Eatdrink Waterloo & Wellington #2 August/September 2018

42 |August/September 2018
eatdrink.ca |@eatdrinkmag
Recipes
Firehouse Chef
Recipes from Canada’s Firefighters
By Patrick Mathieu
Review and Recipe Selections by TRACY TURLIN
Patrick Mathieu is a Quebec native who
was influenced by his grandmother
to learn to cook at the age of 16.
A few years later he was inspired
by his grandfather and uncles to become a
firefighter. Sixteen years on, Mathieu now
works for the Waterloo Fire Department.
He and his wife Andrea Lauren own Station
House Catering and Private Chef Services.
He’s a food columnist for Firefighting in
Canada magazine and was a contestant on
Season 2 of Food Network Canada’s Chopped
Canada. Somewhere in there he found time to
write a cookbook: Firehouse Chef: Recipes from
Canada’s Firefighters (Whitecap Books, 2016).
According to the author, rookies are given
the following choices in the firehouse kitchen:
cook for a bunch of hungry firefighters, or
clean up after them. For Mathieu the decision
was easy. He developed his firefighting/
life-saving skills, balanced that out with his
culinary skills, and found he loved them both.
Firehouse Chef was more than the meat and
potatoes fare I was expecting. These men and
women seem to love their food spicy. I was also
surprised at the number of desserts on offer.
Mathieu gives us 90 of his own recipes, ranging
from classic French Canadian dishes to Italian
and Mexican favourites. He and his wife honeymooned
in Thailand, and their love for the
beautiful flavours of that country
are apparent in this book. Fifty
further recipes are contributions
from other firehouse cooks across
Canada, including a number from
Southwestern Ontario. If you
know any firefighters, you’ll definitely
want to check this out to
see if they have a recipe included.
I never really get tired of fresh
Ontario corn with a simple butter/salt/pepper
treatment, but
Mexican Grilled Corn
is a decadent alternative
and sure to
impress at your next
cookout. A beautiful
balance of sweet
corn, salty cheese
and tangy lime,
these are only
made better by
being incredibly
messy. The perfect
summer food
made for sharing with a crowd.
If you like the camping vibe without the
wood smoke and mosquitoes, try a slightly
more upscale version of the campfire
classic, S’mores Sundae. It’s a great way to
enjoy the flavours of childhood memories
without dropping marshmallows in the fire.
(Does anyone else like them charred on the
outside? Tasty, but difficult to find the sweet
spot before they go nuclear.)
For an easy and quick weeknight dinner
in the summer, you can’t do much better
than Grilled Ahi Tuna with Sicilian Salsa.
The flavourful salsa can be made ahead of
time and the tuna can be grilled in less than
five minutes. It makes for a very light yet
satisfying dinner. Salad or pasta could be
served alongside, depending on
your appetite.
I could cook from this book
all summer and never run out of
recipes I want to try. I actually
tried to find a recipe I didn’t like
the look of and couldn’t find
one. (Maybe the risotto. I don’t
get risotto. Is it rice? Is it cream?
Is it mushy, crunchy?) What was
Author Patrick Mathieu