This week on Three Kitchens Podcast, we’re diving into Canadian food history with special guest Kesia Kvill, a Canadian food historian with a passion for community, sustainability and youth mentorship.
Kesia is a Community Engagement manager at a heritage organization in Edmonton, Alberta. She’s been a chief curator at the largest living history museum in Canada and started her museum career as a demonstration volunteer at an agricultural museum before getting her first museum interpreter and tour guide job. Her academic studies focused on Canadian foodways, public history, and rural history.
Together, we explore the question: What is Canadian food, really? It’s a layered and evolving story that begins with the rich culinary traditions of Indigenous peoples, and continues through waves of settler and immigrant influences that have shaped kitchens across the country. From food production to community celebrations, we talk about how cooking and eating have always brought people together.
Kesia shares insights into how food has always been more than just sustenance—it’s tradition, identity, and connection. We also dive into a historical recipe from the Five Roses Cook Book (1915): a Burnt Sugar Cake that sparked both curiosity and cravings!
Join us for a delicious conversation full of history, heritage, and a bit of burnt sugar. And trust us when we say, you will want to bake this cake!
Episode Links
~ Kesia Kvill on Instagram @kesiatk
~ Kesia's Blog - Potatoes, Rhubarb, and Ox
~ Culinary Historians Of Canada
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