I still don't exactly know "what I want to be when I grow up" but I can tell you a little about the things I've done so far. I was born and raised in Scarborough, a suburb of Toronto. I'm an only child but our household was big (cousins, grandparents, a few unlucky pet fish here and there). After university I decided to I had to work in magazines, one in particular, actually. I've loved magazines, devoured them, from the moment I could start begging for them at the checkout. I built a very happy career working with the most talented creators at some of the best consumer titles, eventually stepping down as the Newsstand Director at St. Joseph Media last year. Today, I'm the Interactive Producer for the CBC's two food shows--amazing since I really have always loved television too (when I was little I thought I was going to be an actor!) So I spend full happy days there thinking about TV, food and content, before coming home to write recipes, edit photos and plan what's next for le sauce. You'd think I'd be content, but I also can't get enough of home decor, or certain types or art, and I did used to write stories more than anything else once, plus I am desperate to do more with illustrations... so I guess I'm currently working on trying to marry all of my passions. Stay tuned for a completely fractured idea! Maybe a magazine that about illustrating the recipes of washed up child TV stars.
Kidding--but do stay tuned. It's exciting times at le sauce, with a redesign coming shortly that will give the site a more fluid feel and make searching by cuisine, ingredient and occasion even easier. You'll see more "ïnstallments", if you will, more guides, full menus with recipes, and I'm honoured that some stellar contributors will lending their creativity and expertise too.
A note to any who may be searching for a consumer media (magazine/digital), food and lifestyle content professional: I am available for content planning and strategy, branding and launch consultation, or for food and lifestyle editorial contribution. If you wish to get in touch, please do: yasmin (at) lesauce (dot) com.
[ i love reading about the bloggers behind the sites i always visit, so i thought i'd share more personal aspects about myself too. so here are some things you might like to know... ]
i like cooking but i love eating. i'd rather have you cook for me, than have to cook. or we could order in. what time should i be over?
my favourite thing to do was to go to a great restaurant (not necessarily or often fine dining) with a friend. but lately i've sort of tired of it. that's very new for me. still haven't tired of having a drink with a friend, however!
lately i'm obsessing about (a changing list):
bread. all kinds. baked. fried. hard. fermented. airy. particularly... rolled-up toasts: buttered, then fried bread, pressed flat, curry spooned on top, rolled up to be eaten by hand. the butter mingles with the curry and practically seeps out. oh my god. so good. post coming soon.
that toast is from my childhood. i'm thinking a lot these days about other food memories like...
eating mc donald's combos as a kid, in a compulsive and methodological kind of way. like inhaling one large order of fries by the time it took to get between the take out window and home, before moving onto a big mac and root beer, or nuggets i would dip into mustard AND bbq sauce OR only sweet and sour sauce. i remember being torn about having to choose. i can remember the unfamiliar taste of the breading. i think i even knew back then that it wasn't real food. that didn't make it less enjoyable. at the time.
- i ate most of those meals in front of the television, where i immediately wanted every food consumed on those shows. my iconic pizza comes in an XXXL grease-stained pizza box, where the pieces are so large you almost fold them when you pull them out of the box, cheese stretching and then dangling. of course, that pizza has to land on a family kitchen table or in the common area of a dorm room in new york for it to have that unbearable amount of appeal. ribs, wings and fried chicken never looked as covetable as when boss hog ate them on the dukes of hazzard.
and now for some rambling with a cause--below, some questions from real readers! please ask away at http://www.formspring.me/yasminATlesauce
where does the name "le sauce" come from?
well, i like sauces (especially hot sauces) and--the other "sauce"--wine, martinis, a great cocktail. i love all things french plus "le sauce" sounds nicer than sauce and more importantly, "le sauce" reminds me of that old snl sketch..."you likah the sauce...?" remember?! hilarious.
who would win in a fight? white asparagus or green asparagus?
i don't know. i'm gonna go with white since they are bigger.
i like that we can get delicious, green asparagus very fresh (locally) in toronto. but i like the flavour of white asparagus and the associated "traditional" preparation/dishes...gratinéd or braised and served in butter with parsley...
but as with many things, i say, why choose?
what haven't you eaten that you would like to try?
many many things. but at the top of the list: i would like to eat sri lankan food, in sri lanka with local and fresh ingredients there. cooked by my family, as i might have had if i grew up there would be great. hopefully i will have the chance soon!
why did you become vegetarian?
it happened overnight--even faster. i saw a little bird hopping across the tracks while i was waiting for a train, on my way to work one morning. i suddenly saw this animal totally differently, as a sentient being, as they say in buddhism (i had been thinking about those concepts more at the time).
i remember feeling a pang of worry. i didn't want to give up all the food i loved, and to that point, i loved meat and wouldn't want to eat a meal without it. but things just changed at that moment and it's almost like the choice was just MADE, i didn't have to do much by way of trying.
your dishes always look fantastic. what/who are your cooking inspirations?
that's so nice--thank you. some of my recipes are inspired by the meals i eat out. i love eating food made by passionate cooks/chefs--when simple dishes mean an ingredient can shine, or things are paired that i've never tried in combination but are so perfect together. sometimes i'll try to create that experience by experimenting by what i've eaten out.
but i'm also very inspired by traditional, regional home cooking. i could watch grandmas make food from their home countries the same way it's been made forever and that's very special for me. there's so much wisdom, respect and harmony in that kind of cooling. you can learn so much, and aside from tweaks here and there, those recipes can't be improved upon--they seem meant to be.
what is your absolute favourite meal?
it's so hard to choose one but when i talk about this one night with my girlfriends in paris, i always say it was one of the best dinners i've ever had. the food was so impressive but it was so much more than that. we were at la famille in hilly montmatre, a restaurant tucked into one of the cobblestone streets. it was so old but so cool, lots of young people all around, really late into the night. we sat at a communal table with these beautiful french guys and girls with whom we talked a tiny bit and smiled and had fun. we had such a good time that we stayed late and the servers drank with us long after we paid the bill, just because we were all having a good time. they tied their famous thin, white ribbons around our wrist, printed with red lettering that read "la famille c'est important"... indeed. :)
at what age did you begin cooking? what was your first cooking experience?
ha! so late! in university, my friends made fun of me because i had no clue how to make instant coffee! BOILING WATER INTIMIDATED ME. i was spoiled and lazy (still lazy) and never had to cook so i never learned. it changed when i became so interested in all of the new food i was eating, which i knew it was possible to create at home, that i had to try. well, first i begged my mother to try. there were so many new foods i was falling in love with, that i wanted her to attempt a new thing every night, it seemed. but in trying to explain the flavours i was after, and through her trial and error, i was forced to learn. my cravings drove me to learn. those were my first cooking experiences, trying to get my mom to make vietnamese barbeque pork, for instance, which, to this day she has never tasted. no idea why she put up with me!
