WHAT'S YOUR FAVOURITE?
What's Your Favourite...?
Chef, culinary consultant and CAA Member Jenni Lessard dishes on travel plans, local ingredients and family recipes.
By Nicole Keen
GROWING UP IN A LOGGING CAMP near Prince Albert, Jenni Lessard spent her days roaming the land. While she didn’t know what it meant to be a chef, she was drawn to the camp’s cook, Nettie. “She was the person who made people happy through food,” Lessard fondly recalls. That desire to nourish people, in both body and spirit, led Lessard to create her company, Inspired by Nature Culinary Consulting. Whether she’s developing recipes, creating menus and cooking for the Han Wi dinner series at Wanuskewin Heritage Park or leading tours into the bush, Lessard draws on her Métis heritage to educate and inspire.
PHOTO: COURTESY OF JENNI LESSARD
The Old Sligachan Bridge, in the Isle of Skye, boasts spectacular views of the Cuillin Hills. | PHOTO: YURI FINEART/ADOBE STOCK
What’s your favourite dish to prepare at the moment? My family’s bannock recipe that I’ve tweaked a bit. In the spring, I make a spruce-tip butter to go with it.
Where do you source local produce? There’s a company that I love called Boreal Heartland. They’re almost like a fair-trade coffee company, but for boreal forest products. And they work with Indigenous harvesters.
If you could cook for anyone — living, dead, whatever — who would it be? My late grandmother. She made so many meals for us and I would love to see her again. Oh, and Anne of Green Gables! I would love to hear how she would poetically describe whether she liked it or not. I’d [use] some Saskatchewan ingredients. What would she think of bison in a rich gravy?
What are you most excited about at the moment? I’m leading a culinary tour called Field to Shield, and it feels like a combination of who I am and what I’ve been doing for the past 50 years. We start out in Saskatoon and we travel 600 kilometres north — but we stop to eat every 90 minutes.
You’ve travelled extensively, especially in Canada. Where would you like to go next? I absolutely fell in love with the Isle of Skye recently, so I’m actually enrolling in Scottish Gaelic courses. I’ve told myself that once I complete all three courses, I can go back.
Do you have a favourite restaurant? It’s hard to say ‘favourite,’ but Hearth Restaurant at the Remai Modern in Saskatoon is definitely up there. CAA
“I’m leading a culinary tour called Field to Shield, and it feels like a combination of who I am and what I’ve been doing for the past 50 years.”
elit consequat
Laboris non veniam incididunt proident veniam. Sint commodo irure sunt irure veniam sint.
elit consequat
Laboris non veniam incididunt proident veniam. Sint commodo irure sunt irure veniam sint.
Hearth restaurant at Remai Modern focuses on locally grown and foraged ingredients. | PHOTOS: COURTESY OF TOURISM SASKATCHEWAN
GROWING UP IN A LOGGING CAMP near Prince Albert, Jenni Lessard spent her days roaming the land. While she didn’t know what it meant to be a chef, she was drawn to the camp’s cook, Nettie. “She was the person who made people happy through food,” Lessard fondly recalls. That desire to nourish people, in both body and spirit, led Lessard to create her company, Inspired by Nature Culinary Consulting. Whether she’s developing recipes, creating menus and cooking for the Han Wi dinner series at Wanuskewin Heritage Park or leading tours into the bush, Lessard draws on her Métis heritage to educate and inspire.
PHOTO: COURTESY OF JENNI LESSARD
