Canola Eat Well ambassador & advocate for responsible seafood.
Ned’s mission: to protect our oceans by advocating for sustainable, responsible seafood. When we learn together, we grow together and we are welcoming Ned into our #CanolaConnect community to learn more with him!
Ellen: Who is the most fascinating person I have met and why?
Ned: The most fascinating person I’ve met easily in my lifetime is the Dalai Lama. You know what I loved about him was, of course, a spiritual leader all about mental and physical health but he also loves delicious things.
Ellen: Who’s the most fascinating person you’ve ever cooked for?
Ned: The most fascinating person I’ve cooked for? That’s also easy. Princess Kate! I got to feed her geoduck – which of course is giant clam and she was all about it — it was pretty spectacular.
Ellen: If you were not cooking, what would you do for a living?
Ned: If I was not cooking – definitely, I would be a professional golfer.
Ellen: What do you cook at home that you never cook at the restaurant?
Ned: That’s pretty simple, my boys love macaroni and cheese!
Ellen: Besides a great knife, what’s your kitchen tool you can’t live without?
Ned: A tasting spoon! I can’t go anywhere without being able to taste my food. How do you know if it’s delicious if you don’t taste it?!
Ellen: Why do you use canola oil in your kitchen?
Ned: I use canola oil in the kitchen because it’s versatile, it’s neutral in flavour — of course, it’s grow by Canadian farmers – and, it makes my food delicious!
Ellen: What did you have for dinner last night?
Ned: What I had for dinner last night — believe it or not was —- pretzels!! My #1 favourite thing to eat!
Ellen: What did you want to be when you were growing up?
Ned: I wanted to be a professional golfer. But I was raised by 2 parents who were real estate agents and a grand father who was a surgeon. So, when I told him I wanted to be a chef, he looked at me like I had a hole in my head! Luckily for me what i said to him toward the end of his life was, “hey Gramp, we both use sharp knives”.
Ellen: What’s the most unusual place that your food has been served?
Ned: The most unusual place that my food has been served was actually this experience that just happened to me. I just came back from Vietnam – we went to the Mekong Delta and we were actually studying the shrimp farming industry. So i was in the middle of a mangrove forest, literally in the middle of nowhere, cooking shrimp that I had just harvested with the farmer. It was the most extraordinary experience I will never forget.
