I am lucky to have great friends who are gourmands and love to cook. Please meet my guest bloggers who are happy to share their culinary delights with you.

Diana Son

Multi Talented Friend, Guest Chef and Artisan Baker

Diana is one of my very best friends. You could scarcely find a more kindhearted, generous, sensitive and worldly person. Diana makes me laugh all the time. She encourages and inspires me to prioritize fitness. We both LOVE to eat and sharing a meal with Diana is a highlight of my life. There is so much more I can say about this beautiful human, but “I love her” will have to suffice.

By day (and night to be honest :-)) I am a playwright and writer/producer for television. I have been an Executive Producer on shows like Genius: Aretha and 13 Reasons Why and has written for many series including Dirty John, The Alienist: Angel of Darkness, American Crime (not American Crime Story), Southland, Law & Order: Criminal Intent, The West Wing etc.

My play Stop Kiss premiered at the Public Theater oh so many years ago but continues to be produced at hundreds of theaters every year and has been translated into a dozen languages. My job is to get into the minds of all kinds of people and render them with humanity and empathy.

I got into sourdough bread baking 4 years ago after a challenging and frustrating work experience and I was attracted by the mastery required by the bread making process. There is no recipe that you can follow to a tee and produce the exact same product as the recipe writer. You have to figure out what works best for you to make the bread that you want to make.

I like to make bread when I’m on deadline because it forces me to step away from the computer every hour or so and I find that some of my best ideas occur when I’m working with dough!

Diana’s Posts:

Nutty Sourdough Bread

Saleem Baksh

Best Friend, Guest Chef and Gardener Extraordinaire

Saleem and I have been friends since we were 11 years old in Guyana. We met in high school and have been fast friends since. Here’s a bit of Saleem’s cooking and gardening story in his own words:

My home village is Mahaica on the East Coast of the Demerara River in Guyana. I started gardening when I was 7 years old. I planted a pumpkin vine in the backyard, harvested 7 pumpkins and sold them for $35. I’ve been hooked ever since.

I started helping my mother to cook when I was 8 years old. I loved being in the kitchen keeping her company and helping out By age 11, I was able to cook almost any Guyanese dish: Roti, curry, pepperpot, bread etc…

Fast forward to now: I live in Toronto, Canada and currently rent a plot of land measuring 120 ft x 25 ft from the city of Toronto. I plant many different types of berries, grapes, fruit trees (apple, peach, cherry), 23 different varieties of garlic, different varieties of shallots, and your standard vegetables.

I enjoy cooking with the vegetables I grow, okra being my favourite. I came up with a few okra recipes which I will be sharing. Okra fried rice, okra stewed in tomato sauce, garlic roasted okra.