We’re Edan & Denise, and we are the first and only vegetarian contributors to this blog. How awesome is that you ask? Pretty freakin’ awesome we’d say! We’ve both been vegetarian (voluntarily) for more than fifteen years, and you may be surprised to know that we are not hippies, neither of us wears patchouli and we don’t live on salads and tofu alone…..Wuh? We’re also not meat-nazis, so you can rest assured we won’t freak out if someone at our table happens to order the veal. That being said, we bet we can give you some pretty delicious reasons for eating vegetarian, at least every once in a while.

In 1999, a nasty 3-day experience brought on by questionable Turkish pizza in the town of Goreme left Kevin with a stomach of steel. Ever since, he has fearlessly roamed the globe in search of its finer culinary offerings. And whether it is iguana curry from the street stalls of Malaysia, deep fried scorpion on a stick (pictured above) at the Beijing Night Market, or six course extravaganzas in the bistros of Paris, he has rarely been disappointed. Settling in Vancouver, with its incredible mix of ethnic offerings and consistent high end West Coast cuisine seemed like an obvious choice. He has since taken to translating his global experiences into gastronomic creations of his own out of his modest galley kitchen. At night, he dreams of gas appliances.

Andrea Busse has had years of experience eating and creating extraordinary and wonderful foods. Coming from a Chinese/Filipino/Polish/American background, she has an adventurous upbringing where no food was too strange to eat. She should have known something was up in elementary school when no one wanted to trade lunches with her. Perhaps bringing liverwurst sandwiches wasn’t the best way to make friends. For Andrea, creating a meal starts with perusing cookbooks, walking to Commercial Drive to find the freshest of ingredients, and then putting together the most organized mise en place that you’ve ever seen. (The little white ramekins are the best invention!) In recent years, she has discovered that many of those dishes that were perceived as ‘too difficult’ to attempt really aren’t that hard at all! Cooking just takes a bit of patience, prep, and creativity.

Mark first developed a respect and passion for food at home where his father was the family’s primary cook. Despite having spent much of his formative years sweating over grills and prep stations; he still has a love for kitchens and the culinary arts. Some of Mark’s favourite things are his pots, pans and various kitchen gadgets. Known affectionately as Mr. Stitches, Mark is also fond of his collection of knives, which he frequently uses to nip the end of his fingers with - so be careful if he makes you a “red sauce”. Mark has observed how many fellow artists and designers share a passion for creating, discovering and enjoying good food and wine. He compares cooking to fine art, with the palate serving as canvas and fresh ingredients as paint. Interested in all aspects of the culinary arts, Mark travels as often as possible, exploring different cultures and their cuisine with the joy of discovery. Favourite food style so far? Anything Asian. Or French. Or, wait, Italian. Mark Busse is a founding principal and Design Director at Industrial Brand Creative in Vancouver, BC. He and his business partner Ben occasionally daydream of one day opening a small restaurant of their own, but quickly dismiss the notion recalling how much hard work the restaurant business is. Perhaps one day…

Lex’s culinary adventures started early one Sunday morning, when she decided to make her parents scrambled eggs in an electric skillet. Ingredients? 1 dozen eggs, 1lb of butter, 1 bottle of soya sauce. Luckily the skillet was off. So was breakfast. However, her love of greasy spoon breakfasts was born that fateful morning. Lex started working in the food industry at the age of 5, selling organic vegetables in the Saint John city market. By 13 she was working in her first professional kitchen. She wrote her first cookbook, exclusively for friends and family, in 2000. Waitressing her way through a BMath, Lex leveraged her resulting high tech career to subsidize eating her way through the finest restaurants and diviest dives everywhere she went. Saturday mornings were spent chasing down the best greasy spoon breakfasts and lunch hours were consumed searching for Chinatown’s best char sui fun and dim sum. Finally Lex decided it was time to merge her worlds of business, technology and food to create and publish the CheapEats Restaurant Guide Series. With over 12,000 copies sold of CheapEats Toronto & CheapEats Ottawa, Vancouver and Montreal are next in line for CheapEats guides of their own. On the side, Lex cooks, blogs, and continues to pursue her other fascinations: business and technology.

Colin is a very well-read waiter who works at one of the city’s finest restaurants. Favourite food style so far? Anything Asian. Or French. Or, wait, Italian.” And let’s see, Hungarian food is pretty good, and the delicacies of Russia not far behind. Not overly fond of Inuit cuisine (raw whale blubber upsets my stomach, as does raw walrus blubber - I guess only they can tell the difference), but those Scandinavians are onto something. Ethiopian food’s pretty good, and I like the sausage and pyrogie school of Polish cuisine as well….Let’s just say that if you’re cooking, I’m interested. Or if I’m cooking. My love of food is deep and abiding…

Once Ben was old enough to eat dinner at various friends’ homes he came to realize that his parents had set the food standards bar very high. This set the stage for Ben’s love of eating good cooking. In fact, an impromptu dinner at a Filipino friend’s house was probably one of his earliest experiences with Asian cuisine and began his pursuit of authentic food experiences. A stint as a bus boy at a local, family-run Italian restaurant completely turned him off a career as a food service whipping boy, but inspired a passion for cooking. Ben has been accused of travelling with his stomach. And it’s true, his foreign adventures are filled with a desire is to experience cultures through their food. Other accusations include hoarding of condiments, a proliferation of kitchen gadgets (though he’s prone to enjoying traditional French food preparation techniques) and an unhealthy obsession with the maintenance of said gadgets; especially his pots, pans and knives. His favourite ethnic cuisine it a tough choice, but currently Malaysian warms his heart most dearly. His secret weapon: white truffle oil. Ben Garfinkel is a founding principal and Creative Director at Industrial Brand Creative in Vancouver, BC. He’s had many dining experiences that led him to believe he could do much better, however, he’s under no illusion that entering the restaurant business is a good idea no matter how romantic the notion.

