You make it, you eat it

As an independent foodie and child of a chef and grand daughter of one of the best home cooks in the midwest I'd like to think I know my way around food.

Growing up with a grandmother who knew good food and could tell list the ten top restaurants still running in Minnesota off the top of her head, while banging out homemade cookies in 12 varieties for the neighborhood I was spoiled for quality.

My nana and I still call each other and share recipes we see on television that we thin are ridiculous, or call to gossip about a restaurant poorly preparing a meal.

My nana and I are always going out for dinner at some restaurant famous for their food and giving it the once over.

Sadly, since I had taken her to Matt's Bar and had a Jucy Lucy Burger we hadn't had any restaurants or chef's that we both really wanted to seek out.

So on a whim I told her we should watch some Anthony Bourdain: No Reservations. We both enjoy his show and have been to his restaurant in NYC Layla's (Bes Fries EVER.)

My nana even bought me a copy of Kitchen Confidential for my birthday.

Watching his show always whet our appetite to go out and try new recipes and restaurants again.

That was when we saw Chef Edward Tuson.

I have always been a big local eater and our backyard growing up was a virtual forest of vegetables and edible flowers.

The first time I went to camp at nine years old and tasted iceberg lettuce with bottled dressing I remembered asking my camp counselor what it was.

Living in an apartment before I found the farmers market I literally befriended the elderly citizens of my neighborhood and helped them out with small chores just for the opportunity to take a few things from their garden.

Edward Tuson was a chef in Vancover, British Columbia who understood that devotion to food.

He raised his own meat, grew his own veggies, smoked his own fish, (that he caught himself or bought from local fisherman), and harvested local flora, to prepare and serve for 12 years at the Sooke Island Restaurant.

And as Anthony Bourdain said of his food both eating and looking at it, was magical.

Edward Tuson said that everything that he used could be found within 20 miles of Sooke and it consisted of 75-85% of what they served.

Can you look in your kitchen cupboard and find 10 things that were produced in the same state you live in?

Now Edward Tuson is running a smaller restaurant with much simpler but still local and delicious fare in an establishment called "The EdGe" Still finding it packed to the gills and still using his garden, local flora and fauna his reason for leaving is simple.

"I want to cook food that I would eat."

A chef after my own heart.

Visit Edward Tuson at "The EdGe" on Sooke Street, British Columbia, Canada

KJ Callaway