My painter/writer cousin Janice Wong was written up in the Toronto Star this weekend.
Janice is the author of the award winning CHOW - from China to Canada: Memories of Food and Family. Janice was recently in Winnipeg to recieve the Gold Award for the category of "Canadian Food Culture." Here is an excerpt from Toronto Star writer Marion Kane.
Read the full article here: beautiful touching award winning book
Wong's book CHOW
(Whitecap; $24.95) garnered gold in the Canadian Food Culture category... Hers is a tale of growing up in Prince Albert in
north-central Saskatchewan, where her father, Dennis, was in the
restaurant biz.
His second venture in this field was a Chinese Canadian eatery called Lotus on the town's main drag, which he opened in 1956 and operated for more than 20 years.
"He never succumbed to putting red dye in the sweet-and-sour sauce," recalls Wong, adding that her dad came from a family of cooks. "We grew up on his food," she says fondly of the man who died in 1999.
He left a slew of handwritten recipes that were the inspiration for her book. "I thought I'd collect all the recipes and notations, using his handwriting as an abstract element," she says, "as a gift to my family and to sum up my loss."
The result was heart-warming. "It caused a chain reaction of reunions of family and friends," she adds, including a book launch in her hometown.
Writing the book helped Wong get to know her father better. "He worked six days a week," she continues. "When we were little, we were pulled out of bed to see him at midnight."
His second venture in this field was a Chinese Canadian eatery called Lotus on the town's main drag, which he opened in 1956 and operated for more than 20 years.
"He never succumbed to putting red dye in the sweet-and-sour sauce," recalls Wong, adding that her dad came from a family of cooks. "We grew up on his food," she says fondly of the man who died in 1999.
He left a slew of handwritten recipes that were the inspiration for her book. "I thought I'd collect all the recipes and notations, using his handwriting as an abstract element," she says, "as a gift to my family and to sum up my loss."
The result was heart-warming. "It caused a chain reaction of reunions of family and friends," she adds, including a book launch in her hometown.
Writing the book helped Wong get to know her father better. "He worked six days a week," she continues. "When we were little, we were pulled out of bed to see him at midnight."
