IT’S OBVIOUS. DONNA-MARIE PYE,

BY ALEX BIELAK co-owner of Relish Cooking Studio in uptown Waterloo, is having fun. Within the first 40 seconds of our interview I score two boisterous chuckles and an infectious giggle. The pattern continues as she chats about how she’s living her dream and the things about food that inspire her.

“I love that it can create a whole ambience around the table. You can create such different levels of joy and happiness,” she says. “I absolutely love seeing the pleasure on people’s faces, whether it’s my cooking or anybody’s … I’ve seen that time and time again. Food, and being around a table with people together, and you take that first mouthful and you hear that ‘ooh, aah’ or ‘Oh my God.’”

She has shifted focus from being a practising home economist with a diploma in public relations, to becoming a store owner, all while raising a family and authoring five