Astrology adds spice to Niagara chef’s new cookbook

When it comes to preparing the right meal at the right time, the answer might be in the stars.

Port Colborne chef Angela Buck is on board with that theory. Her recently-released first book, The Astrological Kitchen, matches up dishes with your astrological sign.

Yes, she has heard how far-fetched it sounds. But since she started researching astrology 30 years ago, she has tested the theory over and over. And most every time, the dish delivered.

“It goes back to the Egyptians, where it first started — they’re sort of the inventors of astrology,” says Buck. “From that to the Greeks, where they used astrology for medicine. Hippocrates said a physician who does not believe in astrology cannot call himself a physician.”

From that, individual food tastes were associated with astrological signs. For example, Buck says, Virgos are more health conscious, Scorpios view a romantic dinner as foreplay, etc.

Since Aquarians love small plates or finger foods over a large meal, Buck includes recipes for bite-size crab cakes and Chorizo Empanadas.

“It does work, that’s the most interesting thing,” she says. “If you (ask) people ‘What’s your sign?, they get a little shy. But when I do it without them knowing, they go ‘How did you know I liked this?’”

Much of it, she realizes, has to do with skepticism over astrology in general.

“As much as people will mock it, people still take a peak at their horoscope every day.”

The 182-page book has been percolating for awhile — Buck started writing it 25 years ago and started shopping it to the big publishers in the early 2000s, with no luck. New food trends kept her updating it over the years until she self-published it through Victoria-based company Tellwell.

“In the early ’90s, everything was sundried tomatoes — you couldn’t have a recipe without that,” she says. “Things change and people are a little more health-conscious. So I incorporated all the foods and spices attributed to each sign with more trending recipes.”

For now, the book is available through Amazon.com. It will also be sold at local farmers markets Buck will take part in starting in May.

A former owner of three restaurants, Buck says writing about food and preparing her own homemade gluten-free dishes are the next step in her career.

“My whole life has been around food,” she says. “But I’ve also loved and studied astrology for 30 years, so I just put them all together and thought there could be a curiosity out there with the public.”