Food for Thought – Winnipeg Free Press

A team effort

2 minute read Tuesday, Aug. 14, 2018

A 24-hour project is a huge undertaking. Before July 13 arrived, our staff spent many hours arranging and organizing who was going where at what time, and after July 13 even more hours of editing, designing and layout were required to bring the project to fruition.

Here's a look at the cooks who had a spoon in this project's pot.

Writers

Jason Bell

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Savour

Downtown 3 minute read Preview

Savour

Downtown 3 minute read Friday, Aug. 10, 2018

It's two hours before office workers will begin savouring their lunch-time meal at The Merchant Kitchen, but executive chef Jesse Friesen and his staff are already kicking it into high gear.

"It’s a very important time in the day, because you’ve had enough time in the morning to get a lot done," Friesen explains. "But now the clock is ticking for the door to be open so there are a lot of tasks that have been started, but they now need to be completed before we open; there’s a million things happening all at once."

The staff — there’s usually four or five of them in the morning — have a daily routine following a plan put in place by Friesen at the Donald Street restaurant next door to the Alt Hotel.

"It’s a big-picture plan, so they know what needs to be done,” he says.

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Friday, Aug. 10, 2018

Opening line cook Ian Shapira (right) prepares cilantro for the day while executive chef Jesse Friesen (left) starts organizing for the opening in an hour.

Habit

Chalmers 3 minute read Preview

Habit

Chalmers 3 minute read Friday, Aug. 10, 2018

Writer Christopher Hitchens used to say you can't make old friends, so hang onto the ones you have.

It's like that with small neighbourhood diners. There are only a few left, so patronize the one you've got before they're gone.

Big Rick's Hot Rod Diner on Henderson Highway is such a place.

"It's kind of sad all the places that have disappeared. There used to be from six to eight in the neighbourhood. Now I'm the last one standing," says owner-chef Rick Wareham.

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Friday, Aug. 10, 2018

Owner Rick Wareham serves an order shortly after opening at 8 a.m.

Nurturing

River East 3 minute read Preview

Nurturing

River East 3 minute read Friday, Aug. 10, 2018

It's a sea of green with splashes of brilliant colours and garden markers beginning at Henderson Highway and running parallel with the Chief Peguis Trail.

Tended daily by about 80 seniors from the area, the Millennium Gardens at 260 Douglas Ave., span about 1½ acres. In 39 raised-garden boxes and 42 ground-level boxes, members have planted a variety of vegetables along with a nod to Manitoba’s prairie ecosystem with tall grasses and flowers.

Every year at summer's end, members deliver produce from two designated garden boxes and more vegetables donated by member gardeners to Winnipeg Harvest for clients who use the food bank. Estimates are "hundreds and hundreds of pounds" of produce have been donated over the years.

"Giving back to our community is part of our mandate. We share with each other as well, but giving healthy food to people who might not have access to it all the time is very important to us," says chairwoman Mea Ramm, who leads the Millennium Gardens volunteer committee.

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Friday, Aug. 10, 2018

Mea Ramm (right) and Ed Zygarliski tend to the gardens. Ramm, who has used a wheelchair for the past five years, said funding is needed to pave the gravel path from Douglas Avenue to the Chief Peguis walkway to increase accessibility for those with mobility aids.

Healthy

Glenwood 2 minute read Preview

Healthy

Glenwood 2 minute read Friday, Aug. 10, 2018

A sign out front reads “Fermé,” but the gate is slightly ouverte, which means Colin Rémillard is already hidden somewhere in Jardins St-Léon Garden, drinking his morning coffee and enjoying the precious calm before the marketplace begins its daily descent into organized madness ahead of the weekend rush.

The market’s shelves — normally overflowing with hundreds of fruits, vegetables, pastries and breads — are temporarily bare.

Each morning, a collection of teenage- to 20-something staff prep hundreds of kilograms of produce, recutting and rewashing, separating the cream of the crop from the rejects that are past their prime.

For nearly three hours, with a soundtrack of late-'90s emo-rock blaring, they move like bilingual, agronomic automatons — from the refrigerator, to the sink, to the cart, to the display — ahead of the first customer's arrival at 9 o’clock.

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Friday, Aug. 10, 2018

Emma Borger prepares some fruit baskets before the store opens. (John Woods / Winnipeg Free Press)

Nourish

Burrows-Keewatin 3 minute read Preview

Nourish

Burrows-Keewatin 3 minute read Thursday, Aug. 9, 2018

They say there's no such thing as a free lunch.

The team of volunteers and staff at NorWest Community Food Centre on Tyndall Avenue would disagree.

Not only do they provide a free noon-hour meal three times a week, it's homemade, healthy and offered in a welcoming room flooded with natural light and filled with cheerful chatter.

