Karen Barnaby hails from Ottawa, where she started her cooking career in 1979 on a
pink, four burner electric stove in the basement of the Bohemian Restaurant. Moving out
of the basement and eventually out of Ottawa, she landed in Toronto in 1981 and became
Chef at the Rivoli. After three years of listening to new wave bands at the back of the
Rivoli and gratefully absorbing all the knowledge Chef Vanipha Southalack had to impart
on Thai and Laotian cooking, she moved to the David Wood Food Shop in Rosedale. During
five years there, she opened two more David Wood Food Shops, and co-wrote the David
Wood Food Book and the David Wood Dessert Book. During that
time, she discovered she had an aptitude for teaching and put it into practice at Dufflet's
Great Cooks Cooking School.
In 1990 she took a break and travelled to Cuernevaca, Mexico, as a private chef. The
following spring, she went to work at the West Vancouver Capers location. After a year,
she was hired as Executive Chef of the Raintree Restaurant. She completed Pacific Passions,
her first solo cookbook, in 1995. She was offered the position of Executive Chef at The
Fish House in Stanley Park that same year, and has been happy here ever since.
In 1997 her second book, Screamingly Good Food was released and won
the silver medal at the Cuisine Canada Cookbook competition.
Karen's Philosophy
Part of Karen’s philosophy includes returning the good will she has been so fortunate
to receive. Karen was the past president and former Scholarship Director for Les Dames
d’Escoffier, a society of women in the hospitality industry who offer scholarships
to young women voyaging into hospitality careers.
“My two grandmothers shaped my outlook on food. They were
both on the fringe as far as cooking and eating in the 1960’s was concerned. They
taught me how to eat avocados, artichokes, zucchini, eggplants and organ meats; how
to pick wild garlic and strawberries; and make marmalade out of mountain ash berries.
They had no cultural or economic boundaries to hold them back from enjoying any kind
of food, whether it was from the fields or the local IGA. Eating with them was always
a discovery, and it is this experience that I crave and share.”
