This was my first cookbook and it’s a beauty. I wrote the Toronto Star Cookbook: More Than 150 Diverse & Delicious Recipes Celebrating Ontario for Appetite by Random House in 2013 after spending 15 years ensconced in a newsroom test kitchen as the Toronto Star food editor and award-winning Saucy Lady columnist. I was a pro at exploring Toronto’s untapped multicultural food scene and so this book boasts recipes from more than two dozen cultures, including Chinese noodles, Indian dosas, Korean rice bowls, Mexican soup, Lebanese dips, Ethiopian beans and Vietnamese subs. There are classic comfort food dishes, too, and 25 reader’s choice favourites. Overseeing the photo shoot — executed by a studio photographer, food stylist and prop stylist — was a thrill. It was an honour to be shortlisted for three cookbook awards, and win one of them.