Local students are getting the chance to cook with a pro.
On Nov. 7, students of Centre Wellington District High School’s Food School will be cooking with visiting chef and food writer dee Hobsbawn-Smith.
Hobsbawn-Smith, a former Calgary chef and food writer, now living near Saskatoon, will be in the area for a reading and dinner with Slow Food Wellington County at the Desert Rose Cafe in Elora that night.
Christopher Jess, one of two chef-instructors at the Food School and also leader of the local Show Food convivium, invited her to talk to his students and help them make lunch.
Hobsbawn-Smith was president of the convivium in Calgary and recently helped found and now leads a group in Saskatoon.
With several cookbooks and other food-related books behind her, Hobsbawn-Smith recently published her first book of poetry, wildness rushing in.
She’s in Ontario on a tour to promote the book, with readings in Toronto, Hamilton and Guelph.
Along the way, she’s visiting two Slow Food convivums to read from her book Foodshed, an Edible Alberta Alphabet.
Foodshed won the culinary book award at the High Plains Book Awards in Montana (for books from the Canadian prairies and American northwest). Foodshed also was named the top Canadian English-language food literature book at the 2013 Gourmand World Cookbook Awards.
According to food writer and Elora resident Anita Stewart, Foodshed “is a great book, as free-form and unconventional as the author herself.”
Added the Globe and Mail, “Foodshed is a rich encyclopedia of facts, farm-gate lore and original recipes.”
Hobsbawn-Smith has taught many adults and kids, to cook, and is looking forward to rolling up her sleeves and talking turkey with the CWDHS students. “Teenage cooks are always a pleasure to share a kitchen with,”
Hobsbawn-Smith says, “Their energy level is so high, their enthusiasm so contagious. And they are the chefs and cooks of tomorrow.”
