Something’s cookin’ in the kitchen
In our travels, both professionally and socially, we’ve met an army of celebrity chefs, both sides of the pond. From the adorable Massimo Capra (we’ve appeared together several times on Cityline) to the larger than life — and blindingly effusive — Gordon Ramsay, who is, we should report, an absolute pussycat off camera. Hey, even cheeky chappy Jamie Oliver (he once cooked us paella at a Glasgow store event) was a ball of fun, as was the vampish Nigella Lawson, with whom we guested some time past on a CBC talk show. Aye, we’ve chewed the fat with the best of ’em.
Fact of the matter is, if we weren’t designers, our next career would probably find us tied to the stove. We both love to cook and relish any opportunity we can find to rustle up simple yet tasty repast for our nearest and dearest. We’re also proud that the Masterchef cookbook (for which we compiled several recipes, post inclusion in the hit BBC series) has just been published. Yup, we’re foodies, which is why we’re excited to offer a peek around today’s kitchen, as its designer prepares for the launch of Bake With Anna Olson, an upcoming series on Food Network Canada.
Yup, we’re fans. Make no mistake about it. There’s something captivating about Anna Olson’s style and, for the record, we reckon her success stems from the fact she’s so “real.” We enjoy Anna’s style; we appreciate the calm responsibility of someone who simply gets on with it — with no pomp, no fuss, no ceremony, just good honest food, honestly prepared.
Chatting about her Victorian home in the Niagara region, Anna suggests she was lured, initially, by its spacious proportions, but goes on to explain that two years were spent planning and then opening everything up. “Downstairs, particularly,” she offers, “we were dealing with a labyrinth of smaller rooms, but we knew that expanding the footprint would let it all breath.” If we’re honest, we imagined Anna’s kitchen to be imbued with a somewhat industrial feel. We half expected walls of shiny stainless steel, huge walk-in fridges and a battery of ceiling-hung pots and pans. In reality, we couldn’t have been further from the truth. Anna’s kitchen (which moonlighted as a backdrop for Fresh, her previous show on the Style Network) is casually beautiful but it’s certainly not cutting edge. And it’s precisely that which provides its charm.
“I feel really comfortable here,” explains our host. “This kitchen reflects me. It could never be some crazy statement and it has to feel right.” Pausing for a moment, she adds; “This is where I test all my recipes. It’s like, well, the birthplace of my culinary dreams. I guess everyone says this, but the kitchen really is the heart of the home and mine is also at the heart of my life.”
As far as we see it, Anna’s culinary philosophy and the success she enjoys are based on her down-toearth approach to cooking and baking. For her, it’s all about working with the season’s bounty and championing that which is available as the calendar rolls forward.
Chatting with Anna is like spending a casual afternoon with a close girlfriend. She has a lilting but authoritative voice and smiles almost constantly. Were she ever to package her enthusiasm, we’re certain its potency would be as marketable as her brand of epicurean heaven. “I lead a really varied life with good people around me, but at the same time I’ve worked really hard for everything I’ve achieved. I’m lucky, though, that people seem to enjoy what I do.”
Our affection for things Olson, we’ll concede, isn’t a recent phenomenon; it goes back to the days when we still lived, fulltime, in Glasgow. Back then we watched Anna’s shows religiously and recall one particular episode where she baked a monolithic red velvet cake. We remember swooning as she slowly delivered a knife to its freshly baked heart. On another occasion, when the über chef yanked a perfect baked Alaska from the oven and parted it lovingly to reveal the densest, creamiest gelato we’ve ever seen, our legs turned to jelly.
Food porn aside, let’s get back to matters in hand: Anna’s boldly painted kitchen. The most adorable baby blue lavishes walls, providing, as it does, a perfect backdrop for a collection of jauntily coloured Le Creuset pots and terrines, which, it transpires, are much more than set dressing; “Everything is used regularly,” shares Anna, “every vessel, every basin, every pan. Nothing is here for show.”
Two large appliances underpin the room’s esthetic; the first, an ancient stainless steel pie fridge, salvaged locally (and now reborn as a larder), and the second, a reclaimed working pizza oven that’s amply big enough to cook pretty much anything from roast beef to fowl, from cakes to, well, pizza.
As conversation pings from subject to subject, Anna talks of her move into TV, a career trajectory that slowly evolved following time spent at university in Vail, Colo. “I moved to Niagara in ’95 and although I didn’t plan a media career, it just kind of happened. I was working as a pastry chef when Food Network Canada launched and I was invited to a screen test. I guess initially I was a bit reluctant as I didn’t want anything to get in the way of my creativity. But the network explained that my shows would be about the craft of food and the enjoyment that goes handin-hand with making it.”
Spool forward to the present day and Anna has hosted various shows and written a number of books (some co-authored by her husband Michael, a successful chef in his own right) but, by her own account, she enjoys nothing better than coming home after a long day of filming and switching back into her regular life.
Try as we might to avoid asking if too many cooks do, indeed, spoil the broth, the cliché lure gets the better of us and we question how Anna and her husband circumnavigate the kitchen without getting in each other’s way. “We both do our own thing in here and we’ve created separate work zones to allow that to happen. But come on! We’re husband and wife and we really enjoy cooking together when we can. Sure I’ve filmed whole series in this kitchen, but it’s also our domestic space and Michael and I are a democracy.”
This democracy, by all accounts, plays perfectly.
“This is where I test all my recipes. It’s like . . . the birthplace of my culinary dreams.”
ANNA OLSON
When Anna and Michael entertain in their kitchen, arranged semi-open concept to the dining room, it is the perfect spot in which to meet and mingle.
Talk turning to Bake With Anna Olson, we ask what audiences can expect from the new show. “The idea is to break everything down into component parts so viewers can properly learn every aspect of baking. Each episode the focus will be on a different foundation skill, like a classic fruit tart or a chocolate Napoleon, and I’ll build on each of these skills to allow viewers to become more confident.”
We assure Anna we’ll be tuning in. “If you’re as interested in food as you’ve told me you are, boys, the show will really help you. It’s a learning curve that’ll very methodically take you from beginner to master baker.”
We mark our diaries as a reminder to watch the new series. Ms. Olson, we decide, is a dream, and so too is her home; there’s not an element of its interior that feels over-baked or over-dressed — much like her TV persona — what you see is what you get. In a celebrity-obsessed world where some chefs will jump through fire to impress their audience with theatrical bells and smells, Anna plays a much more modest, elegant hand. And her hungry audience, it would appear, loves every single minute. And of course every single recipe.
Bake with Anna Olson launches Thursday, April 12 and will air Thursdays on Food Network with two episodes back-to-back, 7 p.m. and 7:30 p.m., as well as Saturdays at 11 a.m.
Back to Baking is available in bookstores everywhere, with an e-book to follow
The Olson Recipe Maker app is available for iphone, ipad and Android. Get creative in the kitchen with tips, recipes and videos from Anna and Michael. Colin Mcallister and Justin Ryan are the hosts of HGTV’S Colin & Justin’s Home Heist and the authors of Colin & Justin’s Home Heist Style Guide, published by Penguin Group (Canada). Follow them on Twitter @colinjustin or on Facebook ( Colinandjustin). Check out their new candle range at candjhome.co.uk. Contact them through their website colinandjustin.tv.