The centre is part of a national organization that creates welcoming spaces and programs to help communities grow, cook and share good food. On the wall is a colourful fabric map of the Inkster area circa 1970; it's a piece of art, but it also serves as a reminder of how rail lines can create a food desert.

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Thursday, Aug. 9, 2018

Head chef Grant Mitchell (left) and volunteer chef Marsha Barber prepare lunch.

Intimacy

Transcona 3 minute read Preview

Intimacy

Transcona 3 minute read Thursday, Aug. 9, 2018

Aurora Kiziak doesn't have any use for a bowl, glass or spoon at breakfast. The only utensil the four-month-old baby girl needs is her mom’s nipple.

And, like always, Aurora is hungry.

Cradling her youngest child in her arms, Jenn Kiziak lifts her shirt and waits for the baby to latch on. It doesn't take long until gurgling sounds fill the quiet living room in her suburban home.

“Hi, sweetface,” Kiziak whispers.

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Thursday, Aug. 9, 2018

Jenn Kiziak plans to breastfeed her daughter for at least a year.

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Teamwork

University of Manitoba 3 minute read Preview

Teamwork

University of Manitoba 3 minute read Thursday, Aug. 9, 2018

Ten kids between the ages of eight and 11 have congregated in the kitchen area of the Subway South Soccer Complex on the University of Manitoba campus for their daily dose of cooking instruction.

This was the group's last day of the Mini U Kids in the Kitchen day camp, which runs in one-week blocks six times throughout the summer months.

They've already learned how to make multicultural bites such as quesadillas and Vietnamese summer rolls, and today, their final three-hour chunk of kitchen time is being spent making a classic, kid-friendly dessert: cupcakes.

But first, as part of the program's educational mandate, instructor Tina Tran dispenses some knowledge about different food-industry jobs; from farming to food styling, the U of M human nutrition student covers it all in her day's brief lesson plan.

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Thursday, Aug. 9, 2018

“Kids in the Kitchen program is kind of like concert tickets, it sells out in two minutes,” says Mini U director Jay Gamey.

Helping

William Whyte 3 minute read Preview

Helping

William Whyte 3 minute read Thursday, Aug. 9, 2018

The Bear Clan’s donated 2012 Chevy Silverado pickup weaves its way between the North End and Sage Creek on the city’s southeast outskirts in 20 minutes flat.

As executive director of the volunteer street patrol, it’s James Favel’s choice to make these runs several times a week — to the Sage Creek Sobeys, to Crampton's Market at Waverley Street and Bishop Grandin Boulevard, to a cluster of Subways downtown.

Pick up. Drop off. Repeat. They're all on different schedules multiple times a week.

Favel gently squeezes a loaf of bread at the Sage Creek grocery store to prove the point. The bread feels fresh.

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Thursday, Aug. 9, 2018

Early childhood education assistant Justin Kalinouski gives out food items.

Innovation

University of Manitoba 3 minute read Preview

Innovation

University of Manitoba 3 minute read Thursday, Aug. 9, 2018

Draped in long white lab coats, Dr. Nancy Ames and Dr. Sijo Joseph stand in front of a unique and pricey piece of machinery in a room on the bottom floor of the Richardson Centre for Functional Foods.

With the flick of a switch, the $600,000 artificial stomach that simulates human digestion hums to life. Then, with the back of his pen, Joseph pokes at the buttons on the touch-screen monitor, configuring the artificial stomach’s settings.

“It takes six hours to run — to digest the food. Just like a human. It’s a very unique system, with all these compartments,” says Joseph, pointing to the contraption’s complicated tubing system, which resembles the human gut.

“If you want to test the food, the food components, to see how helpful it is, you have to really run a human feeding trial. You have to recruit people, feed them, then test their blood samples and analyze it.

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Thursday, Aug. 9, 2018

“It takes six hours to run — to digest the food. Just like a human.

Compassion

East St. Paul 3 minute read Preview

Compassion

East St. Paul 3 minute read Thursday, Aug. 9, 2018

If “casserole love” is ever included in the dictionary, it could be defined like this: a tradition within church communities where meals are prayerfully prepared and delivered as a symbol of fellowship to people beset by tough challenges.

Sandi Enns is one of many women whose church ministry includes her oven. She doesn’t seek recognition, much less publicity, but she agreed to let the Free Press into her East St. Paul kitchen to illustrate how people within church communities use food to carry compassion.

Bedecked in a colourful apron, she greets visitors with warm hospitality and a hot oven, which is being readied for two large lasagnas and a casserole. She mentions the recipients of the food will include a family that recently lost a son on a construction job site.

"The motivation is to show empathy, love and support for what the person or family is going through,” said Enns, who is a deacon at Douglas Mennonite Church. "We want to share in their struggles so they don't feel alone.”

