Name: Tim & Nat Harris
Blog name: A Cook Not Mad
Where were you born? We were both born in Ontario, Nat was raised in Quebec.
Where are you living now? Currently we’re house sitting in British Columbia
Why did you start your blog?
We started the blog after we sold our Italian deli in Vancouver and decided to travel. It was the easiest way to stay in touch with family and friends without having to send hundreds of emails. Tim is a chef so the blog naturally became based on food.
How did you decide on your blog name? It’s a take on Canada’s first published cookbook The Cook Not Mad and rational cookery. We wanted to pay homage to our home country and since Tim is a chef it just made sense. Someone also pointed out the word nomad in there too.
What do you blog about? We’re culinary storytellers, we share stories of food, food products, recipes and culture but we sometimes write about other things we love like cars, fishing and honeybees.
What post are you most proud of and why?
Eating, Sleeping and Making Love is a post about Maestro Federico Fellini and The Grand Hotel in Rimini where he lived part time. We wanted to go to their restaurant and experience the same menu that Fellini would have had when he ate there. We had some issues to overcome to make it happen, one was that they didn’t serve that menu anymore. In the end they agreed to make all his favourites dishes for us. The evening was so surreal we’re not sure it was conveyed adequately in the post. We were also proud that the post got translated in Italian by Emilia Romagna Tourism and reposted.
Which post do you wish received more love and why?
Chianti: It’s Not Just About The Wine, we had heard about the Cinta Senese pig, a rare pig grown in the Siena area. We knew of a few places that sold the meat but one was close for summer vacation, the other never seemed to be open at all and finally we arrived at the third. The post is about our experience at Casamonti Estate and what they do there. We thought it was a great post but it didn’t get many views. Who knows why, maybe everyone was on vacation when it was published.
Which post’s success surprised you and why?
Reverse Wedding Crash was almost an inside joke and we didn’t think people would get it but they did and really quite enjoyed it. We were staying in a town that had one restaurant, a few homes, a church and a castle and decided to go to the restaurant on a day that they were catering a wedding. We were sure it would be a gong show but were pleasantly surprised.
What is one (non-kitchen) gadget you can’t live without?
Can we each pick one? For Nat it would be a camera and for Tim, probably a fly rod.
What is one kitchen gadget you can’t live without?
A sharp knife, that’s the one thing we definitely can’t live without. We travel with a pairing knife and chef’s knife, in our checked luggage of course. With those two knives we can do pretty much everything.
Favourite food, care to share a recipe?
Pizza, for both of us, there are so many different combinations to enjoy. You could eat pizza every day for the rest of your life and never eat the same combination.
What else should we know about you that may or may not be in your “About Me” page?
Tim did stand up comedy in another life and Nat once served a drink to Joan Rivers, there’s a picture of them together somewhere out there.
What makes your blog unique?
Although we’re the ones that make our blog unique you will not see a many pictures of us. We’re interested in the story around us and the discovery of something new. We’re an inseparable team, loving life and trying to write about it with a sense of humour while practicing our crafts as chef and photographer.
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Saw your sticker on a telephone pole in Panzano last May! And then Raymond said you had been to see them at Casamonti…we also went for a visit. Both of us had an amazing time with Anna Rita and the piggy’s and Jerry the cat! We thought it was one of the best things we have ever done in Chianti in all four times we have been there! Heck I even wrote a blog post about our visit! http://oracibo.com/9909/a-visit-to-a-tuscan-farm/ So, I am very sorry to hear about a disappointing response to yours! Maybe folks just don’t get it??? What say you?
Hi Phyllis, thanks for your comment. We’re actually headed back to Casamonti next week for a visit. Spending time with the butchers this time around.
Funny that you saw our sticker in Panzano, someone spotted one in Budapest last year.