Posted by Sheryl Kirby in food blogger profile, on the web on February 24, 2008 at 4:39 pm

Blog name?
Fear and Loathing in the Kitchen

When did you start your blog?
June, 2006

How did you come up with the name?
It had been floating around in my head for a few months as a book title, but decided to use it for my blog instead. At the time, I was battling what I thought was food addiction, so fear and loathing pretty much summed up how I was feeling about food and eating.

Does your blog have a specific focus or area of coverage?
It started out as an outlet for my frustration with trying to lose weight and my seeming addiction to food (all starchy carbs). Then I read about low-carbing and discovered I was gluten-intolerant, possibly celiac. Once I stopped eating gluten grains, all my addictive eating tendencies vanished – totally vanished (along with a host of other health issues that I’d thought were “normal”). Since then, the focus has been on low-carb/paleo and/or gluten-free eating, local eating, and the misinformation we’ve all been spoon-fed by mainstream media and, in many cases, the scientific community, about food and nutrition. Bashing the low-fat myth is not only fun but, since Gary Taubes’ book came out, it’s getting downright trendy! About time, too.

Where do you get the ideas for the topics you cover in your blog?
They generally come from my everyday experience and/or articles, studies and other blogs I’ve read, or conversations I’ve had online in various diet forums.

What is your favourite post that you’ve written?
Oh man! I’d have to say “My Psyche and I Debate Carbs” and “Sexy Food”, written in July and August 2006, respectively. Wait…that’s two.

What is your favourite thing to cook? To eat?
Well, that used to be lasagna and poutine! Now, it’s stews with homemade bone broths, and steak with blue cheese butter. I could eat steak every day of the week and never get tired of it. Chicken wings are a close second. If I can figure out a good low-carb poutine though, look out.

Favourite kitchen utensil/gadget?
My meat grinder!

Name a famous person you’d love to cook dinner for.
Celeb chef Gordon Ramsay. He’d hate it, of course, but he is the one person whose abuse I would willingly take.

If you could only eat one food for the rest of your life, what would it be?
Big, juicy T-bones – with a nice, thick layer of fat, of course, and smothered in melted butter.

Tell us about your best and worst dining experiences.
The best – I was invited to a party at a Tibetan restaurant, because I’d interviewed the owner and chef for a local paper when the Dalai Lama was visiting Toronto (the chef had cooked for him several times). I was expecting a somber event, with incense and Buddhist chanting. What I got was a raucous bash –booze was flowing, bands were rocking, dancing went all night long! I had, hands-down, the BEST beef stew of my life at that party. Rich, meaty, layer upon layer of flavour. Tibetans can take the simplest of dishes and make them special.

The worst – my fella and I decided to try out our neighbourhood’s latest pub. I took along my trusty celiac dining cards, and showed the server exactly what I could and couldn’t have. She seemed quite knowledgeable about the whole gluten issue and promised me she’d alert the kitchen. We ordered, and settled in to wait. And wait. And wait. It took 30 minutes to get our drinks – an hour to get appetizers. When they finally arrived, I was starving and dove in to my cornmeal-breaded pan-fried cheese – and immediately realized they hadn’t been pan-fried, but deep-fried. This is after I’d specifically told the server that I couldn’t have anything deep fried, due to the fact that they fry gluten foods in their fryer (battered fish, etc). They comped our food but we left without eating anything else.

A close second was last summer in DC, filming a documentary – I was staying at a dorm with students undergoing training with Greenpeace, and almost all of the food was either coated in wheat or vegan and full of soy, which I also can’t have. I made do one evening with a bowl of peas covered in salad dressing. Turned out the dressing was full of soybean oil. Not fun.

Name some of your favourite food bloggers.
Regina Wiltshire, the Drs. Eades (Protein Power), The Migraineur, Hyperlipid, Wifezilla… there’s so many, but these are the ones I read the most.

Any other places readers can check out your writing?
Not yet – but stay tuned. I’m currently working as a copywriter, but have some food-related projects in the works!