I suppose the concept of dish has been in the works for many years. I come from a family where food has always played an important role in our lives. At the breakfast table during holidays, we would talk about what was for lunch. When I'd be away, phone calls home would inevitably include details of the great dinners missed. My mom and grandmother are both great cooks (the love for food is definitely genetic), so my dad, while great on the barbecue, leaves the cooking to the experts. He's an entrepreneur and a master creator, always telling my brothers and me that, with hard work and dedication, we could do anything. So, with all this inspiration, support and passion for food surrounding me, I believed I could build a business around something I love: food. Then, last summer, a wise friend and supporter said: "Put those crazy ideas on paper and then just do it!" So here I am.

I started with bake sales in grade school and high school. Then for one university summer, I worked for a tree-planting company, 24 hours north of Toronto, as sole cook for 40 people - cooking from a trailer with no running water, frosty 3 a.m. wake-ups and a run-in with a black bear. Then after university, I started an ad hoc catering company with my great friend Foofie, a venture that funded six months of travel in Europe. (If nothing else, these cooking stints taught me, if in doubt, laugh and wing it!)

A job at Toronto Life magazine followed. First, I developed their website. (At the time, it was called an "electronic magazine." I was actually an Internet pioneer! Now, I count myself as one of the technically challenged.) Then I went into marketing and promotions, which allowed me to work with food editors and restaurant advertisers, keeping me on the food track. Later, mentors pointed me in the direction of New York's Peter Kump cooking school where I got my certificate in culinary arts and spent every spare penny and minute checking out the city's food scene. I earned the required hours for my certificate, as private cook for a great family and their friends in Muskoka the following summer (managing to steer clear of the requisite restaurant-kitchen potato peeling).

For the next two years, I worked with Butterfield & Robinson, the Toronto-based luxury biking and walking travel company, fuelling my love of travel and food and culture. As always, inspirational ideas kept coming my way - from Provencal chefs in the French countryside and Burgundian wine producers.

To me, dish is really a smorgasbord of all these experiences and people, and they are the essential ingredients to the dish concept: sharing my passion for food in so many ways. I am thrilled to share dish with you. A unique gathering place for everything and anything related to food. A place to relax and have fun, to unwind and take a break from life's daily chaos, to indulge, if only for an hour.

All the Best,
Trish Magwood