About

Hi! I’m Paula. Thanks for being here!

I started How To Make Dinner because I think dinnertime is the best part of the day. I love making it, I love eating it, and I love the way it helps me unwind at the end of the day.

But I know that for many of us, dinnertime is anything but relaxing. With picky eaters and piles of dirty dishes, who's got time to relax? It's my goal to help with that.

My Story:

Since finishing culinary school at Vancouver Community College (VCC) in 2005, I have cooked in luxury hotel kitchens, high-volume catering companies, tiny cafés, two tree planting camps, and a 92-foot sailboat running ecotourism trips from B.C. to Alaska. I spent over a decade working in professional kitchens all over British Columbia as well as a very memorable couple of years at a farm shop in rural Scotland.

I have cooked in a lot of really quirky environments and fed a LOT of people over the years. I also studied holistic nutrition at the Canadian School of Natural Nutrition in Vancouver.

My Approach:

I don’t believe in ‘good’ or ‘bad’ foods. I want it all.

I’m addicted to ketchup, I FREAKING LOVE frozen potato patties, and nothing makes me happier than a can of baked beans on toast. I’m not afraid of a little convenience food here and there, but at the core of it all, I am geared towards buying basic, high-quality ingredients and making things mostly from scratch. I eat what I want, not what I think I should eat. Luckily those two things usually overlap.

Although I don’t endorse rushing the dinner-making process because that makes it feel like a chore, I am 100% in support of simplicity. Through my past experiences, I have learned a ton of tricks, shortcuts, and stress-reducing strategies that can change the game for how we cook at home.

Let's make dinner!

-Paula

Check out some of my media features below!