Founder and former chef, Scanway Catering It was back in 1980 when Unni Simensen opened Scanway Catering. “Everybody called me Mr. Simensen,” she says, laughing. “There weren’t too many women.” Simensen has always been a perfectionist, even when it made things difficult. “I had to get a few things sent from the market in Boston […]
Melissa Buote
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Gina Haverstock
Winemaker, Gaspereau Vineyards “The story goes—and it’s true!—that I wanted to become a doctor,” says Gina Haverstock. It was the year 2000. Haverstock started a summer job at Jost Vineyards while studying for entrance exams. “I just fell in love with the idea of winemaking. How different grapes can make different wines,” she says. “I […]
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Jenna Mooers and Jane Wright
Owner, EDNA, 2053 Gottingen Street Owner, jane’s next door, 2053 Gottingen Street Jane Wright got her first job at 13, in grade nine, at Ernie’s Truck Stop on Highway 31. “In a polyester, two-piece, blue waitress outfit with white shoes. It was $1.45 an hour,” she says. Her daughter, Jenna Mooers, also started out in […]
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Jessica Best
Baker The Canteen, 66 Octherloney Street “It’s meditative. I think it’s one of the most refined things you can do,” Jessica Best says about baking. “I feel like the measure of a really good baker is consistency in everything you take out of the oven.” Best’s crusty sourdough is, in a lot of ways, a […]
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Kelly Neil
Photographer and food stylist kellyneil.com In just over five years, Kelly Neil has come out of seemingly nowhere to become one of Nova Scotia’s favourite food photographers. “I am fuelled by learning,” she says. “I don’t have any formal training and every time I pick up my camera, set up lights, move a piece of pasta […]
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Lia Rinaldo
Managing director Devour! The Food Film Festival As a teenager, Lia Rinaldo got a job at the legendary Wormwoods Dog & Monkey Cinema, which led to the Atlantic Film Festival. “All of a sudden I blinked and 20 years had passed. It was a life in film and I never really planned on it,” she […]
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Lil MacPherson
Owner The Wooden Monkey, 1707 Grafton Street and 40 Alderney Drive “It was an a-ha moment,” Lil MacPherson says. When Hurricane Juan struck Nova Scotia, a storm of concerns about food security hit her hard. “To me the very foundation of business, life, a province, a country is to make sure you have enough food […]
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Marie Nightingale
Food writer and editor 1928-2014 On March 15 of this year, Marie Nightingale passed away after a battle with cancer. The obituary she wrote for herself was “Marie says goodbye.” The legacy she wrote for herself was Out of Old Nova Scotia Kitchens. You really can’t talk about food or cooking in Nova Scotia, the […]
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Five ways to do Devour!
Devour! The Food Film Fest is in full swing in Wolfville this weekend. It all started last night in Hollywood style with the festival’s big name, Anthony Bourdain, who was paid a Kardashian-ian appearance fee to get dropped into the middle of picturesque rural Nova Scotia just to be told how fucking great he is. […]
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Comfortably Hum’s
The door to Hum’s Kitchen sticks a bit when I try to open it. After almost tripping inside after a forceful push, my friend Rachelle and I are greeted and told to sit down anywhere we like in the almost empty dining room. Hum’s is a small, tidy restaurant. The chairs are solid, carved wood […]
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We got the Beet
Four years ago Jamie Tingley moved to Cow Bay. “I moved here for the surfing,” says Tingley. “And then I kind of fell in love.” The object of his affection: farming. With his partner, Sarah Fisher, he started Off Beet Farm, a small-scale vegetable farm overlooking the bay. “We’d always had little garden plots,” he […]
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Lots of love, Layla
We’ve all heard about the exception that proves the rule. Well, that exception has a name: Domino’s. Domino’s, I’ve discovered—as much as a crackpot theorist can discover—is the linchpin that holds the precarious perfection of 480 Parkland Drive in check. It’s the only explanation for how goddamn good the other restaurants in that strip mall […]