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Thursday, Aug. 9, 2018

For Enns, the meals are a way to live out her Christian faith.

Natural

Osborne Village 3 minute read Preview

Natural

Osborne Village 3 minute read Thursday, Aug. 9, 2018

Tens of thousands of bees had laboured for weeks to fill the hive, collecting sweet nectar from flowers and tucking it away in waxy honeycombs. Now, in a shared space at an Osborne Street hair salon, it's time for time for the humans to do their part.

Apiculturists Lindsay Nikkel and Chris Kirouac of Beeproject Apiaries slide out each of the hive's wooden frames, scraping through the honeycomb's hexagonal cells with a special "scratcher" to let the honey flow freely.

Kirouac recommends a visitor try a rare luxury: a taste of fresh honey straight off the comb.

"That first bite of the honey of the season, when you're experiencing that first bit of comb… I love to imagine the Neanderthals, or humans of 10,000 years ago, attacking beehives to get the honey out. Because there's nothing like it in nature."

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Thursday, Aug. 9, 2018

There's nothing like a taste of fresh honey straight off the comb.

Gathering

Seven Oaks 2 minute read Preview

Gathering

Seven Oaks 2 minute read Thursday, Aug. 9, 2018

It’s just after 7 p.m., and a group of Great-West Life co-workers is gathered for a surprise birthday party, eagerly awaiting the guest of honour's arrival.

The Filipino colleagues have organized a 50th birthday picnic for Gina Arroza, a.k.a. "ate" (pronounced "ah-tay"), a term of respect in their culture.

The Hawaiian-themed decorations are charmingly arranged as a mix of Filipino and American pop music wafts through the humid air.

The buffet of food and drink — pancit (noodles), lumpia (spring rolls), inihaw na bangus (grilled milk fish), grilled pork belly and gulaman (a sweetened beverage commonly sold at roadside stalls in the Philippines) — has been lovingly prepared by the group of mostly women.

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Thursday, Aug. 9, 2018

Gina Arroza (centre) beams after being surprised with a 50th birthday bash in Kildonan Park.

Faith

Tuxedo 3 minute read Preview

Faith

Tuxedo 3 minute read Thursday, Aug. 9, 2018

The last dinner guests are making their way outside to their cars in the Rady Jewish Community Centre’s parking lot.

Nearly 150 people — Jews and non-Jews, some originally from as far away as Buenos Aires and Tel Aviv — had gathered to welcome Shabbat, the sabbath, which begins just before sundown Friday and ends when three stars emerge in the Saturday night sky each week.

In just more than an hour — 9:16, to be exact — when the sun goes down, many of Winnipeg's Jewish families will light candles and say blessings to signify the start of the holy day, traditionally set aside as a day to rest, study the Torah and refrain from usual daily tasks and their accompanying stresses.

But until it is time to rest, the cleanup crew is on its feet.

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Thursday, Aug. 9, 2018

Traditional candles and wine at the Shabbat supper.

Indulgence

Exchange District 3 minute read Preview

Indulgence

Exchange District 3 minute read Thursday, Aug. 9, 2018

It’s a sweltering night at Shaw Park, and the action at the concession stands continues to be brisk in the late innings. It’s still 30 C outside — warmer with the humidity — and fans can’t seem to get enough.

It’s no small task, keeping a crowd of several thousand nourished for three-plus hours at a time, at least 50 dates every summer. But it’s an important part of the overall baseball game experience.

“It makes it that much more enjoyable,” says Melissa Schlichting, food and beverage manager for the Winnipeg Goldeyes, who oversees a staff of 150, with about 65 on duty at a time.

With an eye on the game — currently in the top of the seventh inning — three chefs and a handful of “food runners” are in the final stages of preparing post-game meals for members of the Goldeyes and their opponent, the Gary SouthShore RailCats. Philly cheesesteaks are on the menu.

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Thursday, Aug. 9, 2018

Mini-doughnuts being made at Shaw Park during the Goldeyes game. (Trevor Hagan / Winnipeg Free Press)

Fresh

Earl Grey 3 minute read Preview

Fresh

Earl Grey 3 minute read Thursday, Aug. 9, 2018

Suzanne Gessler's day begins in the middle of the night.

When the sun is barely announcing itself on a peach horizon, she's bustling around the kitchen at the back of the Pennyloaf Bakery in her flour-dusted Crocs.

In a few hours, her Corydon Avenue shop will be visited by office workers picking up a half-dozen morning buns for their 9 a.m. meetings and passersby tempted by the rustic loaves of sourdough bread neatly lined up in the front window.

At this hour, though, it's just Gessler and baker Brittney Albanese, and Nat King Cole on the stereo. "We're the neighbourhood watch," she jokes.

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Thursday, Aug. 9, 2018

December 27, 2024

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