Cooking is love, it’s a celebration.
That is the message Irene Neal wishes to convey in her new cookbook Taste, a collection of her family’s favourite recipes.
Neal said she has had the idea for the book in her mind for many years, and now that she has retired from her many community roles such as president of the Regional Restaurant Association and chair on the Wellington County Board of Education, she is happy to see that vision come to fruition.
Patrons of Neal’s former restaurant, Country Lane Dining Room, will recognize some familiar favourites from its menu; however, Taste is more than just a cookbook. Many of the recipes are also family heirlooms, passed down to Neal from her mother and grandmother. Others have been gifts from friends, or souvenirs saved from her travels abroad. Together with stories, photos and anecdotes they come together to create a scrapbook of Neal’s life – and it’s a story you have to eat your way through.
“I think my book is going to be set apart from (mainstream) cookbooks simply because it is three generations of family cooking,” she says.
“It’s based on market garden produce, everything’s fresh and uncomplicated … (the recipes) don’t require a lot of fancy ingredients. They’re excellent, they’re delicious, but you don’t have to go and buy out the store to make them.”
Although today’s fast-paced lifestyles often have families spending dinner time in a drive-thru instead of around the table, Neal says the kitchen has maintained a central role in her family.
“When my grandkids come over they say, ‘okay Grandma, let’s make some cookies.’ They aren’t wanting to watch TV or anything like that,” she says.
“They’d rather spend the time with me in the kitchen making cookies and I’m really happy about that.”
For Neal, cooking and family are two inseparable concepts, coming together to create the central message in Taste. “To sit down with family and friends around a table with a good healthy meal and lots of heartwarming conversation, I think that’s the ultimate,” she says.
Neal says Taste is just a starting point.
“I have really got the bug now for sitting down and writing,” she says. “I think maybe this is just the beginning.”
A book launch for Taste will be held on May 10 at 2pm, at Roxanne’s Reflections on St. Andrew Street in Fergus.
