I was born in rural eastern Canada and grew up on home-made bread, unpasteurized milk, and organic vegetables in a house built by my great-grandfather. Despite the exasperating kitchen, I loved cooking from a young age. I won first prize at a fair when I was six for my “chocolate cake with peanut butter icing”, and a few years later I pulled off my first multi-course dinner for my family: I got my little brother to serve it (wearing a tea-cozy on his head and my grandmother’s high-heeled shoes) and every dish on the menu contained cheese.

Languages were another passion from early on. I was in a French school programme from age twelve and later went to university in Montréal. As soon as I finished my degree, I bought a one-way ticket to Paris, where I spent a month going from pastry shop to pastry shop devouring lemon tarts. One day, I happened upon the famous kitchen shop, Dehillerin, and I was so awe-struck you’d think I’d found Atlantis.

From Paris, I went to Germany for a year to study German while working as an au pair. I became obsessed with German baking, especially breads (those pretzels!). Then, I travelled for a couple of years, and finally realizing I should probably make something of myself, went to Toronto for a degree in linguistics, and ultimately to the UK for a masters at the London School of Economics. At the end of that year in London, I took all of my textbooks to a second-hand bookshop and traded them in for cookbooks, which I dragged back in crates across the Atlantic. And yet, the idea of a career in food never crossed my mind. I’d always dreamt I’d become a diplomat, but a light went on when my grandmother pointed out, “You are the most undiplomatic person I know.” (Takes one to know one.)

My career began, instead, in print and broadcast journalism, then switched briefly to public relations. The corporate environment was not for me: only a year and half into it I was climbing the walls, so I ran away to cooking school in Vancouver. That culinary degree led me to Napa, California where I worked for a wine expert. Then, while attending a food writers’ conference, I met cookbook author and founder of Ecole de Cuisine La Varenne in Burgundy, Anne Willan. She hired me to move to France to work on cookbooks with her, and to help run her school (after an intensive crash course in classic French cooking and endless grunt work). I stayed in France for seven years, working closely with Anne, and this is where I learned so much about French food and came to love it. (We recently shot a one-hour television special at the château with Anne, so watch for it this spring on Food Network!)

When I wasn’t in Burgundy I lived in Paris, where I wrote my first cookbook, French Food at Home (HarperCollins, 2003), and worked as a freelancer. I lived and breathed French food and all I wanted to do was talk about it. My writing appeared in Gastronomica, Salon.com, Vogue Entertaining and Travel, Gourmet Magazine, The Times of London, The Wine Journal, and Flare Magazine. During those years, I also travelled throughout France and researched French food (you can imagine how strenuous that was). I apprenticed in starred restaurants, pursued more wine studies, and worked occasionally as a private cook.

In 2005, I came back to Canada, and almost immediately met Johanna Eliot, the producer of French Food at Home. Exactly one year later (to the day!), we were having a wrap party for season one of “French Food at Home”.  We're now developing our third season (with season two airing this spring), and I am writing a new cookbook, whilst continuing to live like a gypsy, partly in Canada and partly in Europe.  One of my New Year's resolutions for this year was "to declare home".  So far...um...no signs of that happening, but I'll keep you posted.