hey everyone I am at the Vancouver International Airport and where am I going I am going to Toronto
Canada and why am I go to Toronto well that's because of you let me explain so I'm gonna
Toronto to the taste Canada Awards which is a food writing awards that happens every year in Canada
and my book was nominated for Best Cultural / regional cookbook and I'm just really excited
about it but when I really think about this the whole reason why I wrote the book was because of
you guys because of this YouTube channel in the support that I had and the requests that people
had like hey hi we want a book from you and so I wouldn't be here without you basically
and so I want to take you on this trip with me show you some of the things that happen and keep
our fingers crossed hopefully I'll win so I made it to Toronto the award ceremony is tonight but
before the award ceremony I wanted to make sure I get some really good food and so we are stopping
at a Thai restaurant I'm always wanting to try a restaurant in another city and so this brand
new Thai restaurant in Toronto called Keith and apparently they're doing some really interesting
things that other restaurants are not doing and that's why I'm here so our first dish is here
and it is a red curry with grilled chicken and beetle leaves now red curry might sound sort of
normal and a lot of restaurants have it but it's one of those things that I order you know as a
benchmark for a restaurant and it's got grilled chicken which is different and be totally it was
definitely different here we go my first place really flavorful not too sweet which is always
a thing with Thai restaurants is North America in general chicken is dark meat again for that
that's a solid red curry right there so what we've been waiting for is finally here check
out this beautiful bowl of tau Y AB which is a southern Thai rice salad and this beautiful
lady is about to drizzle the dressing for us that looks like a healthy super healthy lunch
aromatic so the dressing that they're using is different normally it's made with what we call
Nambu do which is a kind of fish sauce but they don't use that here they use a hammer and soy
dressing instead super aromatic no refreshing taste of coconut in the lemongrass and herb
I'm not I don't even know what that is the smell of getting there's so many things going on it's
all a touch salty in the beginning but once you start chewing it sort of mellows it out after you
you know the rice and the vegetables start mixing that is really interesting if you come here you've
got to try this one so I made it I am at the teas Canada award very fancy over here I wanted to make
sure I represent Thai food by wearing a little bit of a pie check this out so apparently there's
going to be some celebrity chefs here that will my original inspiration for my mission tonight
it's tracked them down at least get one photo with them check let's go check out what's going on in
so I have found another what contestant yes other prices right this is Joel and he's the
author of a book on preserving different ways of preservation it's a great book it's called
batch so we don't know we're gonna win tonight do we don't know what then I just I just had a
conversation with a columnist from the Toronto Star which is a newspaper here who told me I
already know who won Wow and that's what he left me with so now he is walking around knowing who
won and we're like I'm more company you're gonna win then we're gonna win we already
won we've already won my dog still loves me so guys this was one of my missions tonight is to
find my idol which is Anna Olsen if you don't live in Canada you may not know who she is but
she is like one of my original inspirations she has had a cooking show on Food Network
Canada for years she's a queen of baking her book is up for an award tonight as well so
I'm just so excited to meet my inspiration it's a thrill to be here we're gonna have a
fun I know can you tell us a little bit about your book well yes it's based on the TV series
of the same name faith with an Olson and I don't know if you realize that I'm on in 190 countries
she's lining 193 so actually not no I have my biggest markets in Southeast Asia and I've
been to Thailand three times and Vietnam twice and I just I love so maybe you don't know Ana
the regional cultural Ottawa folks taste of Persia British Columbia from scratch the butcher you know
my cookbook is based on a youtube cooking show which was inspired by the many faces of the
food network in this room today but first of all thank you to all my fans all my viewers without
you this book would exist thank you everyone who has ever been dragged into helping me with
the show my brothers my temperament Adam Craig and thank you Robert mentally Sharon to see my
agent who believed in the book and Alex Lannon traditional book but thank you for helping me
bring not only my cuisine but also my culture in the world that's what I one of the things that
I would want to do with myself with was loved but not understood people like that wouldn't
know how to cook it at home and I really wanted us to break that barrier and of course like all
right so I am back home so I am staying with my aunt today who lives just out us outside of
Toronto and yay I won and just being nominated just being here just being here at all is just
far beyond anything I'd ever dreamed of and I'm so so happy and grateful and I don't think I've ever
talked to you two too much about the background of how the book came to be so I wanted to take
just this opportunity to quickly give you of how and why I wrote the book to begin with and so
when I first started my youtube channel I had no intention whatsoever of writing a cookbook
because to me it was like well I'm doing a YouTube channel like why why do I also need a book write
to me it was just a bit redundant but then at about 20,000 subscriber mark I started getting
questions about hey hi do you have a cookbook and I said no and you know I was a bit surprised that
people were asking but then the requests kept coming like do you have a cookbook do you have
a cookbook I want your cookbook and then I began to realize that you know what it's not the same
for most people and now that I think about it for myself too like watching somebody on TV or
on the YouTube and having their book are two completely different experiences that are not
interchangeable and I'd really love to hear about this from you guys like do you still read and you
know with so much online content to consume the state do you like the feeling of a physical book
in your hands I'd love to hear from you let me know in the comments but anyway I found
out that for a lot of people they still want a book and so I thought you know what okay I'm
getting excited now about writing a book or what am I gonna write because if I'm gonna write this
book I want to make sure that I give you value that I don't already give on my youtube channel
what is that gonna be and so that's why half of my book is not recipes and if you haven't seen
it half of my book is basically Thai 101 let's talk about the principles of Thai cuisine the
big picture of Thai cuisine because when I talk to you guys on my You Tube channel each episode
is based around a particular dish and so with each episode you get to see sort of like a little
sliver of tigers eating a little sliver of tigers you don't even watch enough of it you can kind of
put it all together but the book really gives you like a burst I view of what Thai cuisine
is all about not just the cooking part of it but also the cultural part of it and so I was just I
was so excited to be able to get all that out and to put that information out there and I'm just so
happy that the people that taste Canada saw the value of that and I feel like this trip gave me a
little bit of a chance to reflect upon this whole experience who have a couple meetings and then
I'm gonna go home and then I have a trip to Dubai coming out and that's a whole nother thing in and
of itself which I will tell you more about later hopefully it will be able to vlog in Dubai as well
so thank you as always for watching for supporting for being here and I will see you next time bye