about me
Hi, I’m Julie.
I set up this website, a sort of reality cookbook, in response to recipe requests for “real meals”, and frequent questions about what I eat at home. This is, openly and honestly, what I eat.
To be honest, I found the idea of writing a cookbook entirely of dinner recipes a bit uninspiring - partly because most of us don’t use cookbooks and recipes on a day to day basis, but mostly because in most households, on an average Wednesday night the dinnertime decision-making process has more to do with using up what’s about to go slimy/wilty/smelly in the fridge, reheating something or other, or pulling an old standby into service. Even though I’m a food writer, with a husband, 2 year old and inconsistent schedule, my mealtimes work much the same way.
That said, my career in the food world, coupled with a lifelong obsession with all there is to eat, allows me the opportunity to explore more culinary avenues than most people. As a food writer, author, stylist, journalist, food and nutrition columnist on CBC radio and co-host of a TV cooking show (It’s Just Food on Access and CLT) I’m often researching topics of interest, working with interesting people or trying out new things, all of which often influence what’s for dinner. This site is a sort of kitchen diary, addressing all the factors that govern what we eat - seasons, events, locales, participants, politics, kids, marketing. As the late, great food writer Laurie Colwin once said (or wrote, I’m not sure which came first), “It is not just the Great Works of mankind that make a culture. It is the daily things, like what people eat and how they serve it.”
So, welcome to my kitchen. It is located in Calgary, in the back of an almost 100 year old house in the extremely friendly neighborhood of Ramsay, and is shared with my husband, Mike, and 2 year old son, Willem.
If you’d like to email me, you can send messages to onesmartcook@hotmail.com.
January 09 2008 03:10 pm
Candice on 22 Jan 2008 at 6:10 pm #
Hi Julie,
your site is beautiful! Meg sent it to me yesterday and I’ve read almost every entry. I love love love to cook, and dinner is by far my favorite ‘assembly’. You’re super inspiring! The photos are lovely, your writing is great and the recipes are delightful (and in response to today’s entry …snobbery, i agree it’s difficult not to come across this way given the medium of food and any attention to its dtls. being bourgeois though you manage to strike a good balance btwn. salt-of-the-earth and sophisticated).
thank you! i love it.
Candice
p.s. (i used to work w/ your mum at the performing arts centre. She is a gem among women.)
Lloyd Bloomfield on 03 Feb 2008 at 3:09 pm #
Hello Julie,
Hello Julie Van Rosendaal,
I am wondering if you would be interested in having a display booth at the CTS Conference in Canmore. Please email me any questions or concerns and I will forward information to you.
Thank You
Lloyd