Bay, Duncan, Nanaimo and more. This is where it really pays to phone ahead and get your orders in early because the seafood supply can be limited. Try Cowichan Bay Seafood in Cowichan Bay, Mad Dog Crabs in Duncan, or Finest At Sea in Victoria.

Seared Tuna and White Beans

Now for some recipes: One of the dishes I made for Jo-Ann Roberts on All Points West yesterday was an albacore tuna loin brushed with olive oil, then sprinkled with Organic Fair Old Bay Spice, and seared quickly on all sides in a hot cast iron fry pay. You can download the recipe in Word format by clicking here. How about the recipe for Fanny Bay oysters and preserved lemon aioli? Click here for that one. Get your preserved lemons at Stage Small Plates Wine Bar or various specialty shops in and around Victoria. For the hazelnut meringue recipe, try this one from the Country Living website. All I did was to replace the plum topping you’ll see in the recipe with some Deacon Vale Farm preserves. I’d love to hear from you about where you purchase your artisan food products on Vancouver Island, the Gulf Islands and the Sunshine Coast, just enter a comment below. And be sure to tune in next week to All Points West, when on Food Matters, just after the 4:30 news on Wednesday, Dec. 7th, we launch a contest with a grand prize of a brand new KitchenAid food processor!

Posted in Food Matters | Tagged Albacore Tuna, Artisan Foods, Don Genova, Food Matters, Hazelnut Meringue, Holiday Entertaining, Preserved Lemons | Leave a comment