Recipes from Savoring, including sweet potato shiitake poutine
Our cookbook of the week is Savoring by Montreal-based food photographer, recipe developer and food stylist Murielle Banackissa.
The essence of Murielle Banackissa ‘s cookbook debut, Savoring, can be felt in pampushki . The garlic rolls “are like a hug from a Ukrainian grandmother,” says the Montreal-based food photographer, recipe developer and food stylist. They also perfectly illustrate the book’s theme, which isn’t just about enjoying finished dishes but embracing the entire journey. “You need to knead the dough. You need to follow each step carefully: oil your hands to ensure the dough is nice and supple. I love the process of making pampushki.”
As the owner of a photography studio who has worked with companies such as Nespresso, Lindt, Oikos, Activia and Silk, Banackissa has a lot on her plate. Most of the time, especially during the week, she cooks simply. But she makes it a practice to cook mindfully as often as possible, taking her time with the ingredients. “My cooking philosophy is really just enjoying the process. We live in a world that’s so fast-paced. We have so many things on our to-do list. We’re always juggling a million different tasks.”
Like anyone, sometimes, she feels an urge to rush into the kitchen and make something quick. But for Banackissa, cooking has always been a way of grounding herself. Whether taking time on the weekend to make something involved or creating something more straightforward on a weeknight, she strives to be present in the moment. “Like maybe putting some music on, creating a whole ritual around that. And I want to encourage the readers of Savoring to adopt that mindset a little bit in their lives, too. It’s something that brings me a lot of joy and peace, and it makes the whole experience so much more pleasurable and fun and memorable.”
In Savoring, Banackissa shares 100 vegan recipes, many inspired by her childhood in the Republic of the Congo and Quebec, her home of more than 20 years.
“I’ve always had a feeling that at some point, I would share a little bit more of my story, because it’s so particular,” she says, laughing. “I moved a lot. I have a diverse background and have had many different life experiences. And I always thought it would be more of an (autobiography) at some point, not really a cookbook. But it’s special that I get to share a bit of my story through recipes.”
Banackissa became vegan in 2017 and, at the time, didn’t know any others besides her now-husband, artist Sam Mckinnon. She started reinventing her culinary style, incorporating flavours she had enjoyed before becoming vegan and trying new cooking techniques and recipes.
She learned how to cook by adapting other people’s recipes to her preferences and took the same approach to veganism. For the first couple of years, she experimented with recipes from other plant-based creators, such as Niagara-based cookbook author Laura Wright of The First Mess and Dana Shultz, a recipe developer and co-author of the Minimalist Baker. She played with ingredients she hadn’t worked with before, such as nutritional yeast, and made cheese from cashews. (Banackissa shares a nut-free ricotta in the book).
“Slowly but surely, I created my own identity and felt more comfortable adapting recipes I grew up eating to veganism. And the more you have successful results, the more it encourages you to keep going.”
Banackissa was born in Pointe-noire, a coastal city in Congo, to a Russian-ukrainian mother and a Congolese father. She moved to Canada with her family when she was eight years old. Studying international business at Concordia University, she had never considered working in the food industry. It wasn’t until a friend asked her to take photos for his ice cream company that her passion for photography materialized into a career.
After she graduated from Concordia, she started pitching clients to see how far she could take her photography. As her business grew, she began offering other services, such as recipe development. “I fell in love with creating my own recipes,” says Banackissa. “A lot of people who write cookbooks start with a blog, and then they develop their photography. For me, it was the other way around. Photography was the first thing.”
Even before she started a career in food, it had always been a source of comfort and a way to show love to the people in her life. In Savoring, Banackissa shares recipes that mean the most to her and her family — dishes she grew up with, such as her mom Olga’s borscht and the saka saka she enjoyed at her dad Cyrille’s church gatherings, which she veganized or put a twist on.
Take Olivier salad, a dish that originated in the Russian Empire and is now popular worldwide (especially in former Soviet countries), which typically includes fish, meat or poultry. Olga used to add ham to the diced potatoes, carrots, apples, hard-boiled eggs, pickles and peas before pouring on a mayonnaisebased dressing. When Banackissa started following a plant-based diet, she adapted it to capture the same flavour and spirit, minus the ham, and shares a vegan version in the book.
Since Banackissa became vegan seven years ago, she’s noticed a rise in plant-based content in general, as well as more culturally diverse food bloggers and recipe developers.
“Now we have creators like Afia Amoako, The Canadian African, making Ghanaian vegan food, which is awesome. Or someone like Lisa Kitahara from Okonomi Kitchen. She’s making Japanese vegan food, which is great. That’s what excites me: having this diversity entering the scene. And just being exposed to all types of food because, initially, it was a little bit more difficult to find these recipes — especially in the mainstream,” says Banackissa. “I love finding inspiration in other cultures and other ways of cooking. That’s how I’ve grown my skills in the kitchen, and I continue to do that. Two thousand and twenty-four is a very exciting time in food.”