Hello George and Linda. Can you briefly introduce yourselves?
George has a few passions: collecting art, cooking and travelling. He is a former news executive, reporter and editor - having worked throughout Canada, parts of the U.S., Ireland and Latin America.
Linda is a former office manager and accountant. She loves reading and cooking, especially lunch and breakfast, she does them all. Her specialty - repurposing dinner leftovers and making a delicious lunch.
Both live in Vancouver, B.C. , Canada’s idyllic mountain and seaside spot and we write a Substack publication called George's Kitchen.
Q. How would you describe the layout of your kitchen, its history and how it was designed? And how much of a role does it play with your family, and when writing and testing recipes for your newsletter?
Our kitchen is small and had been renovated along with the apartment when we bought it eight years ago. The kitchen is well organized and laid out. Everything is available readily - within hands reach - and easy to get to.
Our approach to writing and testing recipes is simple. First thing in the morning we ask each other - what should we have for dinner tonight. We decide mainly on the criteria of bold, strong flavours and what we have available in the fridge and or freezer. But often we are spontaneous-seeing a recipe or watching a cooking show and then it becomes, “let’s try that instead” that means going out and getting some of the ingredients.
We love big, bold flavours, especially Asian dishes, and fish.
The fish we either buy from a great fishmonger at an outstanding public food market - a 10 minute walk from our place - or straight from the fishing boats that bring in a fresh catch daily, a 20 minute drive.
Chicken, is our favourite because of its versatility, and we both are mindful of a Julia Child dictum - “You don't have to cook fancy or complicated masterpieces—just good food from fresh ingredients."
I cook most of our dinners. Prepping the food starts mid morning or early afternoon and is essential.
It can take anywhere from one to two hours because 95 per cent of everything we cook is fresh and homemade.
That takes time.
If you don’t prep - you get bogged down later when it’s time to start cooking. During the prep period, there is a lot of to and fro between Linda and I.
Let’s say we have agreed to a chicken dish that needs to be marinated. I will put a testing marinade together - taste it, add more ingredients, and taste again.
Then when I think it’s good, Linda will taste it, and then that’s it, or I will add more ingredients till both of us think it’s good.
And an important perspective-there are two things that are most important in cooking: technique and balance.
Technique means you know how to cook a steak medium-rare and not well done or cook pork chops that are juicy, not dry.
Balance is the art of ensuring all your flavours come together like the sounds of a great symphony orchestra.
For example, if you are using a glaze that calls for honey and mustard - you have to make sure one ingredient does not overpower the other one. They have to be in harmony and the only way to achieve that is to taste it as you are making it and adjusting the combinations.
Q. What are your favourite and most used kitchen gadgets?
My favourite, most used, things in the kitchen are several sharp knives, and that’s it.
Q. George - Your passion for food and cooking began while you were a reporter for a Vancouver newspaper. Can you tell us more about that?
Working at the newspaper meant I would be finished at 3:30 in the afternoon, and the walk to our apartment was a mere 10 minutes. Linda would not be home from work till 5:30.
I soon discovered I needed to do something with myself and cooking was the answer.
I started off slowly, but eventually, it reached the point where I did all the dinners and loved it, especially after I started taking cooking classes at night school and others given by various well known Vancouver chefs.
Cooking became a passion to the point when we travelled I always tried to incorporate a cooking class or two.
So that saw me cooking in Bangkok and several places in Mexico.
I still take the occasional class, and the last one was Vietnamese.
But I am fussy - all classes have to be hands on. A class where the chef talks and shows you “how” is not my cup of tea.
Q. How have your travels around the world influenced the way you both cook?
Our cooking has become more adventuresome, Korean Vietnamese, Thai, Japanese, Spanish, and Mexican.
The food from those countries is bold and flavoursome using simple ingredients and inexpensive to make.
Q. How would you describe the regional cuisine where you live in Vancouver, Canada? Are there fresh food markets or farmers’ markets available?
Our regional cuisine is heavily influenced by our seaside location.
Lots of fresh seafood is now being used, which once was not even available because there was no demand for it.
But the heavy influx into Greater Vancouver of Chinese, South Asians, Filipino’s, Latin Americans, changed all that. These communities showcased their seafood and their own dishes in their restaurants, and the word spread - you gotta go there and try them.
Every community in the Greater Vancouver area has a farmers market and we love shopping there, the fresh produce, home baked goods, available weekly. Many of them feature entertainment so shopping becomes a great outing. As well, there are plenty of food trucks on site, many with seating, all of which make shopping and eating at a farmers market fun.
Q. What is the one thing your kitchen is missing that you would love to have?
We have downsized, and our kitchen is quite small, whereas previously, we had kitchens with islands in them. In one, we had an amazing indoor grill, which was amazing. That I miss big time.
Q. What tips can you give us that will help keep our kitchens neat, tidy, and easy to manage?
It’s quite simple. Do your prep well in advance of when you start to cook.
And when you do something - clean up immediately once done and put all your ingredients away.
Salad dressings are a good example. We always make our own.
I get all the ingredients and utensils, make the dressing and then put the ingredients away with the utensils going into the dishwasher. If you don’t do that, you have a super messy kitchen and cleaning up becomes a Herculean and distasteful task.
Q. How many cookbooks do you have, and what are your favourites?
I used to have a slew of them but gave them all away. Right now I have four of them - Julia Child, Jamie Oliver, Mario Batali, Jacques Pepin-Julia Child.
The Julia Child one - From Julia’s Kitchen - is my favourite. It was my first cookbook. I got it as a birthday present more than 60 years ago and I treasure it because I learned a lot from it. That book ignited my cooking passion - the start of a life -long cooking journey.
Q. Do you have a recipe that is suitable for a quick and easy family meal?
*Shrimp Bowl with Noodles. The combination is terrific - succulent shrimp, noodles, and different veggies, all bathed in a terrific light, flavoursome sauce.
How To Make Your *Chicken Thighs Dinner with a Maple Syrup and Chilli Flakes Glaze.
*Pork loin with a sweet glaze, juicy, with pasta - a great dinner, a snap to cook.
Q. Is there anything else you would like to add about you and your kitchen?
It’s amazing what you can accomplish in a small kitchen such as ours. Everything you need is right there for you, but you need to be vigilant about cleaning up as you go, especially in our small kitchen.
Please Note: All images are the copyright of George and Linda.
Thank you for sharing your kitchen with us, George and Linda. Visit and subscribe to George’s Kitchen.
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