Mourning the loss of Canadian culinary icon Rose Murray

We learned the sad news that Rose Murray, a Canadian culinary icon and celebrated cookbook author, has passed away. Her food writing regularly appeared in Canadian Living, The Globe and Mail and other publications, and she was frequently featured on national TV.

Rose took a roundabout path to becoming a treasured culinary figure. She received a university degree in English from Trinity College and she taught high school English for a few years before her children were born. It was as a stay-at-home mom that she became keenly interested in food through close friends who were food professionals. That interest led to formal studies at cooking schools in Paris: Cordon Bleu, La Varenne and Ecole de Gastronomie Francaise Ritz-Escoffier, as well as informal training around the world.

Rose’s cookbooks, which covered a wide range of subjects, earned her two Taste Canada Gold Award winners – Canada’s Favourite Recipes (with Elizabeth Baird, 2012) and Hungry for Comfort (2003). In 2015, Rose was installed into Taste Canada’s Hall of Fame with a lifetime achievement award, the top honor a food writer can attain in Canada.