About Me

Here's a little about me - my name is Daniel and I am a father of two kids. For work I am a high school teacher that works in special education and with at-risk youth. When I was younger, I always watched my family cook and was immediately drawn to the kitchen. I loved watching people cook and as I got older, I wanted to learn more and more. Then at sixteen, I was introduced to the chef Jamie Oliver. He inspired a lot of my cooking and his books have taught me several of my skills. As I got older, I gained more confidence and started modifying and making my own recipes and got more inventive with my style of cooking and I never shied away from making foods from different cultures. I've traveled a fair amount and going to new places always inspires me to try new recipes. Cooking has also been a form of physio for me. I was born with mild spastic cerebral palsy. This has led to a lot of tightness in my hands and legs, and cooking has allowed me to work on fine motor skills in a fun way.  



I decided to combine my love for teaching and my love of food and create the blog of A Canadians Cooking. My goal was to share my passion for cooking and hopefully inspire others to try new things in the kitchen. I have grown online and had awesome opportunities to work with my local paper to share recipes as well as do cooking segments on Your Morning. I have entered into the BBQ world as well and done some catering events in that field. I am also so proud to have been able to do yearly merch fundraisers, donating all profits to different causes close to my heart. In less than two years, I have been able to raise over $3000 for charities like Kids Help Phone, The Canadian Brain Tumor Research Center, and homeless shelters across Canada.

 

Finally, I have been able to use my love for teaching and go out and teach youth as well as families awesome new recipes online and at home so they can learn to cook new things.  



Cooking and BBQ are my passions and I hope I can be an inspiration to others that may have felt different because of any needs they have. If you have a passion, follow it, have fun with it, and people will be drawn to that energy!

I have been cooking for a long time, but that doesn't mean that you need a ton of cooking experience to follow my recipes. I work to make my recipes interesting for advanced cooks and still accessible for beginners. I have used the approach of Jaime Oliver's Food Revolution cookbook to break things down step by step with photos. Also Always feel like you can reach out to me for questions