ice breaker

Thanks Rhiannon for setting up this blog!!! I'm happy to share and looking forward to learn from you ladies!!!

As a little ice breaker, I thought I'd post a first post about why I love food so much. Feel free to do the same or break the ice in your own way :)

My dad worked in restaurants almost his whole life either as a server, Maitre d'hotel or Sous-chef, he once served the Queen in Moncton at the restaurant "Les Deux Fourchettes"! heehee. He taught me how to flambe (pretty much everything), how to open a bottle of wine without "bruising" the wine, and how to crack a lobster the Acadian way, with no utensils. Growing up we'd eat different foods, escargot for super, and sometimes me and my brothers would make a flambe steak dinners when my parents would come home from work. My mom taught me how to make a fancy meal using a minimum of three ingredients and spices. Being poor never stopped us once from having a great meal on the table.

My taste for food was based on a french cuisine tapestry. Sadly I suffered from an eating disorder for around 8 years as a teenager and didn't really appreciate anything about food. A major diss for food! But it's food that saved me from this curse (if you will...) when I lived in Toronto for two months in my third year college and was exposed to healing ingredients I'd never thought about before. Turmeric, fresh ginger, miso, edible flowers, and about a hundred spices I fell in love with. When I came back to Fredericton after my internship I cooked straight through the summer, filled my freezer, and my spice cupboards!!!

Years later I completely recovered from the ED and fell in love with the healing power of food. Anytime I've got shit to work out or love to share, food is the first place I look. What am I eating? How am I spending time with it? How am I making it? etc etc etc.

I was a vegetarian for many many years until I traveled through Europe for the first time and again was exposed to so many new dishes I couldn't resist. I tasted a Spanish chorizo that changed my taste buds forever.... I still mainly cook vegetarian foods, and love experimenting with weird candy recipes, stuff that I find adventurous, but I also appreciate culinary meat dishes and am keen to learn. If I could only get someone else to prepare the raw meats... ewe.

I think food is revolutionary and is at the foundation of our day to day, in economy, in society, in politics, in relationships, in communities, in culture, etc.

AHHHH FOOD!

xoxMireille