Vegetarian chef refines

THE OTTAWA CITIZEN - Wed. April 8, 1998
by LOUISE CROSBY - GREEN CUISINE

When we first dropped in on Edith Carter four years ago, she was just getting her house of Culinary Inventions off the ground. She had opened this school of nutritional cooking in the original, unrenovated kitchen of her Centretown home to share her knowledge of quick and delicious “health” food. The room buzzed with talk as people marvelled at tiny grains of amaranth, the clean taste of kohlrabi, and the smooth delicate sweetness of a tofu whip.

Meet Edith Carter today. This European-born woman, who paddled the remote inland waterways of Guyana with her then husband, a geologist, before moving to Ottawa in the 1960s, is still introducing her students to the joys of plantains and to raw beet salad.

She still measures in “dollops” and “pinches” and “swigs”, still brings an international sensibility to her dishes and an animation to her teaching, and still believes in building the confidence to create meals, to substitute and adapt, rather than follow recipes religiously. “I start with ‘what have you got?’ and go from there”, she says.

Her kitchen remains charmingly stuck in the 1950s, and she’s the same bundle of energy and fun. But her knowledge of the link between diet and disease has grown, and she’s busier than ever.

Because she sees it every day in her students, Edith is more conscious of the “maladies of civilization” that afflict society, disorders such as food sensitivities and allergies, irritable bowel syndrome and chronic fatigue syndrome. She teaches that switching to a diet high in grains and legumes, fresh fruit and vegetables, and low in sugar, refined starches and harmful fats and oils, can restore a radiant health. Not a revolutionary concept, but one that has yet to go mainstream.

The recipes have evolved to four three-hour sessions on grains, legumes, curries and “The Whatsits”, an introduction to lesser-known vegetables such as Jerusalem artichoke, okra, celeriac and eddo, a starchy root vegetable from Africa and the Caribbean.

Once the basics are mastered, advanced evening courses or Saturday workshops cover pasta fixings and veggie paté, soups, stews and salads, no-guilt desserts (try the yummy rum-scented aduki bean ice cream), juicing, and yogurt-making.

Edith’s sessions usually run over their allotted time and students go home with a full stomach, a binder of notes and recipes, and all the leftovers.

When she’s not teaching - the school’s 1,000th student recently walked through the door - or scouring the city for the best ingredients, Edith may be found at her computer writing a cook- book, a project that has evolved from one big book to several small books, beginning with The Wonder- full World of Yogurt.

She gives monthly talks about nutritional health at The Holistic Clinic, 2211 Riverside Drive, and is guest speaker all over town, at the Carleton University Fitness Club, the YMCA/YWCA, Breast Cancer Action, and Corel Corporation to name a few venues.

She also gives talks to local high school students as part of a United Nations Association in Canada program called Sustainable Gardening and Nutritional Food Habits.

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