More than Taste – Meet Andrea Buckett

We all need to eat. Whether you are buying ingredients from a grocery store, have a meal kit delivered or are hailing takeout, we’re all somehow bringing food into our homes. The current market disruption has shifted eating, cooking and takeout patterns. But do you have the skills and confidence to get in your kitchen and cook?

For Andrea Buckett, the approach is simple: it’s all about exploring global flavours and using Canadian ingredients to transform them into something that tastes great.

Andrea sees the distance growing between the farm and the table. There are more and more obstacles for Canadians in the kitchen, and the hurdles just keep coming. With her voice, she’s helping people get more comfortable cooking, whether it’s through her numerous TV appearances doing cooking demonstrations or her regular feature Friday Night Feed on Facebook Live.

Andrea has a lens on why we’re not making that connection when it comes to food. “The biggest barrier is that we’re being marketed to that cooking is so hard. It’s a tactic that meal delivery companies and food service apps use to sell more, we either can’t possibly find the time to cook or it’s just entirely too difficult to begin with.” She laments that we often feel like failures even before we step into the kitchen.

Andrea Buckett Heart Hands

That is why her crusade to get Canadians back in control of their kitchens is so important.

Andrea aims to make cooking approachable and easy, for anyone. Her stance is that home-cooking can be as good and delicious as takeout, and she’s become an expert on recreating restaurant-quality dishes at home, often weaving in her own spin on the classics, inspired by her diverse surroundings as a Chef in Toronto, or reinterpreting meals she’s had on holidays.

“It may not be the most authentic, or like your Nonna made it, but it’s going to be yours. It’s about the experience too. That tomato you had in Tuscany is not going to be the same as a tomato in the dead of winter in Toronto. That’s why food tastes so good on holiday!” When Andrea sets out to pay homage to a region or ingredient, it’s critical for her to inject that connection and creativity into each recipe. “Even taking just one single ingredient, like tamarind, and then being able to be creative with it and knowing the properties that come with it can be powerful.”

Nurturing people to explore cooking, to make that connection and learn some skills in the kitchen are of equal importance as saving money and the environment. Do more with less, in an easy way people can digest. Sign us up!

Eat Well…Libby Roach

 

Libby is a food editor at auburnlane.com and photographer based out of Toronto, ON.

Her creative passion lies in weaving stories into photographs and creating images that are engaging.

Libby attended Canola Harvest Camp in 2018 and you will want to follow her on the gram @cookiespi.

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