Chef Doug McNish began cooking at the age of 15 and immediately fell in love with the kitchen, which he describes as an environment like no other in the world. At the age of 21 he had ballooned up to 270 pounds and needed to make a change in his life. After watching a video of how animals are treated in slaughter houses and learning to understand health and nutrition, he became a vegetarian and 6 months later a vegan. He lost almost 100 pounds and completely changed the direction of his career. He went from working the grill at The Air Canada Centre to tossing salads in Kensington Market, which he considers to be the best choice he ever made. He is now the Executive Chef of Raw Aura (94 Lakeshore Road East, Mississauga).
What inspired you to become a chef?
I fell in love with cooking because of the honest hard work, creativity, teamwork and the ability to make people happy by feeding them. I knew I would never be out if a job, because everyone has to eat right?
Ask chef Martin Kouprie the secret of his culinary success and he’ll tell you that it’s a love of fresh food. This passion for freshness and an understanding of the science of cooking allow him to create menus and recipes that celebrate the magnificence of each season’s harvest. Although local ingredients hold centre stage in Kouprie’s cooking, he also views his pantry through the lens of the latest food trends. As a result, Kouprie’s fans come to 
Adam Baxter was born in Montreal but grew up in Burlington, Ontario. Throughout high school and university he cooked to make ends meet with a career in the hospitality industry far from his mind. Upon graduation from university he couldn’t really land a satisfying job so he returned to the kitchen and has not been away from the stove since. He moved to Toronto in 2007 and has been the executive chef at 
Greg and I once had this idea to do an anonymous blog about events and restaurant openings. We were going to call it Hors D’oeuvres For Dinner and it was going to chronicle the weird and bizarre things we find ourselves at while writing for TasteTO. Like the event at the hotel where the PR lady was in the lobby having a nervous breakdown because the hotel didn’t shut down regular restaurant service for the media event and she couldn’t tell the paying customers from her media guests. Or the things where you show up, expecting dinner based on the wording of the invitation only to end up eating a couple of canapés and too much wine (hence the title). We never followed through with it because we figured everyone in the food community would eventually figure out it was us, and because we already get in enough trouble for calling people on their crap as it is. But sometimes, there are events so bizarre or “fail” that they need recounting. This is one of those.
