I was recently asked to be a judge at The Grate Canadian Grilled Cheese Cook-off and (twist my arm) I agreed. My fellow judges were Toronto Star columnist Corey Mintz and national food editor for the Toronto Sun, Rita DeMontis. Together we were charged with the difficult task of sampling gourmet grilled cheese sandwiches created by top chefs from around the country and selecting a winner.

Read on for the winning recipe...

Last week I was honoured to find my name mentioned in a beautiful blog post by Kirk LaPointe (Managing Editor of The Vancouver Sun) about his mother who had passed away that morning. He writes of her influence on his career in journalism and I am honoured to have been mentioned in his touching tribute. Here is an excerpt...

This week's reader letter is one that I received in the spring following a column I wrote about wild leeks. Reader Dougal B. who owns property on Manitoulin Island alerted me to a serious situation that is putting this beautiful and delicate ingredient at risk. Read on to learn more about the state of wild leeks and why we may not be able to enjoy them for much longer...

This week's reader letter is from Dorothy H. from Exeter in Huron County who wrote to me via email of her culinary quest to cook every recipe in A Year in Lucy's Kitchen. She describes it as "a combination of A Year in Provence and Julie and Julia, only a lot more fun," which I take as a huge compliment. Here is her lovely letter:

Andrea S. wrote to me this week about her and her husband's trip to Rome and their experience at one of my favourite restaurants there, Trattoria Monti, which I wrote about in a recent Globe & Mail column, as well as on this website. I love to receive letters and emails (and tweets!) from my readers but am always especially thrilled when a restaurant recommendation of mine is a hit with a fellow food lover. Trattoria Monti truly is a special gem and I hope more lucky travelers will have the opportunity to eat at this charming restaurant. Here is her letter:

I'm so greatful for the wonderful reviews and feedback I've gotten from cookbook authors, reviewers and readers about my latest book, A Year in Lucy's Kitchen. Check out some of the kind words people have been sending my way:

"The tone of this book gives the reader a major cooking urge, especially for parties." - Montreal Gazette

"What's most refreshing about Waverman's approach to food and food writing, in these days of camera-ready, television-famous celebrity chefs with outsize personalities, is her warm, accommodating and inclusive tone. Amateur cooks of any skill level or background will feel welcome to step inside Lucy's kitchen and stay a while." - Globe and Mail

"A Year in Lucy's Kitchen, organizes the recipes and meal suggestions around seasonal ingredients, though certainly they can all work at any time of the year...there is a recipe for Spiced Braised Lamb Shanks that has me salivating." - The Dewey Divas and the Dudes

"Lucy Waverman has the magic touch." - Pierre A Lamielle, author of Kitchen Scraps

"Lucy's recipes work. They just do." - Cream Puffs in Venice

If writing a cookbook is a labour of love, my latest, A Year in Lucy's Kitchen, is closest to my heart because it's about my family life as well as my cooking.

The book is organized by the month and offers seasonally inspired menus that I typically cook for my family and friends at a given time of year. I also explore topics such as making marmalade in January and showcasing tomatoes in August. Organizing menus by the month ensures that the produce used is as local and seasonal as possible.

As I hope the new cookbook suggests, taste and ease of preparation are the two most important goals for me when developing recipes for readers. Here is a menu from the book that I'll be using at the end of October for my husband Bruce's birthday, including Scallops with Chorizo, Roasted Veal Chops With Lemon Olive Salsa and Beignets.

I have finally received the first copy of my new book and it looks spectacular! The red and black cover has kind of an art deco feel about it, which is one of my favourite design eras and the touch of blue from the gas stove livens it all up. I hope you'll love the cover as much as I do.

Picnics are a summer tradition in many families, which can be challenging for the cook. How do you make the outdoor bash a meal to remember?

My mother, Pearl Geneen, was a huge influence on me. She loved good food, was a superb self-taught cook and became an aficionado of all things stylish. She was equally good at perfecting main dishes and desserts and could coax taste out of any ingredient. I still remember her Thousand Layer Cake with multiple layers of puff pastry (her own, of course) and a chocolate and custard filling.

Now I have learned we have more in common than I thought. Last week, a friend who had been going through his mother's old recipe file sent me an article that my mother wrote for the "Women's Globe and Mail" 41 years ago.

Food writer and food science enthusiast, Rob Mifsud, had the pleasure of sitting down with the brilliant Hervé This, the man known as the godfather of molecuar gastronomy, and discovers there's beauty, art and love behind the test tubes, foams and lab coats.

A scallop is not always what it seems. There are two kinds you can buy -wet and dry - and often it is not noted which is which.

According to Gus Nikoletsos, high priest of fish purveyors in Toronto and owner of City Fish (2929 Dufferin St.), dry scallops are taken straight from the shell and are all natural. Wet scallops have been soaked in a preservative to give them a longer shelf life. Guess which ones you want.

It's barbecue season at last and when it comes to grilling the ultimate burger at home there are just a few things you need to remember...

Sharing a plate of freshly-baked croissants with family on Christmas day is a wonderful holiday tradition that is simply perfection on quiet, snow-covered mornings. But the question is, of course, where to find the best croissants? And so, in homes all over the country, the hunt is on for the city’s most buttery, most flakey, most delicious croissant. It’s a daunting task but I and my team of pastry-loving judges are up to the challenge of finally, once and for all, tracking down Toronto’s best croissant, one scrumptious pastry at a time.

With barbecue season upon us and the long weekend fast approaching, grilling is definitely high on everyone's minds. The right barbecue sauce can make or break your baby back ribs but with all the "secret family recipes" and "award-winning sauces" out there it can be impossible to choose. To lend a hand, we decided to kick off our new "Taste Test" series with an old-fashioned barbecue sauce show down. 

Trends arrive, and when they become main stream, you know they are over. A trend usually finishes on the supermarket shelf. Waves or perhaps ‘fads' roll in and then crash on the shore disappearing for ever. What ever happened to nouvelle cuisine, raw food, most diets?

Food as science has been around for a while, but it is now reaching new heights in restaurants as more chefs begin working their magic at their stoves. They are creating food as theatre - producing oohs and ahhs from diners as the conjuring act transforms traditional dishes into innovation on a plate.