Your book is based on comfort food ingredients. What’s the feeling that these ingredients evoke for you?
A quick feel-good moment. A no-brain approach to food. Uncomplicated nurturing.
The ingredients highlighted in your book also showcase Old World (bacon, butter) and New World (Bourbon, chocolate). Was that a deliberate choice?
Not at all. Actually, bacon probably originated in ancient China and was brought to Europe by merchants. Those four ingredients are my go-to, feel-good foods.
When you’re not in the kitchen, where are you and what are you doing?
Single Dad raising a teenage boy, hiking with my dog, skiing in winter, traveling, already working on my third book. Looking for toys from the 1960s and 1970s (I have got a large selection).
Most memorable meal?
Those Michelin star dinners that were supposed to be memorable always ended up being disappointing and very expensive. My most memorable meals are made of tiny moments of inexpensive but meaningful meals and foods from the streets of Kyoto, to small places in Scarborough, and mom-and-pop places in Richmond, B.C.
Food philosophy?
I don’t really have one. Food should be treated with respect. We tend to glorify food through fancy restaurants, expensive dining experiences, ego-driven chefs, news and stories. A lot of people struggle to put food on their table every day, kids go to school on an empty stomach, right here in Canada. I try to remind myself of this every day.
Did you grow up baking or cooking with your Mom or grandmother?
I grew up with my Grandma Louise, she was Italian. I spent a lot of time with her in the kitchen. We made some very tasty tomato sauce using only tomato paste mixed with the water. We used to cook the pasta. Add some garlic, olive oil, salt, thyme and reduce it slowly. It makes the best tomato sauce, on the cheap. My Grandpa’s kitchen time was more about “kitchen projects” like buying a whole pig’s head to make head cheese.
Recipe and photograph reprinted with permission from The Bacon Butter, Bourbon & Chocolate Cookbook by Bruno Feldeisen, published by Whitecap Books, © 2024. Photography by Henry M Wu.
This original article first appeared in the SPRING 2025 issue of City Style and Living Magazine.
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