Food appreciation in divisive times
Pacific Palate: Food Artisans of Vancouver Island and the Gulf Islands (2nd edition)
by Don Genova
Victoria: TouchWood Editions, 2025
$28 / 9781771514262
Reviewed by Rebecca Coleman
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The “Buy Canadian” movement has never been stronger than at this moment, thanks, in part, to a blossoming trade war between Canada and the United States. A country that has always been somewhat quiet about National Pride has now become quite strict about purchasing only domestically- or European-manufactured goods. Overnight, it seems, Facebook groups now numbering in the hundreds of thousands have sprung up, dedicated to sharing information about Canadian products, and suggestions for alternatives to your normal, American-manufactured purchases.
While, for many of us, this “love local” movement is relatively new, Don Genova has been preaching this gospel for a long, long time. Food Artisans of Vancouver Island and the Gulf Islands was published in 2014, but an updated and revised version, entitled Pacific Palate, Food Artisans of Vancouver Island and the Gulf Islands has just been published.
Although the book is named after Genova’s popular CBC radio show Pacific Palate, “radio host” is just one of the many, many hats that Genova has worn over his journalistic career. Even though his career started in radio (in Terrace in 1983!), he has spanned basically all media: radio/podcasts, television, print and digital media.
Inspired by James Barber (who remembers watching The Urban Peasant on CBC? Or who still has one of his charming cookbooks with the hand-drawn doodles?), Genova started to focus more and more on food and travel, and especially on telling local food stories.
I should probably confess at this point that Don Genova and I have been friends for a really, really long time. We met in the mid-90’s (yes, during the last century) in a tiny, sleepy town on Newfoundland’s west coast called Corner Brook, where he was working at the CBC. I, in fact, credit with Don jump-starting my own life-long obsession with food and cooking in many ways. It was with him I had my first curry (which he had prepared) and my first bite of sushi. And then there was the night where we ate oysters with The Galloping Gourmet, but that’s a story for another time.
It was while he was living in Cobble Hill, a super cute little town in the Cowichan Valley on Vancouver Island that has more than its fair share of food artisans, that Genova got the idea for his first book. He wanted to tell their stories, highlight the locals that were producing world-class foods and beverages, but were doing it on such a small, local scale, that only locals really knew about them. It was his goal to bring these stories to a bigger stage, and so he wrote Food Artisans of Vancouver Island and the Gulf Islands.
While I’m normally a cookbook reviewer, this is not a cookbook. Divided into regions: Comox Valley, Cowichan Valley, Mid-Island, Greater Victoria, Saanich Peninsula, and the Gulf Islands, each section contains the stories of the local food producers in that area. The list includes farms, dairies, bakeries, coffee roasters, tea blenders, meat/seafood producers, chocolatiers, wineries/distilleries/breweries/ciderie,s and specialty kitchen product/ingredient suppliers. Many of these businesses, while they may produce a product that goes to market, will also have an on-location store or restaurant to help with sales.
What becomes incredibly apparent very quickly as you delve into this book is Genova’s personal experiences. These are not just places he’s read about on the internet or watched a TikTok about. Most, if not all, are places he as visited himself and struck up relationships with the owners. So many of these entries call upon his own personal experience, his own personal stories, “When I first met…” or “The first time I visited…” is a phrase you’ll read here a lot.
We’ve become disconnected from our food sources. We go to our local supermarket and grab stuff that’s neatly packaged, pretty and clean. And I’m not saying this is bad: supermarkets are convenient, and we live and work and have busy lives. But there’s something to be said for appreciating the work that goes into creating our food. Last year, for example, I went for a 5-month period where I didn’t buy a single head of lettuce because I was growing greens on a box on the roof of my downtown apartment building, and every time I ate a salad that I had grown from seed, I felt quite chuffed with myself. There was a kind of pride that came with being self-sufficient in this one tiny area of my life, of quite literally enjoying the fruits of my labour. While you may not have the time or space to plant yourself a little salad garden, going to the local farmer’s market is the next best thing. Here, you’ll be able to chat with the very farmers that have grown that produce, most of which was probably picked earlier (much, much earlier) that morning. There’s a direct line between what’s on your plate and the person who grew it.
This is the relationship that Genova celebrates in Pacific Palate: Food Artisans of Vancouver Island and the Gulf Islands (2nd edition).
My favourite part of this book: his “Saturday Sojourns,” a curated itinerary for each region that gives you a day of eating local. Most of them start with the local Farmer’s Market, and then wend their way through the region, with suggested stops for brunch, lunch, dinner, happy hour, and all the tasty things in between.
At a time when Canadians are cancelling their vacations to the US at a rate never before seen in history, and looking for alternatives, Pacific Palate is the answer. It’s a foodie guidebook for one of the most beautiful places in Canada. It’s an invitation to slow down, sip, savour, appreciate, ask questions, and indulge your curiosity.
More than anything, Pacific Palate is a love letter to the food artisans of Vancouver Island and the Gulf Islands, a carefully-researched, and well-deserved show of appreciation to a group of people that do a difficult job that pays very little back, but their passion is what fuels them.
I want to encourage you, dear reader, to pick up a copy of this book, catch a ferry, and have yourself a tasty little adventure this summer. You might even run into Don Genova at the farmer’s market.
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Rebecca Coleman is a content creator, foodie, and 2x cookbook author. She specializes in vegan/vegetarian food, and is always on the hunt for the world’s greatest donut. Rebecca lives in Vancouver, BC, with her son and their tuxedo cat. She has previously reviewed books by Rosie Daykin, Desiree Nielsen, Steven Hodge, Denise Marchessault, Jillian Harris & Tori Wesszer and Jessica Schacht. Visit her website at: https://cookingbylaptop.com
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The British Columbia Review
Interim Editors, 2023-26: Trevor Marc Hughes (non-fiction), Brett Josef Grubisic (fiction)
Publisher: Richard Mackie
Formerly The Ormsby Review, The British Columbia Review is an on-line book review and journal service for BC writers and readers. The Advisory Board now consists of Jean Barman, Wade Davis, Robin Fisher, Barry Gough, Hugh Johnston, Kathy Mezei, Patricia Roy, and Graeme Wynn. Provincial Government Patron (since September 2018): Creative BC. Honorary Patron: Yosef Wosk. Scholarly Patron: SFU Graduate Liberal Studies. The British Columbia Review was founded in 2016 by Richard Mackie and Alan Twigg.
“Only connect.” – E.M. Forster