Eat Your Heart Out James Barber
Keen eyed Canadian readers will have caught my reference to The Urban Peasant Himself, James Barber. It's not really a reference if you directly name it, is it, but anyway.
My daughter Mary and I were back on Mary Janet MacDonald's facebook/youtube cooking show, Tunes and Wooden Spoons. We made tomato soup and biscuits. Mary asked if Mary Janet was famous and I said well she has a show and she has cookbooks, so yes. And now we too are famous. You will hear me try to explain what Patreon is to someone who has no idea, and also explain to my own relative that I once had a tv show lol.
After we returned home, my Mary forced us all to bake cookies, as she is taking her new celeb chef status very seriously.
Patreon won't let you embed more than one video in a post, which sucks, but treat yourself to The Urban Peasant, a Canadian cooking show from the 90s that we all watched every day and had a super sultry intro to everyone's favourite sherry-swigging chef.
Mary Janet's cooking show is on Facebook, here.
Comments (14)
James, your pan! Put the metal fork down! 🫣
Core memory awakened. Urban Peasant was a formative part of of my childhood for some reason, I used to watch him all the time after school. I remember writing down some of the recipes from the show and absolutely butchering them as a 12 yr old would. But James Barber was the coolest dude on CBC!
What a blast from the past!
always a swig of whiskey in the recipe, and one for james. RIP TO A LEGEND
I grew up in Europe so I never saw this until today ... but may I say, it has bomb-ass theme music.
A lovely memory indeed! And bravo for becoming even more famous.
Sometimes, a when I am cooking alone at night, I hear his heavy nose breathing and "gaaaaaaaarlic" whispered... It's spooky.
What a few delightful trip down memory lane! I remember going through all of Jean Paré's 'Company's Coming' cookbooks in the 90s. I should dig them back out
Remembered, not only for ensuring the quality of the alcohol used in his dishes, but also (if I recall) pronouncing cilantro "chilantro", which made no sense to me back then but now resonates.
I know you prepped us for the Peasant intro being sultry but WOW.
"And now we too are famous." 🤣
If you enjoy 90s chefs with a love of alcohol, may I suggest the works of Keith Floyd. A British restaurateur who did some bizarre but brilliant food tours of Europe while copiously supplied with red wines
I credit James Barber for any interest I have in food as an adult! There were precious few alternative channels during the pre-cable years, and luckily The Urban Peasant was a show all the siblings could agree on.
Ooh soup and biscuits. Lovely.