Erin´s joy of cooking started early: cooking and baking badges in Brownies, tuna melts in grade 8 home-ec and bizarre casserole combinations in Foods 11. From these humble beginnings, her culinary explorations have evolved. Her home in Vancouver is a gateway for a gastronomic exploration of the Pacific Rim and beyond. When not in Vancouver, Erin travels as much as possible, visiting wine regions and searching for the best in local cuisine.

One of Steve’s food theories, cheese goes well with everything, was recently put to the test when a late night all you can eat sushi restaurant offered cheese sticks. Surprisingly the dishes complimented themselves (though it was a late night all you can eat joint which often alters reality. Though cheese can go with sushi the prefer option is a medium rare filet mignon, wrapped in bacon with melted blue cheese.

In a case of mistaken identity, Matt was serving time in San Quentin. Eventually he got friendly with one of the guards. Soon after, a transfer from laundry duty to the kitchen was fast tracked. After a nasty outbreak of botulism in Cell Block C, the head prison chef was found in the East Yard - knifed through heart. Matt was promoted. The picture was clear, don’t screw with the inmate intestinal track avoid a toe tag. Matt has loved the kitchen ever since. He has yet to poison anyone. Perhaps Matt’s most helpful trait when preparing a meal is a willingness to completely screw it up. Very often you have to blow it before you get it right. Which is why he likes to make sure plenty of wine is on hand should things go horribly wrong. His appreciation of cooking lies very much in the belief that the journey is the reward. He is currently enjoying the challenge of preparing family meals that expose his two-year old son to the joy of food.

Sirloin, Round, Tenderloin, and T-bone were common names around the Smith family dinner table, a place where the finest cuts of moose, deer, and elk were only footsteps away and the process from forest to flame was refined through years of skillful practice. Todd’s love of the culinary arts was and is not strictly limited to red meat, as his tastes have developed from a confused child who always had a full supply of Frank’s Red Hot Sauce, to a young man who is committed to the finest ingredients, knowing exactly when and where to make a slice or add a spice in everything from fish to fowl.

Although I still prefer to eat Kraft Dinner, my culinary experience has brought me into the world of such oddities as ‘fresh produce’, and ‘hand made pasta’. Strange times indeed. I love to cook for myself with a keen eye on getting away from packaged products and paint by numbers recipes and just enjoy the experience of cooking.

Jeremy Thorp is perhaps the hippest propeller-head you’ll ever meet. A former geneticist and part-time rock star, Jeremy is a Flash designer, instructor and digital artist from Vancouver, Canada. For Jeremy, “crafting code”, for him, “is just like making art or composing music”. Jer travels extensively speaking at conferences around the world, following his nose and stomach while on his globetrotting adventures. Blprnt.com, Jeremy’s unique collection of organic Flash experiments and generative artworks, has won numerous awards and has been featured in many design magazines both online and in print.

Mike knows three recipes, and two of them are listed on the back of the kraft dinner box (the third is for chocolate chip cookies). He eats cereal at least twice a day. He doesn´t know how to grocery shop. So WHY, you ask, is Mike anywhere near this food blog? Well, Mike doesn´t know how to cook, but he DOES love to eat. Mike grew up in a house filled with amazing cuisine (with a Mum with a flair for desserts), and as a result he has developed a keen appreciation for all things delicious. Secondly, Mike is going to LEARN how to cook - and use this blog to document his culinary (mis)adventures as he goes. A scary prospect to be sure, so hold on tight.

The love of good literature, Japanese cartoons, cheesy British films and delicious food experiences is what brought my husband and I together to boldly go to fine dining establishments near and far for the pursuit of…aw, c’mon we just love to eat. Period. My love of food started with the Food Network and numerous trips to Europe & Japan. (Experiencing what I lovingly call my accidental order of a bowl of phelgm with sashimi on top. The loogeyfest was a mountain tuber that gets gluey as you grate it. I forget the name of it but now that I think of it, it was more like that goopy creme for eczema.) Since then I’ve bought every issue of Everyday Food, spent 2 hours at Barbara Jo’s on a single visit, read all of Anthony Bourdain’s books, obsess about al dente noodles or fresh ramen, watched every UK Gordon Ramsay series, attended a 2 day tasting session for the summer 2008 edition of Sobey’s Inspired food magazine, completed said art direction of that same issue that gave me 2 complete weeks to eat my way around Toronto (photos of my experiences at Susur, Terroni’s, Batifole & Jamie Kennedy’s Wine Bar to come), and savored what must have been a $35 bowl of eel chirashi in Osaka and a $100 meal of fish & chips at Geales in London….and thought they were both worth it. People ask me why I run? For my health, for my sanity, to cleanse toxins from my body, to be around for my son when he needs love advice and, so I can eat. Period. I’m a Senior Designer and Art Director living and (always) designing in Vancouver, BC. Check out where the awards came from at www.nancywudesign.com. Btw, my favorite food movies are Eat Drink Man Woman and Tampopo.