The Newsroom
Q&A: Amy Rosen, author of “Toronto Eats”
Amy Rosen is an award-winning journalist and cookbook author who writes regularly for publications such as enRoute, Food & Wine, and Food & Drink magazines. She is the former food editor at Chatelaine and House & Home magazines, has been a columnist for The Globe & Mail and National Post newspapers, and has been nominated for a James Beard award. Amy is the author of the bestseller Toronto Cooks and the newly released follow-up cookbook, Toronto Eats. She recently launched Rosen’s Cinnamon Buns.
How do you normally start your day?
I drink a glass of room temperature water, pull the shades open, watch the squirrels nimbly cross the power lines for a minute or so, then I go downstairs to pull an espresso and steam some milk.
What are you reading at the moment?
Karen Von Hahn’s What Remains. It’s such a great memoir, and mimics my childhood in Toronto in the 1980s, though Karen definitely had a much fancier childhood.
What’s your favourite go-to ingredient?
Red pepper flakes.
What food is your guilty pleasure?
There are no guilty pleasures. Just pleasurable pleasures. And that would be chocolate. It’s what I think about the most each day.
Who has influenced your cooking the most?
Lately, TV shows like Chopped, because I feel like they subconsciously push me to find a way to make the miss-matched ingredients in my fridge, like dukkah, roasted beets and halloumi, work.
Is there a food you can’t bring yourself to eat?
Caraway seeds. They ruin everything.
The thing I love about Toronto is…
If I walk, north, south, east or west, within 10 minutes of my house I can sit down at a restaurant and eat the best meal I’ve had in ages, just about every night.