From Toqué! to the homestead
As editor of the award-winning blog Simple Bites (simplebites. net), which gets about a halfmillion visits each month, Aimée Wimbush-Bourque focuses on topics ranging from nourishing family meals to wholesome snack foods.
What sets her apart from many food bloggers is her cooking chops: She graduated from the St. Pius X Culinary Institute in Montreal — with the Governor General’s medal, no less — and during three years in the kitchen of Chef Normand Laprise’s Toqué! restaurant, she rose to the position of chef de partie of the garde manger, responsible for salads and cold appetizers. She then worked for a high-end caterer before deciding to stay home to nourish and nurture her own growing family.
When her first-born, Noah, was one year old, Wimbush-Bourque started a blog in which she posted about food and family, Under the High Chair. Tsh Oxenreider of the Simple Mom blog (simplemom. net) followed the blog and liked it and, in 2009, asked her to contribute posts about food: Her topics included canning, cookie swaps and cooking with kids.
When Oxenreider launched the online network Simple Living Media in 2010, she tapped WimbushBourque to run its food channel. In 2013, an editor at Penguin Canada reached out and offered Wimbush-Bourque a two-book deal.
In many ways, the outline for Brown Eggs and Jam Jars had already taken shape in her imagination, she said — the product of her experiences growing up on a homestead and her wish to raise her own family on one, too.