In My Mother’s Kitchen features Trish Magwood’s personal collection of easy and delicious family recipes. A short list of easy-to-find, high-quality and local ingredients determined which dishes made the cut. When the award-winning chef and caterer, TV host, wife and mother of three, author and lifestyle consultant visited Winnipeg to promote her new cookbook, Ciao! editor Gillian Leschasin sat down with Magwood at Prairie Ink Restaurant & Bakery.
Q: What kind of lifestyle are you promoting with your book?
A: Simple but uncompromising. . .We eat with our eyes first so a sense of simple style in terms of presentation. Good quality ingredients, pantry ingredients so it’s accessible but with a bit of flair and style to make it still inspirational.
Q: It can be hard for urban dwellers to grow their own vegetables or live the kind of lifestyle depicted in your book’s pictures. How does somebody in the city do that?
A: We have so much access now through grocery and through specialty food shops, we’re becoming more educated consumers. . . We can ask the right questions, shop at the right places and buy the right products.
Q: What are some of the trends you’ve noticed in terms of lifestyle and food coming together?
A: Healthful. People are really paying attention to the products they’re buying and the products they are putting in their kids’ mouths. They’re reading labels. We’re paying attention to where the food is coming from and changing from white to brown to whole grains. We’ve steered clear from trans fats and watch our sugar intake. We’re calorie counting and really changing what we’re stocking our fridges and pantries with within reason.
Q: What are some easy ways for home cooks to add some sparkle to their everyday meal?
A: Rely on staples and standards . . .But also branch out, go crazy and get something different, like an onza mango. Try citrus fruits as sort of a salad accompaniment. Don’t be afraid to try new cheeses and use them in pasta and with crackers. Open cookbooks to get inspired.
Q: There seems to a real mix of modern dishes and then some old-fashioned ones in your book you don’t see as often today. What was the thought process behind that?
A: “In My Mother’s Kitchen” can mean many things. It can be my mother’s voice, speaking of her mother. It could be me referring to my mom, which means food in the ‘70s. And it could be my children’s voice referring to food in our kitchen, which is modern day. The inspiration from my grandmother and my mom are some of my old-fashioned favourites, like the meatloaf.
Q: What are some of the timeless cooking tips that have been passed on from your mom and grandma that you still put into practice today?
A: Dessert is big in our family and my mom still uses it as a threat, “If you eat your dinner, you always get dessert.” And I don’t mean processed, prepared dessert, I mean home-baked goodies, so simple, like chocolate chip cookies and brownies. Just having that as a ritual in our life—that’s something they’ve passed down for sure. A love of cooking.