Cheftimony

06/06/2025

🎙️ New Cheftimony episode is live!

This week I’m joined by , a Vancouver-based lawyer with a focus on the wine industry. We dig into how Megan built her practice in wine law, how she supports her clients, and what’s changing across the sector.

We talk about:

🍷 Creative ways younger folks are entering the wine business

📉 The demographic shift—boomers as both winery owners and core customers

🍇 The rise of “nolo” (no- and low-alcohol) choices

🗂 Trade and tariff challenges

💬 Megan’s fantastic advice for anyone early in their career, whatever that career might be

🍇 And of course, there are wine recommendations!n Megan shares what’s been in her glass lately (high-acid pinot noir) and what will be soon (summer-friendly rosés!), all from right here in British Columbia.

🎧 Link in bio or find our conversation on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or wherever you listen.

31/05/2025

Vibrant, aromatic, and delicious.

It’s always a pleasure to heat up eggplant bharta from for an easy, brilliant dinner.

If you’re on the Sunshine Coast of British Columbia or visiting, reach out to Rashmi for some simply amazing curries!

22/05/2025

Sunshine and Sourdough.

Gibsons, British Columbia.

This is the third of my recent attempts to include a whole lot of freshly-milled whole grains in the dough. 

Having started at 100% and dropped initially to 70%, I went down to 50% for this bake, and it worked much better.

Of the 50% whole grains, it was almost 50/50 red spring and khorasan.

I haven’t sliced into these yet, but I’m keen to!

09/04/2025

Thanks to friends and over at for inviting me to share some thoughts on why I just cancelled my latest trip to Las Vegas.

On Episode 075 of Cheftimony, you’ll hear my interview with Dayvid Figler of City Cast, and you can hear the whole City Cast episode (and subscribe to that excellent podcast) by heading to the City Cast Las Vegas feed, wherever you listen to podcasts.

05/04/2025

Here’s the final result of the pressure-cooker bolognese I made a few days ago, expressly for diner tonight. The great recipe is by and available on .

For the sauce I used a mixture of beef and pork, strongly in favour of the delicious pasture-raised beef from . This sauce is incredibly delicious… rich! but delicious. Not “but”, I suppose.

The pappardelle I picked up today from in the . What delicious stuff, the perfect mate for the rich bolognese.

Fair enough to those of you who say I’ve over-sauced the pasta. In response, I can only say: you’ve got to try this sauce!

29/03/2025

12/03/2025

I don’t know why yam cubes came to mind, but they did. So I seared and flipped and flipped and seared these cubes until I realized I’d have to add water to the pan and boil them into submission.

The cubes made a tasty addition to a very quick meal of spinach in a thai curry sauce topped with seared scallops. Since this was yet another in my “I need to make something fast so we can feed the baby” series, the sauce could not have been simpler: jarred curry paste, coconut milk and some fish sauce.

The whole thing (apart from those foolish yam cubes) came together quickly and hit the spot. The mashed yams and yogurt I made for the youngest diner were also pretty tasty!

08/03/2025

Holy moly, it’s a new episode!

Joining me for Episode 073 of the Cheftimony Podcast is points-and-miles travel expert Julia Menez. Julia is the perfect guest to discuss several topics near and dear to my heart: luxury travel… Las Vegas… and food!

Julia is the driving force behind where she breaks down the sometimes overwhelming world of travel loyalty programs to guide those of us willing to invest the time toward some amazing luxury travel experiences, at a far lower cost than the cash ticket price.

From her current home base in Las Vegas where Julia loves off-Strip dining, to a steakhouse in Buenos Aires, to some great (and not-so-great) food options when flying business or first class, Julia takes us to some of her favourite food-friendly destinations around the globe.

Join us, at cheftimony.com or wherever you listen to podcasts.

05/03/2025

Here’s a smoky shot of a cast-iron sear for a beautiful round roast from .

Recently, I picked up my latest quarter of Lowline beef from Raquel at the wonderful Hough Heritage Farms here in Gibsons.

It is a real privilege to know my farmer as I do because beyond being a friendly and welcoming neighbour, Raquel does things right on her farm.

Raquel is both a practitioner and a promoter of regenerative agriculture, and I simply feel good buying from her.

Plus, this roast was delicious! I cooked it sous vide at 56°C for about ten hours and then finished it in the ripping hot cast iron. There’s a small but delicious fat cap, and tender, flavourful meat beneath.

If you’d like to learn more about Raquel’s Hough Farm, tune into Episode 047 of the Cheftimony Podcast, wherever you listen.

22/02/2025

After enjoying a delicious BBQ duck from for our Lunar New Year dinner, I froze the carcass for future use. A few days ago, I pressure-cooked it into a really tasty duck stock.

For tonight’s quick dinner, I cooked up some shiitake mushrooms and bok choy (beautiful but invisible in this picture, sitting in the bottom of the bowl), some dried udon noodles and some frozen prawns, then swam the whole thing in the duck broth.

Quick and tasty and somehow warming and reassuring after, y’know, an earthquake.



13/02/2025

It’s interesting trying to time dinner with a six-month old. While making the lad some hopefully-delicious, salt-free minced up something, I try to build a dinner for his parents that ticks as many as possible of what have become really important boxes, to wit…

… fast (really important), tasty (always important), consumable with one hand (ideal but not critical), and healthy (within reason).

Tonight that turned up as pasta with shiitake and kale in a lemon, butter, miso sauce with some freshly-grated parmesan folded in right at the end.

Let’s hear it for the vitamix and its ability to turn pasta water and butter plus a few other things into a really tasty emulsion. I think I’ll make this again!

26/01/2025

It’s tough to top the good ol’ grilled cheese as the sandwich to build with freshly-baked sourdough sandwich bread.

(I’m becoming a fan of “buttering” the bread with mayo, not butter).