Maritimes cable TV star Joan McElman launches 'down home' cookbook

For 34 years, Joan McElman has been welcoming viewers into her kitchen on Eastlink Television. Her program, Welcome to My Kitchen, is one of the highest-rated shows on the cable network in the Maritimes and now her publishers is hoping for the same response to her new cookbook.

McElman grew up on a farm, the youngest of a big family.

"We were poor as dirt, we grew everything and I was around mom all the time," explained McElman in an interview with Mainstreet P.E.I., promoting her upcoming visit to P.E.I.

"I guess I drove her nuts because I wanted to be involved, so she would give me a piece of bread dough or give me a piece of pie dough."

"So from an early age, I learned texture and how you work it and everything was from scratch."

Common sense cooking

"Putting this book together has evoked a lot of memories for me, becauseI had to draw on the last fifty years of experience," saidMcElman, who weaves personal stories through the recipes.

McElman, who lives with her husband Bob in the Annapolis Valley, is also very clear about what she is not, when it comes to cooking.

"You get the books from Toronto and they're all stuff we don't even identify with here in the Maritimes,we can't get them and nobody's interested in eating them any way," she said.

"People here want plain home cooked food that tastes good and is readily available in the markets here."

And her favourite recipes in the new cookbook?

"I love my mother's borscht but I think my very favourite meal is cabbage rolls," she replied.

"Perogies are another favourite of mine but, honest to god, there's no way I could put that in the cookbook because there is no recipe, you do it by feel," explained McElman, who comes from a German-Russian background.

And then there are the desserts.

"I've always been a dessert fanatic," she admitted. "If they didn't have so many calories I would live on them."

'I get treated like a god'

McElman started filming of her 34th season this week at the Eastlink studios.She recalls when she first appeared on television.

"I had been asked to be a guest on the show and wasn't frightened by the camera or anything," said McElman.

"Two weeks later I got a call to come back, and at the end of the show the host turned to the program director and said, yep she's the one."

"The program director said,if you want the show, it's yours."

Despite her celebrity status, she doesn't get paid.

"It's strictly volunteer but I mean I get treated like a god so why not?" she replied.

As for her philosophy on cooking?

"I'm an experimental cookI'll take a recipe and I'll think, hmmm, that's okay but I could add this and I could do this."

Thirty-four years later, it appears to still be a recipe for success.