Ottawa Foodies

Hi, my name is Mark and I love good food. ;-)

When filling out these profile things I'll often list my favourite foods or restaurants but of course that isn't necessary here -- you only need to look at the list to the right.

Anyway, here's my one minute food autobiography:

I was born in Victoria into a family that loves food. My mom is Swiss and has worked hard in the kitchen ever since her kids were born. My dad is English and loves to eat (and he helps with the dishes). I grew up sitting next to the stove and watching Mom's every move as she concocted wonderful feasts. Much of our fare was prepared from scratch: home-baked bread, soups, pies, jams, kefir, birchermuesli, a dozen kinds of cookies at Christmas. We had apples, pears, walnuts, raspberries and plenty of vegetables in our garden. We picked blackberries in the countryside and went shrimping in the Pacific. There was always plenty of Swiss chocolate and cheese around too. But I was not always open-minded about food: when Mom made nasi goreng for us, we kids screwed up our faces and nicknamed it "nauseous gangrene." ;-)

When I finished school and moved to Ottawa at the age of 22 I was pleased to find quite an okay selection of restaurants. In the years since, the overall quality has improved noticeably. Even better, the selection of foods and ingredients in our grocery stores and markets is continually getting closer to that of a truly metropolitan city. Tracking the availability of hard-to-find foods has always been a hobby of mine and until I created Ottawa Foodies there was no good way to share it.

I live in Nepean North with my sweet wife (of Portuguese descent) and wonderful boy/girl twins. Wifey loves to eat almost as much as I do and our kids are in training. I have parents and a brother in Victoria and a brother in Montreal.

In my professional life I'm a code monkey. For more info you can snoop at my resume: markwarburton.com