Amber
Amber is a food enthusiast who has worn many different culinary hats.
In the 80’s, she apprenticed in summer camp kitchens and began her love affair with feeding large groups of people. She also explored the vegetarian lifestyle and discovered that the food industry at the time, lacked good choices for non-meat-eaters. Instead of doing something about it, she blissfully went back to eating meat and has never looked back.
During the first Gulf War, she moved to Germany to attend school and expanded on her love for foreign food. She lived in the Blackforest, near Freiburg, and explored both the food and drink of the area. While abroad, she travelled both continental Europe and the British Isles and exposed herself to all of it’s delicacies. . .tongue and Black Forest cake in Germany, crepes and madeleines in France, the chocolate of the Swiss, Mozart’s marzipan confections in Austria, pasta in Italy, dairy heaven and pastries in Holland and scones with clotted cream in Great Britain, to name a few.
After returning home from her travels, she pursued the outdoors and discovered new ways to enjoy cooking food. Whether over a fire in Algonquin Park, on a portage with a canoe or as a petty officer while sailing a 74 foot brigantine sail ship, Amber rose to the culinary occasion. Portability was the name of the game throughout this time and food that were smaller in size but bigger in sheer food value won her heart. Perhaps the beginning of learning about quality and not quantity?
On March 14, 1990 , the Congress of People’s Deputies elected Mikael Gorbachev to a five-year term as president of the U.S.S.R. and Amber found herself, that very day, in Moscow in Red Square at Lenin’s tomb. It was a historic day for the world and the people of Russia. It was a day that shaped Amber in ways that are still being revealed. McDonald’s had just opened in the city and there was an air of expectation for Russia’s future, albeit uncertain. The food that surrounded her on her travels pushed the boundaries of what she had experienced before. Fat Soup, a most memorable consomme with large pieces of un-rendered pork fat, freeze dried ice cream that was cool to the palate yet would not melt and cheese, unusual, yet creamy and sweet. It was only years later, after the iron curtain fell, that she began to realize what a day it had been and what a tremendous opportunity to travel to that country before it was popular to do so. Although the trip was actually about history, and art and culture, there were many culinary delicacies that shaped her palate in Russia.
As the 90’s continued, they brought about more change for Amber. It was when she fell in love with her husband. They met in the little town of St. Stephen’s New Brunswick, the birthplace of Canada’s largest chocolatier, Ganong. While at university there, she became widely known as the baker of cookies and treats. It was also where she began to bake special occasion cakes for friends.
After marrying in ‘93, Amber and her husband moved to the U.S.. Arizona, to be exact, and Amber began to master Southwestern cuisine, which, to this day, remains a favorite of hers. It was also in Arizona, through her church work and training, she became most interested in working with women. Catering also became a fascination of hers and she befriended a catering and conference manager from a large, high-end hotel. This friendship was a turning point in her love for food and inspired her to train and hone her skills.
From then on, Amber became a student of food. Whether taking workshops, practicing techniques or going to the library and pouring over books, she never relented in her quest for culinary knowledge. As her knowledge increased, her ability to be creative with food did as well. She worked with a frozen beverage company in Phoenix and also toured the southern U.S. states doing trade shows to promote the beverages her company sold. She also found herself becoming a personal support care worker for an elderly couple that needed 24 hour care. She cooked and cleaned and did therapy each day with them and fell into a routine of keeping their home and loving them though their limitations. It was a time of travels and trials, a definitive foreshadowing of what turns were to come.
After 5 years in the U.S., she returned to Canada and was dealt a devastating blow when her mother was diagnosed with cancer. This news seemed to stop her creativity towards food and she transitioned her passions into painting and the visual arts. As her mother recovered from both surgery and radiation treatment, Amber felt it important to explore alternative health and wellness as well; anything to help explain the cancer that seemed to attack her mother without warning. So, she painted day and at night, became a student of alternative medicine. Oddly enough, the more she explored the ancient practices of healing, the more she recognized that this path was leading her back to her love for food. It was a serendipity moment.
It was also the moment she and her husband decided to start a family and they celebrated the arrival of their first daughter.
Now, professionally, she struggled to find her place throughout this time. An opportunity to plan a friends wedding arose and she threw herself into the activity of it all. It was a great way to use her creativity and love of entertaining to help out. And, it was a tremendous success.So, was she destined to pursue wedding planning as a career?
We’ll never know, as an opportunity to move the Costa Rica came up and she and her husband ‘jumped’ at the chance. She found herself living on the beach in Playa Del Coco and working as a pastry chef for a local Internet cafe. There were brownies to bake and cookies to perfect. It was also a great opportunity to explore the food of the country.
Her first year in Costa Rica was spent on the beach, in the sand and the dust, buying her groceries along the roadsides and in the ‘Super Luperon’, Playa Del Coco’s only food store at the time. The art of butchering meat became a necessity as most cuts of chicken, pork and beef were unrecognizable in C.R.. Being forced to deconstruct the animals, muscle by muscle, afforded Amber an immense education.
The food itself in Costa Rica, was the finest she had ever seen. The variety of fruits and vegetables paramount. She used these varieties to write many recipes and expand her creativity. Her second year in the country had her move to the capital city and take up a tremendous volunteer work load in the largest English speaking church. When it came time to move back to Canada, the food of C.R. was the hardest thing to leave behind.
Where to go from there? Back to Canada to start all over again in a new city and new province. Alberta seemed to call her name and so she and her husband and daughter settled in Calgary: home of Alberta beef, cowboys and the pancake breakfast.
Calgary was a great experience. Amber attached herself immediately to a large ministry opportunity at a local church and became an integral part of it. As that role evolved, it became apparent that many of the women who were involved in that ministry had a desire to learn how to cook; or at least cook better. It was there that her cooking classes were born.
At it’s heights, Amber’s cooking classes in Calgary were every week and taught 80-100 people each month. The menus ranged from the traditional to the absurd and reflected both Amber’s simple cooking style and her students requests. Most of her classes were taught in her home, a large open concept bungalow that could accommodate up to 20 students in her kitchen at once. Each class was 3 hours in length and included 8-10 recipes. Every participant came hungry as the group watched Amber cook and serve a full 4 course meal from scratch each time. This was also the time that Amber was encouraged by her students, to develop her spice mixes. Amber had always blended her own and used them in her everyday cooking but her clients wanted them for their own kitchens and thus, the spice mixes were born.
At this same time, Amber managed her catering career and used many of her students as helpers. The learning was rich and the experience positive for her. She felt grounded and content in her calling as a teacher and her students flourished their culinary skills under her tutelage.
At this time, she and her husband decided to expand their family and welcomed their second daughter. Although her arrival was celebrated, it brought dramatic change to their lives and the cooking school was halted. A move was in the air and when their newest child was still under 3 months of age, the family moved to Victoria, BC to follow a job and be closer to family.
It is in Victoria where she now sits, cooking, teaching and raising her family. Although her journey has been long and her experiences vast, she still pushes herself to learn and do more. Blogging is now a part of that journey and she looks forward to what is around the next corner of her life. Food fascinates her in it’s ability to nourish and nurture. As a result, it will always be of the utmost importance to her. It is something to steward not to schlep!