Rose Murray

It should come as no surprise that Rose Murray’s latest book, A Taste of Canada: A Culinary Journey, includes many references to Waterloo region. Not only because Murray herself lives in Cambridge, but because, as she recently told me, this area holds an important place in the overall food culture of our country.

“It came naturally,” she said of including references to her home region in the book, like shout-outs to Barrie’s asparagus farm and Cambridge’s Portuguese groceries, and a recipe inspired by a breakfast pizza made at the U of W School of Architecture’s cafe.

“It’s not that I tried to make it important,” said Murray, who’s currently touring around Western Canada promoting the book. “Waterloo region definitely has prime agricultural land. It’s one of the best growing areas around. It’s a great food area. There’s the influence of German settlers and we’ve even got the fun things that come from the population of Newfoundlanders in Cambridge.”

Murray, who got her start writing about food for an Owen Sound weekly newspaper when her children were small, has written for a variety of national publications over the years, including the Globe and Mail and Canadian Living. She’s published several cookbooks and for years has appeared every month on CTV Kitchener’s noon show, talking about seasonal ingredients, where to get them and how to use them.

A Taste of Canada is a book, she said, that “it was about time” she wrote -- one that decidedly celebrates our homegrown cooking and ingredients. “We’re modest about what we have in the way of resources and the ideas that we have that come from other countries,” she said.

The book is traditionally organized by category (fish, desserts, vegetables, etc.); each recipe is prefaced by a chatty, anecdotal intro that reveals its Canadian roots. There are also menus included (A Midsummer Grill, A Prairie Brunch) and stories and features about Canuck regions and ingredients.

The tome wouldn’t have been complete, she said, without a contribution from her late friend and Waterloo region legend Edna Staebler, whose summer fruit shortcake recipe is included in the book.

“She was one of the first journalists in Canada to talk about the Mennonites and local food and regional food,” Murray said. “There were others, but she was one of the first, and she really brought Waterloo region to near mythical status in terms of cuisine.”

Murray grew up on a farm near Collingwood where the family grew their own vegetables, raised their own meat, and otherwise sustained themselves on what was grown around home. That upbringing has influenced her philosophies about food, including a desire to eat seasonal, local foods.
But, she said, just as her family purchased sugar and other imported ingredients when she was a child, she feels it’s important to supplement those foods we can find locally with treats that come from afar.

“I don’t think we should only have local ingredients,” she said. “I think that trend is here to stay -- I hope so. It’s good to support local farmers, for sure, and fresh food is more nutritious if it doesn’t have to be imported. But we shouldn’t deprive ourselves of those wonderful things like mango or chocolate or coffee, either.”

Though she’s travelled across Canada throughout her life, doing so while doing researching the book reinforced for her just how diverse our food cultures are from region to region, whether they’re innate or borrowed from immigrants.

“It’s time we had a few more books that celebrated our good food and the culture we have here,” said Murray. “It’s so diverse. Every region has something different about it. We wanted to have a book that gave Canadians a taste of their own food.”
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