The Cracker Queen

You could say that Lesley Stowe was born to cook. Why else, at age 12, would she volunteer to whip up a formal dinner for her family, complete with Boeuf Chasseur and custard-laden Apple Charlotte?

The dinner was a success and, luckily for us, Stowe hasn’t stopped cooking since. As the woman behind Lesley Stowe Fine Foods, the first specialty food store of its kind in Vancouver, she’s now a brand name. And the boutique, which makes and markets gourmet foodstuffs, is a local landmark that attracts everyone from homemakers to movie stars.

“We’ve had a lot of celebrities come through our doors over the years,” she says. “Goldie Hawn, Sarah McLachlan, k.d. lang and Bryan Adams are all fans of our Raincoast Crisps.”

The wildly popular Raincoast Crisps, Stowe’s line of addictive gourmet crackers, is now sold in stores across the country and continues to earn new converts to its healthy combination of twice-baked crunch and natural ingredients like seeds, nuts, figs, olives and herbs. In fact, the crisps now form the backbone of Stowe’s rapidly expanding biz.

Recipes in this article:

• MEDITERRANEAN SALAD WITH TAPENADE VINAIGRETTE
• MADRAI TOMATO SOUP WITH CUMIN AND COCONUT MILK
• ROASTED ROOT VEGETABLES WITH ROSEMARY
• FIRE CRUSTED SEA BASS WITH CITRUS MANGO RELISH

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